Diplomatic tensions from the Israel–Hamas war have spilled into the annual commemoration of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in Japan, with the U.S. ambassador skipping this year’s commemoration, along with senior diplomats of the other G7 nations, because Israel wasn’t invited.
The U.S. Embassy stated that Rahm Emanuel, U.S. ambassador to Japan, would instead honor the victims of the U.S. bombing on Aug. 9, 1945, at a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo.
The bombing killed 140,000 people. Together with the bombing of Hiroshima three days earlier, it led to the Japanese surrender of World War II on Aug. 15, 1945.
The ambassadors not attending the Nagasaki ceremony on Aug. 9 will be represented in most cases by lower-ranking diplomats.
Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki expressed reluctance in June to invite Israel, noting the escalating Middle East conflict. He later said Israel was not invited because of concerns over protests, sabotage, or attacks on attendants. He wanted to honor the bombing victims “in a peaceful and solemn manner.”
“It’s not that we haven’t issued an invitation to the Israeli ambassador for political reasons, but rather, we want to conduct the ceremony smoothly in a calm and solemn atmosphere,” Suzuki said.
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Emanuel and the other G7 ambassadors wrote to Suzuki last month expressing their misgivings over Israel’s exclusion.
The exclusion puts Israel on a list of uninvited countries, including Russia and Belarus.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s self-defense are not morally equivalent,” Emanuel said, according to the U.S. embassy in Tokyo.
“Unfortunately, because of the mayor’s decision, the message of that ceremony and memorial will be distracted and deflected.”
The G7 includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the United States, with the European Union having observer status.
And Israel, on Aug. 8, stated that it would no longer accredit Norwegian diplomats serving the occupied Palestinian territories. Norway has decried the move.
“This is an extreme act that primarily affects our ability to help the Palestinian population,” Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide said in a statement.
“Today’s decision will have consequences for our relationship with the Netanyahu government.”
Norway is one of four European nations, also including Spain, Slovenia, and Ireland, to recently recognize Palestine as an independent nation, seen as a rebuke to Israel for its war against Hamas following the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023. massacre in Israel.
A tank maneuvers near the Israel–Gaza border amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas on Aug. 7, 2024. Amir Cohen/Reuters
Canada stated on Aug. 7 that it was pulling the children and guardians of its diplomats out of Israel amid fears of a broader Middle Eastern conflict. It stated that its diplomats in Ramallah do not have dependents living with them. Canada has warned its citizens to avoid all travel to Israel as well as Gaza and the West Bank.
Israel’s killing outside Beirut of Hezbollah’s top military leader, Fuad Shukr, last week was followed a few hours later by the assassination in Tehran of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Israel took credit for Shukr’s killing through an air strike but has not claimed credit for Haniyeh’s. He and a bodyguard were killed by a bomb planted months before in the bedroom of a visitor’s compound operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, where he stayed during visits to the Iranian capital.
Iraqi and Iranian clerics and officials hold a vigil at the office of the representative of Iran's supreme leader in Iraq's Shiite holy city of Najaf following the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (portrait) and others killed in strikes in Lebanon and Iraq on Aug. 1, 2024. Qassem Al-Kaabi/AFP via Getty Images
Iran and the terrorist groups have vowed to retaliate. Hezbollah, for one, has a stockpile of more than 100,000 missiles, many of them sophisticated, supplied by Iran. Hezbollah and Israel have been fighting with increased intensity in recent weeks, primarily through drones, rockets, and air strikes.
Israel, for its part, is under domestic pressure to neutralize Hezbollah the way it has attacked Hamas in Gaza so that 80,000 Israelis can return to the northern homes they evacuated in October 2023.
Reports of Sexual Abuse
On another diplomatic front, the United States was one of several nations expressing concern over reports of the sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners at a secret Israeli military base.State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Aug. 7 called for “zero tolerance” for perpetrators. He alluded to a video aired by Israeli television appearing to show soldiers leading a detainee out of the sight of cameras, allegedly to carry out abuses.
“We have seen the video, and reports of sexual abuse of detainees are horrific. They ought to be investigated fully by the government of Israel, by the IDF,” Miller said.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said, “It is essential that the rule of law and due process prevail.”
Israel’s Supreme Court is considering a petition by a rights group, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, to shutter the prison at Sde Teiman in the Negev Desert.
Concerns with the prison ramped up last month after Israeli military police arrested 10 reservists suspected of involvement in abusing a prisoner. An Israeli doctor said the detainee had not only been severely beaten but suffered from rectal injuries consistent with sexual abuse.
The arrests triggered demonstrations at the base by protesters, including two cabinet ministers, objecting to arresting the reservists while the war was still underway.
A lawyer representing the soldiers said they were accused of sodomizing the detainee. The lawyer, Nati Rom, said they used force to defend themselves when the prisoner attacked them during a search but did not sexually abuse him.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
