Nagasaki marks A-bomb anniversary without US and other envoys after excluding Israel
Six Western ambassadors skip the event, attending an alternative Tokyo ceremony, after mayor leaves Jewish state out of proceedings
TOKYO (AP) — Nagasaki marked the 79th anniversary of its atomic bombing at the end of World War II at a ceremony Friday eclipsed by the absence of the American ambassador and other Western envoys in response to the Japanese city’s refusal to invite Israel.
More than 2,000 people, including representatives from 100 countries, attended Friday’s ceremony. But ambassadors from the US and five other Group of Seven nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the UK — and the European Union were absent. Their governments sent lower-ranking envoys in response to Suzuki’s decision not to invite Israel.
They said that treating Israel like Russia and Belarus, which also were not invited, was misleading.
US Ambassador Rahm Emanuel instead attended a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo honoring the Nagasaki atomic bombing victims, joined by his Israeli and British counterparts, Gilad Cohen and Julia Longbottom.
“We are obviously in Tokyo but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a responsibility to think and to reflect and to remember” what happened 79 years ago in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Emanuel said.
Mayor Shiro Suzuki denied that his decision to exclude Israel was political, and said he feared that possible “unforeseeable situations” such as violent protests over the war in Gaza might disrupt the ceremony. Suzuki, whose parents are hibakusha, said the Aug. 9 anniversary is the most important day for Nagasaki and must be commemorated in a peaceful and solemn environment.
Emanuel disagreed.
“I think it was a political decision, not one based on security, given the prime minister’s attendance,” which required high security, Emanuel told reporters.
He said excluding Israel drew “a moral equivalency between Russia and Israel, one country that invaded versus one country that was a victim of invasion,” and that “my attendance would respect that political judgment, and I couldn’t do that.”
The grouping of major democracies has urged restraint and de-escalation in the Middle East amid heightened tension, but stays committed to supporting Israel.
Cohen, in a statement on the social media platform X, expressed his “gratitude to all the countries that have chosen to stand with Israel and oppose its exclusion from the Nagasaki Peace Ceremony. Thank you for standing with us on the right side of history.”
The Nagasaki event typically draws less attention than one held in Hiroshima three days earlier to mark the first-ever use of nuclear weapons. All envoys, including Cohen, were at the Hiroshima ceremony.
Eight decades after the atomic bombings precipitated Japan’s surrender to end World War Two, the anniversaries in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, which is Kishida’s hometown, still evoke strong feelings in Japan.
Although the exact number of casualties is unknown, the atom bombs dropped by the US are estimated to have killed more than 200,000 people.
Suzuki, in a speech at Nagasaki Peace Park Friday, called for nuclear weapon states and those under their nuclear umbrellas, including Japan, to abolish the weapons.
“You must face up to the reality that the very existence of nuclear weapons poses an increasing threat to humankind, and you must make a brave shift toward the abolition of nuclear weapons,” Suzuki said.
He warned that the world faces “a critical situation” because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and accelerating conflicts in the Middle East.
Speaking at Friday’s ceremony, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reiterated his pledge to pursue a nuclear-free world. His critics, many of them atomic bomb survivors, or hibakusha, say it’s a hollow promise as Japan relies on the US nuclear umbrella while building up its own military.
At 11:02 a.m., the moment the plutonium bomb exploded above the southern Japanese city, participants observed a moment of silence as a peace bell tolled.
Cohen said last week that the Nagasaki decision “sends a wrong message to the world.”
“As a close friend and like-minded nation of Japan, Israel has attended this ceremony for many years to honor the victims and their families,” he wrote on social media platform X.
Cohen told CNN on Monday that the security concerns were “invented” and that he was “really surprised by [Suzuki] hijacking this ceremony for his political motivations.”
