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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Bored Japanese gets kicks from Syria war tourism
2013-01-07
Japanese trucker Toshifumi Fujimoto is bored with his humdrum job, a daily run from Osaka to Tokyo or Nagasaki hauling tanker loads of gasoline, water or even chocolate.

Yet while the stocky, bearded 45-year-old could spend his free time getting a jolt of adrenaline by bungee-jumping or shark hunting, he puts his life on the line in a most unusual way.

He's become a war tourist.

Fujimoto's passion has taken him from the dull routine of the highway to Syria, where as part of his latest adventure in the Middle East's hot spots he shoots photos and video while dodging bullets with zest.

He was in Yemen last year during demonstrations at the US embassy and in Cairo a year earlier, during the heady days that followed the ouster of longtime president Hosni Mubarak. Later this year, he plans to hook up with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
But for the moment, he is wrapping up a week's tour of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, which for going on six months has been one of the hottest spots in a conflict that has cost more than 60,000 lives, according to UN figures.

He already spent two weeks in the war-torn country at the end of 2011, taking advantage of a tourist visa, but this time he has entered the country clandestinely from Turkey.

Dressed in a Japanese army fatigues and armed with two cameras and a video camera -- Japanese, of course -- Fujimoto heads for whatever frontline he can every morning to document the ongoing destruction of Syria's second city and one-time commercial capital.

Fujimoto, who doesn't speak English, much less Arabic, has picked up a few words, such as "dangerous" and "front line."
The only way to interview him was to make use of Google Translate.

"I always go by myself, because no tour guide wants to go to the front. It's very exciting, and the adrenaline rush is like no other.

"It's more dangerous in Syria to be a journalist than a tourist," he said, describing how "each morning I walk 200 metres (yards) to reach the 'front', and I'm right there on the firing line with soldiers of the (rebel) Free Syria Army."
"It fascinates me, and I enjoy it," he says, as some FSA fighters stop him in one of the Old City's streets to have their picture taken with him.

"Most people think I'm Chinese, and they greet me in Chinese," he smiled.

He takes his time getting his shots right, as the rebels he hangs out with shout from both sides of the street: "Run! Run! There are snipers. Run!"

But he ignores them, finishes shooting and casually walks away with photos that he will later post on his Facebook page to share with his friends.

"I'm not a target for snipers because I'm a tourist, not like you journalists," he told a reporter. "Besides, I'm not afraid if they shoot at me or that they might kill me. I'm a combination of samurai and kamikaze."

Fujimoto won't even wear a helmet or a flack jacket.

"They are very heavy when it comes to running and it's more fun to go to the front without anything. Besides, when they shoot it's fun and exciting."

Fujimoto said his employers don't know he's in Syria.

"I just told them I was going to Turkey on holiday; if I'd told them the truth, they'd tell me I'm completely crazy."

But though some might doubt his sanity, no one can question his financial foresight, which is rooted in the sadness of his personal life.

Fujimoto is divorced, and says "I have no family, no friends, no girl friend. I am alone in life."

But he does have three daughters, whom he hasn't seen for five years, "not even on Facebook or the Internet, nothing. And that saddens me deeply," he said as he wiped away a tear.

So he's bought a life insurance policy, and "I pray every day that, if something happens to me, my girls might collect the insurance money and be able to live comfortably."

Fujimoto doesn't make any money off his photography, and spent $2,500 (1,894 euros) out of his own pocket for the flight to Turkey. Then there's another $25 a day that he pays a local resident, who puts him up in his house and gives him Internet access.

In his week in Aleppo, he has covered all the battle fronts -- in the districts of Amariya, Salaheddin, Saif al-Dawla, Izaa -- and though he's shared many of the images he's captured, one of them has stuck in his mind.

He opened a file on his laptop to show the partly decomposed body of a seven-year-old girl in Saif al-Dawla, gunned down by a sniper, which has lain unclaimed for months.
One wonders if any of his daughters could be the same age, but there was no way to pry more out of him, as he wept every time they were brought up.

"I love children, but Syria is no place for them. A bomb can snuff out their lives at any moment," he said, as some FSA fighters asked him to join them in Saleheddin and he ambled off down the street toward the sound of fighting.
Posted by:Beavis

#9  Mr. "Half-Samurai, Half-Kamikaze" may have to return home soon iff Nippon finds itself involved in major shooting war agz China come April-June 2013 over the disputed Senkakus. IFF HE WANTS TO BE, STAY A HAPPY "WAR TOURIST" IN SYRIA + LATER IN AFGHANISTAN, HE SHOULD KEEP HIS HIS FINGERS CROSSED THAT SOME KIND OF PEACEFUL COMPROMISE CAN BE REACHED SOON.

------------

Latest on China-vs-Japan [USA?] vee Net ...

* TOPIX > [Daily Star.LB] TOKYO CANNOT YIELD TO THE CONFLUENCE OF BEIJING IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA.

Or in the East China Sea either.

* WAFF > JAPAN SENDS FIGHTER JETS AFTER SECOND EVER CHINESE INVASION OF ITS AIRSPACE.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > JAPAN PM SHINZO ABE SINGS [WW2 = Imperialist/Militarist] NATIONAL ANTHEM AS STEP TO "TAKE BACK JAPAN".

* SAME > MYANMAR'S TIES TO INDIA, JAPAN, + WESTERN NATIONS CONCERN CHINA.

"Mahanist" Rising China + competition for East Indian Ocean warm-water ports.

Taiwan, Hainan, + Myanmar = China + PLAN's rough mil equivalent of Pearl Harbor, Bremerton/
Bangor, + [future] Norfolk???

* SAME > NEW US LAW [Obama-signed NDAA 2013] SEEKS ANSWERS TO [secretive]CHINESE NUKE TUNNELS, i.e. the so-called "Underground Great Wall" of far, deep Tunnels + Complexes where China + PLA allegedly stores much of the country's nuclear LRBMS + Warheads.

Posted by: JosephMendiola   2013-01-07 23:37  

#8  May he find what he is looking for.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man   2013-01-07 19:39  

#7  He doesn't sound like a happy guy. Look's like an extreme version of "suicide by cop".
Posted by: tu3031   2013-01-07 19:15  

#6  The fact that this guy is running around without getting shot tells me that a lot of the civilian casualties are collateral damage from being used as human shields by the rebels. And if this guy consents to being used as a human shield, he will end up a statistic.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2013-01-07 18:56  

#5  I suspect Assad has given orders to not shoot at any Chinese-looking individuals, given the aid he's presumably getting from China, and the rebels won't do anything against someone Chinese-looking because they'd prefer to avoid having the Chinese government increase aid to Assad. I just had a peek at the Chinese GDP. It is now larger than all of the Muslim countries put together. ($7.2b vs $6.1b).
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2013-01-07 18:53  

#4  Darwin in action.
Posted by: Barbara   2013-01-07 18:51  

#3  He won't last long.(Bugle plays Taps)
Sayonara.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2013-01-07 17:13  

#2  "Most people think I'm Chinese, and they greet me in Chinese,"

An interesting little tidbit. I would expect Russian to be more common as a 2nd language in Syria. But then we're talking the Free Syrian Army here. Maybe they have a different set of patrons.
Posted by: SteveS   2013-01-07 16:05  

#1  hauling tanker loads of gasoline, water or even chocolate.
0_o
Posted by: Shipman   2013-01-07 16:04  

00:00