By MAMI OKADA/ Staff Writer
August 7, 2023 at 17:07 JST
A ceremony is held to mark the 77th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki at the city’s Peace Park on Aug. 9, 2022. (Pool)
NAGASAKI--Approaching Typhoon No. 6 has forced Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to cancel his attendance at the Aug. 9 ceremony here marking the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city.
Due to safety concerns, the ceremony will be held indoors and attended only by municipal officials and a limited number of guests, Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki said on Aug. 6.
“It was a difficult decision to make, but we can’t risk the lives of our guests,” Suzuki said. “I’m very sorry for those who planned to attend.”
The ceremony may be canceled entirely depending on how the typhoon develops, the mayor added.
The annual ceremony is usually held outdoors at Nagasaki Peace Park, joined by thousands of participants, including the prime minister, foreign ambassadors and bereaved families of bomb victims.
Nagasaki municipal officials said they haven’t scaled down the event to this level since 1956.
For more than two decades, Japanese prime ministers have visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki every summer to attend ceremonies marking the anniversaries of the nuclear attacks.
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