Following the decision of Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki not to invite Israel to a ceremony commemorating the victims of the U.S. nuclear bombing of the city in 1945, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel has announced that he will boycott the event. AP reports that the ambassadors of Canada, France, Italy, the U.K., and Australia will also join the boycott.
Mayor Suzuki explained that the decision was due to concerns about “possible unforeseen situations,” such as protests over the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
The U.S. Embassy in Japan, while noisily declaring that Emanuel would not participate in the event, said that Suzuki had “politicized” the event by not inviting Israel.
Regarding the decision of the Canadian ambassador to skip the event, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East issued a press release, stating, in part, “Boycotting the Nagasaki memorial service to protest the exclusion of Israel, a state which is actively committing genocide, is incredibly disrespectful to the civilian victims of mass killing in both Japan and Gaza.”
“It is absurd that Canada is standing up for Israel’s right to attend a memorial ceremony for the victims of the United States’ nuclear bomb on Nagasaki,” it continued, “while its ministers casually call for dropping the same weapons on civilians in Gaza.”
