OSAKA, Japan : Three Japanese nationals held hostage in Iraq were due to arrive back here to face the media and a growing chorus of criticism that they only had themselves to blame for their ordeal.

The three -- Noriaki Imai, 18, Nahoko Takato, 34, and Soichiro Koriyama, 32 -- caught a flight home from Dubai with relatives after spending two days recovering from their one-week ordeal.

They are scheduled to arrive at Kansai International Airport in this western Japan city at around 0815 GMT. They will then head to Tokyo, where they are expected to meet the press late Sunday.

The hostages were freed on Thursday by Iraqi insurgents who had threatened to kill them unless Japan withdrew troops deployed on a humanitarian mission in southern Iraq, a demand flaty rejected by Tokyo.

Two more Japanese hostages were freed Saturday, bringing a peaceful end to a crisis which had gripped the nation.

With the hostage crisis over, much attention in Japan has been focused on whether the hostages had been responsible for their own fate.

Some political leaders openly blamed the former hostages for ignoring a series of government warnings against travelling to Iraq, only to be captured and rescued with taxpayers' money.

Tabloid papers said Sunday the three would have to pay 350,000-400,000 (3,240-3,700 dollars) each for medical fees and part of air fares.

Some government officials and politicians say the charge is "too cheap", considering Tokyo spent hundreds of millions of yen for rescue work, the tabloid Sports Nippon said.

Political leaders had earlier reacted angrily on Friday after comments from the released hostages indicating that they hoped to return to Iraq eventually to continue their work.

An opinion poll aired in private-channel news programme Broadcaster late Saturday showed 32 percent of those polled believe the three should not have gone to Iraq in the first place.

The poll also found 30 percent of people thought it was "reckless" to have travelled to the war-torn country. The survey was conducted on Friday over the Internet covering 300 adults aged 20-60.

The Asahi Shimbun reported Saturday its poll of 820 people nationwide found 73 percent backed the government's refusal to withdraw troops from Iraq in the face of demands by gunmen who had held three Japanese captive.

The other two other Japanese hostages, freelance journalist Junpei Yasuda, 30, and peace activist Nobutaka Watanabe, 36, were freed in Baghdad Saturday.

The Japanese media said Yasuda and Watanabe, who had gone missing last Wednesday, would fly to Amman later Sunday.

Meanwhile in Tokyo Sunday protests against the war in Iraq continued.

Hundreds of people marched through the streets of Shibuya in central Tokyo, criticising Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for sending troops to Iraq despite the nation's pacifist constitution.

- AFP

TOKYO: All five Japanese who were under captivity in Iraq have returned home, but that does not mean the government is totally relieved.

The hostages came back with messages from their abductors, ordering the Japanese troops who are on their most dangerous mission since World War 2, to leave Iraq.

But latest opinion polls showed that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's handling of the crisis has earned him high ratings.

The last two Japanese hostages flew home via Amman and they appeared at the New Tokyo International Airport, looking in good health.

Nobutaka Watanabe, Human Rights Activist, said: "Thank you all for your concern and support throughout our ordeal."

The two were abducted on April 14 in Abu Greib, west of Baghdad by an armed group.

They were released three days later and kept under the custody of the Islamic Clerics Association before being handed over to Japanese embassy officials in Baghdad.

But both Yasuda and Watanabe insisted they were not really affected by their experience.

Ahead of the two, another freelance journalist, a volunteer worker and a fresh high school graduate were taken hostage in Falluja.

Their release took a whole week.

A physician who examined them said they were not ready to face the media.

So without disclosing events that took place under captivity to the public, the 3 left Tokyo for their respective homes.

But the Japanese do not necessarily sympathise with the ordeal the hostages went through in Iraq.

"It's their own responsibility," said a Japanese man.

"I won't sympathise with people who have gone there under their own will," said a Japanese girl.

Japan's Foreign Ministry is considering tightening the travel advisory ban to Iraq, a move the released hostages are against.

Jumpei Yasuda, Freelance Journalist, said: "I would be against a travel ban to Iraq. With regards to Iraq especially, the Japanese government actually supports the war that is going on, and its our job to go there to report on the actualities and reality down there. It would be a mistake to ban travel there"

There are reportedly around 70 Japanese civilians in Iraq, and the government is not keen to have more enter the country, no matter what their purpose may be. - CNA

Secretary Colin L. Powell Washington, DC April 15, 2004

MR. KANEHIRA: Thank you so much, Secretary. We just received the good news from Baghdad that three Japanese civilian hostages have been released in Baghdad.

SECRETARY POWELL: Yes.

MR. KANEHIRA: What is your reaction?

SECRETARY POWELL: I'm very pleased. I was very worried about the Japanese hostages and I'm so pleased that they have been released and they are safe.

MR. KANEHIRA: However, the group that took the four Italian hostages, they are taking as four Italian hostages. I'm sorry. However, that group that took four Italian captives claimed that it killed one of the hostages because Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi rejected its demands that he withdraw Italian troops.

It seems to me that both Prime Minister Koizumi and Berlusconi reacted in the same way. What do you think of the different outcome -- the reason for different outcome?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, I don't know. We don't know who these criminals are who are holding hostages, and we regret that one of the four Italian hostages was killed.

The important point here is that both Prime Minister Koizumi and Prime Minister Berlusconi realize you can't give in to terror, you can't allow yourself to be put at the mercy of terrorists.

We regret any hostage situation. Nobody wants to imagine what it would be like for a member of their family to be taken hostage, and we will do everything we can to rescue these people.

But you must not give in to the hostage-taker. You must not say, "Oh, it's okay, we will now do what you want." Because they will just place new demands on you.

The civilized world must stand against this kind of activity, and I am pleased that Prime Minister Koizumi, Prime Minister Berlusconi, President Bush, President Blair and other leaders have the courage to stand up against this kind of threat from terrorists.

MR. KANEHIRA: In the history of the modern nation, it is said every government has an obligation to protect their own citizens. Some people in Japan are saying that those who are kidnapped are willing to take risk and they were expected to assume the responsibility for their own act. What is your comment?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, everybody should understand the risk they are taking by going into dangerous areas. But if nobody was willing to take a risk, then we would never move forward. We would never move our world 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, and very proud of the soldiers that you are sending to Iraq that they are willing to take that risk.

But even when, because of that risk, they get captured, it doesn't mean we can say, "Well, you took the risk. It's your fault." No, we still have an obligation to do everything we can to recover them safely and we have an obligation to be deeply concerned about them. They are our friends. They are our neighbors. They are our fellow citizens.

MR. KANEHIRA: According to the latest information, Usama bin Laden sent an audiotape with the intention to divide the coalition of European countries with current security situation increasingly unstable. What are the implications for the United States?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, he is exactly what we have told the world he is -- a terrorist -- and we have to reject any demands that come from him. You can't negotiate with Usama bin Laden. He is a terrorist. He is a murderer. And he must be seen as that and he must be brought to justice.

And I hope that, because of this tape today, the world will once again see him for what he is and come together even more strongly than we have in the past in this common fight against terrorism.

MR. KANEHIRA: The last question. I read through your biography, My American Journey. It's very impressed. And your government scoffed at the comparison between Iraq and Vietnam that have been made. However, increasingly, the American media is making a comparison and the American public are more and more seeing the similarities.

And even if it is a false comparison, as the Administration argues, what is the danger of this perception perpetuating in reality if a complete exit strategy is not soon discovered?

SECRETARY POWELL: We do have a strategy. And what makes Iraq different from Vietnam or any other conflict is that it's Iraq, not Vietnam; it's Iraq, not Lebanon. It's Iraq.

And we have a clear strategy of what we're trying to achieve in Iraq. The first goal we had was to remove a regime, an evil regime, a dictator. He's gone. We did that. We accomplished it. So there's no confusion about our mission there, and we accomplished that mission.

The next mission was to build a democracy, to put in place a functioning democracy in Iraq that its people could be proud of, and a country that would live in peace with its neighbors. We are working on that objective now. And we have put in a great deal of money. We have put in a large number of soldiers. We have brought in the UN. We have brought in many nations to help us.

And so we are going to achieve that goal, too. We have not lost sight of our goal. We know what our objective is and we are applying the resources to that objective. And we will be successful.

MR. KANEHIRA: Thank you so much.

2004/409



http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/23/international/asia/23JAPA.html

Freed From Captivity in Iraq, Japanese Return to More Pain

TOKYO, April 22 ? The young Japanese civilians taken hostage in Iraq returned home this week, not to the warmth of a yellow-ribbon embrace but to a disapproving nation's cold stare.

Three of them, including a woman who helped street children on the streets of Baghdad, appeared on television two weeks ago as their knife-brandishing kidnappers threatened to slit their throats. A few days after their release, they landed here on Sunday, in the eye of a peculiarly Japanese storm.

"You got what you deserve!" read one hand-written sign at the airport where they landed. "You are Japan's shame," another wrote on the Web site of one of the former hostages. They had "caused trouble" for everybody. The government, not to be outdone, announced it would bill the former hostages $6,000 for air fare.

Beneath the surface of Japan's ultra-sophisticated cities lie the hierarchical ties that have governed this island nation for centuries and that, at moments of crises, invariably reassert themselves. The former hostages' transgression was to ignore a government advisory against traveling to Iraq. But their sin, in a vertical society that likes to think of itself as classless, was to defy what people call here "okami," or, literally, "what is higher."

Treated like criminals, the three former hostages have gone into hiding, effectively becoming prisoners inside their own homes. The kidnapped woman, Nahoko Takato, was last seen arriving at her parents' house, looking defeated and dazed from tranquilizers, flanked by relatives who helped her walk and bow deeply before reporters, as a final apology to the nation.

Dr. Satoru Saito, a psychiatrist who examined the three former hostages twice since their return, said the stress they were enduring now was "much heavier" than what they experienced during their captivity in Iraq. Asked to name their three most stressful moments, the former hostages told him, in ascending order: the moment when they were kidnapped on their way to Baghdad, the knife-wielding incident, and the moment they watched a television show the morning after their return here and realized Japan's anger with them.

"Let's say the knife incident, which lasted about 10 minutes, ranks 10 on a stress level," Dr. Saito said in an interview at his clinic on Thursday. "After they came back to Japan and saw the morning news show, their stress level ranked 12."

To the angry Japanese, the first three hostages ? Nahoko Takato, 34, who started a nonprofit organization to help Iraqi street children; Soichiro Koriyama, 32, a freelance photographer; and Noriaki Imai, 18, a freelance writer interested in the issue of depleted uranium munitions ? had acted selfishly. Two others kidnapped and released in a separate incident ? Junpei Yasuda, 30, a freelance journalist, and Nobutaka Watanabe, 36, a member of an anti-war group ? were equally guilty.

Pursuing individual goals by defying the government and causing trouble for Japan was simply unforgivable. But the freed hostages did get official praise from one government: the United States.

"Well, everybody should understand the risk they are taking by going into dangerous areas," said Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. "But if nobody was willing to take a risk, then we would never move forward. We would never move our world 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."

In contrast, Yasuo Fukuda, the Japanese government's spokesman offered this about the captives' ordeal: "They may have gone on their own but they must consider how many people they caused trouble to because of their action."

The criticism began almost immediately after the first three civilians were kidnapped two weeks ago. The environment minister, Yuriko Koike, blamed them for being "reckless."