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(回答先: 今井、郡山記者会見の海外報道 Search Google News 投稿者 木田貴常 日時 2004 年 5 月 02 日 17:25:08)
Apr 30, 12:41 PM EDT
Japanese Hostages Talk About Their Ordeal
By ERIC TALMADGE
Associated Press Writer
TOKYO (AP) -- They were menaced with guns and knives and held hostage for more than a week. Still, two Japanese who were kidnapped in Iraq expressed sympathy for their captors Friday, calling them "soldiers" and "resistance" fighters in their first public comments since their release.
Volunteer aid worker Noriaki Imai, 18, and photojournalist Soichiro Koriyama, 32, described their treatment at the hands of abductors who had threatened to kill them if Japan didn't withdraw troops from Iraq. A third ex-hostage, volunteer aid worker Nahoko Takato, 34, is recovering and did not attend the news conference.
The two were reluctant, however, to comment on the harshness of their April 18 homecoming: Politicians, media and public opinion scorned the ex-hostages as irresponsible and reckless for going to Iraq against government warnings, and Tokyo billed them $7,000 each for return flights and other expenses.
Imai left the news conference early because of stress, according to his legal representative. Afterward, Koriyama - when pressed - conceded he was surprised at the "fuss" over their experience.
He added, however, that Japanese police questioned him about the kidnapping as though they didn't believe his version of events.
"When I explained what happened, they would ask: 'No, didn't it happen this way?' as though they were suspicious of me," Koriyama said.
In telling their story, the hostages said they were kidnapped April 9 at a gas station near Fallujah after taking a detour from the highway to Baghdad.
"Masked men put us in a car," said Imai. "The soldiers blindfolded us and forced us to keep our heads down as they drove us away."
They said their captors treated them relatively well, despite a grim video aired repeatedly on Japanese television in which the kidnappers manhandled the three at gunpoint and pointed knives at their throats.
Imai said the abductors told them to act afraid and to cry during the taping, but added that they were rough with them while the cameras were on "and so it was really frightening."
He said they had been assured before the video that they would not be killed. "When they realized we weren't spies, their attitude toward us changed," Imai said. "A man who called himself `General' said he was sorry many times."
Photojournalist Koriyama, who was abducted in a separate car from the aid workers, said he believed the abductors were acting in self-defense.
"They were not terrorists," he said. "They were resistance fighters, defending themselves against the attacks of the U.S. troops."
The kidnappings threatened to become a political nightmare for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who sent troops to Iraq despite deep public concerns of possible bloodshed. About 550 soldiers are carrying out humanitarian projects in southeastern Iraq, Japan's largest military mission since World War II.
Koizumi refused throughout the hostage crisis to withdraw troops, and relatives of the three hostages were widely criticized for urging him to bow to the kidnappers' demand.
Despite the furor, Koriyama and Imai said they did not regret their actions.
"As a journalist, it is sometimes important to go to dangerous places," Koriyama said.
Imai, who had graduated from high school just two months before going to Iraq, said he felt it was important to "see the situation there with my own eyes."
Criticism of the three has abated in recent days. Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa - Japan's top hostage negotiator - earlier this week strongly praised the work of aid groups and journalists in Iraq and said the abductees "received some heartless, cool comments."
He stood by the government's decision to charge the hostages for the trip home.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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