Bomb survivors use Nobel Peace Prize win to share their anti-nuke message with younger generations

TOKYO (AP) — The recipient of this year's Nobel Peace Prize is a fast-dwindling group of atomic bomb survivors who are facing down the shrinking time they have left to convey the firsthand horror they witnessed 79 years ago.

Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was awarded for its decadeslong activism against nuclear weapons. The survivors, known as hibakusha, see the prize and the international attention as their last chance to get their message out to younger generations.

“We must seriously think about the succession of our messages. We must thoroughly hand over from our generation to the future generations,” Toshiyuki Mimaki, senior member of the Hiroshima branch of Hidankyo, told reporters Friday night.

“With the honor of the Nobel Peace Prize, we now have a responsibility to get our messages handed down not only in Japan but also across the world.”

The honor rewards members' grassroots efforts to keep telling their stories — even though that involved recollecting horrendous ordeals during and after the bombings, and facing discrimination and worries about their health from the lasting radiation impact — for the sole purpose of never again let that happen.

Now, with their average age at 85.6, the hibakusha are increasingly frustrated that their fear of a growing nuclear threat and push to eliminate nuclear weapons are not fully understood by younger generations.

The number of prefectural hibakusha groups decreased from 47 to 36. And the Japanese government, under the U.S. nuclear umbrella for protection, has refused to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapon.

But there is hope, and a youth movement seems to be starting, the Nobel committee noted.

Three high school students accompanied Mimaki at the city hall, stood by him as the prize winner was announced, and promised to keep their activism alive.

“I had goose bumps when I heard the announcement,” said a beaming Wakana Tsukuda. “I have felt discouraged by negative views about nuclear disarmament, but the Nobel Peace Prize made me renew my commitment to work toward abolishing nuclear weapons.”

Another high school student, Natsuki Kai, said, “I will keep up my effort so we can believe that nuclear disarmament is not a dream but a reality.”

In Nagasaki, another group of students celebrated Hidankyo's win. Yuka Ohara, 17, thanked the survivors' yearslong effort despite the difficulty. Ohara said she heard her grandparents, who survived the Nagasaki bombing, repeatedly tell her the importance of peace in daily life. “I want to learn more as I continue my activism."

In April, a group of people set up a network, Japan Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, connecting younger generations around the country to work with survivors and pursue their effort.

Efforts to document the survivors' stories and voices have grown in recent years around Japan, including in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Tokyo. In some places, young volunteers are working with hibakusha to succeed their personal story telling when they are gone.

The first U.S. atomic bombing killed 140,000 people in the city of Hiroshima. A second atomic attack on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, killed another 70,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, bringing an end to its nearly half-century aggression in Asia.

Hidankyo was formed 11 years later in 1956. There was a growing anti-nuclear movement in Japan in response to U.S. hydrogen bomb tests in the Pacific that led to a series of radiation exposures by Japanese boats, adding to demands for government support for health problems.

As of March, 106,823 survivors — 6,824 fewer than a year ago, and nearly one-quarter of the total in the 1980s — were certified as eligible for government medical support, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry. Many others, including those who say they were victims of the radioactive “black rain” that fell outside the initially designated areas of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are still without support.

Terumi Tanaka, co-chairperson of Nihon Hidankyo smiles, combing his hair, ahead of a press conference in Tokyo, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, a day after Nihon Hidankyo, an organization of survivors of the two U.S. atomic bombings, won the Nobel Peace Prize. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Copies of an extra version of Asahi Shimbun newspaper with the headline "Hindakyo wins Nobel Peace Prize" lie on a table during a press conference in Tokyo, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, a day after Nihon Hidankyo, an organization of survivors of the two U.S. atomic bombings, won the Nobel Peace Prize. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Toshiko Hamanaka, an assistant secretary general of Nihon Hidankyo, speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, a day after Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, won the Nobel Peace Prize. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Terumi Tanaka, center, co-chairperson of Nihon Hidankyo and other senior members attend a press conference in Tokyo, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, a day after Nihon Hidankyo, an organization of survivors of the two U.S. atomic bombings, won the Nobel Peace Prize. Other members from second left to right, assistant Secretary Generals Toshiko Hamanaka, Masako Wada, and Jiro Hamasumi.(AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Terumi Tanaka, a Nihon Hidankyo executive speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, a day after Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, won the Nobel Peace Prize. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Visitors stand in front of the cenotaph for Atomic Bomb Victims at the Peace Memorial Park with the Atomic Bomb Dome seen in the background in Hiroshima, western Japan Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons. (Kyodo News via AP)

People visit the Atomic Bomb Museum in Nagasaki, southern Japan Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, a day after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons. (Kyodo News via AP)

Masako Kudo, an official of Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, speaks to media members at its Tokyo office in Tokyo, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, following Ninon Hidankyo's winning the Nobel Peace Prize. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

FILE - Leaders of the Group of Seven nations' meetings walk before the Atomic Bomb Dome during a visit to the Peace Memorial Park as part of the G7 Leaders' Summit in Hiroshima, western Japan Friday, May 19, 2023. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Shigemitsu Tanaka, the chairman of Nagasaki Atomic bomb Survivors Council, cries during a press conference, in Nagasaki, western Japan, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, after Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, won the Nobel Peace Prize.(Kyodo News via AP)

Shigemitsu Tanaka, the chairman of Nagasaki Atomic bomb Survivors Council, cries during a press conference, in Nagasaki, western Japan, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, after Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, won the Nobel Peace Prize.(Kyodo News via AP)

A visitor prays in front of the Peace Statue at the Peace Park in Nagasaki, southern Japan Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, a day after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons. (Kyodo News via AP)

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer marks 100 days in office Saturday with little cause for celebration.

Starmer’s center-left Labour Party was elected by a landslide on July 4, sweeping back to power after 14 years. But after weeks of stories about feuding, freebies and fiscal gloom, polls suggest Starmer’s personal approval rating has plummeted, and Labour is only slightly more popular than a Conservative Party that was rejected by voters after years of infighting and scandal.

“You couldn’t really have imagined a worse start,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. ”First impressions count, and it’s going to be difficult to turn those around.”

Starmer won the election on promises to banish years of turmoil and scandal under Conservative governments, get Britain’s sluggish economy growing and restore frayed public services such as the state-funded National Health Service.

His government argues it has made a strong start: It has ended long-running strikes by doctors and railway workers, set up a publicly owned green energy firm, scrapped the Conservatives' contentious plan to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda and introduced bills to strengthen rights for workers and renters.

Starmer has traveled to Washington, the United Nations and European capitals as he seeks to show that “ Britain is back ” after years of inward-looking wrangling over Brexit. But the United Kingdom, like its allies, has struggled to have much impact on spiraling conflicts in the Middle East and the grinding war in Ukraine.

The new government also has faced crises at home, including days of far-right-fueled anti-immigrant violence that erupted in towns and cities across England and Northern Ireland in the summer. Starmer condemned the rioters as “mindless thugs” and vowed to jail those responsible. So far, more than 800 people have appeared in court and almost 400 have gone to prison.

Starmer’s most intractable problem is Britain’s sluggish economy, hobbled by rising public debt and low growth of just 0.2% in August, according to official figures.

Starmer has warned that things will be “tough in the short term” before they get better. He says public spending will be constrained by a 22-billion-pound ($29 billion) “black hole” in the public finances left by the Conservatives.

One of the government’s first acts was to strip millions of retirees of a payment intended to help heat their homes in winter. It was intended to signal determination to take tough economic decisions, but it spawned a sharp backlash from Labour members and sections of the public.

It also sat awkwardly with news that Starmer had accepted thousands of pounds' (dollars') worth of clothes and designer eyeglasses from a wealthy Labour donor. Starmer insisted the gifts were within the rules, but after days of negative headlines agreed to pay back 6,000 pounds' (almost $8,000) worth of gifts and hospitality, including tickets to see Taylor Swift.

Government officials and advisers have traded blame for the faltering start, with the focus on Downing Street Chief of Staff Sue Gray, and her reported tensions with Labour campaign strategist Morgan McSweeney.

Amid intense media scrutiny — which produced the revelation that Gray earned more than the prime minister — she resigned Sunday, saying stories about her “risked becoming a distraction.” McSweeney is replacing her as Starmer’s chief of staff.

Anand Menon, director of the political think tank U.K. in a Changing Europe, wrote on its website that the government made “avoidable mistakes” that allowed a “perception of incompetence and dysfunction” to take hold.

The government’s focus is now on Oct. 30, when Treasury chief Rachel Reeves will set out her first budget. The government is banking on a mix of public and private investment to spur economic growth, but needs to come up with billions for the task. Reeves has ruled out increasing income tax, sales tax or corporation tax, but also says there will be no “return to austerity” — a hard circle to square. She is thought to be considering hiking levies on wealth such as capital gains or inheritance tax.

The government is hoping it can take painful decisions early and then turn things around by showing a growing economy and improving living standards. And it has time — there does not have to be another election until 2029.

Starmer was working from 10 Downing St. on his 100th day in office, and insisted he would not be “knocked off course.”

“You get these days and weeks when things are choppy, there’s no getting around that,” he told the BBC. “That is in the nature of government.

"It’s been much tougher than anything I’ve done before, but much better."

Bale said the government can rebuild trust with voters, if it shows "not only that it’s had a pretty dire inheritance, but that it has a plan to improve the country.”

“What’s been lacking in some ways is the vision thing,” he said. “I don’t think people have that much of a sense of what Keir Starmer or indeed Labour is about. And that’s something they need to put right very quickly.”

FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024.(AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)

FILE - Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves leaves Downing Street in London, on July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych, File)

FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to 10 Downing Street in London, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, not pictured, after bilateral talks at the Chancellery in Berlin, Wednesday Aug. 28, 2024. (Justin Tallis/Pool Photo via AP, FIle)

FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer poses for a photo outside Parliament Buildings, following a meeting with party leaders, during his tour of the UK following Labour's victory in the 2024 general election, in Stormont, Belfast, Monday July 8, 2024. (Liam McBurney/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a bilateral meeting hosted by President Joe Biden, not pictured, in the Blue Room of the White House, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

FILE - Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, right, and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer meet at Villa Pamphilj in Rome, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer addresses members at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, England, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Super, File)

FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks uring a visit at a factory in Chester, England, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024.(AP Photo/Darren Staples, Pool, File)

FILE - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to members of the media in Rome, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Phil Noble/Pool Photo via AP, File)