US and UK ambassadors to skip Nagasaki bombing memorial after Israel disinvited

The Russian and Belarusian ambassadors have also been excluded from the event this Friday by Japanese authorities.

The Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony is intended to mark the 79th anniversary of the US atomic bomb attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima that killed tens of thousands of Japanese civilians, with many more later dying from radiation poisoning.

The attacks in August 1945 preceded Japan’s unconditional surrender to the US and the end of the Second World War.

Julia Longbottom, the UK’s ambassador to Japan, told local reporters that Israel is exercising self-defence in Gaza and should not be treated in the same way as Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

In late July, the UK dropped its objection to an International Criminal Court application for arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The American embassy announced that Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador, does not want to politicise the Nagasaki event by attending.

Emanuel, who was White House chief of staff from 2009 to 2010 under Barack Obama, was born to an Israeli father who was at one point a member of Jewish paramilitary group Irgun.

It is understood that Emanuel will attend a separate memorial service for the victims at a temple in Tokyo, while the US consulate will send a different representative to the Nagasaki event instead.

Nagasaki’s mayor, Shiro Suzuki, said last week that Israel was not invited to the memorial event because of “the risk of unexpected incidents during the ceremony”.

“I would like to emphasise that this decision was not based on political considerations, but rather on our desire to hold the ceremony to commemorate the victims of the atomic bombings in a peaceful and solemn atmosphere, and to ensure that the ceremony goes smoothly.”

But Gilad Cohen, Israel’s ambassador in Tokyo, hit back on Monday, accusing the mayor of “inventing” security concerns.

“I am really surprised by him hijacking this ceremony for his political motivations.”

Cohen added that Iran has been invited to the ceremony, stating the move was the “opposite message that should be sent to the free world and to civilisation”.

The Israeli ambassador attended a memorial event in Hiroshima on Tuesday.

Nagasaki’s mayor said on Thursday it was “unfortunate” that US and British ambassadors have refused to attend the ceremony marking the 1945 atomic bombing of the Japanese city because Israel was snubbed.

But he defended the decision not to invite Israel to Friday’s annual event, repeating that it was “not political” but to avoid possible protests related to the Gaza conflict.

“It is unfortunate that they have communicated to us that their ambassadors are not able to attend,” Suzuki told reporters.

“We made a comprehensive decision not for political reasons. We want to conduct a smooth ceremony in a peaceful and solemn environment.”

During Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, multiple ministers and officials have advocated using a nuclear bomb on Gaza, turning the enclave into a “slaughterhouse” and “erasing the besieged strip from the face of the earth”.

South Africa has argued these statements are evidence of genocidal intent in its ongoing case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, a charge which Israel denies.

The death toll in Gaza since October 2023 has topped 39,600, with more than 91,700 wounded and an estimated 10,000 missing, likely dead and buried under rubble.

According to the medical journal Lancet, the death toll could exceed more than 186,000 when all war-related deaths are taken into account.

Health officials report that around 70 percent of the victims in Gaza are children and women.