Freed Japanese hostages face storm of criticism

The three Japanese civilians taken hostage in Iraq have faced a whirlwind of criticism since returning home, it emerged today.

There were no well-wishers awaiting the trio when they returned to Japan earlier this week. As they left the plane, the two volunteer aid workers and a freelance photojournalist hung their heads and kept silent.

Noriaki Imai, 18, Nahoko Takato, 34, and journalist Soichiro Koriyama, 32 have been accused of ignoring government warnings to stay away from Iraq and blamed for endangering the Japanese military’s humanitarian mission to Iraq.

And the government has said it will bill them €5,900 for their flights and other expenses.

Since their arrival, 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 travelling to combat zones.

But yesterday, the head of a Japanese aid group said the backlash was over the top.

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

The liberal Asahi daily newspaper agreed, saying: “We cannot deny that the former hostages should have been better prepared. 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.”

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 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 the Second World War – and critics had warned the dispatch would make Japan a target for terrorists.

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 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 United States, was one of admiration for the former hostages, but many Japanese questioned their 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.

“They could have compromised Japan’s humanitarian mission in Iraq, and this country’s foreign policy in general.”

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

On Wednesday, Japanese newspapers showed Takato, who had worked with street children in Baghdad, looking dazed and bedraggled, walking outside her parents’ home but leaning heavily on her mother and sister for support.

There has been no sign of the other two.