Photographer Robert Capa.

HA NOI — On May 25, 1954, the career of war photographer Robert Capa came to an abrupt end when he stepped on a land mine in the northern province of Thai Binh.

Fifty years later, a group of Vietnamese and Japanese photographers gathered to remember the life of the first American correspondent to die in Viet Nam.

The ceremony, held on Tuesday on a dike near the spot where Capa died, was the idea of two Japanese photographers, Alao Yokogi and Masami Nakamura, who admire Capa’s life and work.

Final shot: The last photo taken by Robert Capa before he steps on a mine in Thai Binh Province. — File Photo

"The war in Viet Nam ended 29 years ago. Like Japan, though, it seems that many young Vietnamese now think that the war is an old story. They forget that our current lives are built on the tragic wars of before," said Masami, photographer and marketing director of Vietnam Sketch, a travel guidebook published in Japanese.

"By viewing photographs taken by a photographer of war, peace and the lives of ordinary people, we can understand the world we live in and how we should live in the future.

Forty people gathered at the outdoor ceremony, half of whom were Japanese photo reporters and the other half representatives from the Viet Nam Artistic Photographers Association and Thai Binh officials.

Capa was born Andrei Friedmann in Budapest in 1913. Driven out of Germany by the Nazis, he settled in Paris in 1933.

He changed his name to Robert Capa and went to Spain to cover the fight against Franco’s fascist dictatorship. At 21, while covering the Spanish Civil War, he took the masterpiece Death of a Loyalist Militiaman, which brought him international attention and became a powerful symbol of war.

Photo giant: Masami Nakamura puts the flowers in front of Capa’s portrait at Tuesday’s ceremony. — VNS Photo Viet Thanh

He travelled to China in 1938 and emigrated to New York in 1939. He photographed World War II as a correspondent for Life and Collier’s.

In 1954, Capa was invited to Japan to take photographs for three weeks. His photos of the Japanese land and people made him famous in the country.

While he was there, Life told him it wanted photos of Dien Bien Phu before it fell. Having declared that he would never photograph war again, Capa agonised over the decision before eventually deciding to go.

He arrived in Viet Nam two days after French forces at Dien Bien Phu had fallen. Realising that he was witnessing a new war that represented the end of colonialism, Capa decided to stay and continue taking photos. He stepped on a mine in Thai Binh’s Kien Xuong District while composing shots for Life’s Photostory.

The Robert Capa Gold Medal Award was established in 1955 to reward exceptional professional merit. Five of Capa’s Viet Nam photos now hang at the HCM City War Vestige Museum. — VNS

Reprinted with permission from Vietnam News Agency