Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

After Nagasaki snubs Israeli ambassador from A-bomb commemoration, G7 envoys decide they’ll skip too

Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki said he wanted to ensure ‘a peaceful and solemn atmosphere’ at ceremony

Global dignitaries descend on Nagasaki every August to commemorate the victims of the atomic bomb. But the decision to leave Israel off the 2024 guest list has blown up the ceremony, and now the country that dropped the bomb 79 years ago won’t be showing up.

Leaders from Israel and its allies believed the decision by Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki to keep Israel out was a wrongheaded protest of the war in Gaza.

Ambassadors from the five other G7 countries — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom — are following the lead of the U.S. ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, in skipping Thursday’s ceremony, according to the Japanese network TBS. Lower-ranking diplomats will attend in their place.

Suzuki had suggested he might snub Israel last month, saying Israeli Ambassador Gilad Cohen’s invitation was on hold because he wanted to ensure the ceremony proceeded smoothly “in a peaceful and solemn atmosphere.” 

The other G7 envoys responded with a letter in which they objected to “placing Israel on the same level with countries such as Russia and Belarus” — the only other countries publicly excluded from the ceremony, to which some 150 countries were invited. 

In announcing his decision July 31, Suzuki stated that security concerns had arisen.

Cohen rejected that concern, telling CNN “it has nothing to do with public order” and accusing the mayor of “hijacking this ceremony for his political motivations.”

“I checked it with the relevant authorities that are responsible for public order and security, and there is no obstacle for me to go to Nagasaki,” Cohen said.

Cohen attended a similar ceremony Tuesday in Hiroshima, which was held amid protests and a petition against his invitation that garnered some 25,000 signatures.

Emanuel, who is Jewish, said he would attend a commemoration ceremony in Tokyo instead.

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s self-defense is not morally equivalent,” Emanuel said in a statement.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.