Belarus, Russia excluded from Hiroshima ceremony

July 18, BPN. The mayor of Hiroshima has said Belarus and Russia will not be invited to the annual ceremony to commemorate the victims of the atomic bombing of the city on August 6, according to TASS. Kazumi Matsui said the decision was made because the two countries are allies in the ongoing war against Ukraine.

“Like last year, we decided not to invite representatives of both states to the ceremony,” Matsui said. “We are in favor of promoting visits to our city by leaders of all countries, so we informed the embassies that we hope they will come to Hiroshima in the near future, where they could directly familiarize themselves with the history of the atomic bombing.”

The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, killing tens of thousands of people and effectively ending World War II. The bombings were the first and only instance of combat use of nuclear weapons in human history.