This year both the Nobel Peace Prize and the Literature Prize have been awarded to Asian recipients, respectively Japanese Nihon Hidankyo and South Korean Han Kang.
The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize Award went to the organization Nihon Hidankyo for “its effort to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons” (i). Established 11 years after the termination of WWII, it represents and speaks up for the survivors of the atomic bomb, who suffered both physical damage from radiation, and the emotional scars after seeing death and devastation.
In the summer of 1945, about 200,000 people were killed when the United States dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The approximately 650,000 survivors, known as “Hibakusha” faced years of stigma and marginalization. Many bore visible scars and disfigurements, and were met by widespread fear that they could transmit radiation-related illnesses. This led to difficulties in forming relationships, finding partners, and often an unwillingness to marry or have children. Alongside their physical and social struggles, many survivors grappled with profound survivor’s guilt, questioning why they had lived when so many others had perished.
The Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee emphasized that “The Hibakusha help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons.” (iii). In a world where the so-called “nuclear taboo” is being increasingly challenged, Nihon Hidankyo’s work reminds us that these are the most devastating weapons ever created. The nuclear weapons of today would cause even greater destruction than those used nearly 80 years ago. Perhaps this prize will breathe new life into the global movement to abolish nuclear weapons.
The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to South Korea’s Han Kang (53), “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life” (iv). Kang started as a poet in 1993 but has since primarily written novels and short stories, with some of her themes being violence, grief, and patriarchy. She is being praised for her experimental style, and her exceptional consciousness of the connection between mind and soul. She is also known for her confrontation with her country’s history of state violence. In her 2014 novel Human Acts, set in her hometown of Gwangju, Kang gives voice to the victims of the 1980 massacre carried out by the South Korean military (v).
This prize makes her the first woman from Asia, and the first South Korean, to ever receive the honor. However, recognition of Kang’s work is far from new. She has already earned a wealth of prestigious awards, including the Man Booker International Prize for her 2007 novel The Vegetarian. On December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, Nihon Hidankyo will receive the peace prize in Oslo, Norway and Han Kang will, together with the other laureates, be presented with the literature prize in Stockholm, Sweden.
ii: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/11/world/asia/what-is-nihon-hidankyo-hibakusha-japan.html
iii: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2024/press-release/
iv: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2024/summary/
v: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/10/south-koreas-han-kang-wins-2024-nobel-prize-in-literature
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