US ambassador to Japan to skip A-bomb memorial service in Nagasaki because Israel was not invited

TOKYO — U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel will skip this year's atomic bombing memorial service in Nagasaki on Friday because Israel was not invited, the embassy said.

Emanuel will not attend the event because it was “politicized” by Nagasaki's decision not to invite Israel, the embassy said.

He will instead honor the victims of the Nagasaki atomic bombing at a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo, it said.

An atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroyed the city, killing 140,000 people. A second bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II and the country's nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.

Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki on Thursday said his decision not to invite Israel is unchanged despite announcements by the U.S. and five other Group of Seven countries and the European Union that they will send lower-ranked envoys instead of ambassadors to the ceremony.

“We only want to hold the ceremony in a peaceful and solemn atmosphere” to honor the atomic bomb victims, Suzuki said. “It is absolutely not because of political reasons.”

“It is unfortunate that ambassadors won't be able to join us this year, but I hope they will attend from next year,” Suzuki added.

Suzuki had indicated his reluctance in June to invite Israel, noting the escalating conflict in the Middle East. He announced last week that Israel was not invited because of concern over “possible unforeseen situations" such as protests, sabotage or attacks on attendees.

Suzuki said he made the decision based on "various developments in the international community in response to the ongoing situation in the Middle East" that suggested a possible risk that the ceremony would be disturbed. “Aug. 9 is the most important day for Nagasaki City ... and we must not let the ceremony be affected," he said.

In contrast, Hiroshima invited the Israeli ambassador to Japan to its memorial ceremony on Tuesday, which was attended by 50,000 people including Emanuel and other envoys, though Palestinian representatives were not invited.

Nagasaki officials said they were told that an official of the U.S. Consulate in Fukuoka will represent the United States at Friday's ceremony.

Envoys from the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. and the European Union signed a joint letter expressing their shared concern about Israel's exclusion, saying that treating the country on the same level as Russia and Belarus — the only other countries not invited — would be misleading.

The envoys urged Nagasaki to reverse the decision and invite Israel to preserve the universal message of the city's ceremony. The exclusion of Israel would make their “high-level participation” difficult, they said.