Journalist’s beheading horrifies family and nation
JAPAN condemned with outrage and horror yesterday an online video that purported to show an Islamic State group militant beheading Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.
The video posted on militant websites ended days of negotiations to save Goto, a 47-year-old journalist, and heightened fears for the life of a Jordanian fighter pilot also held hostage.
‘‘I feel indignation over this immoral and heinous act of terrorism,’’ Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters after convening an emergency Cabinet meeting.
‘‘When I think of the grief of his family, I am left speechless,’’ he said. ‘‘The government has been doing its utmost in responding to win his release, and we are filled with deep regret.’’
Abe vowed that Japan would not give in to terrorism and would continue to provide humanitarian aid to countries fighting the Islamic State extremists.
The defence minister, Geeraln Nakatani, said that a report from the foreign affairs chief of Japan’s police agency deemed the video ‘‘highly likely to be authentic.’’
The country was mourning a man who, according to friends and family, braved hardship and peril to convey through his work the plight of refugees, children and other victims of war and poverty.
‘‘Kenji has died, and my heart is broken. Facing such a tragic death, I’m just speechless,’’ Goto’s mother Junko Ishido said.
‘‘I was hoping Keji might be able to come home,’’ said Goto’s brother, Junichi Goto. ‘‘I was hoping he would return and thank everyone for his rescue, but that’s impossible, and I’m bitterly disappointed.’’
Ishido earlier told NHK TV her son’s death showed he was a kind, gentle man, trying to save another hostage. That hostage, Haruna Yukawa, was shown as purportedly killed in an earlier video.
The White House released a statement in which President Barack Obama also condemned ‘‘the heinous murder’’ and praised Goto’s reporting, saying he ‘‘courageously sought to convey the plight of the Syrian people to the outside world’’.
The White House said that while it wasn’t confirming the authenticity of the video itself, it had confirmed that Goto had been slain.
The militants linked the fates of Goto and the Jordanian pilot, Lieutenant Muath Kaseasbeh, but the video did not mention the airman. Jordan’s government spokesman, Mohammed al-Momani, declined comment.
Earlier this week, Jordan offered to free an al Qaida prisoner for the pilot, but demanded and said it never got proof he was still alive.
Relatives and supporters of the pilot yesterday held a candlelit vigil inside a family home in Karak, al-Kaseasbeh’s hometown in southern Jordan.