Japan Shocked By Iraq Hostages

Modern Japan doesn't send troops to foreign countries to start wars. So it doesn't expect to see its citizens on the news, caught in the violence of the conflict in Iraq.

Japan's constitution - imposed by the U.S. during the occupation that followed World War II - forbids war. That's why the Japanese military is called the Self-Defense Forces - self-defense is what is allowed.

Humanitarian missions - such as the mandate of the Japanese soldiers now in Iraq - are allowed. It's a loophole but not one that was just sitting there: the Japanese Parliament had to pass special legislation last year to permit the deployment.

Those legalities are of little comfort to a nation shocked by video images of three Japanese civilians being held hostage in Iraq by gunmen who threaten to burn them alive unless Japan withdraws its troops from Iraq.

That's a demand Japanese leaders are resisting.

"We cannot give in to the cowardly threats of terrorists," said Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, as he convened an emergency meeting of top officials and set up a task force to respond to the kidnappings. "Right now what we need to do is gather accurate information, and bring them home safely."

The abductions were detailed in

Armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, the kidnappers shout "Allahu akbar" - God is great - in the video and hold knives to the throats of the Japanese, who screamed in terror.

Japan's NHK television identifies the captives as two aid workers and a journalist. The passports shown in the video belong to aid workers Noriaki Imai, 18, and Nahoko Takato, 34, and freelance journalist Soichiro Koriyama, 32, who has a press card from the weekly newspaper Asahi.

The Arabic TV station Al-Jazeera, broadcasting to Iraq and the rest of the Arab world, aired portions of the video of the Japanese hostages released by a previously unknown group calling itself the "Mujahedeen Squadrons." It showed two men and one woman surrounded by gunmen wearing black, and close-ups of the captives' passports.

Al-Jazeera editors said the three were taken hostage in southern Iraq, where black-clad Shiite militiamen have been engaged in an uprising this week. The exact date of their capture is not known.

The kidnapping dominated media coverage since the story broke late Thursday. The families of the hostages gathered in Tokyo to meet with government officials and made tearful pleas for help.

"I want the government to pull the troops out," said Naoko Imai, mother of aid worker Noriaki Imai.

Japan has about 530 ground troops in Samawah, Iraq, part of a total planned deployment of 1,100 soldiers for a mission to purify water and carry out other reconstruction tasks.

The hostage crisis is putting intense pressure on Koizumi's strongly pro-U.S. Iraq policy.

Public opinion is split over the deployment of troops to Iraq.

"The Japanese government should thoroughly realize that Iraq is becoming less suitable for the Self-Defense Forces to focus on reconstruction activities," said an editorial Friday in the national Asahi newspaper, which has been critical of the dispatch.

The abductions came as Japan had already confined its 530 ground troops in the city of Samawah to their barracks over worries of the rapidly escalating violence involving Shiite militias.

Mortars were fired near the base on Wednesday, and another explosion was heard Thursday night in Samawah, said Defense Agency spokeswoman Midori Sasaki. Witnesses said an area near the coalition's Samawah office came under artillery and gunfire attack, Kyodo News reported early Friday.

Sasaki was unable to confirm that report, saying only that Japan is trying to gather information from local police and the Dutch forces, who are responsible for security in the area.

The government was quick Thursday to show its commitment to the Iraqi mission. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, who heads the task force, called the abductions "unforgivable," but said they did not justify a Japanese withdrawal.

The pro-mission Yomiuri newspaper stood behind that position on Friday.

"Japan should not be daunted by such foul threats," an editorial said, urging leaders not to give in to the hostage-takers' demands.

Still, it was clear that leaders are deeply worried that such incidents could heighten pressure on the government to reverse course. The Iraq dispatch is the first time Japanese soldiers have been deployed in a combat zone since World War II.

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi repeated a government warning for civilians to stay out of the country.

The video released Thursday showed the three - two men and a woman - blindfolded before captors armed with rifles and swords. Japanese broadcasters, however, did not show the most graphic sections of the video, which included the captors threatening the terrified victims with sword jabs.

The furor in Japan over the kidnappings reflects sharply divided opinions over what Japan's role in Iraq and the world ought to be.

War and peace are not abstract concepts to the people of Japan - the only nation in the world ever to experience nuclear war.

Koizumi had promoted the Iraq deployment as a way of strengthening Japan's alliance with the United States and sharing some of the burden of ensuring the flow of Middle East oil on which the country depends.

The policy was not been easy to push through. The mission was postponed in November after an explosion outside an Italian base killed 32 peacekeepers and Iraqi civilians.

Koizumi faces potential political fallout from the furor in July, when elections are scheduled for the upper house of Parliament.