Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki said Thursday that his city will invite envoys to Japan from Russia, Belarus and Israel to this year's peace ceremony on Aug. 9 marking the anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing.
The city, which suffered a U.S. atomic bombing 80 years ago in the closing days of World War II, had not invited the top Russian and Belarusian envoys since 2022, following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. It did not invite the Israeli ambassador last year after the start of fighting in the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
"We judged the risks comprehensively, taking into account the situation in Japan and abroad," Suzuki said of the decision to invite the ambassadors. "We want to overcome all divisions and make it a ceremony that can be attended by representatives of all countries."
The mayor said that he wants attendees to "see with their eyes, listen with their ears, and feel with their hearts the brutal and inhumane consequences of the use of nuclear weapons" on the 80th anniversary of the bombing.
The city of Hiroshima said last month that it will shift from inviting countries to its annual peace ceremony to notifying them of the event. It said that notices for the event commemorating the U.S. atomic bombing of the city on Aug. 6, 1945, will also be sent to Russia and Belarus, which until last year were not invited to the ceremony for the third straight year.
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