Benavente to attend Nagasaki event

Instead of Gov. Juan N. Babauta, Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente will attend today’s 60th year commemoration of the Nagasaki bombing on Tinian.

Press Secretary Peter A. Callaghan said yesterday that the governor has a schedule conflict.

He said Babauta is set to meet with the 26-member Osaka City council at 10am today at the Governor’s Office.

At 11am, the governor will attend a public briefing at the Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe on power situation.

The Tinian event, which will be held at North Field, begins at 10:30am.

On Saturday, the governor was also absent from the morning commemoration ceremony at North Field for the 60th year anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing.

The governor, however, attended the evening ceremonies for the Hibakusha and Japanese veterans at 6:30pm and the U.S. veterans group at 8:30pm.

The U.S. military has likewise skipped the Tinian events allegedly due to disagreement with the local organizers.

Amid criticisms, the Tinian local government—the Mayor’s Office and the 10th Municipal Council—went ahead with its plan to hold the Atomic Mission to Japan commemoration rites for both U.S. and Japanese groups at the same time.

Critics said that it would be “distasteful” to bring the atomic bombing victims and Japanese veterans and the U.S. veterans together.

Organizing committee officers, cousins Phillip Mendiola Long of the Mayor’s Office, and James M. Mendiola of the municipal council, said they have no intention to stir up bad feelings among the visitors.

They said they only wanted to bridge the two sides in their “passion” to promote peace.

Both Long and Mendiola noted that the whole event does not aim to put blame on either side but to present both sides of history.

Long earlier said that he has no idea why the U.S. military, particularly the Guam-based Commander Naval Marianas would not attend the Tinian event.

But sources said that Long, who is the mayor’s policy advisor, “offended by his attitude” the potential visitors from the U.S. military as well as the group of Enola Gay pilot Paul W. Tibbets.

“More veterans would have attended this very important event if they didn’t push for the presence of Japanese at the same time. There were some negotiation to dedicate solely the Aug. 6 and 9 for the U.S. contingent since those are the days of attacks anyway and hold the Japanese peace commemoration on Aug. 14 or 15 since that’s the day that Japan surrendered. Yet they [organizers] were adamant and said ‘no way’,” said a source.

Two other sources verified this statement.

At the same time, the source confirmed that Tibbets’ group had agreed to come to Tinian without being informed about the simultaneous Japanese ceremonies.

When the group knew about the organizers’ plan, it pulled out altogether.

“He [Long] didn’t bother. In fact, he wrote Tibbets to say at once if he can’t come to Tinian so he [Long] could give the ticket to another veteran,” said a source.

Long has declined to say if the military and Tibbets’ absence has something to do with the local government’s decision to bring atomic bombing survivors during the event. Both Long and Mendiola said that the intention is never to stir up bad feelings among U.S. veterans.

They said that it is their “passion” to foster peace and to present both sides of the story on the atomic mission.

This week’s commemoration rites are attended by about 30 U.S. veterans, three Japanese veterans, and three Hibakusha or atomic bombing survivors.

The organizers earlier projected to gather over 100 U.S. veterans.

A source on Tinian also disclosed that the local government blocked off “300 rooms” at Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino for the event, prompting the hotel to refuse other guests from being booked.

Only 50 percent of the target accommodation was reportedly met.