Hostage's 'Apparent' Beheading by #ISIS Stirs Anger in Japan — #KenjiGoto

Well, you think?

At NYT:

TOKYO — Japan reacted with sorrow and outrage on Sunday to the posting by the Islamic State of a video purporting to show the grisly killing of the journalist Kenji Goto, bringing an end to a hostage standoff that has horrified this usually tranquil nation.

Gripped by anger and disbelief, Japan has so far shown support for the strong line taken by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who did not meet the hostage takers’ initial demands on Jan. 20 for a $200 million ransom, pledging not to yield to terrorism. Mr. Abe strongly condemned the murder claim made in the video released early Sunday, saying Japan “will cooperate with the international community and make the terrorists pay the price.”

“I’m outraged by the despicable terrorist act, and I will never forgive the terrorists,” Mr. Abe told reporters on Sunday at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo.

For now, the Japanese public seems to be united in grief and a desire to show support for Mr. Abe and other leaders. However, political analysts have said that as the shock wears off, there will be more questioning of how Mr. Abe’s government handled the crisis, which began with the appearance online of a video from the militant group threatening the lives of two Japanese hostages, Mr. Goto and Haruna Yukawa. In that first video, the group called the country’s pledge of $200 million to help shore up the government of Iraq and to assist refugees in Turkey, Syria and Lebanon a “foolish decision” and called for a ransom of the same amount.

The group dropped the ransom demand after releasing a video online days later showing the decapitated body of Mr. Yukawa, a 42-year-old adventurer. The militants changed tack, offering to swap Mr. Goto for Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman on death row in Jordan for a deadly bombing there 10 years ago. This seemed to offer hope that a way would be found to secure Mr. Goto’s release.

Those hopes came crashing down over the weekend, when another video appeared showing Mr. Goto kneeling in an orange jumpsuit in what appeared to be a dry riverbed. Next to him stood a masked militant who spoke while waving a knife, which he then apparently used to cut off Mr. Goto’s head.

While the video had yet to be confirmed as authentic on Sunday, the top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, said the government had no reason to believe it was not real. He said Japan had had no contact with the militants, suggesting that the nation was relying almost entirely on Jordan to handle the fate of the hostages. During the 10-day hostage standoff, Japan said it was trying to establish communication with the militants via local tribal and religious leaders, but apparently to no avail.

The gruesome images helped feed an outpouring of sympathy for Mr. Goto, 47, a veteran journalist who entered Islamic State-held territory in Syria in late October in a doomed effort to rescue Mr. Yukawa, who had been captured in August, according to Mr. Goto’s mother. Local television stations showed clips from Mr. Goto’s reports out of Syria, Iraq and other conflict zones, where he often reported on the plight of children and other noncombatants.

“My son’s final act was to go to Syria to help a fellow Japanese,” Mr. Goto’s mother, Junko Ishido, said Sunday. “Please understand his kindness and courage.”...

After all this time, why everyone keeps saying the "apparent" beheading is beyond me. There's pretty much nothing "apparent" about it.

But keep reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "Islamic State Hostage Kenji Goto Mourned by Family and Friends."