US ambassador to skip Nagasaki bomb event over Israeli exclusion

Mayor says Israel not invited because of risk of protests at ceremony honouring victims of 1945 nuclear blast

The US ambassador to Japan will skip this year's nuclear bombing memorial service in Nagasaki because Israel has not been invited, the embassy said.

Rahm Emanuel would not attend the event on Friday because it was politicised" by Nagasaki's decision not to invite Israel, the embassy said. Instead, he would honour the victims of the Nagasaki bombing at a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo and a lower-ranked US official would attend the Nagasaki event, it said.