In an astonishing “Fuck you” to the survivors of the 1945 US nuclear bombing of Nagasaki, several Western countries including the US, Australia, Canada, France, Italy and the UK have just dropped a bombshell: reportedly announcing their ambassadors are shunning this week’s commemorations in solidarity with Israel.

Last week the mayor of Nagasaki, Shiro Suzuki, rescinded Israel’s invitation to the annual peace ceremony. It was a gentle but pointed diplomatic message: Lest we forget what it was – and still is – all about.

Shigemitsu Tanaka, the 83-year-old head of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council, supports the move to keep the Israelis away from the commemorations saying it was inappropriate to invite representatives from countries waging armed conflicts in defiance of calls from the international community.

As a hibakusha – “a survivor of the bomb” – his words carry, or should carry, weight. The average age of a hibakusha is 88 years old. For some this will be their last commemoration. Their lives will be book-ended by nuclear blasts killing hundreds of thousands of civilians at one end and a powerful statement of Western contempt for both Japanese and Palestinian civilian lives at the other.

It is likely that in generations to come........

© Pearls and Irritations