Social media users have embraced a 4-year-old tweet by Kenji Goto as a poignant memorial to the slain freelance journalist.
On his Twitter account, 47-year-old Goto mused about French wine, complained about his tired eyes, and talked to camera, reporting live from Syria. But one tweet has captured imaginations, seeming to sum up the character of the journalist who was beheaded by Islamic State extremists after a months-long hostage ordeal.
The tweet gone viral is from September 7, 2010: "Closing my eyes and holding still. It's the end if I get mad or scream. It's close to a prayer. Hate is not for humans. Judgment lies with God. That's what I learned from my Arabic brothers and sisters."
The account was verified as Goto's by his friend Toshi Maeda, who heads Tokyo-based venture Pacific Bridge, which created the mobile-video application Goto used for some of his reports from Syria.
The message of tolerance seemed to resonate with the thousands of Japanese Twitter users, expressing admiration for Goto's reporting about the suffering of children in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
Goto was shown with another hostage and his friend, Haruna Yukawa, in a video purportedly by the Islamic State group last month. Despite negotiations by the Japanese and Jordanian governments, Goto was depicted as dead in a weekend video released on social media accounts affiliated with IS.
Goto's last tweet was in October, about the time he left for Syria, to rescue Yukawa, who went missing last summer. Maeda recalled how Goto believed in citizen journalism. "He was like a brother to me," he said. "He was an inspiration. He was a friend and a colleague."
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