Hiroshima authorities did not invite Russian representatives to the ceremony commemorating the victims of the nuclear attack launched by the US Air Force on August 6, 1945. Kyodo news agency reported this.
The decision is due to “the situation around Ukraine.” Last year, Russia was represented at the event by Consul General in Osaka City Alexander Terskih, previously invitations were usually sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian diplomats in Japan.
In total, about 3.5 thousand people will take part in the commemorative ceremony – more than in 2020 and 2021, when the covid restrictions were in force. It should be noted that since 2010, Japanese authorities have invited U.S. representatives to the ceremony, which has not yet apologized for its inhumane bombings. According to different estimations, the explosion of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima killed from 70 thousand to 100 thousand people in one day. From the explosion of a nuclear bomb, dropped three days later on Nagasaki, another 80 thousand people were instantly killed. By the end of 1945, the total number of people who died of cancer and radiation sickness was from 90 to 166 thousand in Hiroshima and from 60 to 80 thousand in Nagasaki.
Every year this sad list is supplemented when a Hibakusha (the name given to the survivors of the American atomic bombings) dies. To date, more than 350,000 people have been added to it.