Japanese Official Urges Journos to Leave Iraq

By: Joseph Coleman, Associated Press Writer (AP) The kidnapping of three Japanese civilians in Iraq posed the greatest challenge yet to Japan's first foray to a combat zone since World War II, as a government official urged civilians and journalists to leave the unstable country.

Television footage released Thursday of three terrified and blindfolded captives being held at knifepoint by screaming militants triggered a national vigil and threatened to sap the already weak support for the mission.

The captors threatened to burn the two Japanese men and one woman to death in three days unless Tokyo pulled out troops sent to southern Iraq on a humanitarian mission.

The government was quick to voice its commitment to the Iraqi mission. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda on Thursday called the abductions "unforgivable" but said they did not justify a Japanese withdrawal.

"The people of Iraq don't want Japan to leave. There's no reason for them to go," said Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, secretary-general of the Komeito party, which is a member of the ruling coalition.

Still, it was clear that Japanese leaders were deeply worried that such incidents could heighten pressure on the government to reverse course.

Japan's Iraq policy had divided public opinion from the beginning and has been dogged by serious concerns that the country's troops -- dispatched to a war zone for the first time since World War II -- could be targeted by insurgents or drawn into the fighting.

The abductions came just after the 530 Japanese ground troops were confined to their barracks in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah as violence involving Shiite militias was rapidly escalating. Mortars were fired near the base on Wednesday, but there were no injuries.

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi repeated a government warning for civilians to stay out of Iraq. "In order to prevent more similar incidents from happening, I strongly urge Japanese citizens, including journalists, in Iraq to leave the country as soon as possible," she said.

The video released Thursday and the barbarity of the captors' threats -- which dominated news coverage across Japan -- were heart-wrenching for a country already on edge.

The three Japanese, two aid workers and a freelance photographer, were shown squatting before their captors, who pressed rifle barrels to their bodies and knives to their throats.

"I'm shocked; it's so cruel," said Michiko Kaneko, a 29-year-old Tokyo resident. "I think it would be good if there is room for negotiation to keep the troops. If it's not possible they should pull out, because the lives of the abductees are the most important."

But reflecting the near-even split in public opinion over the Iraq deployment, Katsuhiro Takahashi, 58, argued that Japan should remain in Samawah -- even at the cost of the three hostages' lives.

"We should keep our troops there, because that's the policy of our government," he told Associated Press Television News in Tokyo. "Defense troops can return only when Iraq's reconstruction is achieved."

Japan has kept its troops out of harm's way since its defeat in World War II, and the country's postwar constitution renounces the use of force to settle international disputes.

But the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pushed for the Iraq dispatch as a way of strengthening an alliance with the United States and sharing some of the burden of ensuring the flow of Middle East oil that Japan depends on.

The policy was not easy to push through. Parliament had to pass special legislation last year to allow the deployment, and the mission was postponed in November after an explosion outside an Italian base killed peacekeepers and Iraqi civilians.

For some Japanese, the kidnappings were a sign that their country had become a target in the insurgents' strategy of whittling away at the pro-U.S. coalition. Several relatives of the captives urged the government to do anything to save the hostages.

"My son has been against the deployment," Naoko Imai, mother of 18-year-old hostage Noriaki Imai, was quoted by Kyodo News as telling reporters outside the family's home in the northern city of Sapporo.

"Perhaps I shouldn't say this, but I want the Self-Defense Forces to retreat," she said.