Nobel Laureate Toshiyuki Mimaki Compares Suffering of Gaza’s Children to Post-WWII Japan

Tokyo, The Gulf Observer: Toshiyuki Mimaki, co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning group Nihon Hidankyo, has compared the plight of children in Gaza to that of Japan at the end of World War II. Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo, Mimaki, who leads the association of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors, expressed deep concern over the suffering of children caught in conflict.

“In Gaza, bleeding children are being held by their parents. It’s reminiscent of Japan 80 years ago,” Mimaki said, evoking memories of Japan’s own tragic history. “Children in Hiroshima and Nagasaki lost their fathers in the war and their mothers in the bombings. They became orphans.”

His remarks come just days after Nihon Hidankyo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024, in recognition of its decades-long efforts to represent the survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings—known as Hibakusha—and advocate for nuclear disarmament. The group, which has long been a grassroots movement, continues to amplify the voices of atomic bomb survivors in their call for global peace and a world free from nuclear weapons.

Mimaki’s comparison of Gaza’s situation to post-war Japan draws attention to the devastating impact of conflict on children, underscoring the urgency of humanitarian efforts to protect innocent lives in war-torn regions.