Japanese Politicians Turn Viciously on Heroes
The three Japanese people initially taken hostage in Iraq may have thought that they were having the worst experience of their lives. Apparently, Japanese politicians and right-wing organizations are making it even more unpleasant for them now that they are back home. The way these people have been treated in their home country is cruel, heartless–and highly politically motivated.
Usually these people would not be treated like this. In America, we greet returning victims of kidnapping with yellow ribbons. Japan does not have that custom, but usually it treats with high regard those sons and daughters of Japan who have shown strength overseas, representing Japan well.
These three should have been such heroes of Japan. Nahoko Takato, 34, was helping Iraqi street children, an act of selfless charity at her own great personal risk. Even after her ordeal in Iraq, she did not want to stop helping people in the war-torn country. The kidnappers, she said, “did things to me that I did not like. But I cannot hate the Iraqi people.”
Soichiro Koriyama, 32, is a freelance photographer, and sees it as his job to document what is happening in Iraq. He has photographed people who have suffered from war and disease in developing countries like Thailand; this is no money-seeker, but a man who wants to publicize the suffering of people in an attempt to stir awareness of their plights, to make people aware of what is happening in the world so they can help. Koriyama, a former soldier in Japan’s self-defense forces, labored as a construction worker in Japan to raise the money to go to Iraq.
The third, Noriaki Imai, is a man concerned with depleted uranium shells used in wars; these shells are left behind in war zones, and create a radioactive hazard, contaminating the landscape; Imai planned a picture book about Iraqi children poisoned by the shells.
These were no seekers of fame, they were not there for the money or the glory. All three of them wanted nothing more than to help others who could not fend or speak for themselves. The three are humanitarians all. And two of them, Takato and Koriyama, wanted to keep on doing their work, despite the great risks involved. And that dedication to the welfare of others was their downfall.
Once Koizumi and the right-wing politicians heard that at least two of the three former hostages wanted to stay on, the attacks began. Koizumi said publicly, “It doesn’t matter how good their intentions are. After this ordeal and having had so many officials working without sleep or food to help them, they still talk that way. They should be aware of their actions.” Another politician said, “If they really hate to return to Japan, I want them to defect to Iraq. Since we’ve paid so much from the state coffers, I feel they should compensate us for it.”
Why such icy hatred? Well, the three humanitarian heroes had become inconvenient to a conservative government that is intent on dismantling a vital part of Japan’s constitution, the part that says Japan should militarize only for self-defense, and never for offense. Japan’s participation in Iraq, no matter how small and tenuous, is the first fragile step towards bringing Japan back onto the world stage as a military power. It embarrassed Koizumi and his party, with a bellwether election just a few weeks away to test how the public reacted to the new role of the military. The hostages screwed up that mission for them because Japanese citizens started asking why the troops were really there, and perhaps they should be removed. Japanese friends I have spoken to about this say that they would prefer the troops come home, especially if it puts Japanese into harm’s way.
The government could not stand this. So as soon as the Japanese government (some say by bribing the hostage takers) successfully got the hostages released, they wasted no time in vilifying them. They called the reckless, irresponsible, trouble-makers, self-righteous, nuisances, even “Japan’s shame,” and attacked them for going into harm’s way. They whined about how government workers sacrificed so much, and the government spent so much time and money to help them, and they want to stay in Iraq?! Ultra-right-wingers–a nasty group here in Japan–showed up at the airport to insult and harass them.
Then the real smear campaign began. Takato, the woman who helps street children, was featured in the gossip rags and right-leaning newspaper editorials as a juvenile smoker and drug addict who had connections with terrorist organizations. Noriaki Imai was accused of coming from a Marxist home and was called a “communist sympathizer,” however that could possibly have any relationship to his work to help children in Iraq.
To add insult to injury, the Japanese government plans to bill them at least $6000 for air fare and medical checkups.
Having returned home, they have been so hopelessly smeared by the right-wing establishment in this country that neither they nor their families can show themselves in public. Nahoko Takato had to be calmed with tranquilizers, and doctors have announced that their treatment here in Japan has been far worse in many ways than their captivity in Iraq:
Dr. Satoru Saito, a psychiatrist who examined the three former hostages twice since their return, said the stress they were enduring now was “much heavier” than what they experienced during their captivity in Iraq. Asked to name their three most stressful moments, the former hostages told him, in ascending order: the moment when they were kidnapped on their way to Baghdad, the knife-wielding incident, and the moment they watched a television show the morning after their return here and realized Japan’s anger with them.“Let’s say the knife incident, which lasted about 10 minutes, ranks 10 on a stress level,” Dr. Saito said in an interview at his clinic on Thursday. “After they came back to Japan and saw the morning news show, their stress level ranked 12.”
Well, Koizumi’s tactics worked. They won the elections.
And three selfless Japanese heroes have been ground into the dirt. Job well done.
It comes as no surprise that Koizumi and his craven right-wing thugs would attempt to humiliate and heap further indignities upon the former hostages by mulcting them of $6000+ for Japan’s “out of pocket expenses”.
Clearly, Koizumi’s intentions are to remind Japan and the world that the KAMIKAZE SPIRIT is alive and well, and that in future, honin had better “die a broken piece of jade” than to return to Koizumi Japan and face the wrath of his Shinto henchmen.
Walter Stewart
Is there a powerful right-wing media establishment in Japan? More influental or less than in the US?
Whenever China lobbyist (and war criminal) Kissinger wants to jutify the laogai (the slave mills) he profits indirectly from, he says it is part of their culture and we have no right to tell the bunka-obsessed scholars of caligraphy over in the People’s Republic how to order their society (which no Celestial Marxist would try to do).
The point is, he’s right: world history is the story of rape, enslavement and mass-murder justified by perverted interpretations of culture (as in manifest destiny, dying for the Emporer, God demanding the blood of the heathen, etc). It is part of Japanese “culture” to obey unquestioningly, to rape, to enslave-just like it was deep in English and French and American culture. And then they progressed.
It is the choice of every thinking person to accept passively “culture” as it is presented by criminals with sick motives behind their interpretations or to decide their culture is actually theirs to maintain as they see fit.
Compare the sick bastards insisting that we are bringing democracy to the people we are bombing, that we have no right to be democratic citizens in wartime but must be obedient auxiliary troopers (or else we’e stabbing in the back the men at the front).
There is no racism or failure to understand bunka or condescending centrist westernism in rejecting Koizumi’s disgusting cowardly Emporer-worship as unworthy of Japan, and in looking down at every coward who fails to see this revolting imperialist and fascist display of barbarism.
I still don’t get why people are shocked by this, unless of course they’ve never really tried to understand Japan and just want to bash them. What these three people did — no matter how we, as Americans, Canadians, &c., may approve — is not heroism to the Japanese. Where the motto is “The nail that sticks up will be hammered down,” these people stuck up. It’s not a right wing plot, it’s how things are done.
You simply do not put your own goals, or the better of people outside your group, above the better of your “own” there. And this is just what these three did — they placed their own goals and the good of Iraqis above the good of their “own”, their families and the Japanese in general. We may not understand it, and we may not approve, but it would be wrong to see it as a political move by Koizumi or an political football. To their friends and family, they’re only getting what they deserve for being so pompous as to think they, alone, could make a difference against the wishes of their country (whose government advised them not to go).
And this is just what these three did — they placed their own goals and the good of Iraqis above the good of their “own”, their families and the Japanese in general.I don’t agree. The “deru kugi” principle relates to the deviation ofrom a societal norm that puts Japanese people off because it is not what they expect or are comfortable with; I don’t think that applies to the hostages. After all, there have been deru kugi which are greatly loved by Japan–take Hideo Nomo, for example.
These three would have received a far better reception if it were not for the government and right-wingers vilifying them–and it is not necessarily true that the majority of Japanese people hate them or even disapprove. Most are ambivalent, I think, and some are approving of the sacrifice these people made. Most of the hate and bile comes from the right wing–and it only takes a very bellicose 0.01% of the population (with the help of the media) to make a few people feel overwhelmed with hatred.
I usually agree with just about everything you say politically. I think you’ve missed the point here though.
The three ignored a very important aspect of their society that is not to be forgotten, giri. But there are other aspects above and beyond this that condemn this wealthy trio of “volunteers.”
These three were not helping the people in Iraq, but rather themselves. Their motivations were selfish and rather childish. Nahoko Takato’s statement that you quoted, “いやな事されたけど、イラク人を嫌いになれない” is rather naive and relfects a low level of thinking about the issues. Who would suddenly dislike an entire people because they were kidnapped by militants in that country in a known dangerous area?
She obviously had a need to be a hero, and was being helped by the children of Iraq a great deal more than she was helping them. I’ve seen people like this in other areas of activism and volunteerism. They need the credit and self-validation that this sort of work can provide them. Serious activists avoid the, and they don’t want to work with larger groups, because they NEED the credit for themselves. That’s what these three had in common. They avoided cooperating with larger existing activist groups in Iraq and thus took unneccesary risks. Why? Because they needed the credit for themselves. This sort of selfish hero-seeking activism makes serious volunteers and NGO workers look bad. It is really bad for the peace movement overall.
Defending these kids is not a useful thing to do. Sure, they maybe don’t deserve to pay huge fees or suffer the serious vicious personal attacks that are being leveled at them, but they are certainly no heroes. Though being heroes is the only thing they ever wanted to be..
(Did you see the book Nahoko Takato published?? It’s called Nahoko and 15 boys. Come on!)
I fully agree with you Luis. There is absolutely no justifiable reason for the ill treatment these three ex-hostages have received in Japan at the hands of their very own govt, the ever-pliant media, and their very own supposedly compassionate fellow citizens.
I highly suggest that these three, if at all possible, leave the child-like, simpleton, blame-everyone-but-yourself (especially the messenger) mentality that obsesses Japan in times of chaos, strife or public angst, whatever spins are used to justify it.
Japan is simply not grown up enough internationally for the global-minded activities these three want to pursue. The way Takato, Koriyama and Imai have been vilified is nothing short of national ijime and should be a matter of shame in and of itself if confronted with just a little national self-reflection. The mistreatment of the three also proves that Japan is still not ready to join the world community on a truly equal level (many other ways exist other than just economic, you know), and that includes a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
After such public slander against the three ex-captives — with the right-wing Japanese govt as the main cheerleaders — plus the govt’s continuing betrayal of what and who are really important in Iraq (it’s the Iraqi people, not the SDF, not the CPA, not the puppet IGC, and not the occupying US & other Coalition soldiers), the US may certainly end up pleased (which Japan would gleefully do, we know), but it sure doesn’t speak very highly of the country’s overall attitude toward improving world relations. And for these reasons, frankly, I feel Japan simply doesn’t deserve such an important UN position as a permanent seat on the Security Council. I sure wouldn’t want a country with this kind of scapegoating mentality given so much authority, power and control over so many other nations and peoples of the world. The Security Council situation is stifled enough as it is.
But really, for their own health and sanity, as well as keeping open the doors of opportunity for them to pursue their dreams of helping others, outside the straightjacket of “official” sanctioned ODA-type aid, these three really ought to just leave, find more compassionate locales elsewhere in the world as their home bases, and from there go after their goals with gusto and enthusiasm. And quick, before Japan’s ijime literally or figuratively kills them and the spirit they hopefully all still hold within. The world needs many. many more people like these three if we all expect to have any chance of living better and more peaceful lives in the future. It’s so sad that so, so many in Japan just don’t see that.
To excuse the harsh reaction of so many of the Japanese toward the kidnappees as “simply the way things are done” misses the point. It is precisely because the Japanese value their superficial harmony and emotional security above all else, only seeing merit in helping their “own” and daring not make any waves, that this myopic clannishness stifles any individual initiative as well as making compassion for “foreigners” an anomoly. Surely there are idealists who do take themselves rather seriously, but they do much more for their fellow men than those who sit back so comfortably and smugly, watching the drama on telibi, complaining that the actions of these true individuals “upset” everyone. Thank “providence” that this nation of hothouse plants and pampered hobby maniacs can still somehow produce people with some vision.
To excuse the harsh reaction of so many of the Japanese toward the kidnappees as “simply the way things are done” misses the point. It is precisely because the Japanese value their superficial harmony and emotional security above all else, only seeing merit in helping their “own” and daring not make any waves, that this myopic clannishness stifles any individual initiative as well as making compassion for “foreigners” an anomoly. Surely there are idealists who do take themselves rather seriously, but they do much more for their fellow men than those who sit back so comfortably and smugly, watching the drama on telibi, complaining that the actions of these true individuals “upset” everyone. Thank “providence” that this nation of hothouse plants and pampered hobby maniacs can still somehow produce people with some vision.
http://www.ac-net.org/honor/
lets help them pay the bill