Haruna Yukawa

Haruna Yukawa ( Japanese 湯 川 遥 菜 Yukawa Haruna ; * April 27, 1972 as Masayuki Yukawa ( 湯 川 正 行 ); † January 2015 ) was a Japanese citizen who was kidnapped by the IS terrorist group on August 14, 2014 in northern Syria when he accompanied Syrian rebels.

After school, he opened a military supply store in Chiba , which went bankrupt in 2005. He attempted suicide in 2008 but was saved in time by his wife, who died of lung cancer two years later. This intensified his life crisis and he changed his first name from Masayuki to the feminine Haruna, believing that he was a reborn Manchu princess. In 2013 he turned to the ultra-right ( Uyoku ) group Ganbare Nippon and opened the private military company, a mailbox company for security services.

In April 2014 he visited Syria for the first time, where he was picked up by the Free Syrian Army and made friends with the Japanese journalist Kenji Gotō . After his release, he first returned to Japan, but then traveled back to Syria in June 2014 via Iraq, where he met Goto again. At the end of July 2014, he joined the Free Syrian Army. On August 14, 2014, he was captured by IS when it overran an FSA position.

His kidnappers demanded a $ 200 million ransom . On January 24, 2015, a picture of Yukawa's decapitated body was published. The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe commented: "This is a heinous and unforgivable act that makes me very angry. We condemn them in the strongest possible terms. ”The White House also issued a statement condemning the murder. The European Union’s foreign representative , Federica Mogherini , said the act was evidence that IS was breaking all of the world's recognized values ​​and rights. Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga admitted that the government had made no attempt to contact ISIS because Japan was not negotiating with terrorists.

The journalist Kenji Gotō, who had traveled to Syria to ask ISIS to release Yukawa, was also kidnapped. Video and image recordings showed both hostages together with Jihadi John . Gotō was murdered at the end of January 2015 after no exchange with the terrorist Sadschida al-Rishawi had taken place. The Jordanian government had al-Rishawi executed in response to the murder of IS hostage Muʿādh al-Kasāsba in early February 2015 .

See also

• List of executions by the IS

Web links

• Facebook

Individual evidence

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ Hostage executed after deadline
3. ↑ Isis video purports to show beheading of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto
4. ↑ ^{a b} Teppei Kasai, Antoni Slodkowski: A broken man living on dreams pulls Japan into Syria hostage drama. In: Reuters. August 27, 2014, accessed February 15, 2015 . 
5. ^ ^{A b} Justin McCurry: Haruna Yukawa: death in the desert marks a violent end to a troubled life. In: The Guardian. January 25, 2015, accessed February 15, 2015 . 
6. ↑ Jürgen Hanefeld: Japanese IS hostage murdered. In: ard.de. January 25, 2015; Archived from the original on January 26, 2015 ; accessed on February 15, 2015 . 
7. ^ Statement by the President on the Death of Haruna Yukawa. The White House, January 24, 2015, accessed February 15, 2015 . 
8. ^ Statement of the HR / VP Federica Mogherini on the execution of Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa. EU Commission, January 25, 2015, accessed on February 15, 2015 . 
9. ^ Unsuccessful rescue attempt for a friend. In: sueddeutsche.de. February 1, 2015, accessed February 15, 2015 . 
10. ↑ IS confirms the death of a Japanese hostage. In: Express.de. January 25, 2015, accessed February 15, 2015 . 
11. ↑ Gabriel Dominguez: Kenji Goto wanted to save his friend. In: dw.de. January 28, 2015, accessed February 15, 2015 .