A record 120 countries and regions, including Palestine and the Zionist entity Israel, will participate in the ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Wednesday, according to the local government.

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This will also be the first year that Palestine and the Chinese Taiwan Province—neither of which are officially recognized by Japan as countries—participate in the event. Several nuclear powers are also expected to attend, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, India (which has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty), and Israel.

Some nations have already announced that they will not send representatives, such as China, Russia, North Korea, and Pakistan.

This year marks the first time the city has stopped sending formal invitations and instead notified all countries and regions about the ceremony, following the controversy in 2023 over Israel’s presence amid the genocide in Gaza.

The U.S. ambassador to Japan, George Glass, will attend both commemorative events, according to the U.S. embassy in Tokyo. His predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, did not attend the Nagasaki ceremony in 2024 due to the city’s decision not to invite Israel.

Nagasaki, which was bombed on August 9, 1945, is also expected to set a record, with representatives from around 100 countries and regions attending the Saturday ceremony.

The United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and three days later dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki, leading to Japan’s surrender on August 15 and the end of World War II. It is estimated that about 210,000 people died in both cities due to the bombings, which also left 150,000 injured and had long-lasting humanitarian and environmental consequences.

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