The United States Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, will not attend this year’s atomic bombing memorial service in Nagasaki due to Israel’s exclusion from the event, the embassy announced on Wednesday.
Emanuel will be absent from Friday’s ceremony because Nagasaki’s choice not to invite Israel has “politicized” the event, according to the embassy.
Instead, Emanuel will pay tribute to the victims of the Nagasaki atomic bombing at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo.
An atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, destroyed the city, resulting in 140,000 deaths.
A second bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later killed an additional 70,000 people.
Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, ending World War II and the country’s nearly fifty years of aggression in Asia.
In June, Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki expressed his hesitation to invite Israel, citing the intensifying conflict in the Middle East.
Last week, he announced that Israel would not be invited due to concerns about “possible unforeseen situations” such as protests, sabotage, or attacks on attendees.
Suzuki emphasized that Nagasaki wished to honor the atomic bomb victims “in a peaceful and solemn atmosphere.”
Suzuki explained that his decision was influenced by “various developments in the international community in response to the ongoing situation in the Middle East,” which suggested a risk of disturbances during the ceremony.
In contrast, Hiroshima invited the Israeli ambassador to Japan to its memorial ceremony on Tuesday. Among the 50,000 attendees were Emanuel and other envoys, although Palestinian representatives were not invited.
Nagasaki officials confirmed that a representative from the U.S. Consulate in Fukuoka will attend Friday’s ceremony on behalf of the United States. Lower-ranking envoys from five other Group of Seven nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K. — as well as the European Union, are also expected to attend.
Envoys from these nations expressed their shared concern about Israel’s exclusion in a joint letter, stating that treating Israel on the same level as Russia and Belarus — the only other countries not invited — would be misleading.
The envoys urged Nagasaki to reconsider the decision and invite Israel to uphold the universal message of the city’s ceremony.
They indicated that excluding Israel would make their “high-level participation” difficult.
British Ambassador to Japan, Julia Longbottom, who attended the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Tuesday, told Japanese media that she plans to skip the Nagasaki ceremony because the city’s decision to exclude Israel could send the wrong message.
