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Celebrating Nihon Hidankyo’s Nobel Peace Prize, the Hiroshima-ICAN Academy 2024 highlighted the various kinds of nuclear damage

Jan 23, 2025

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and Hiroshima Prefecture co-hosted the sixth Hiroshima-ICAN Academy on Nuclear Weapons between October 18 and November 16, 2024. As an International Steering Group member of ICAN, Peace Boat plays a central role in the planning and organization of the Academy.


Knowing the nuclear consequences, participants explored ways to build a sustainable and secure world for all.


The programme this year selected 21 participants, including four from Nuclear Weapon States (the United States, United Kingdom, France and China) and 11 from other places (Argentina, Australia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Norway, Taiwan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan).

 

The Academy 2024 was held in two sessions; “Online Learning and Webinar Sessions” and the “Hiroshima Session,” under this year’s overall theme - “Sustainable Security for All.”

Looking at today’s world, it is clear that security and sustainability are deeply linked. A broad understanding of security is necessary to address current global challenges, including nuclear weapons. Beyond military might, we must consider human and environmental security that mends divisions and inequalities and preserves a livable planet. Centered on the humanitarian and environmental consequences of nuclear weapons, the Academy fostered discussion among diverse voices, exploring ways to build a sustainable, secure world for all.

Online learning and interactive webinars

During the webinars, participants learned about four themes: the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons; current and future nuclear risks; the social, economic, and environmental impacts of nuclear weapons and the roles of the UN and civil society.

Webinar 1 on October 18 was joined by Hibakusha from Hiroshima Futagawa Kazuhiko, as well as downwinder and writer Mary Dickson. Futagawa, who was still in his mother’s womb at the time of the atomic bombing, spoke about his family’s losses and the unspoken sorrow and worry they carried in the years after. During the Q&A, participants asked Futagawa’s views on US presidential visits to Hiroshima, as well as the discrimination faced by Hibakusha, among other topics. Mary shared her and her community’s experiences as downwinders affected by radiation from US nuclear testing. Participants were eager to learn about Mary’s advocacy work for nuclear survivors, including the challenges and successes she has experienced.

Webinar 2 took place on October 21, on the topic of current and future nuclear risks. University of Leeds Professor Laura Considine introduced and interrogated the concept of nuclear risk reduction and its relationship to nuclear deterrence. The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) Researcher Yasmin Afina then spoke about how nuclear weapons systems are linked with and can be impacted by new and emerging technologies, such as cyber and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Participants engaged in discussion on both topics, often drawing from their own country’s experiences or their own fields of expertise.

Webinar 3 on October 24 explored the social, economic, and environmental impacts of nuclear weapons with input and guidance from two guest speakers: Robert Jacobs, Professor of History at Hiroshima City University, and Franziska Stärk, researcher at the University of Hamburg’s Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy. Arguing that the Cold War was really a limited nuclear war, Robert explained how radioactive waves and particles behave in environments — including the human body — and gave an overview of nuclear testing and its legacies. Franziska encouraged participants to think about nuclear weapons’ wider impacts on both communities and international society through various justice frameworks.

The fourth and final webinar was held on October 28, under the theme of the roles of the United Nations and civil society for nuclear disarmament. Melissa Parke, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), spoke about ICAN’s strategy and how every citizen can help advocate for nuclear disarmament. ICAN’s Advocacy Officer Florian Eblenkamp also joined for the Q&A; among other insights, he emphasized the importance of having fun and finding a community of like-minded individuals to sustain oneself in this work. Christopher King, Chief of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Branch in the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), introduced the history of disarmament work at the UN and how the organization supports states to work toward global nuclear disarmament.

 

How present-day Hiroshima remembers its history

20 of the 21 Academy participants were able to join the four-day in-person session in Hiroshima.

The participants joined a guided tour of the Peace Memorial Park — helping them imagine people’s lives in Hiroshima before the atomic bombing — and visited the Peace Memorial Museum and the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, which has conducted studies of the impacts of the atomic bombing on survivors’ health.

In Hiroshima, participants met Hibakusha in person. Through listening to individual  survivors’ experiences and perspectives, they widened their understanding of the various kinds of nuclear damage, including those lesser known. Among them included a second-generation Korean survivor who shared her father’s story. A special thank you to Kajimoto Yoshiko, Kondo Koko, Miyazaki Chiyo (daughter of the late Lee Jong-keun), and Goto Toshiharu for sharing their stories.
 

The group also paid courtesy visits to the Hiroshima Prefecture Governor Yuzaki and Hiroshima City Mayor Matsui, who explained their respective institutional activities for peace and nuclear disarmament.

Through highlighting diverse Hibakusha experiences, specifically those of non-Japanese victims of the atomic bombing including those from the Korean Peninsula, China, Russia, Southeast Asia, Allied Prisoners of War and others, participants also had lively group discussions together with the program’s local coordinators about how present-day Hiroshima remembers its history.

 

As a special feature of the Academy 2024, participants were welcomed to Hiroshima by local community members, Hibakusha and member Hibakusha of the Nihon Hidankyo - 2024 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and joined by ICAN’s Treaty Coordinator Tim Wright for the whole Academy programme.

On the last day in Hiroshima, the Academy 2024 concluded with a public session in which participants presented their major take-aways from the program, and actions they plan to take going forward. In their presentations, the participants emphasized the benefits of coming to Hiroshima and learning directly from Hibakusha, the importance of nuanced history education, and how the stories of non-Japanese Hibakusha help us better understand the non-discriminatory destruction caused by nuclear weapons.

After returning to their respective homes, participants have already shared what they heard and learned in Hiroshima with others, or planned online testimony sessions. With the diverse perspectives they gained throughout the Academy and new friends from around the world, participants will keep working for a world without nuclear weapons.

Organisers would like to express our special thanks to the three coordinators - Annelise Giseburt, Fukuoka Nao and Tashiro Mirei - for their preparation, facilitation and hospitality in Hiroshima. Peace Boat staff members Kawasaki Akira and Watanabe Rika developed and organised the programme in cooperation with the Hiroshima Prefecture and the ICAN staff team in Geneva.

 

Relevant documents and links from the Academy 2024:


Media Coverage

The Academy was covered widely by local and national media in Japan, including NHK, Kyodo News and the Chugoku Shimbun (newspaper). See the Japanese language report for a full list and links (coming soon).