The Cabinet voted overwhelmingly Sunday to approve President Chaim Herzog’s attendance at the funeral of the late Japanese Emperor Hirohito, which is to take place next month in Tokyo.
There were only two dissenters at the weekly Cabinet meeting: Housing Minister David Levy of Likud and Minister of Immigration and Absorption Yitzhak Peretz of the Orthodox Shas party.
They objected on grounds that Japan was an active ally of Hitler and Mussolini during World War II.
Objections to attending Hirohito’s funeral have surfaced in a number of other countries, especially Britain, where Jewish war veterans earlier this month joined members of Parliament in protesting Buckingham Palace’s plans to send a member of the royal family.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
