Photo/Illutration Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki speaks at a news conference in Nagasaki on July 31. (Takashi Ogawa)

NAGASAKI—The mayor of Nagasaki has decided not to invite a representative of Israel to attend the city’s peace ceremony on the Aug. 9 atomic bombing anniversary, citing the risk of possible protests and other contingencies.

“It is not a political decision,” Shiro Suzuki told a news conference on July 31. “It is a decision based on our hopes to hold the ceremony peacefully, solemnly and smoothly.”

The city sends invitations to foreign embassies in Japan to attend the annual Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony to commemorate victims of the city’s atomic bombing on Aug. 9, 1945.

However, Suzuki told a news conference in June that he was withholding an invitation to Israel on the grounds that the ceremony could face unforeseen circumstances due to Israel’s ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip.

The mayor also sent a letter to the Israeli ambassador to Japan, Gilad Cohen, calling for an immediate cease-fire.

“The citizens of the atomic-bombed city are heartbroken to see many people killed in the armed conflict,” the letter said.

Suzuki said he formally decided not to invite Israel because his concerns about the risk to the ceremony remain.

Cohen called Suzuki’s decision “regrettable” in a July 31 post on the social media platform X.

“The decision by Nagasaki’s mayor not to invite Israel to the Peace Memorial Ceremony on August 9th is regrettable, sends a wrong message to the world, and deflects from the core message that Nagasaki has been promoting for years,” Cohen wrote in English and Japanese.

Nagasaki has not invited Russia or Belarus to the ceremony since 2022 following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Hiroshima also holds a peace ceremony to commemorate victims of the city's atomic bombing on Aug. 6, 1945. Hiroshima plans to invite Israel, although it will not ask Russia or Belarus to attend.

Related News