Israel’s envoy criticizes Japan’s atomic survivor comparison to Gaza

TOKYO – Israel’s ambassador to Japan on October 13 criticized a leader of Nihon Hidankyo, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning group of atomic bomb survivors, for comparing his experiences to the children of Gaza. .

Gilad Cohen congratulated Mr. Nihon Hidankyo for winning the 2024 prize, but said in a post on social media platform X on Oct. 13 that the comparison made by the group’s co-chairman, Toshiyuki Mimaki, “is outrageous and baseless “.

“Gaza is ruled by Hamas, a murderous terrorist organization that commits a double war crime: targeting Israeli civilians, including women and children, while using its own people as human shields,” Cohen said.

“Such comparisons distort history and dishonor the victims” of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, he added.

Mimaki said after the award was announced on October 11 that the situation for children in Gaza was similar to what Japan faced at the end of World War II.

“In Gaza, bloody children are being held (by their parents). It’s like Japan 80 years ago,” he said.

A representative of the Hiroshima chapter of Nihon Hidankyo could not be reached for comment on Mr. Cohen’s post.

About 140,000 people died when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and another 74,000 died in Nagasaki three days later.

Survivors of the blasts later formed Nihon Hidankyo to tell the stories of those atomic bombings and to press for a world without nuclear weapons.

Nagasaki decided not to invite Cohen to commemorate the 79th anniversary of the attack this year, citing security reasons to avoid possible protests.

That decision prompted ambassadors from the United States, Britain and the European Union, among others, to skip the ceremony and send lower-level officials.

Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killed 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.

The health ministry in Gaza says 42,175 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since Israel’s military campaign began there. The United Nations acknowledges that these figures are reliable. AFP