Appalled and saddened by news of journalist Kenji Goto’s purported beheading by Islamic State extremists, Japan ordered heightened security precautions Sunday and said it would persist with its non-military support for fighting terrorism.
The failure to save Goto raised fears for the life of a Jordanian fighter pilot also held by the militant group that controls about a third of both Syria and Iraq. Unlike some earlier messages delivered in the crisis, the video that circulated online late Saturday purporting to show a militant beheading Goto did not mention the pilot.
Jordan renewed an offer Sunday to swap an al-Qaida prisoner for the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, who was seized after his F-16 crashed near the Islamic State group’s de facto capital, Raqqa, Syria, in December.
Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said Jordan is still ready to hand over Sajida al-Rishawi, who faces death by hanging for her role in triple hotel bombings in Jordan in 2005.
Al-Momani also said his country spared no effort to free Goto. The slaying of the freelance reporter, whose work focused on refugees, children and other victims of war, shocked this country, which until now had not become directly embroiled in the fight against the militants.
“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.”
Threats from the Islamic State group prompted an order for tighter security at airports and at Japanese facilities overseas, such as embassies and schools, government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said.
He said it would be “inappropriate” to comment on the status of the Jordanian pilot.
With no updates for days, al-Kaseasbeh’s family appealed to the government for information on his situation. But for Goto’s family and friends, the beheading shattered any hopes for his rescue.
“Kenji has died, and my heart is broken,” Goto’s mother Junko Ishido told reporters.
“I was hoping Kenji 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.”
According to his friends and family, Goto traveled to Syria in late October to try to save Haruna Yukawa, 42, who was taken hostage in August and who was shown as purportedly killed in an earlier video.
“He was kind and he was brave,” said Yukawa’s father Shoichi. “He tried to save my son.”
“It’s utterly heartbreaking,” he said, crying and shaking. “People killing other people — it’s so deplorable. How can this be happening?”
Abe vowed to continue providing humanitarian aid to countries fighting the Islamic State extremists. Bowing to terrorist intimidation would prevent Japan from providing medical assistance and other aid it views as necessary for helping to restore stability in the region, he and other officials say.
But the government spokesman, Suga, said Abe would not link the hostage crisis to his efforts to expand Japan’s military role in “collective self-defense” with the U.S. and other allies.
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.”
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