Japanese atomic bomb survivors depart for Nobel Peace Prize ceremony

A group of Japanese atomic bomb survivors representing Nobel Peace Prize-winning group Nihon Hidankyo left Tokyo on Sunday for Oslo where they will attend the award ceremony, Kyodo reports. 

Terumi Tanaka of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, who will deliver a speech at Tuesday's ceremony, said ahead of his departure, "I would like to talk about the survivors' campaign that has continued to demand that nuclear weapons must be abolished."

The delegation will total 30 people, including 17 atomic bomb survivors from Japan and elsewhere, according to Hidankyo.

Hidankyo, founded over a decade after the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, received the award this year "for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again," according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The Hidankyo delegation is planning to share the stories of the bombing at local senior high schools and universities before departing the Nordic country on Thursday.

The atomic bombs that exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed an estimated 140,000 and 74,000 people, respectively, by the end of 1945. Japan surrendered six days after the bombing of Nagasaki, bringing an end to World War II.

Many survivors were left grappling with long-term physical and mental health challenges.