11 Facts About Kenji Nagai

Kenji Nagai was a Japanese photojournalist who took many assignments to conflict zones and dangerous areas around the world.

Kenji Nagai was the only foreign national killed in the protests.

Kenji Nagai grew up in Imabari, Ehime, Japan, and graduated from Imabari Nishi High School.

Kenji Nagai attended Tokyo Keizai University, and after graduation he studied abroad in the United States for a year.

From 1997 until his death, Kenji Nagai took assignments in Afghanistan, Cambodia, the Palestinian territories, and Iraq, taking photographs that captured the essence of war.

Kenji Nagai arrived in Myanmar two days before the government began attacking Buddhist monks protesting against the military junta that has ruled the country since deposing the democratic government in a 1962 coup d'etat.

Reports initially stated that Kenji Nagai was hit by stray bullets fired by soldiers or possibly shot from the front.

At the Japanese embassy in Myanmar, a physician established the trajectory of the fatal bullet that killed Kenji Nagai, determining that the bullet entered Kenji Nagai's chest from the lower right side and pierced his heart before exiting from his back.

Adrees Latif's photograph, depicting Kenji Nagai sprawled on the pavement before his death, won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography in 2008.

Reporters Without Borders condemned the killing of Kenji Nagai, noting that Kenji Nagai was carrying a camera in his hand when he was shot, identifying him as a journalist.

The director of the RWB's Washington, DC branch, Lucie Morillon, said that Kenji Nagai was "left to die in the street".