Flowers for Nagai
Originally uploaded by nofrills.
Kenji Nagai's funeral took place in Aoyama, Tokyo, on Monday 8 October 2007. The NTV's News Zero, for which the slain journalist reported from Rangoon for the last time, has said tonight that more than five hundered people attended. There also is a report that nearly 1,000 people attended. (I think there were about 1,000 people. Indeed it looked like a sold-out concert at the Studio Coast.)
The ceremony started at 11.00. When I arrived, the main hall (quite big) was already full and more than 150 people were in a big tent outside the hall. There were dozens of Burmese people clad in their traditional orange outfit as well as Japanese people in black. After the ceremony began, more and more mourners arrived, and the big tent was full while the Japanese monks (from Tendai-shu 天台宗, an ancient Chinese/Japanese Buddhist denomination) were chanting a sutra. People stood outside the tent, holding their umbrellas. The rain was pouring.
Mr Toru Yamaji of the APF News gave an funeral address. His clearly shakey voice over the loud speaker set in the tent - "I still can't believe Nagai-san is dead. All I can imagine is Nagai-san is now somewhere on the earth, with a video camera in his hand." He spoke of Nagai's right hand that was rigid as if still he was holding a camera days after his death. He spoke of Nagai's motto - "Someone has to go to a place where no one dares not go. Someone has to witness and tell." - and Yamaji (who is also a journalist, not a businessman) was determined to inherit Nagai's strong will, and keep on moving forward.
Later on Monday, past 23.00, News Zero, an NTV's daily news show, told how determined Nagai was in Rangoon - among his belongings Yamaji brought to Japan, there was a video tape that has several footages on 26 September (the previous day of the shoot-to-kill). The same news show also showed Yamaji as a journalist, who had a video camera on in a car when he was in Rangoon to identify the body. Yamaji's footage showed troops on the street.
