TOKYO (Reuters): The mayor of Nagasaki declared that he would not budge from his decision to bar Israel’s ambassador from Friday’s commemoration of the atomic bombing of the city, despite top US and other Group of Seven officials saying they would not be attending.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is scheduled to attend the yearly event—which usually garners more attention than one held in Hiroshima three days earlier to commemorate the first-ever use of nuclear weapons—may be embarrassed by their absence.
“It’s not that we haven’t issued an invitation to the Israeli ambassador for political reasons, but rather, we want to conduct the ceremony smoothly in a calm and solemn atmosphere,” stated Shiro, the mayor of Nagasaki.
