OSLO, Norway — Alfred Nobel ushered in the era of high explosives by inventing dynamite and blasting caps, but he never conceived the destructive power that would be wrought by nuclear weapons. He died in 1896, bequeathing his fortune for the Nobel Prizes, 49 years before the start of the atomic age. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima, 79 years ago, packed an explosive yield equivalent to more than 15,000 tons of TNT. In the early 1960s, the Soviets tested a 50-megaton hydrogen bomb — 3,300 times more powerful than the “Little Boy” that killed an estimated 140,000 people in Hiroshima by the end of 1945, including the initial blast and the radioactive fallout.
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Nobel Peace Prize lifts Hiroshima testimonies in a plea against complacency
The Japanese survivors of the infernos in Hiroshima and Nagasaki formed an organization in 1956 called Nihon Hidankyo that has collected thousands of eyewitness accounts to teach the world about the civilization-destroying potential of nuclear weapons. Its advocacy has helped foster the international norm to stigmatize the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. For its efforts, it won a well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
The committee’s choice serves as a warning to the global community, which is sliding toward complacency. As much as the world fixates on the dangers of artificial intelligence and the possibility of machine consciousness, the most likely way that mankind will be wiped off the face of the Earth on any given day remains nuclear conflagration — accidental or intentional. That threat is growing.
“This taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure,” Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chairman of the committee, said during a news conference Friday at the Norwegian Nobel Institute. “Many people see the dark skies on the horizon. … All words or deeds to reduce the nuclear taboo are dangerous to humanity.”
Top of mind are Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Moscow changed its nuclear doctrine last month to say that any nation’s conventional attack on Russian territory that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack. He’s trying to scare Europe and the United States into limiting Ukraine’s ability to use weapons provided by the West. Eager to undermine Ukraine, former president Donald Trump keeps claiming President Joe Biden is going to get us into World War III — which happens to be exactly what Putin wants him to say.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials fear Iran might make a last dash to build a nuclear bomb in response to its conventional losses to Israel. Iran has moved steadily closer to acquiring these capabilities since Trump scuttled the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.
China has been expanding its nuclear arsenal, growing it from 410 warheads last year to 500 as of January. A June report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute warned that China might have as many intercontinental ballistic missiles as the United States or Russia by 2030. Its more erratic neighbor, North Korea, has also been expanding its arsenal.
In response to all this, the United States plans to spend an estimated $1.7 trillion to modernize and revamp its nuclear arsenal over the next 30 years.
No serious arms control negotiations are underway.
There was heavy anticipation inside the grand ballroom where the announcement gets made every year. Doves decorate the ceiling around crystal chandeliers. As everyone waited, a young committee staff member clutched tightly with both hands a manila folder that contained printouts about the winner. At the end of the event, organizers released a real dove from a window to symbolize peace.
Frydnes, 39, is the youngest chairman of the committee that awards the prize. Every survivor of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is at least twice his age. It won’t be too long before we lose the last of these witnesses.
The Japanese testimonials help us “to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons,” Frydnes said.
In lieu of first-person testimonials, societies — both open and closed — must find new ways to impress upon younger generations, especially up-and-coming decision-makers, the awesome and awful power of these bombs to unleash Armageddon.