Nagasaki’s Peace Park held a ceremony today to mark the 79th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city (which killed 74,000 people). It was a sombre and moving occasion, as it always is, and one usually attended by high level representatives of all nations. This year was different though: the ambassadors of the UK, US and Israel were elsewhere, holding their own memorial at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo, 750 miles away.
Nothing spooks the Japanese as much as disorder
The reason is an unseemly row over the withdrawal of an invitation to Israel, by the mayor of Nagasaki Shiro Suzuki, apparently over fears of potential protests in the wake of the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Suzuki announced the un-invitation in a 31 July news conference, saying it was ‘absolutely not…political…but a decision based on our hopes to hold the ceremony, peacefully, solemnly and smoothly’.
The problem with this is that Israel was thus lumped in with the other non-invitees Russia and Belarus.
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