US to skip Japan’s WWII Nagasa­ki memo­r­i­al after Israel’s exclu­sion

The Unit­ed States will not send an ambas­sador to Nagasa­ki, Japan, for its World War II com­mem­o­ra­tion on Aug. 9 of the 1945 atom­ic bomb­ing because Israel was not invit­ed.

The city’s may­or, Shi­ro Suzu­ki, decid­ed not to invite the nation because he want­ed to “hold the cer­e­mo­ny peace­ful­ly, solemn­ly, and smooth­ly” and not­ed it wasn’t a polit­i­cal deci­sion.

“The true mean­ing [for not invit­ing Israel] has not been con­veyed,” Suzu­ki told reporters. “We want to hold the cer­e­mo­ny in a peace­ful and solemn atmos­phere.”

Britain will not attend the cer­e­mo­ny, either, as the may­or has not changed his course since receiv­ing a July 25 let­ter from the ambas­sadors of six coun­tries, the U.S., Britain, Ger­many, France, Italy, and Cana­da, as well as the Euro­pean Union, express­ing their con­cern about Israel not being invit­ed.

U.S. Ambas­sador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and oth­er envoys …