The mayor of Nagasaki, not only dismissed the invitation of the ambassador of Israel but invited the ambassador of Palestine instead. The well-known professional democrats from the G7 and EU threatened him and in the end decided that they would abstain from the event, to which it is incomprehensible why the representative of the country that dropped the atomic bombs is invited since there has never been an official apology. despite the pressure, Japan did not invite Israel to the U.S. nuclear bombing commemoration.
Mayor Shiro Suzuki defended his decision to invite Palestine instead of Israel to the peace ceremony. The threats from the U.S. and its vassals to boycott the annual event to commemorate the hibakusha could not work on the mayor, whose parents were a-bomb survivors.
Hiroshima’s Mayor Shiro Suzuki spoke about wars in which the strong trample on the weak: “At present, we still see wars in various parts of the world. The strong defeat the weak. The weak are trampled down. In contemporary wars, men and women, young and old, are shot by bullets or torn into pieces by missiles, rather than by arrowheads and swords. Great powers, which are expected to protect the international order established by the United Nations, overtly attempt to invade other countries by violating international laws and changing the status quo by force. This is the reality that humans have continued to see since the prehistoric age. In this context, so-called realists suggest a policy of “force for force” and “a nuclear weapon for a nuclear weapon.” When they suggest this policy, however, they deliberately ignore another piece of reality or the fact that once people invented a weapon, they used it without exception. Chemical weapons, for example, have continued to be used even though their use is banned. As long as nuclear weapons exist, they will surely be used again someday.”
Envoys representing the Group of Seven (G7) nations in Tokyo were left fuming and, in what appeared to be a coordinated move, may have chosen not to attend an event commemorating the U.S. nuclear bombing of Japan.
Their apparent anger was triggered by a decision from the local administration in Nagasaki not to invite Israel to its “peace event,” which was scheduled for last Friday.
Since World War II, local governments in Hiroshima and Nagasaki have held annual events to commemorate the bombings. The U.S. dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by Nagasaki on August 9, leading to at least 140,000 deaths by the end of that year.
This year, Japan was commemorating the 79th anniversary of the atrocity.
In a joint letter, envoys of the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and the EU have expressed their “concern” to the Nagasaki city government about its decision.
The letter, dated 19 July, warned that if Tel Aviv was excluded, “it would become difficult for us to have high-level participation” in the event, Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported.
This, the letter added, “would result in placing Israel on the same level as countries such as Russia and Belarus”, which have not been invited to the ceremony for a third consecutive year.
Earlier on Tuesday, the local government in Hiroshima refused to pay heed to public calls and went ahead to invite Israeli officials to its event.
Nagasaki Mayor, Shiro Suzuki, has said the decision was taken over fears that protests against Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza could “affect the ceremony’s solemnity”.
Addressing an “Alternate Peace Conference” in Hiroshima on Tuesday, the Palestinian top diplomat in Japan drew parallels between the “unspeakable horrors” of the Hiroshima nuclear bombing and the onslaught in the Gaza Strip.
Japan does not recognise a Palestinian State but hosts the General Mission of Palestine in Tokyo.
The Deputy Chief of the Palestinian mission will attend the Nagasaki event.
Without identifying the presence of Israeli representatives at the Hiroshima event, Ambassador Waleed Siam expressed “profound disappointment and frustration that the city of Hiroshima, a symbol of peace, has chosen to be hijacked by the oppressors and their supporters while excluding the victims.”
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued offensive on Gaza since a 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas.
Ten months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel has been accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on 6 May.
