Two Japanese Freelance Journalists Killed in Iraq

Two Japanese Freelance Journalists Killed in Iraq. May. 28, 2004 22:21. by Hun-Joo Cho hanscho@donga.com.

Two Japanese freelance journalists were killed by gunmen on May 27 in a suburb of Baghdad, Iraq.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan on May 28, Shinsuke Hashida, 61, and his nephew Kotaro Ogawa, 33, were attacked by gunmen on their way to Baghdad from the southern city of Samawah where Japan has sent troops. They were returning to Baghdad after collecting news material in Samawah. Kyodo news reported on that day that their bodies were found burned in the vicinity of Baghdad.

Hashida had collected news materials on wars, such as the Vietnam War, and Ogawa had worked as a freelancer after he stopped working as an NHK journalist last year.