US Ambassador to Japan to skip Nagasaki peace ceremony after Israel excluded

By CNN Newsource

Published August 7, 2024 11:59 PM

By Yumi Asada and Chris Lau, CNN

Tokyo (CNN) — US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel will sit out Nagasaki’s peace ceremony over Israel’s exclusion from the annual commemoration of the 1945 atomic bombing of the city, the embassy said.

This year’s ceremony will take place at Nagasaki Peace Park on Friday, where diplomats from more than 100 countries will observe a minute of silence to mark the moment the US dropped the second atomic bomb in Japan during World War II.

Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki told reporters last week that Israel would be excluded due to security concerns, despite warnings from Western nations that there could be implications for the attendance of their own ambassadors.

“Should Israel be excluded, it would become difficult for us to have high-level participation in this event,” said a July 19 letter to the mayor signed by ambassadors from France, Germany, Italy and the US, as well as the chargé d’affaires from Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

Britain, Germany, and Italy will also not send their ambassadors to Nagasaki, their embassies told CNN on Thursday. CNN has reached out to the other remaining signatories.

The bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later led to Japan’s unconditional surrender and brought an end to World War II. But it also killed tens of thousands of people, both instantly and in the months and years to come due to radiation sickness.

Each year the two cities hold memorials attended by diplomats to promote global peace and the idea that nuclear weapons must never be used again.

The move by Nagasaki contrasts with that of Hiroshima, which hosted its ceremony on Tuesday and invited Israeli ambassador to Japan Gilad Cohen, whose presence was met with protests from pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Both cities had been under pressure from activists and bomb survivor groups to exclude Israel due to its bombardment of Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed since Israel began targeting militant group Hamas following the October 7 attack.

Russia and Belarus were both disinvited from the ceremonies over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and campaigners had hoped Nagasaki and Hiroshima would similarly exclude Israel.

On Thursday, a US embassy spokesperson told CNN the ambassador wrote to the Nagasaki mayor on Tuesday, calling the decision to exclude Israel political and saying he would be left with no other choice but to pull out.

“He will attend a peace ceremony at Zojoji Temple in Tokyo in addition to holding a moment of silence at the embassy,” the spokesperson said. The temple holds a memorial service on Friday.

The ambassador had directed other US consulates in Japan to do the same, according to the embassy.

“The US government will be represented at Nagasaki by the Principal Officer of Consulate Fukuoka,” the spokesperson said.

In an interview with CNN earlier this week, Cohen accused the Nagasaki mayor of “inventing” security fears and “hijacking this ceremony for his political motivations.”

On Thursday, Mayor Suzuki reiterated that the decision was unrelated to politics, and said he was “sorry to hear” the US ambassador was unable to attend.

“The reason for this is to avoid unforeseen circumstances and to ensure that the ceremony will be conducted smoothly and in a peaceful and solemn atmosphere,” he told reporters.

“If it was for political reasons, I personally believe that countries in a dispute should be invited, but unfortunately we cannot invite such countries considering the impact it would have on the ceremony.”

He said the authorities would “continue to seek their understanding by persistently explaining the situation.”

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the foreign affairs ministry had been in touch with Nagasaki to explain international affairs, but local authorities make ultimate decisions on events they organize.

This article has been updated.