Two Japanese civilians who came home to a storm of criticism after being held captive in Iraq admitted on Friday they may have been ill-prepared for the danger but denied their actions had been irresponsible. 　Noriaki Imai, an 18-year-old high school graduate, and freelance photographer Soichiro Koriyama, 32, were captured by militants who threatened to kill them unless Japan withdrew its troops from Iraq. Also taken captive was aid worker Nahoko Takato, 34, who is said to be suffering from stress and did not appear at Friday’s news conference.
The three, along with two other civilians captured separately and also released, were criticised by the government and some media and ordinary Japanese for going to Iraq despite the obvious danger and repeated official warnings.
Koriyama said that while he could have taken better precautions, taking risks was part of his job. “Precisely because it is dangerous, journalists must take the risk to tell the truth and report the news,” told a packed news conference, the first by the two since their return on April 18.
“I don’t think the argument of ‘personal responsibility’ applies,” he added, referring to a phrase repeatedly used by government officials and other critics of the hostages. Imai, who went to Iraq to research the effects of depleted uranium weapons, told the news conference he thought it was his responsibility to tell the public about his experience.
He said he had been scared when the militants grabbed him and held him at gunpoint while making a video — which shocked Japan when it was aired on nationwide television.
Some Japanese tabloids had suggested the entire episode was faked. The two former hostages said Takato had been told to cry when the filming started and that the Iraqis apologised when it was over, but added they had been forced to do as they were told.
Koriyama said he thought the captors were resistance fighters and vigilantes who were trying to protect Falluja. “They are awkward people who can only send messages out to the world by capturing foreigners,”
Opponents of the dispatch, many of whom say it violates Japan’s pacifist constitution, seized on the crisis to repeat calls for the troops’ withdrawal, and the captives’ families echoed that demand, often in highly emotional language.
That, analysts said, was one big reason ruling politicians were quick to insist the hostages were to blame for their plight. Conservative and tabloid media quickly joined in the hostage-bashing. “You had the government, a polarised public and an extremely controversial policy,” said Brad Glosserman of Hawaii-based think tank Pacific Forum CSIS. “You also had a public largely uninformed on security issues and a media inclined… to manipulate these issues,” he added. (Reuters)