The US Embassy in Japan told NHK the US ambassador to Japan sent a letter to the Nagasaki mayor saying he will not attend Friday’s ceremony marking the US atomic bombing of the city over its decision not to invite the Israeli ambassador.
The public relations officer at the embassy said Ambassador Rahm Emanuel sent the letter addressed to Mayor Suzuki Shiro on Tuesday.
The embassy says Emanuel conveyed that the city’s decision not to invite the Israeli ambassador to the ceremony was political and therefore he has no choice but to absent himself.
The ambassadors from the Group of Seven nations, except Japan, and the Tokyo-based representative of the European Union, had jointly sent a letter dated July 19 to the Nagasaki mayor on not inviting Israel.
The envoys said in the letter that not inviting Israel “would result in placing Israel on the same level with countries such as Russia and Belarus, who are the only other countries not invited to this ceremony.”
They went on to say, “Such an eventuality would be unfortunate and misleading.”
They also closed the letter by saying that if Israel was excluded, “it would become difficult for us to have high-level participation in this event.”