On Friday, Nagasaki marked the 79th anniversary of its atomic bombing at the end of WWII in a ceremony eclipsed by non-attendance of US Ambassador and other Western envoys who were not invited because they are linked to Israel.
The bomb was dropped on Aug 9th, 1945 which killed 70,000 persons while three days earlier the city of Hiroshima witnessed a drop where 140,000 people died. Japan surrendered on Aug 15th , ending WWII and its nearly half-century long history of aggression across Asia.
In his speech at the event held on Friday, PM Fumio Kishida repeated his commitment to work towards realization nuclear free world. His critics include many survivors of atomic bombings also known as hibakusha who argue that this is an empty promise considering that Japan depends on American security guarantees while also increasing its military capabilities.
Friday’s ceremony had over two thousand attendees including representatives from one hundred countries. However, there were no ambassadors from six other G7 nations: America along with five European countries like Canada, France, Germany, Italy and UK as well as EU itself for that matter since Japan is member too.
Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki’s decision to exclude Israel prompted various governments to send their lower ranking envoys. Instead, US ambassador Rahm Emanuel went to Tokyo where he attended an event honoring victims of Nagasaki bombing at a Buddhist temple together with his counterparts Gilad Cohen (Israeli envoy) and Julia Longbottom (UK’s representative).
Suzuki dismissed accusations by saying that it had nothing related politics but feared “unforeseeable situations” such as violent protests on the ongoing Gaza war might disrupt the memory day. He described it necessary to commemorate August 9th in a peaceful and solemn atmosphere while Emmanuel thought otherwise “I think it was a political decision…” he told reporters citing high security detail for PM attendance adding that excluding Israel would be drawing, “a moral equivalency between Russia and Israel, one country that invaded versus one country that was a victim of invasion,” and “my attendance would respect that political judgment, and I couldn’t do that.”
This statement by Cohen featured on X expressed his gratitude to the countries supporting Israel such as thanking them for sticking with history.
