Seoul (AsiaNews) "Three of your sons have fallen into our hands. We offer you two choices: either withdraw your forces or they will be burned alive. You have three days to decide, starting the day this video recording is aired."
The Arab-run Al-Jazeera television network aired the brief video message addressed to the Japanese government on Apr. 8. From the images seen in the footage there was no doubt about the identities of the persons abducted: Nahoko Tarato (32), an NGO volunteer, Soichiro Koriyama (32), a free-lance photo-journalist, and Noriaki Imai (18), a reporter working on her own. The three, having met in Amman, decided to head to Baghdad right at the time when violent clashes between US occupying forces and local militants erupted in Fallujah. Their unfortunate adventure, however, did not turn into a tragedy.
Ten days later the three young Japanese citizens got off an airplane, safe and alive, at Tokyo International Airport. They were safe and alive, but not smiling. The 32 year-old woman, Takato, walked forward with her head hung low and the two others did not utter a single peep. Since they left the city of Dubai, they had been constantly "escorted" by Japanese foreign ministry officials who prevented journalists from interviewing them. All three, in brief written statements, expressed their displeasure for having caused so many problems for so many people.
Yet there is more to the story. Prior to their release, Takato's mother made a public statement, asking the nation and the government to forgive all the problems her daughter had stirred up. If the three young Japanese were Westerners, they would have received a warm homecoming. Evidently, here, we are dealing with a totally different mentality and cultural sensitivity This is the very reason why we are covering this story.
Prime Minister Koizumi's tough reaction and responsible commitment
As soon as they found out about their children's capture, the hostages' families, together with NGO representatives, went to Tokyo to ask to speak to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Their intention was to beg him to withdraw Japanese forces stationed in Iraq helping to rebuild the country. Koizumi not only did not receive them, but, so it seems, even blocked their entry into Japanese ministry offices.
When asked by journalists whether he intended to pull Japanese troops out of Iraq, Koizumi replied bluntly: "No, I will not. We must not give into the dirty threats of terrorists." Three days later, foreign minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, when meeting with the hostages' family members, expressed her sympathy for them and assured that the Japanese governments was making every effort to have them freed.
And the foreign minister meant what she exactly was said. Koizumi, when it was confirmed his three citizens were held captive, sent deputy foreign minister Ichiro Aizawa with a team of anti-terrorist intelligence to Amman. It was they who were able to unravel the mystery. It was they who had interrogated two taxi drivers who, by chance, had witnessed their abduction. This was the evidence that led Japanese intelligence to believe they were captured not by Islamic extremists, but by local Sunni militants who are hostile any foreign presence in the territory.
The intervention of religious authorities, also played a concrete and effective role in helping Tokyo to resolve the hostage crisis. Upon the release of the three prisoners, the Japanese ambassador in Iraq particularly thanked the Islamic clergy for their good assistance.
On the verge of social ostracism
It would be an understatement to say the three Japanese hostages found little sympathy in their homeland. In actual fact, they were the object of a wave of harsh criticism
Japanese government officials, citizens and media all accused the hostages of reckless bravado. Members of the Coalition government in Iraq even asked Tokyo to place restrictions on foreign travel in such dangerous areas. In a message read on national radio, the Japanese prime minister severely warned citizens not to travel in Iraq. Yet Koizumi added that: "While our Constitution guarantees Japanese citizens the right to choose where to live and acknowledges their right to travel foreign countries, our government cannot prohibit citizens from entering Iraq or order them to evacuate the country. All it can do is advise them what to do."
While the three young Japanese were still held prisoner, many citizens of their country expressed their disapproval to the hostages' family members over the phone and on the Internet. When the Shukan Shincho and Shukan Bunshun (the country's two most widely read newspapers) published critical articles on the three hostages "foolhardy" behavior, every single copy released that day was sold in just a few hours.
How do we explain such behavior, which to our Western eyes may seem like inhuman insensitivity. The explanation can be found the Eastern culture's own DNA, which is radically different than ours.
This is the opinion of Dr. Tom Plate, founder of the Asia Pacific Media Network. Allow us to summarize what he thinks: Asian values probably don't have the same vitality they once had, but every once in a while they emerge with full, amazing force. This is what happened in the case of the Japanese three hostages in Iraq.
In the West, individualism and initiative are the prevailing forces in forming culture and society. Yet in the East, authority and hierarchy are the two dominant factors. In Eastern society, the father is the authority figure for one simple reason: it is the father who knows best what to do. Hence when the father is the government and the government strongly advises against going to Iraq, if one goes there he is held blameworthy. This is so, since he is not just seen as jeopardizing his personal own safety and well-being, but as a threat to the laws and rights of traditional society.
