TOKYO: Nagasaki marked the 79th anniversary of its atomic bombing at the end of WWII at a ceremony Friday eclipsed by the absence of the US ambassador and other Western envoys in response to the Japanese city’s refusal to invite Israel.
The atomic bomb dropped by the US on Nagasaki on Aug 9, 1945, killed 70,000 people, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima killed 140,000. Japan surrendered on Aug 15, 1945, ending WWII and its nearly half-century of aggression across Asia.
Speaking at Friday’s ceremony, PM 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.
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 EU were absent. Japan is a member of G7 too.
The govts sent lower-ranking envoys in response to Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki’s decision not to invite Israel. US ambassador Rahm Emanuel instead attended a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo honouring the Nagasaki bombing victims, joined by his Israeli and British counterparts, Gilad Cohen and Julia Longbottom.
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 said the Aug. 9 anniversary 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 PM’s attendance,” which required high security, he 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.”
Cohen, in a statement on X, expressed his “gratitude to all the countries that have chosen to stand with Israel… Thank you for standing with us on the right side of history.”
The atomic bomb dropped by the US on Nagasaki on Aug 9, 1945, killed 70,000 people, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima killed 140,000. Japan surrendered on Aug 15, 1945, ending WWII and its nearly half-century of aggression across Asia.
Speaking at Friday’s ceremony, PM 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.
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 EU were absent. Japan is a member of G7 too.
The govts sent lower-ranking envoys in response to Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki’s decision not to invite Israel. US ambassador Rahm Emanuel instead attended a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo honouring the Nagasaki bombing victims, joined by his Israeli and British counterparts, Gilad Cohen and Julia Longbottom.
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 said the Aug. 9 anniversary 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 PM’s attendance,” which required high security, he 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.”
Cohen, in a statement on X, expressed his “gratitude to all the countries that have chosen to stand with Israel… Thank you for standing with us on the right side of history.”