A series of reports on Iraq written by a Japanese diplomat killed in an ambush there last year will go on sale in book form Friday, a Tokyo-based publisher said Wednesday.
The book, which will be published by Fuso Publishing Inc., features 71 reports filed by 45-year-old Katsuhiko Oku, who served as a counselor at the Japanese Embassy in London.
Oku was sent to Iraq in late April and was gunned down Nov. 29 by unknown assailants in northern Iraq.
His reports, which are also posted on the Foreign Ministry's Web site, describe everyday life for local people in Iraq and for U.S. soldiers stationed in the Mideast country.
Oku also voices anger and sorrow over the specter of terrorism.
Oku and Masamori Inoue, 30, a third secretary at the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad, were ambushed and killed near Tikrit, about 150 km north of Baghdad, while traveling to a conference on reconstruction work.
The families of Oku and Inoue have expressed the desire to see royalties generated by the book go toward reconstruction projects in Iraq, the publisher said.