Hearing U.S. bombs find their targets and feeling the ground shake under his Baghdad hotel, Kosuke Tsuneoka was struck by the futility of his plan to serve as a "human shield" and stop the war.
Tsuneoka, a 33-year-old freelance journalist, recounted that his sense of powerlessness almost overwhelmed his fear of the air raids. But it also convinced him to stay in the war-ravaged country to report on the daily lives of Baghdad's residents under the constant fear of attack.
"My failure as a human shield fueled my determination as a journalist to present the true picture of the war," Tsuneoka told The Japan Times in a recent interview.
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