Nobel winning Hiroshima survivor's Gaza comparison angers Israel
Israel has attacked a prominent survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing over a comparison he made between the blast and the current assault on Gaza.
Toshiyuki Mimaki, a leader of the Nihon Hidankyo organisation that represents survivors of the US attack, compared the two after the group was announced as the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
“I thought for sure [the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize] would be the people working so hard in Gaza, as we’ve seen," he told reporters in Tokyo after the announcement.
“In Gaza, bleeding children are being held by their parents. It’s like in Japan 80 years ago.”
In response, Israel's ambassador to Japan attacked the comparison as "outrageous and baseless", and said such comparisons "distort history and dishonour the victims".
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In August, the American and British ambassadors to Japan announced they would skip the ceremony commemorating the victims of the US’s 1945 atomic bombing because the city’s mayor did not invite the Israeli ambassador.
During Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, multiple Israeli ministers and officials have advocated using a nuclear bomb on Gaza, turning the enclave into a “slaughterhouse” and “erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth”.
South Africa has argued these statements are evidence of genocidal intent in its ongoing case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, a charge which Israel denies.
At least 140,000 people were killed by the US bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, while a further 74,000 were killed in Nagasaki three days later.
Nihon Hidankyo was founded by survivors to commemorate the blast and campaign for nuclear disarmament.
Israeli forces have killed at least 62 Palestinians and wounded 220 in the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
This brings the death toll since 7 October 2023 to 42,289, with more than 98,684 wounded and at least 10,000 still missing, likely dead and buried under rubble.
Health officials report that over 60 percent of the victims are children and women.
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