US ambassador to Japan to skip Nagasaki's peace ceremony

The U.S. and British ambassadors to Japan said on Wednesday they would not attend Nagasaki’s annual peace memorial ceremony this week, which marks the day the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city, because Israel had not been invited.

The American and British ambassadors said the Nagasaki mayor’s decision not to invite Israel wrongly equated the country’s war against Hamas in Gaza. The mayor of Nagasaki plans to explain his city's decision not to invite the Israeli ambassador to Japan to Friday's annual peace ceremony marking the US atomic bombing of the city.