{"id":134438,"date":"2021-01-26T12:05:54","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T22:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=134438"},"modified":"2021-02-01T08:53:05","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T18:53:05","slug":"manoa-alum-photojournalist-siege-capitol-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/01\/26\/manoa-alum-photojournalist-siege-capitol-building\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa alum covers January 6 siege of Capitol Building"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Protester
January 6, 2021, Washington D.C. (photo courtesy: Kent Nishimura)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When a mob of then President Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa<\/a> alumnus Kent Nishimura<\/strong>, a Los Angeles Times<\/em> photojournalist, was in the middle of the chaos. Nishimura\u02bbs assignment was the electoral vote certification but he found himself at the East side entrance “making pictures,” as he phrases it, of protesters attacking Capitol Hill police. Then the unthinkable happened.<\/p>\n

“The officers pulled out and the doors opened and they (the protesters) kind of flooded in,” said Nishimura. “There was a moment where there were so many people trying to push in, I got squished with a bunch of others and I felt my feet leave the ground; and I was being carried and swept in by this momentum. I was like, ‘I guess we are going into building. People are going to get in trouble for this.’”<\/p>\n

\"Kent
Kent Nishimura (photo courtesy: Jay L. Clendenin\/Los Angeles Times<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unlike the mob, Nishimura had permission to be in the Capitol Building as a credentialed member of the press. He said it was surreal, especially observing the protesters as they began to walk the halls.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people that broke in, they didn\u2019t know what to do, and where to go,” said Nishimura. “The people I happened to be around were wandering aimlessly, taking selfies of themselves.”<\/p>\n