Ono said the troops had been completely shut inside their base on only nine days. But military officials would not disclose the total number of days that they did not leave their camp to work. A former commander was recently quoted as saying that his troops did not leave their base for half of August.
Information on what the troops are really doing in Samawa is an extremely delicate issue for the Japanese government. It urged Japanese reporters to leave Samawa last April, and none of Japan's major news organizations have returned since.
One result has been a surreal situation in which Japan's most important military mission since World War II -- at a cost of US$300 million so far -- has had virtually no news coverage in Japan. Instead, the Japanese have received a steady supply of filtered information from military officials.
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