Captives’ Kin in Japan Plead for Iraq Pullout

Relatives of three Japanese held hostage in Iraq pleaded with the government Friday to withdraw its troops from the increasingly unstable country, but there was no indication that would happen.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reaffirmed his intention to continue his country’s humanitarian mission, saying, “We cannot give in to the cowardly threats of terrorists.”

A previously unknown group calling itself the Mujahedin Squadrons has threatened to burn the hostages alive unless Japan pulled out by Sunday. The captives were identified as aid workers Noriaki Imai, 18, and Nahoko Takato, 34, and photojournalist Soichiro Koriyama, 32.

Relatives of the three met Friday in Tokyo with Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and tearfully called on her to consider removing Japan’s 550 troops, who are noncombat.

“I don’t think they can be saved if the government does not consider pulling the troops out. There are only two days left,” Imai’s mother, Naoko, told reporters.

Koriyama’s mother, Kimiko, said, “As a parent, it would be just unbearable to see my child being burned alive.”

The government has pledged to do all it can to seek the safe release of the hostages. Ichiro Aisawa, senior vice foreign minister, flew to Jordan on Friday to coordinate rescue efforts.

Pundits say that Koizumi’s previous expressions of commitment to helping rebuild postwar Iraq leaves him with little choice but to stand firm, despite the political risk to him should Japan suffer fatalities.

But the kidnapping has had an enormous emotional effect. The news has dominated newspaper front pages, and the national broadcaster, NHK, has carried almost uninterrupted coverage since the Al Jazeera satellite TV channel played a chilling videotape from the kidnappers Thursday. The Japanese station omitted scenes in which swords and knives were pointed at the hostages.

“I was deeply shocked when I heard the news,” said Mikako Murakami, a 31-year-old Tokyo homemaker. “It is hard to forgive a group that would commit such a crime.... I don’t want to give in to terrorists, but I want Japan to rethink its stance.”

Hundreds of protesters gathered Friday to call for the troops to be brought home, but that opinion was not universal.

Even the main opposition group, the Democratic Party of Japan, has not pushed for immediate withdrawal, though it was opposed to the deployment.

“If Japan withdraws it will raise questions about its international responsibilities,” Kazuhisa Ogawa, a military analyst, told the Nikkei newspaper. “The government must do all it can to ensure the release of the hostages, but it must resolve never to negotiate with terrorists.”

The crisis has come just as Vice President Dick Cheney arrives in Japan today for a scheduled visit. He is expected to urge Japan to stand firm and Koizumi is expected to ask for U.S. cooperation in rescuing the hostages.

Japan’s renunciation of the right to wage war, expressed in its post-World War II constitution, means that there are strict limitations on the Japanese military, known as the Self-Defense Forces. The controversial mission to Iraq represents Japan’s biggest and riskiest in the postwar era.

Friends of the hostages, who are trying to spread the message to Iraq that the three were opposed to the Japanese deployment and were working for the good of Iraqis, have given interviews to the Arab-language Al Jazeera channel.

Rie Sasaki in The Times’ Tokyo Bureau contributed to this report.