Japan Former Hostages Defend Actions in Iraq
Fri Apr 30, 2004 09:34 AM ET
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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5001806&pageNumber=0

By Masayuki Kitano and Linda Sieg
TOKYO (Reuters) - Two Japanese civilians who returned to a storm of criticism after being held captive in Iraq spoke out in their own defense Friday, saying they had acted from conviction and should not have been treated like criminals.

Noriaki Imai, an 18-year-old high school graduate, and freelance photographer Soichiro Koriyama, 32, were captured by militants who threatened to kill them unless Japan withdrew its troops from Iraq, where they are on a reconstruction mission.

A third former hostage, aid worker Nahoko Takato, 34, is said to be suffering from stress and did not meet media on Friday.

The three, along with two other civilians captured separately and also released, came in for harsh criticism from the government and some media and ordinary Japanese for going to Iraq despite the obvious danger and repeated official warnings.

Koriyama said that while he could have taken better precautions, taking risks was part of a journalist's job.

"It is because Iraq is one of the most dangerous and struggling areas in the world that there is a need for support from non-governmental organizations and journalists," Koriyama told a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan after earlier speaking to a group of mostly Japanese media.

Koriyama said he and the other two released hostages were treated like criminals when they were questioned by officials from Japan's National Police Agency after arriving in Dubai.

"We were victims, but it seemed we were being treated as perpetrators," he said, noting there had been rumors that the entire affair had been staged.

Japan's military mission in southern Iraq, where 550 troops are engaged in reconstruction work, is the nation's riskiest since World War II and the hostage crisis was Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's toughest challenge since he took office.

THREAT TO KOIZUMI GOVERNMENT

The public has been deeply divided over the troop deployment and an unhappy ending could have rocked Koizumi's government ahead of an election for parliament's Upper House in July. Continued ...

(Page 2 of 2)
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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5001806&pageNumber=1

A spokesman for Takato, photographer Takashi Morizumi, said she had been devastated by her harsh reception at home.
"She has been plagued by grave self-doubts and felt that everything that she did in the past was negated," Morizumi said.

But he added that Takato, who had been working with street children, wanted to return to Iraq when things settled down.

Imai, who went to Iraq to research the effect of depleted uranium weapons, said his feelings about the criticism were too complex to put into words. "I am just a regular 18-year-old and I think I should follow what I believe I should do," he said.

Imai said he had been scared when the militants grabbed him and held him at gunpoint while making a video -- which shocked Japan when it was aired on nationwide television.

Some Japanese tabloids had suggested the entire episode was faked. The two former hostages said Takato had been told to cry when the filming started and that the Iraqis apologized when it was over, but added they had been forced to do as they were told.

Both men expressed understanding for the militants' actions.

"They are awkward people who can only send messages out to the world by capturing foreigners," Koriyama said.

Opponents of the troop dispatch, many of whom say it violates Japan's pacifist constitution, seized on the hostage crisis to repeat calls for the troops' withdrawal, and the captives' families echoed that demand, often in highly emotional language.

That, analysts said, was one big reason ruling politicians were quick to insist that the hostages were to blame for their plight -- a reaction that puzzled many overseas observers.

"The Japanese government...has been very apprehensive about the possibility of people getting tired of the war in Iraq and saying the troops should come home," said Takashi Inoguchi, a University of Tokyo political science professor.

"That could be triggered by anything -- Americans getting shot one by one, or a hostage incident, or anything," he added.

Conservative and tabloid media quickly joined in the criticism, although other media argued the hostages' case.

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