“Our decision has no political dimension – It is regrettable that the US and British ambassadors refuse to participate in the event”
Its mayor Nagasaki called today Thursday “sad” the fact that the ambassadors of USA and her Britain refuse to participate in the memorial service for the atomic bombing of this Japanese city on August 9, 1945, because he has not been invited to it Israel.
Shiro Suzuki, however, defended the southwestern Japanese city’s will not to invite the Israelreiterating that this is not a political decision, but a decision taken to avoid possible protests due to the conflict in Gaza.
“It is regrettable that we have been informed that the ambassadors are unable to attend the ceremony,” Suzuki told reporters.
“We have taken a decision which is not politically motivated. We want the ceremony to be held without conflict, in a peaceful environment and with solemnity,” he added.
On August 9, 1945, three days after the first ever atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Nagasaki suffered the same fate: some 74,000 people were killed there.
After these two American bombings, which hastened the capitulation of Japan and the end of World War II, Hiroshima and Nagasaki became symbols of peace and nuclear disarmament.
The two cities customarily invite dignitaries from around the world to their respective commemorations each year. After the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, representatives of Russia and Belarus are no longer welcome there either.
The US, UK, France, Italy and the European Union – as well as Canada and Australia, according to Japanese media – will send non-ambassador-level diplomats to the ceremony.
Only the US and British embassies explicitly linked their decision to Nagasaki’s decision not to invite Israeli ambassador Gilad Cohen. A source told AFP that Italy’s decision is also a direct consequence of not inviting the Israeli ambassador.
The British embassy said Israel’s exclusion creates “an unfortunate and illusory match with Russia and Belarus, the only other countries not invited to this year’s ceremony”.
A spokesman for the French embassy described Suzuki’s decision as “regrettable and questionable”, while the German mission criticized the fact that it “places Israel on the same level as Russia and Belarus”.
Cohen, who attended a similar memorial service in Hiroshima on Tuesday, said last week that the Nagasaki decision sends “a bad message to the world”.
Source :Skai
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