Few occupations are as clearly defined as that of a war photographer: You go into the thick of battle and take pictures. Ever since the Spanish Civil War, when Robert Capa captured the moment when a soldier actually caught a bullet, the job of photographing war has meant putting death on film.

Consequently, it takes a special kind of person to be a war photographer, and not just in terms of craft. Taizo Ichinose, who several years ago was portrayed by Tadanobu Asano in a movie version of his life, became a photographer for the Tokyo bureau of UPI in 1970, and then went freelance two years later. In 1972 and 1973, he covered wars in Vietnam, Bangladesh and Cambodia. While in Cambodia, he wrote that he wanted to take pictures of Angkor Wat, then occupied by the Khmer Rouge. He added, "I don't know where the land mines are. I am just going to walk there using the most direct route." He was never heard from again. He was 26.

During his very brief career, Ichinose's pictures appeared in many major newspapers in the world, including The Washington Post. His parents declared him officially dead in 1982, and several years ago they set about trying to develop a roll of film that he shot in Vietnam but which was never processed because a bullet had passed through the camera, destroying it. Ichinose left the camera, which he called his favorite, with his parents for safe-keeping, and recently they were successful in extracting the film and printing the pictures. Last year, Ichinose's 81-year-old mother published a book containing pictures from the roll of film. On July 13 at 12:25 a.m., the Nippon TV program "Document 03" will present these photographs and the story behind them, 30 years after they were taken.