About five minutes of video footage taken by Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai in September 2007 in Yangon was obtained by The Asahi Shimbun from the Committee to Protect Journalists. (Video footage provided by Democratic Voice of Burma)

Photo/Illutration Kenji Nagai covers a demonstration in Yangon in 2007. (Taken from video provided by the Democratic Voice of Burma)

In a chilling five-minute video clip that Kenji Nagai filmed at a demonstration in Yangon in 2007, the images showed the chaos that erupted shortly before the 50-year-old journalist was gunned down and killed. 

An official with the Democratic Voice of Burma gave the camera to Noriko Ogawa, Nagai’s sister, on April 26.

The Asahi Shimbun obtained a copy of the video from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Nagai recorded the demonstration in Yangon protesting the military regime and the subsequent arrival of heavily armed troops. He then turned the camera toward himself and narrated what was happening before him.

At a ceremony in Bangkok, Ogawa thanked the Democratic Voice of Burma for the tremendous and dangerous work it did in finding the camera.

Nagai was fatally shot on Sept. 27, 2007.

The Japanese government protested the killing and called on the Myanmar military regime to investigate.

An autopsy by the Metropolitan Police Department determined that Nagai had been shot at close range. While the Myanmar government apologized, it insisted a stray bullet hit Nagai and called the incident an accident.

Although Japan asked the camera and other belongings be returned, the Myanmar government of that time said it could not find the camera.

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