Mika Yamamoto

Mika Yamamoto (山本美香) (26 May 1967 – 20 August 2012) was an award-winning Japanese video and photo journalist for the news agency Japan Press. Yamamoto was killed on 20 August 2012 while covering the ongoing Syrian revolution in Aleppo, Syria. She is the first Japanese and fourth foreign journalist killed in the Syrian civil war that began in March 2011. She is also the fifteenth journalist killed in Syria in 2012.

Early life and education
Yamamoto was born in Tsuru, a city in Yamanashi Prefecture, on 26 May 1967. She has two sisters, and her father is Koji Yamamoto, a former Asahi Shimbun reporter. She graduated from Tsuru University.

Career
Yamamoto began her career in 1990 as a director at a cable TV broadcaster, Asahi Newstar, and produced documentaries and news programs. Then she joined The Japan Press, Tokyo-based independent media group, in 1995. The Japan Press intensively covers news and produces documentaries for TV broadcasting and magazines focused on the Middle East and Southwest Asia. She served as a correspondent for the Japan Press in critical areas such as Kosovo, Bosna, Chechnya, Indonesia, Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003 and Uganda. She reported on the suppression of the Afghan women in Kabul and interviewed Taliban members in Afghanistan. She worked as a special correspondent for Nippon TV in Iraq. She survived air raids on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on 8 April 2003 where two journalists from Reuters and a Spanish broadcaster were killed. Yamamoto also worked as a reporter for a Nippon TV news program in 2003 and 2004. She always employed hand-held video cameras and did her own editing during her reporting activities.

She also worked as a part-time instructor at Waseda University's journalism school a few times. Her lectures were concerned with the effects of war on ordinary citizens and the role of journalism during the times of war. In November 2011, she began to serve as an independent consultant to the Government Revitalization Unit, with the responsilibity for reducing unnecessary spending. Yamamoto went to Syria to cover the ongoing civil war and Syrian women and children.

Awards
In 2001, Yamamoto awarded the Presidential prize for her coverage of Afghanistan. She received the 26th Nugichi award in 2002 and Vaughn-Uyeda Memorial Prize of the Japanese Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association for her reporting of the international affairs in 2004.

Death
Yamamoto and her Japanese colleague and common-law husband, Kazutaka Sato, were travelling with the Free Syrian Army members when the attack occurred in Aleppo. She was seriously wounded in the Suleiman al Halabi district of the city during a clash between Syrian opposition forces and pro-government forces on 20 August 2012; fellow journalist Sato stated that Yamamoto's death occurred when pro-regime troops appeared and started "random shooting". She died at a nearby hospital after being shot in the neck. A rebel fighter reported that she was killed during shelling by the pro-government forces. Masaru Sato, a spokesman with the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo, confirmed her death on 20 August 2012. The autopsy performed revealed that Yamamoto suffered massive blood loss caused by gunshot wounds to her back and spine and that internal bleeding was the primary reason for her death.

Her body was delivered by the members of the Liwa Asifat al Shamal, one of the groups attached to the Free Syrian Army, to Japanese consular officials in Kilis, southern Turkey, at 1:00 pm on 21 August 2012. Yamamoto's body was taken from Kilis to Istanbul on 23 August 2012. Her two sisters and nephew came Istanbul to take her body to Japan on 24 August 2012.

Reactions
Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists Joel Simon expressed his sorrow and sent his deepest condolences to Yamamoto's family and friends. On 22 August 2012, the Japanese Foreign Minister Kōichirō Gemba stated that the killing of Yamamoto was very unfortunate and offered his condolences to her family.