Total Pageviews

Japanese Journalist\'s Last Report Released After Her Death in Syria

By ROBERT MACKEY

Two days after the Japanese journalist Mika Yamamoto was shot and killed in the Syrian city of Aleppo, her news agency released some of the footage she recorded in her final hours.

The video, posted online with subtitles by Britain's Telegraph, shows that Ms. Yamamoto, 45, was filming Syrian rebel fighters alongside her partner, Kazutaka Sato, when she was shot and killed.

Video recorded by the Japanese journalist Mika Yamamoto in the Syrian city of Aleppo this week, shortly before she was shot and killed.

According to a biographical note on the Web site of her agency, The Japan Press, Ms. Yamamoto was an experienced war correspondent who produced a report on the oppression of women in Afghanistan during the Taliban's rule, and later reported on the American-led wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Colleagues told The Japan Times that she was a careful reporter a nd “wasn't a reckless type.”

Her father, Hiroshi, a retired journalist, told the same newspaper: “She is not a war journalist, but rather a human journalist,” who was determined to “come home alive to tell the real stories of women and children in battlefields.” He added: “She always talked about the miseries of people involved in conflicts, human lives and world peace.” His daughter was “a far better journalist than I was,” Mr. Yamamoto said.

In another video report published on Wednesday, Mr. Sato recounted his partner's death and said that she had been shot at close range by a Syrian Army gunman.

Kazutaka Sato, a Japanese journalist, recounted the death of his partner and fellow-reporter, Mika Yamamoto, in Syria this week.

Ms. Yamamoto's death was announced on Monday, when graphic video of her dead body being transported out of Syria was uploaded to YouTube by supporters of the rebel Free Syrian Army.

As The Associated Press reported, the clip announcing the reporter's death included a statement from Capt. Ahmed Ghazali, a rebel fighter in Azaz, on the Turkish border, who said: “We welcome any journalist who wants to enter Syria.” He added: “We will secure their entry, but we are not responsible for the brutality of Assad's forces against the media.”

Activists also recorded far more graphic and distressing video of Mr. Sato weeping as looked at his partner's bloody and bullet-scarred body in a field hospital. According to The A.P., Mr. Sato said, as pressed his cheek against hers in that video, “Why? You are wearing a flak jacket.” Looking at the grave wounds to her head and arm, he added: “That must hurt. Did you suffer?”