Not blinded by anger but guided by nobility

They suffered a loss so heavy that they may never be able to recover from it. Yet one family of a Japanese national killed by terrorists in the Gulshan café wants that the development project he was working for never fails.     

“I was asked by the bereaved family to make the project a success, without fail,” Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) President Shinichi Kitaoka told reporters while attending the funeral.

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He was referring to the family of Koyo Ogasawara. 

“We will continue the work while raising the security level,” The Japan Times quoted him as saying. 

Funerals were held in Tokyo on Friday for Hiroshi Tanaka, 80, and Koyo Ogasawara, 56, two of the seven Japanese victims of last weekend's terrorist attack. All the seven were working on a Jica project in Bangladesh.

During Tanaka's funeral, attended by some 500 people, his younger brother said in a speech that he could not accept his brother's sudden and unreasonable death, according to a participant.

“He was a very humble person and had a strong will to work for the good of the world,” said Toshiko Kitahara, a 47-year-old friend of Tanaka who is also engaged in overseas aid activities. “I wanted to hear more job stories from him.”

The Jica president was among some 200 participants in Ogasawara's funeral.

A 41-year-old construction consultant who has worked with Ogasawara overseas described him as a giving person.

Toshiaki Okada, 54, who shared time with Ogasawara in a college boat club, said he was a gentle and kind senior member. “He was dedicated to working for Bangladesh. It's so regrettable,” Okada said.

On Thursday night, a wake for another victim, Yuko Sakai, 42, was held in her hometown of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture.

The next day, a Japanese investigation source said that five of the seven Japanese victims had gunshot wounds to their heads, which were likely fatal.

On their bodies, gunshot wounds and cuts were also found in places other than the head, the source said.

The Japanese victims are believed to have been slain by militants before Bangladeshi troops entered the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant to end an 11-hour siege.

Meanwhile, Japan did not show the least bitterness or anger over the gruesome attack on July 1, said Bangladesh's Ambassador to Japan Rabab Fatima yesterday, according to Emdadul Hoq, a Bangladesh national who runs an online portal there.

Citing the friendship between the two nations, she said: “I was struck mostly by the compassion and humanity that I saw in the grieving families. I did not see any bitterness. I did not see any anger.”

The ambassador was addressing a condolence meeting organised by Bangladeshi citizens in Japan at Tokyo's Kaminakajato Takinogawa Kaikan Bunka centre over the attack.  

Former Japan ambassador Horiguchi Matsushiro and leaders and activists from different political parties and organisations addressed the occasion, Emdadul said.