Written by Afifah Adi
Edited by Harith Syafiee
Nagasaki’s Peace Memorial Ceremony held in 2022 | Source: The New York Times
NAGASAKI, 9th August 2024: The Western embassies, including the U.S., the U.K., Italy, France, Australia and the European Union, announced that they would not attend Nagasaki’s annual peace memorial ceremony held on the 9th of August. This decision was taken following Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki’s resolution not to invite Israel to the Friday ceremony.
Mayor Shiro Suzuki of Nagasaki speaking at the annual peace event in 2023 | Source: Kyodo News via Associated Press
Nagasaki’s memorial ceremony is held annually to commemorate the victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing that killed hundreds of thousands, marking this year as the 79th anniversary. Israel’s exclusion from joining the ceremony was reasoned by the city’s mayor's concern over potential disruptions during the event such as protests and sabotage due to the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.
Israel's Ambassador to Japan, Gilad Cohen, had taken to X to express his disappointment, saying that the mayor’s decision is “regrettable, sends a wrong message to the world, and deflects from the core message that Nagasaki has been promoting for years.”
A joint letter was also signed by envoys from Western countries and the European Union, sharing their discontent over Israel’s omission. They believe that it would send a misleading message by equating Israel to Russia and Belarus—the only countries not invited to the event due to their invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The letter also included their reluctance to fulfill the invitation, intending to send their lower-ranking officials instead of ambassadors to the ceremony.
The U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, questioned Nagasaki’s mayor's explanation, saying that it was a political move given that Hiroshima’s own commemoration ceremony held on the 6th of August had gone smoothly even with Israel’s ambassador in attendance.
“It should have been a time of bringing people together to reflect on the consequences of not only war but the most horrific part of war, which is atomic weapons,” said the U.S. ambassador last Wednesday who intends to skip Nagasaki’s ceremony. “Unfortunately, because of the mayor’s decision, the message of that ceremony and memorial will be distracted and deflected.”
The U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel | Credit: Shino Matsuyama via The Asahi Shimbun
This act by the Western countries has sparked many reactions from people around the world, expressing their bafflement on social media. In response to Rahm Emanuel's withdrawal from the Nagasaki ceremony, X user @mannyfidel strongly remarked, “The Nagasaki peace ceremony has been boycotted by the country that created the need for a Nagasaki peace ceremony.”
Despite the objections, Shiro Suzuki stayed firm and reiterated that his decision was not politically driven, “We only want to hold the ceremony in a peaceful and solemn atmosphere” to honour the atomic bomb victims. He also added his regrets that the Western ambassadors would not be in attendance and hoped that they would join the following years onward.—TBC
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