The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons. Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the award was made as the “taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure.”

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki reflects a widely held fear that the planet has never been closer to nuclear war. Within the past few weeks,