Mayor of Nagasaki’s decision not to invite Israel

When I heard Mayor Nagasaki’s decision regarding August 9th, it was not about the war in Gaza at a glance. Some nightmares came to my mind.

I have read several articles about Hiroshima City’s decision to invite the Ambassador of Israel, Gilad Cohen, to this year’s memorial. My first impression of this decision was not about the war or for political reasons but rather the history of assassinations of the mayors of Nagasaki that had started with the following incident.

Back on December 7th, 1988, Hitoshi Motoshima, was in the third term as the mayor of Nagasaki City. During the City Council, he testified as follows when asked about the accountability of the atomic bomb:

“The accountability of the war is in the Emperor Showa, Hirohito. However, the Emperor became a symbol of Japan with the support of the majority of the Japanese and the Allied member nations. We, as a new Japan, are obligated to abide by this new rule.”

Over this statement in the City Council, many news outlets quoted only, “The mayor Motoshima blamed the Emperor over the accountabilities of the war.” Many articles that were misleading about what Mayor Motoshima testified were widely publicized. This

*Please note that this statement and view of Mayor Motoshima regarding the accountability of the war on the former Emperor does not reflect any single view over my opinion on the war or any events that occurred during the war, including the atomic bomb.

In 1988, Emperor Showa was critically ill. The Liberal Democratic Party criticized the Mayor’s statement during the City Council and asked to retract it over the accountabilities of the war on the Emperor. However, the Mayor declined to retract his statement, saying, “I said this out of my conscience.”

Many Japanese journalist organizations took up his statement as a topic of an article and quoted only as “the Mayor of Nagasaki blamed the Emperor for the accountabilities of the war.”

Briefly, the right-wing groups started to rebuke the Mayor’s statement and a group member tried to assassinate him using a gun on January 18th, 1990. The Mayor survived the gunshot even though the bullet penetrated the left part of his chest. The perpetrator was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

This was not the only case where the mayor of Nagasaki City faced assassination. Mayor Iccho Ito was assassinated on April 15th, 2007, in the middle of the election campaign. It was reported that a mob group member assassinated Mayor Ito in the evening. He passed away the following day.

This year, the current mayor, Shiro Suzuki, declined to invite the Ambassador of Israel to Japan, Gilad Cohen, for the memorial on August 9th. I was quite impressed with the decision of Hiroshima City to invite the Ambassador to the memorial event, which gives a moment for all of us to think of the lives lost. After I saw the social media comments, I decided to refrain from commenting on Nagasaki City’s decision regarding not inviting Israel. However, I decided to write certain words of criticisms over the reasons why Nagasaki City declined to invite the Ambassador of Israel this year.

Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki was receiving many requests from the victims’ groups and various activists not to invite Israel to the memorial this year due to the ongoing operation in Gaza. In the press conference on July 31st, Mayor Suzuki stressed that his decision not to invite Ambassador Cohen was not for political reasons but for security reasons.

I first thought about long lines of the history of assassinations of Japanese lawmakers, including Former Prime Minister Abe, whom I met in his hometown about six months before he was assassinated. It was truly a shocking incident that traumatized me for months.

The reasons I decided to criticize the attitude of Nagasaki City was that they are inviting Islamic Republic of Iran to the memorial on August 9th despite “treating Israel as uninvited guest.”

If I write this way, it may be misleading, as well. Many people have good impressions of Israel, and I hope that Israeli people understand that the people who are interviewed by the major media represent the views of the Japanese. At the same time, there is a reality that many Japanese have negative views against Hamas atrocities on October 7th and, feeling sorry for what happened to October 7th victims. However, you may not see these people in interviews.

Japan must upgrade its security level so that lawmakers from overseas and representatives of the nations can spend time now on potential security risks. The nation cannot keep on making excuses and not inviting certain nations for this reason. This is a matter of credibility toward the world. At the same time, Nagasaki City is inviting countries with dictators to the memorial.

Why is Israel uninvited this year?

Nagasaki City’s act is out of courtesy as a municipal organization that is going to invite guests from around the world to give a more heartfelt memorial instead of an annual political custom.

After the concern by the British Ambassador, the Ambassador of the United States made a statement that he is not going to attend the memorial event. In my opinion, it was Mayor Suzuki’s despicable misjudgment to invite the Islamic Republic of Iran and not to invite Israel this year. Even though it was not intentional, eventually, this misjudgment must be taken more seriously by Nagasaki and never repeated. There is still time to officially apologize to Israel and invite the Ambassador of Israel to the ceremony on the 9th.

It is highly inappropriate to invite the nation that funded, advised and ordered the October 7th massacre, which is the Islamic Republic of Iran. I never want to hear phrases such as, “Yemen, Yemen makes us proud,” or “From the River to the Sea,” which became popular in the 1980s etc, which I heard on US university campuses, and I think back to the infamous history of the Japanese terrorist operations in the Middle East, mainly in the 1970s.

I am utterly disappointed at the lack of consideration for Israeli people, who are mourning the deaths of their loved ones in the October 7th massacre and the difficult hostage situation in Gaza.