US ambassador to Japan to skip Nagasaki memorial because Israel was not invited

TOKYO — U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel will skip this year’s atomic bombing memorial service in Nagasaki on Friday because Israel was not invited, the embassy said.

Emanuel will not attend the event because it was “politicized” by Nagasaki’s decision not to invite Israel, the embassy said.

He will instead honor the victims of the Nagasaki atomic bombing at a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo, it said.

An atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroyed the city, killing 140,000 people. A second bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II and the country’s nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.

Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki on Thursday said his decision not to invite Israel is unchanged despite announcements by the U.S. and five other Group of Seven countries and the European Union that they will send lower-ranked envoys instead of ambassadors to the ceremony.

“We only want to hold the ceremony in a peaceful and solemn atmosphere” to honor the atomic bomb victims, Suzuki said. “It is absolutely not because of political reasons.”

“It is unfortunate that ambassadors won’t be able to join us this year, but I hope they will attend from next year,” Suzuki added.

Suzuki announced last week that Israel was not invited because of concern over protests or attacks on attendees.

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,” he said.

In contrast, Hiroshima invited the Israeli ambassador to Japan to its memorial ceremony on Tuesday, which was attended by 50,000 people including Emanuel and other envoys, though Palestinian representatives were not invited.