Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki had expressed concerns in June about inviting Israel, citing the escalating conflict in the Middle East….reports Asian Lite News
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel will not attend this year’s atomic bombing memorial service in Nagasaki due to the city’s decision to not invite Israel, the U.S. embassy announced on Wednesday.
Emanuel’s absence is in response to what the embassy described as the “politicisation” of the event by excluding Israel, the Associated Press reported.
Instead of attending the Nagasaki ceremony on Friday, Emanuel will honour the victims of the atomic bombing at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo. The atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killed 140,000 people, and a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later killed 70,000 more, leading to Japan’s surrender on August 15, 1945, and ending World War II.
Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki had expressed concerns in June about inviting Israel, citing the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Last week, Suzuki announced that Israel was not invited to avoid “possible unforeseen situations” such as protests or attacks, aiming to maintain a “peaceful and solemn atmosphere” for the ceremony.
Suzuki explained that his decision was influenced by “various developments in the international community” and the ongoing situation in the Middle East, which posed a potential risk to the event’s security.
In contrast, Hiroshima included the Israeli ambassador to Japan in its memorial ceremony on Tuesday, attended by 50,000 people, including Emanuel and other envoys, but did not invite Palestinian representatives.
Nagasaki officials indicated that an official from the U.S. Consulate in Fukuoka will represent the United States at Friday’s ceremony. Other Group of Seven nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K. — along with the European Union, are expected to send lower-ranking envoys.
Envoys from these nations have expressed concern about Israel’s exclusion, signing a joint letter urging Nagasaki to reverse its decision and invite Israel to preserve the universal message of the memorial. They argued that excluding Israel, alongside Russia and Belarus, would be misleading and complicate their “high-level participation.”
British Ambassador to Japan Julia Longbottom, who attended the Hiroshima memorial, announced she would skip the Nagasaki ceremony, stating that excluding Israel could send the wrong message.
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