Nagasaki on Friday held a peace ceremony marking 79 years since an atomic bomb was dropped on the city, as a political controversy saw the ambassadors from the U.S., the U.K. and Israel pay their respects about 1,200 kilometers away at a Tokyo temple.
All three envoys attended Tuesday’s ceremony in Hiroshima. But under the cloud of the Israel-Hamas war, Nagasaki, facing pressure from activists and hibakusha, opted not to extend an invitation to the Israeli ambassador, citing security concerns.
The ambassadors from the U.S., the U.K. and other Group of Seven nations said they would skip the ceremony due to Israel being left out.
During the peace ceremony in Nagasaki, Mayor Shiro Suzuki highlighted how hibakusha have shared their experiences of enduring severe hardships, driven by a strong determination to ensure that no one else in the world faces similar suffering.
“Since the atomic bombing, we humans have conformed to the humanitarian norm of never using a nuclear weapon again,” Suzuki said. “However, nuclear armament is accelerating.”
Suzuki expressed concern that the Russian invasion of Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East would increase the likelihood of undermining important norms that have been upheld, placing the world in a precarious position.
“I hereby declare that Nagasaki will continue its tireless efforts to abolish nuclear weapons and realize permanent world peace so that Nagasaki remains the last place to suffer an atomic bombing,” he said.
The U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki three days after bombing Hiroshima in the final days of World War II. The blast killed hundreds of thousands and left many survivors — referred to as hibakusha — suffering from long-term health issues and injuries from the radioactive fallout.
In Tokyo, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, U.K. Ambassador to Japan Julia Longbottom and Israeli Ambassador to Japan Gilad Cohen sat in an ornate incense-filled room, listening as a priest offered prayers.
“This whole week is a time for remembrance, a time for reflection and a time for reverence,” Emanuel told reporters shortly after the ceremony in Tokyo.
Addressing his absence from the Nagasaki ceremony, he described the city’s decision not to invite the Israeli envoy as a political one, not one based on security concerns, given that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was in attendance.
Emanuel added that drawing a “moral equivalency between Russia and Israel, one country that invaded versus one country that was a victim and (was) invaded,” his attendance would be showing that he respected the political judgment of the Nagasaki mayor.
On Friday, Cohen did not comment on Nagasaki not inviting him to the peace event, merely saying that he was honored to pay respects in Tokyo to the victims of the bombing and their families.
Kishida, who attended the Nagasaki ceremony, said in a news conference afterward that since the event is hosted by the city, the government is not in a position to comment on the attendance of diplomats or other related matters.
Despite the political wrangling, Emanuel aimed to put focus on the peace event itself.
“Today's service is one on behalf of the lost human beings, our fellow citizens, and also their souls,” he said.
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