{"id":993125,"date":"2026-08-10T13:57:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T13:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/993125\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T13:57:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T13:57:20","slug":"taiwan-representative-in-japan-calls-seat-at-nagasaki-bombing-memorial-an-insult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/993125\/","title":{"rendered":"Taiwan representative in Japan calls seat at Nagasaki bombing memorial an insult"},"content":{"rendered":"

TOKYO (AP) \u2014 Taiwan\u2019s top economic representative in Japan<\/a> said he boycotted this year\u2019s memorial marking the 81st anniversary<\/a> of the U.S. atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Nagasaki, accusing city officials of being pro-China and insulting Taipei.<\/p>\n

Lee Yi-yang, head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Tokyo, said in a social media post that seat assignments showed Nagasaki \u201cdeliberately denied Taiwan\u2019s status as a nation, completely disregarding Taiwan\u2019s sovereignty and dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee said he and two deputies boycotted because their designated seats as representatives of Taiwan<\/a> were not among those reserved for diplomatic missions. Lee instead sent a lower-ranked official from Fukuoka.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there shouldn\u2019t be any discrimination at a place where we pray together for a world without a war or nuclear weapons,\u201d that official, Chen Ming-chun, told Nippon Television.<\/p>\n

Nagasaki acted as \u201ca pawn of China\u2019s insistence that Taiwan is not a state and has no sovereignty,\u201d Lee\u2019s office said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Nagasaki officials said seats for Taiwanese officials were located just behind other envoys and were not clearly distinguished as nondiplomatic guests.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have courteously accommodated their attendance,\u201d Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki told reporters, denying Lee\u2019s allegation that the city was bowing to China. \u201cTaiwan is a partner with strong ties with Nagasaki and we place great importance to our relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seats planned for the Taiwan officials were as part of foreign attendees from international organizations and envoys who could not fit into a special guests section for ambassadors and top Japanese officials, the Asahi newspaper said.<\/p>\n

Japan and China normalized diplomatic ties in 1972<\/a>, ending war animosities. The joint communiqu\u00e9 officially recognized Tokyo\u2019s diplomatic ties with Beijing and ended those with Taipei, though Japan and Taiwan still have close economic and trade ties through nongovernmental channels.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s memorial at the Peace Park in the southwestern city was attended by representatives from 98 countries and three international organizations, including the United Nations, the European Union and the International Committee of the Red Cross, Nagasaki officials said.<\/p>\n

The United States launched the Nagasaki attack on Aug. 9, 1945, killing 70,000 by the end of that year. It came three days after the bombing of Hiroshima<\/a> that killed 140,000. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II and the nearly half-century of aggression across Asia.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Sign up for Morning Wire:<\/strong>
\n Our flagship newsletter breaks down the biggest headlines of the day.\n <\/p>\n

Nagasaki was boycotted in the 2024 anniversary<\/a> by then-U.S. ambassador Rahm Emanuel and counterparts from five other Group of Seven countries for not inviting Israel over the escalating conflict in the Middle East and concern about possible risks such as protests and other safety issues.<\/p>\n

That prompted Nagasaki to set a policy of inviting countries, regions and organizations that have diplomatic missions in Japan or at the United Nations, including North Korea and countries in conflict.<\/p>\n

Taiwan fits neither category as a guest but Nagasaki accommodated its representatives at their request last year, officials said.<\/p>\n

Lee did attend the Aug. 6 atomic bombing memorial in Hiroshima, where he was treated equally with other foreign envoys, he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Lee stressed that Taiwan has demonstrated itself to be a peace-loving nation while China has increasingly posed threats to the region with its rapid military growth and nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

Lee took up his post in Japan in September 2024 and last year became the first Taiwanese representative from the liaison office to attend the Hiroshima and Nagasaki ceremonies. He was given a similar seat assignment in Nagasaki last year but did not raise the issue, to prioritize friendship, he said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press video journalist Mayuko Ono contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOKYO (AP) \u2014 Taiwan\u2019s top economic representative in Japan said he boycotted this year\u2019s memorial marking the 81st…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":993126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[13214,396,74,13212,57,170,17787,398092,50,25455,397373,30723,97159,10855,1206,8572,103,107],"class_list":["post-993125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-asia-pacific","tag-bombings","tag-china","tag-china-government","tag-general-news","tag-japan","tag-japan-government","tag-lee-yi-yang","tag-news","tag-rahm-emanuel","tag-shiro-suzuki","tag-taiwan","tag-taiwan-government","tag-tokyo","tag-united-nations","tag-violence","tag-world","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117071566933053479","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=993125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/993126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=993125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=993125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=993125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}