Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi denounced terrorists' threats to burn three hostages alive as "cowardly" and vowed yesterday that Japanese troops would stay in Iraq despite tearful pleas from the captives' families to bow to the gunmen's demands.
"We want to do everything we can to see that he comes home," said Naoko Imai, whose 18-year-old son, Noriaki, was among the captives. "I want the government to pull the troops out."
But as the drama unfolded and tested Japan's commitment to the US-led coalition -- along with potentially threatening Koizumi's political future -- there was little he could do except remain defiant.
"We cannot give in to the cowardly threats of terrorists," Koizumi said. But he added: "We don't know who this group is. Right now what we need to do is gather accurate information and bring them [the hostages] home safely."
Television networks repeatedly aired dramatic video of the two aid workers Imai and Nahoko Takato, 34, and photojournalist Soichiro Koriyama, 32.
Koizumi called an emergency meeting of his Cabinet and created a task force to formulate a response.
He also ordered a senior Foreign Ministry official to coordinate rescue efforts from Jordan. The prime minister was expected to make a strong request for help from the US when Vice President Dick Cheney visits this weekend.
Officials acknowledged, however, that they had few other options.
Yasuo Fukuda, the Cabinet's chief spokesman and head of the emergency task force, confirmed the government had "absolutely no contact" with the hostage-takers, a previously unknown group calling itself the "Mujahedeen Squadrons." He stressed that accepting the withdrawal demand was not under consideration.
"That would be doing just what the terrorists want," he said. "We can't be beaten by them."
It was not immediately clear where or when the three were captured.
But in a video obtained by Associated Press Television News, four masked men threaten the blindfolded captives with guns and knives as they lay on the floor of a room with concrete walls. Arabic television network Al-Jazeera, which also received a copy of the video, said it came with a statement saying the three would be burned alive if Japan's troops were not removed from Iraq within three days.
The kidnapping has put Koizumi's administration under intense pressure and poses the biggest threat to his pro-US policy on Iraq since two diplomats preparing for the mission were gunned down -- possibly by thieves -- near the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit last November.
Koizumi's decision to send 1,100 non-combat troops in this country's most dangerous overseas dispatch since World War II has a narrow margin of support from the public, which is wary that Iraq's increasing instability could draw the troops into the line of fire.
That possibility was underscored on Wednesday, when mortars exploded near the base housing Japan's troops just outside the southeastern city of Samawah. It was the first attack directed at the base since the Japanese contingent began arriving in Iraq in January. Defense Agency officials confirmed there was another explosion in Samawah on Thursday, but had no further details.
Families of the hostages, meanwhile, flew to Tokyo to meet with Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and made tearful pleas for the release of their kin.
"Time is running out for my sister," said Ayako Inoue, Takato's younger sister. "As a family member, I can't just sit around watching television."
Nearby, about 600 protesters gathered in front of Koizumi's office, shouting, "Prime minister, don't let the three be killed," and waving banners that read, "Don't lend our hand to the Iraqi occupation."
But many other Japanese continued to support Koizumi.
"Japan should not give in to this kind of terrorism," said Koichi Yoshida, a 43-year-old company executive in Tokyo. "Japan has international responsibilities and national interests that are served by the military's presence there."
Though Japan has kept its troops out of harm's way after its disastrous World War II defeat, Koizumi pushed for the Iraq dispatch to strengthen the alliance with the US, Japan's main ally and trading partner.
It was a hard sell, and Japan's parliament, the Diet, had to pass special legislation last year to allow the deployment.
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