Mother Asks Mercy

Movement to help two Japanese hostages is spreading. Mother of Kenji Goto, Junko Ishido, had a press conference at Foreign Correspondent Club in Japan Friday morning. She emphasized that Kenji was not an enemy of Islamic State. Not only families, but ordinary people in Japan are joining the effort to rescue them. This is an unusual non-government movement in Japan.

Ishido looked very waning, when she appeared at the podium in conference room. She started her statement with appreciation to media corps being there and apology on the consequence her son’s activity had brought. “I have only been crying with deep grief for these three days,” told Ishido. She did not know about his trip to Syria before his leaving. She realized that Goto had a baby two weeks before the trip after the hostage video was released in her conversation with Goto’s wife. The purpose of the trip was to rescue another hostage, Haruna Yukawa.

In her statement, Ishido reiterated her request to release her son. “Kenji always said that he wanted to help the children in battlefields. He reported wars from neutral standpoint. I say to the people in Islamic State that Kenji is not an enemy of Islamic State. I hope you to release him,” told Ishido. She also appealed pacific nature of her country. “Japan swore not to wage war in Article IX of its constitution. It had actually not been involved in a war these seventy years. It also is a victim of atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki with sacrifice of hundreds of thousand lives,” she followed.

As Ishido described, Goto has been a kind man. He always took care of weaker friends in his childhood with his conviction of justice. “No mother raises her kid for sending to war. Since Kenji is good at educating children, I will ask him to work for kids who will build the future,” she told. She wrapped up her statement with words of “Only a short period of time is left. Please save Kenji’s life, the government.”

As if responding to her, there appeared various people who gathered in a cause of saving Goto’s life. Japan Broadcasting Corporation, or NHK, reported video footage of Moslems praying for the hostages in a mosque in Isezaki city, Gunma. “Moslems never do such a cruel thing. I hope the hostages will come back alive,” told one male member of the mosque to the interview.

Women students of in a classroom of the school where Goto had a lecture for human rights of women and children also prayed for him a few days ago. One of the students hoped that Goto would be released and give another lecture in her classroom shedding tears in front of TV camera. Japan is more united for saving their lives than ever.