Civil Society and Disarmament 2025 - Disarming with Story: How Survivor Stories Shape Nuclear Disarmament Work

Eighty years on, remembering matters more than ever. As the world marks eight decades since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the collective memory of that destruction is fading, even as new nuclear threats emerge. The voices of the Hibakusha (Japanese atomic bomb survivors) as well as other groups affected by nuclear weapons production and testing are a vital bridge to this history. A new UNODA civil society publication by Lovely Umayam explores how survivor stories endure amidst secrecy and forgetting — passed on through direct testimony, digital archives, storytelling, and visual art — so that their message of resilience and call for disarmament reach new generations.