Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a daily column that runs on Page 1 of the vernacular Asahi Shimbun.
There is no glory in being a war correspondent if the final price is paying with your life while covering a story. The fact is, war correspondents put their lives on the line to report the folly of war. Were it not for these men and women, there would be no way for us to see through the lies and misinformation surrounding the front lines and learn the truth.
Mika Yamamoto, a 45-year-old veteran with The Japan Press, was killed while covering the civil war in Syria. According to Kazutaka Sato, who heads the news agency and was with her at the end, Yamamoto was hit by stray gunfire at close range from a soldier belonging to forces siding with the administration of President Bashar Assad.
The incident occurred in Aleppo, a major city in northern Syria, which has seen intense fighting between government forces and rebels. Yamamoto had entered Syria from neighboring Turkey to shoot video footage for Nippon Television Network Corp.'s news programs.
A daughter of a newspaper reporter, Yamamoto took her video camera from one conflict area to another. Her assignments had taken her to Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo.
Only 154 centimeters tall and slightly built, Yamamoto had a penetrating eye when it came to observing violence from the standpoint of the weak. When she returned to Japan, she talked to children about the preciousness of peace.
"By reporting what is happening in battlegrounds, some day, something may change. I walk through areas of conflict with that belief," she wrote in "Boku no Mura wa Senjo datta" (My village was a battleground), published by Magazine House Ltd. While she was well aware of the danger of her job, she was determined to live through it and report the truth.
She would have hated being a casualty of war.
Last year, Yamamoto wrote "Senso o Shuzai suru" (Covering war), published by Kodansha Ltd., for teenage readers. The book ends with the following message of encouragement: "There is no time to be pessimistic, thinking the world is filled with war. ? Now is the time for you to come forward."
No matter what path they choose, I hope both girls and boys will carry on Yamamoto's wishes for peace.
The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 22
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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
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