Chapter 28 24 Me and Kono

"Everyone who is in the same boat calls each other brothers." — Hemingway At the end of July 1991, when I returned to Beijing from the disaster-stricken areas in Henan, I unexpectedly received a call from Kono, a reporter from Japan’s Kyodo News Agency, from the Beijing Diplomatic Apartment. Unexpectedly, this guy was actually transferred to Beijing as a resident reporter.On the phone, he couldn't wait to come to see if I was still intact, and he couldn't forget the five-star red flag on my chest and back during the Gulf War.I couldn't figure out who made up the myth that I was no longer alive, and even met a Japanese photojournalist named Yoichiro Ohara at the Cairo airport and handed him my Donald Duck business card, and he suspected that I was a fake .

Kono graduated from Waseda University and was also an alumnus of mine when I went to Peking University. I studied International Politics and he studied Chinese. In the summer of 1989, Kono worked in Beijing for a period of time. During the Asian Games, he also wrote an article for my film "Chairman Mao's Grandson in the Asian Games Village".Unexpectedly, a week before the outbreak of the Gulf War, Kono and I met again in the lobby of the Rashid Hotel in Baghdad.At that time, he was wearing a neat suit, and I was wearing an earth-colored photography vest, with a five-star red flag sewn on the chest and back, which made him very envious.Associated Press photographer Dominic called it another gathering of world-class troublemakers.

In wartime Baghdad, government agencies, shops, banks, hospitals, gas stations, gas stations, airports, railway stations, overpasses, important intersections, bazaars, and squares were not allowed to take pictures.Soldiers with loaded flat-end AK-47 rifles are everywhere.Overhead are UH-1 "Huey" gunships patrolling in formation.If you are not accompanied by Iraqi news officials, you simply don’t carry your camera on the street, not to mention the military police and plainclothes, you can’t deal with ordinary people with high revolutionary consciousness.The experienced Kono greatly appreciated my attire, and I said it was all my boss's idea at Xinhua News Agency. If you and I were barely alive after the war, I would definitely give you a new flag like this, but my boss would never Xinhua News Agency will be painted on your back.Kono squeezed my right hand hard: "We share weal and woe."

During the days in Baghdad, Kono selflessly shared news cues with me, and provided me with his Kyodo News Ap-Leafax film fax machine for free.Photos of UN Secretary-General de Cuellar's last-ditch effort in Baghdad, broadcast by Xinhua, were widely used in Japan. After the war broke out, Kono paid a lot of money to rent a car regardless of the bombing, and planned to drive more than 700 kilometers to the border area of ​​Ruweshed in Iraq for interviews.I was very cash-strapped at the time, and I was worrying about what to do.Kono casually came over and patted me on the shoulder: "Take my car, go and buy some food and water for us on the road."

On the way, my camera was confiscated and I was detained. Thanks to Kono's "imperial army" and hard money to rescue him in every way possible, and invited the soldiers aside to "talk alone", I was able to continue on the road.Only in constant danger can we realize the importance of friends. At the Luweshed border, a white reporter holding up a Nikon F-4 was surrounded by angry refugees. No matter how much he shook the large maple leaf medallion on his chest, he was pushed back and forth.Seeing that I was about to film his embarrassment, this guy seemed to see a savior: "Don! Tell them I'm really Canadian." I was wondering how he knew me, but he squeezed to my side, panting like a cow Attached to my ear: "I'm Steve, I exchanged business cards at Tiananmen Square that year." I finally remembered, but this kid was an American last time.Not allowing me to think too much, he grabbed my camera vest: "The Chinese can prove that I am a good person in Canada."

I didn't want to go to the Bekaa refugee camp on the East Bank of the Jordan River with Mike from CBS, Yuli from Tambo Magazine in Indonesia, and Alix from Garma Photos in France.Enthusiastic Mike has found a taxi in Palestine.On the way, Mike proudly said that our United Nations army composed of China, the United States, France, Indonesia, and Palestine would never be in danger of being kidnapped.Hearing what he said, I secretly worried about Kono who went to the Dead Sea alone to interview. In the evening, I hurried back to the Amman Intercontinental Hotel, only to see Kondo from Kyodo News was staring at the phone in a daze.Seeing me rushing in, he spread his hands: "Kono and photographer Da Heyuan were captured by Jordanian paratroopers." Just like what happened to me two days ago, Da Heyuan was taking pictures at the Dead Sea and was captured by paratroopers. Before the rescue, they were taken away together.Kondo said that when Kono was arrested, he yelled on the phone: "Notify the Japanese embassy in seven hours." Now it has been seven hours, and he stood up respectfully and called the Japanese embassy.I turned the volume down on the TV and CNN was showing the Scud attack on Israel.

In the middle of the night, in an unknown small restaurant, Kondo acted as a host to suppress the comrades who had regained their freedom.Da Heyuan grinned and said that this time he finally equaled the previous record of being detained for seven hours in a certain country in East Asia, and Kono said that today he won another medal. It was the last meal we had together during the Gulf War, and everyone was pretty sad.Kono and Daheyuan will return to Japan via London tomorrow, and Kondo will go to Jerusalem through the Garenby Passage.With tears in his eyes, Kono stuffed me with a large pack of hemostatic bandages, analgesic tablets, and unknown first-aid supplies from the U.S. military: "You will be the only one left in the future. Think more about things and don't be too aggressive. Bulletproof vests, Steel helmets and gas masks should be carried with you. You have to live, and you have everything when you live, so we must meet each other."

We huddled arm in arm and took a picture, but a few hours later, my film was confiscated by the Jordanian police. After Kono and the others left, I entered Israel through Cyprus alone, experienced the "Scud" attack, the martial law in the Gaza Strip, and the repression and resistance on the West Bank of the Jordan River. In order to wash off the traces of Israel from my head to toe, I returned to Cyprus, Detour through Cairo to Amman and then into Baghdad.Whenever terror strikes, I always think of Kono, who has lived and died with me several times.Because of the flames of war, I don't know whether he has returned to Tokyo safely, and I myself have been crowned with various myths.It wasn't until I returned to Beijing and met my teammates in the 1990 Hoh Xil No-Man's Land Expedition that I calmed down the rumored heroic story that I had been shot and died.

On the top floor of the Xinhua News Building, Kono, who had reunited with me after a long absence, hugged me tightly, and I even suspected it was in a dream.Kono pointed to the little red flag on my clothes and asked where the little five-star red flag was for him.Boss Lin, deputy director of the photography department, immediately gave him a five-star red flag.When my editorial colleagues thanked Kyodo for its help to Xinhua during the Gulf War, Kono said, "We helped each other, and we got your help."The brave and witty Kono, at this time, was flushed red, as red as the little red flag I gave him.