The US State Department has indicated that there has been no change in the United States’ position on remembering the victims of the atomic bombings in Japan during World War Two.
In a news conference on Thursday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller commented on the decision by US ambassador Rahm Emanuel not to attend Friday’s ceremony in Nagasaki because the Israeli ambassador was not invited to the event.
The US Embassy in Japan said Emanuel conveyed to the Nagasaki mayor that the city’s decision not to invite the Israeli ambassador was political.
Miller said it was important that the Israeli ambassador be invited as the ambassadors of other countries have been. He said, “No country should have been singled out to not be invited” adding that was presumably the reason why Emanuel took the step that he did.
Miller also referred to the US ambassador’s attendance at the ceremony in Hiroshima on Tuesday. He said the US position on events commemorating the atomic bombings and “our respect for Japan when it comes to this anniversary is well documented and goes beyond — far beyond the ambassador not attending one event.”