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Freed Japanese hostages find themselves unpopular

When three Japanese civilians taken hostage in Iraq returned home earlier this week, there were no well-wishers awaiting them. As they left the plane, the two volunteer aid workers and a freelance photojournalist hung their heads and kept silent.

Despite their safe release, it was a bleak homecoming. But it didn't end there.

The three -- Noriaki Imai, 18, Nahoko Takato, 34, and photojournalist Soichiro Koriyama, 32 -- have been accused of rashly ignoring government warnings to stay away from Iraq. They were blamed for imperiling the Japanese military's humanitarian mission to Iraq. Afterward, the government said it would bill them US$6,000 for their flights and other expenses.

Since their arrival last Sunday, the three have been caught in a maelstrom of public criticism that has made them virtual prisoners in their own homes and raised questions about just how far the government should go to warn its citizens about traveling to combat zones. On Friday, the head of a Japanese aid group said the backlash was overblown.

"The government has a duty to act if something happens to any of its citizens," said Michiya Kumaoka, president of the Japan International Volunteer Center, which supplied medicine to two children's hospitals in Baghdad until withdrawing its staff this month.

The national Asahi newspaper agreed.

"We cannot deny that the former hostages should have been better prepared," the liberal daily said in an editorial Thursday. "However, there is no way we could ever agree with any of the strident talk ... from members of the ruling coalition who are obviously taking an extreme position on what they think `personal responsibility' is supposed to mean."

Still, for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the hostage crisis could have been a political disaster.

The Japanese leader has pushed aggressively for the deployment of about 1,100 non-combat troops to support the US-led coalition in Iraq. About 550 Japanese ground forces are in southern Iraq purifying water and helping rebuild roads and schools.

Public opinion had been divided over the deployment -- the first to a combat zone since World War II -- and critics had warned the dispatch would make Japan a target for terrorists.

The hostage-taking appeared to justify the critics' view.

Imai, Takato and Koriyama were kidnapped by a previously unknown group that released a video showing the three blindfolded, forced to squat and being threatened with guns.

The gunmen threatened to burn them to death in three days unless Tokyo pulled its ground troops out of Iraq -- a demand that Koizumi rejected.

The abductions set off protests calling for a pullout, and drew tearful pleas from the hostages' families for Tokyo to withdraw. Six days later, two more Japanese were kidnapped.

By this week, all five hostages had been released unharmed with the help of Islamic religious leaders.

Reaction from Japan's closest ally, the US, was one of admiration for the former hostages.

"Everybody should understand the risk they are taking by going into dangerous areas," US Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters. "But if nobody was willing to take a risk, then we would never move forward."

"And so I'm pleased that these Japanese citizens were willing to put themselves at risk for a greater good, for a better purpose. And the Japanese people should be very proud that they have citizens like this willing to do that," Powell said, in remarks aired by TV networks in Japan.

But many Japanese questioned the ex-hostages' judgment.

"Even though their intentions were good, they should reflect on why they ignored the government's warnings against going to a place as dangerous as Iraq," the conservative Nihon Keizai, Japan's leading financial newspaper, said in an editorial after the hostages were freed.

"They could have compromised Japan's humanitarian mission in Iraq, and this country's foreign policy in general," the editorial said.

The families of the hostages said they had received numerous critical phone calls and e-mails, some slamming the families themselves for urging the government to bow to the gunmen's demand to withdraw troops.

They quickly eased off the pressure and later apologized to the public.

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Tuesday she might consider tougher travel warnings, and ministry officials said they were considering posting advisories cautioning that the government might not be able to rescue travelers who put their lives at risk.
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