Nagasaki marks 79th A-bomb anniversary without U.S. and other ambassadors after excluding Israel

Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Nagasaki has marked the 79th anniversary of its atomic bombing at the end of World War II at a ceremony eclipsed by the absence of the American ambassador and other Western envoys in response to the Japanese city’s refusal to invite Israel. Mayor Shiro Suzuki, in a speech at Nagasaki Peace Park, called for nuclear weapon states and those under their nuclear umbrellas, including Japan, to abolish the weapons, which he said pose an increasing threat to humankind. The atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, killed 70,000 people, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima killed 140,000.