The mayor of Nagasaki said Monday that he is withholding Israel’s invitation to the annual peace ceremony commemorating the 1945 U.S. nuclear attack on the Japanese city and will call on the country’s far-right government to accept an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
“Given the critical humanitarian situation in Gaza and international opinion, there is a risk of unpredictable disruption occurring at the ceremony,” said Mayor Shirō Suzuki, according to The Asahi Shimbun.
“The situation is changing day by day, so we have put sending an invitation letter on hold,” Suzuki explained. “We need to carefully monitor the situation as it develops.”
The ceremony is held each year on August 9, when at 11:02 am local time in 1945 a U.S. B-29 bomber dropped a single nuclear bomb over the city, killing tens of thousands of people instantly and dooming many thousands more to slow death by radiation-induced ailments.
Suzuki said he would extend an invitation to Israel once it’s clear that doing so won’t cause any problems. Palestine’s envoy is invited to attend, although Japan is one of a global minority of nations that do not formally recognize a Palestinian state.
Once again, Russia – whose forces have been invading Ukraine since February 2022 – and Belarus, which supports the invasion, are not invited.
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