Photo/Illutration A copy of the invitation sent last year to Israel to attend the annual Aug. 6 peace ceremony in Hiroshima. (Akari Uozumi)

HIROSHIMA--The city government here is changing how it goes about getting foreign dignitaries to attend its annual peace memorial ceremony to mark the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Rather than send out invitations, notifications will be mailed to all nations and regions with an embassy or representative office in Japan.

It means that Russia and Belarus will be notified that they are welcome to attend this year’s ceremony. Both nations were dropped from the list of invites after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The change in notification also means that Palestine would also be able to send a representative to this year’s ceremony for the first time.

“Because discussions had arisen about double standards, we will change the manner of requesting (participation at the ceremony),” Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said at an April 11 news conference. “In short, we are thinking about returning to the starting point of the ceremony.”

Last year, the Hiroshima city government invited Israel to attend, prompting local organizations of A-bomb hibakusha survivors to scream “double standards,” citing Israel’s devastating offensive in Gaza.

In 2024, the Nagasaki city government did not invite Israel, leading the United States and other Group of Seven nations to shun the ceremony.

One aim of the change is to distance the event from global politics and remind nations around the world about the horrors of atomic warfare.

In 2022, the Hiroshima city government initially considered inviting Russia, but the Foreign Ministry objected on grounds it would send a mixed signal over where the government stood.

As a result, Russia was not invited by Hiroshima from 2022 until last year.

After the criticism about double standards regarding Israel, the Hiroshima city government last summer began to consider a better way to draw up a list of invitees.

Notifications will be sent this year to 195 nations and regions--practically the entire world--according to a high-ranking city government official.

Sources said the notifications to be mailed out from late May will ask foreign governments to participate by keeping in mind that “Hiroshima’s soul” is seeking world peace, so  no other nation or people need ever face what the hibakusha did.

The city government will consult with the Foreign Ministry before mailing out the notifications.

But an official with the ministry’s Arms Control and Disarmament Division said, “While the final decision will be left up to the Hiroshima city government, we will state our view if we are asked to do so by the city government.”

The city government initially did not invite any of the nuclear powers but changed its policy after India and Pakistan carried out nuclear tests.

The nuclear powers have been on the invite list since 1998.

“We felt it was important that the nuclear powers, in particular, came to Hiroshima to see for themselves the inhumane nature of nuclear weapons,” said Takashi Hiraoka, who was Hiroshima mayor at that time.

(This article was written by Akari Uozumi and Yoshichika Yamanaka.)

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