My Take | Hiroshima and Nagasaki divided over the destruction of Gaza
- The atom-bombed cities are again haunting the world’s conscience with one inviting, and the other disinviting, Israel to their peace ceremonies
The mayor of the Japanese city of Nagasaki, Shiro Suzuki, decided not to invite Israel to its annual peace memorial ceremony on Friday. His counterpart in Hiroshima, however, extended the usual invitation to the Israeli ambassador. Since 2022, Russia and Belarus have been left off the list in Nagasaki because of the invasion of Ukraine.
The American and British ambassadors, Rahm Emanuel and Julia Longbottom, threw a fit and said they would skip the event in Nagasaki. Their colleagues from Germany, France, Italy and the European Union did the same. Canada and Australia reportedly followed suit.
So, this is the united message of the West: we stand with Israel.
Posting on X, Israel’s ambassador to Japan, Gilad Cohen, wrote that the Nagasaki mayor has sent “a wrong message to the world”. “There is no comparison between Israel, which is being brutally attacked by terrorist organisations, and any other conflict, any attempt to present it otherwise distorts the reality,” he said.
The annual ritual calling for world peace in Hiroshima and Nagasaki has become routine. But this time, the two cities are, once again, haunting the conscience of the world.
To determine whether Suzuki was justified in his decision, consider the position taken by Shigemitsu Tanaka. The 83-year-old head of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council supports his mayor, saying it was inappropriate to invite representatives from countries waging armed conflicts in defiance of calls from the international community.
Israel’s words and actions have certainly gone beyond the pale. Consider Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who declared, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Monday, “that starving 2 million Gazans ‘to death’ may be ‘right and moral’ to do until Israeli hostages held in Gaza are released”.
