Keeping the harmony: A view of the Peace Statue at the Peace Park in Nagasaki. Suzuki said he made the decision not to invite Israel on grounds of a possible risk that the ceremony would be disturbed. — AP
Nagasaki’s mayor said it was “unfortunate” that US and British ambassadors have refused to attend a ceremony marking the 1945 atomic bombing of the Japanese city because Israel was snubbed.
But he defended the decision not to invite Israel to today’s annual event, repeating that it was “not political” but to avoid possible protests related to the Gaza conflict.
“It is unfortunate that they have communicated to us that their ambassadors are not able to attend,” Shiro Suzuki told reporters yesterday.
“We made a comprehensive decision not for political reasons. We want to conduct a smooth ceremony in a peaceful and solemn environment.”
Suzuki said he made the decision based on “various developments in the international community in response to the ongoing situation in the Middle East” that suggested a possible risk that the ceremony would be disturbed.
“Aug 9 is the most important day for Nagasaki City ... and we must not let the ceremony be affected,” he said.
On Aug 9, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing 74,000 people including many who survived the explosion but died later from radiation exposure.
This came three days after the first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima that killed 140,000 people. Japan announced its surrender in World War II on Aug 15, 1945.
The United States, Britain, France, Italy and the European Union – plus reportedly Canada and Australia – are all sending diplomats below ambassador level to the ceremony.
Only the US and British embassies made an explicit link to Nagasaki’s decision not to invite Israel’s ambassador Gilad Cohen, although a source said that Italy’s move was also a direct consequence.
US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel will not attend because the event was “politicised” by Nagasaki’s decision not to invite Israel, the embassy said.
Emanuel will instead honour the victims of the Nagasaki atomic bombing at a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo, it said.
The British embassy said leaving out Israel created “an unfortunate and misleading equivalency with Russia and Belarus – the only other countries not invited to this year’s ceremony”.
A spokesperson for the French embassy called Suzuki’s decision “regrettable and questionable”, while the German mission criticised “placing Israel on the same level as Russia and Belarus”.
Cohen, who attended a similar memorial ceremony in Hiroshima on Tuesday, said last week that the Nagasaki decision “sends a wrong message to the world”. — Agencies
