Members of Nihon Hidankyo expressed their aspiration to extend their activity to younger generations to ban nuclear bombs during a meeting with journalists.

Co-chair Tanaka Terumi and other members of Japan’s hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors, group spoke to reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday. This was their first press conference back home, after the group received the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize at the award ceremony in Oslo, Norway, on December 10.

Tanaka revealed that the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Joergen Frydnes, told him during a dinner together that the committee had awarded the prize to the group a year earlier than expected. He quoted Frydnes as saying that Nobel committee members believed this year’s prize would help the group’s activities for next year have a greater influence on public opinion.

Next year will mark 80 years since the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Tanaka said he would like to use this step as an opportunity to further develop the group’s activities. He called on young people to cooperate. He said he believed the Nobel Committee hoped the younger generation would continue the hibakusha’s efforts to strengthen, and never break, the “nuclear taboo.” He called on young people to cooperate in the activities of his group.

Tanaka explained why he brought up the Japanese government’s failure to date to compensate victims of the atomic bombings. He mentioned it twice in his awards speech. He said a democratic nation and its people should have equal relations. He said it was unacceptable that people were forced to endure their war sacrifices.

He added that he raised the issue because he felt a similar error was spreading around the world and he wanted to call on the world to prevent war.