Journalist Jumpei Yasuda said Thursday he faced abusive treatment during more than three years of captivity in Syria, as he returned to Japan after being released earlier this week.
"After I was captured, the situation could only be described as abuse. I was suffering from violence," Yasuda told Kyodo News on board a flight from Turkey to Japan.
"I want to explain about what happened as much as possible."
It is unknown how he was captured, treated and released by a militant group after going missing after entering Syria in 2015.
(Yasuda, his wife Myu and his parents at Narita airport)[Photo courtesy of Myu]
The 44-year-old freelance journalist left Turkey after the Japanese government confirmed Wednesday that a man freed in Syria and under protection in the southern Turkish city of Antakya was indeed Yasuda.
Looking back on his 40 months in captivity, Yasuda said he was not allowed to bathe in water for six months and sometimes given "canned food without an opener" when militant group members were "in a bad mood."
His living conditions including meals and clothing easily changed for the worse, depending on who took care of him that day, he said during the interview.
During the flight, he looked relieved drinking beer in an aisle seat in economy class. When a foreign passenger told him in Japanese that the passenger was pleased he was freed, he said "thank you" in English with a smile. The two took a photo together.
Yasuda also said aboard a flight from Antakya to Istanbul that during his captivity he felt like he was in "hell" and gradually lost self-control, according to Reuters news agency.
"I don't know what will happen from here or what I should do. I am thinking about what I need to do," he was quoted by Reuters as saying.
As Yasuda arrived at Narita airport, his wife, a singer who goes by the stage name Myu, read his statement at a press conference which Yasuda did not attend.
"I returned home safely, and I think I bear responsibility for explaining and will explain at a proper time," he said in the statement.
He reunited with his wife and parents at the airport and looks skinnier, Myu said at the press conference.
This is not the first time he had been detained in the Middle East. A former staff reporter on a local newspaper in central Japan, Yasuda was detained in Iraq in 2004.
In the latest case, Yasuda entered Syria from Hatay, Turkey, in June 2015 to cover the civil war in the Arab country. He disappeared after being taken hostage by a militant group."
Related coverage:
Parents rejoice at release of Japanese journalist Yasuda
Japan confirms journalist held in Syria for 3 years released safely
Wife of Japanese journalist calls on captors in Syria to release him
"Help me, right now": Video likely shows Japan journalist held in Syria
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga indicated Qatar, which has some influence over Syrian rebel groups, and Turkey, Syria's northern neighbor, brokered negotiations.
The Japanese government had called for cooperation from Qatar and Turkey through the International Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Collection Unit, launched in 2015, to gather information on global militant groups.
After he went missing, footage apparently of Yasuda reading out a message in English to his family and the Japanese public was posted online in March 2016.
In May 2016, an image surfaced of what appeared to be a bearded Yasuda holding a sign bearing a handwritten message in Japanese saying, "Please help. This is the last chance. Yasuda Jumpei."
Multiple video recordings showing a person believed to be Yasuda were also posted online in July this year.
While Yasuda was believed to be in the hands of an al-Qaida-linked group, some information suggested he had been handed over to a splinter organization.
(Still image from online video in July 2018)
