Japaneese Photographer Kenji Nagai Killed in Burma Protests....For No Reason!

Friends of professional photographer Kenji Nagai were rendered speechless by the news that he was killed when soldiers shot at a crowd of antigovernment demonstrators Thursday in Yangon.

At 11:35 p.m. the same day, APF News Inc. President Toru Yamaji told reporters in front of the agency's head office in Tokyo that the death of Nagai, a freelancer for the agency, had been confirmed.

"It's terribly regrettable," he said.

Just after 8 p.m., the Foreign Ministry had notified APF that the Japanese national who had been killed might be Nagai.

With bloodshot eyes and his voice trembling, Yamaji, who spoke to about 50 reporters, said he had no idea what the current situation was.

At about 11 p.m., the ministry sent photos of the man found dead, shattering any lingering hopes that the body might have been wrongly identified.

Since 1997, Nagai, who lived alone in Nakano Ward, Tokyo, had been taking photos to convey the aftermath and realities of war, and had been to hot spots in Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories and Iraq.

This time, he went to Myanmar to take photos of the antigovernment demonstrations and people there.

On Wednesday evening, he reported by telephone on the situation in Yangon to NTV's News Zero program.

"He said, 'These are places no one wants to go to, but someone has to go.' He would go and take heartwarming photos of children suffering in war or from AIDS," Yamaji said.

Yamaji said that at about noon on Thursday, he asked Nagai to be careful when the photographer had telephoned to say he would continue checking on developments on the streets of Yangon.

Munehiko Kuyama, president of Caritas Junior College and a friend of Nagai's for 15 years, said he could not believe Nagai was dead.

"He was a man who went specifically to dangerous places to convey the truth of what was happening in the world," Kuyama said.

Nagai also took part in an organization that helped an Iraqi boy who came to Japan for medical treatment in 2003. By the time of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the boy had already returned home.

Nagai even volunteered to personally deliver diapers to the boy to help prevent his condition from deteriorating.

"Nagai was a nice guy. He stayed in touch with that boy right up to the present," Kuyama said.

Photographer Shinichi Murata, who was with Nagai in Baghdad, described Nagai as very energetic.

"I still remember how Nagai, with a video camera in one hand, would get deeper and deeper into the lives of local people. I want the news of his death to be wrong," he said.

At dawn on Friday, Nagai's mother Michiko who lives in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, said she did not even know her son was in Myanmar.

"I was too shocked even to cry. I didn't want him to go to dangerous places, but that was his choice. I've done nothing but pray that he gets home unscathed each time," she said.