A-bomb survivor doctor heads to Norway to attend Nobel Peace Prize events

A Japanese doctor who survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 traveled to Norway to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.

Tomonaga Masao was two years old when a bomb was dropped on a city in southwestern Japan in the final days of World War II.

He has been studying the effects of atomic bomb radiation since he graduated from university and became a doctor.

The 81-year-old is not a member of the Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese atomic bomb survivors’ organization that was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

However, the Nobel Committee invited him to attend the award ceremony on December 10 in the Norwegian capital Oslo and to take part in a forum to discuss ways to eliminate nuclear weapons.

Tomonaga left Nagasaki for Oslo on Monday morning.

He is expected to give a lecture at the forum as a medical expert and take part in discussions with young people.

Tomonaga told NHK that not many people understand that the effects of atomic weapons on people last a lifetime, and the spread of this knowledge is slow. He said he especially wants to share this with young people.