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After Israel was not invited to Friday’s Nagasaki memorial observance, Japan’s G7 allies all boycotted the ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city in the final days of World War II.
“After comprehensively considering the matter, including the risk that an unexpected situation may arise, I made the decision to refrain from inviting the Israeli ambassador,” Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki said, according to Japanese media on Thursday.
Suzuki first decided not to invite Israel in July, saying the decision was not politically motivated. He said he feared that protests against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza would overshadow the ceremony, which commemorates the victims of the atomic bomb dropped by the U.S., killing 74,000 people.
The decision spurred a backlash from the six other G7 countries — the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Canada — and the EU. They sent a letter to Suzuki last month warning that they would not attend if Israel was not invited, CNN reported.
On Friday, those diplomats boycotted the ceremony, Japanese media reported.
Israel’s ambassador to Japan, Gilad Cohen, instead visited a Nagasaki ceremony in Tokyo together with his American and British counterparts.
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he was not in a position to comment on the diplomatic spat, as the memorial is hosted by the city of Nagasaki, according to Japanese media. But “we are engaged in various exchanges with diplomatic corps from various countries and the city of Nagasaki,” he added.
Israel’s Cohen was invited to a memorial ceremony for victims of the Hiroshima bomb on Tuesday, which was met by people protesting the Israel-Hamas war.
