The Mayor of Nagasaki, Shiro Suzuki, has defended his decision not to invite Israel to Friday’s memorial ceremony for those killed in the atomic bombing in 1945. This follows announcements by ambassadors from countries including the United States and the United Kingdom that they would no longer attend the event. “It is unfortunate that they have communicated to us that their ambassadors cannot participate,” Suzuki told reporters on Thursday. He explained that Israel was not invited in order to avoid potential protests related to Israel’s ongoing conflict in Gaza. “We have made a comprehensive decision, not for political reasons. We want to carry out a smooth ceremony in a peaceful and solemn atmosphere,” he added.
On August 9, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing 74,000 people, many of whom survived the explosion but later succumbed to radiation exposure. The attack occurred three days after the U.S. dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, where 140,000 people died and the city was devastated. Japan announced its surrender on August 15, 1945, marking the end of World War II and nearly fifty years of aggression in Asia.
The U.S. embassy announced Wednesday that the ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, would skip the memorial ceremony due to Israel’s exclusion politicizing the event. Nagasaki officials stated that a representative from the American consulate in Fukuoka would attend the ceremony on Friday. Five other G7 countries—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom—as well as the European Union are also expected to send lower-ranking representatives to Nagasaki. The mentioned ambassadors signed a joint letter expressing their concern over Israel’s exclusion, asserting that it would be misleading to treat Israel on the same level as Russia and Belarus, the only other countries not invited.
The ambassadors urged Nagasaki to reverse its decision and invite Israel in order to maintain the universal message of the city’s ceremony. They stated that Israel’s exclusion would complicate their “higher participation.” The British embassy noted that excluding Israel created “an unfortunate and misleading equivalence with Russia and Belarus—the only other countries that were not invited to this year’s ceremony.” In contrast, Hiroshima invited the Israeli ambassador to Japan to its memorial ceremony, which took place earlier this week.
It is important to note that at least 39,677 people have been killed since Israel initiated its conflict with Gaza following a surprise attack by Hamas, which controls the territory, resulting in the death of over 1,000 individuals. Thousands have also died, and millions have been forced to flee since Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with Belarus being Moscow’s closest ally.