I’m seeing a number of possibilities here, and no real sign of which one is more likely.
It was fake, and the hostages (who were against the Japanese government’s sending troops into Iraq) were cooperating with the kidnappers. Possible. Strange, but possible.
The government is trying to discredit the hostages. There’s already been a measure of backlash against the hostages, mainly stemming from their announcement that they want to return to Iraq to continue their work (the two older ones anyway, 18-year-old Noriaki Imai had only intended to stay for a two or three-week visit), and their continued belief that PM Koizumi is wrong about sending troops. This prompted an indignant response from Koizumi of “How dare [photographer Soichiro] Koriyama say such a thing as we made round-the-clock efforts to gain the hostages’ release.” and from another government official of “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.” Almost immediately after this, it was announced that the hostages would have to pay US$2000 each for their flight back to Japan, and that they would be questioned by police upon returning.
This is nothing. The kidnappers were really kidnappers and the hostages were really hostages. At one point, one of the kidnappers held a knife to a hostage’s throatwhile his friends pointed their guns and said “look scared”. In the course of recounting the event and going from kidnapper to hostage to police interrogator to police press agent to newspapers, translating in the process from Arabic to Japanese to English, the story has morphed into this.
Couldn’t the “Stockholm syndrom” play a part, here?
I read while they were detained that the right-wing japanese medias had run some sort of campaign against them, and even that their families had received threats, hate-mail, insults, etc…So, it seems that at least part of the Japanese population wasn’t very supportive of them. Don’t know if this is significant re. your OP…
It could, I guess, but they were only there for a few days. How long does it usually take for Stockholm Syndrome to start?
The harrassing calls to the families actually started coming even before the hostages had been released, in response to their criticism of the government.
I think what surprised me most was that their desire to go back to Iraq and continue their work caught the government off-guard. It’s kind of sad to think that the idea of people actually volunteering to go into dangerous areas to do something they believe is right has become such an alien concept.
The story has morphed into what? The original is unsuprising, and it seems to be what has been reported, no morphing going on.
The kidnappers wanted the victims to look as scared as possible for the cameras, pointed guns and said “be scared!” or “Look scared!”. The victims looked scared, which wasn’t such a stretch since they undoubtedly were anyway.
Look for your conspiracy theories elsewhere. This is, as you said, nothing.
I meant morphed from “look scared or we’ll kill you” to “the hostages were just pretending to be scared,” which is what the Japan Today article is certainly implying.
I usually get just what I catch on TV, but I hadn’t heard about any backlash or looking scared. When I checked the stories about them on www.goo.ne.jp, didn’t find much of significance, except they said they only wanted to go on TV the three of them together, etc.
I don’t smell a big conspiracy here, and, frankly, couldn’t care less anyway.
I checked out the Daily Yomiuri and Asahi Shinbun sites, but couldn’t find anything about “pretending” to be scared. Also, the tone of the Japan Times article didn’t seem all that negative.
I have heard quite a bit about the backlash, and it’s really puzzling to me. I’d say a little over 50% of the people around me have a negative perception of the volunteers. I’ve heard things like they aren’t really selfless, that they get a smug feeling of self-satisfaction out of it, that they are self-indulgent and reckless, etc. There aren’t a whole lot of charities around here, and I get the feeling that many Japanese don’t understand the desire to help humanity in general, rather than the people in your “group.”
I was also surprised by the request that the families pay for the cost of rescue. Is this done in other countries? It seems so cold-hearted.
Sublight, you forgot a very important element to this story.
The Japanese government played no part in the hostage’s release. They had no means to do so. While the Japanese authorities were scrambling to come up with a plan, it was Abdel Salem Al Kubaissi, an important cleric who mediated with the captors for their release. For some reason, this got very little play in the English media.
The only room for any kind of conspiracy theory, or whatever, lies in Al Kubaissi’s motives. In the power vacuum of Iraq, it’s hard to discount the possibility that his motives were at least partly politically motivated. By emerging as a hero and a defender of peace and order, he solidifies his power base. The CPA didn’t free the hostages, the SDF didn’t, he did. This explains his small indignation at the lack of official “thank you” note from the Japanese government, and the government’s reluctance at giving him one. (They finally caved in, kind of.)
I have found the actions and comments by members of the LDP to be particularly despicable. Especially Yasuo Fukuda who charged that the hostages were responsible for what happened to them.
Yup, I saw some speculations on this last week. Apparently all the (then) hostages were fervent opposed to the Iraq war and Japans involvement. And they knew each other beforehand. Also their method to get to Iraq was somewhat chancy; a private taxi from Amman to Baghdad. Still pretty weak soup. On the other hand, if it turned up they planned their own capture, wouldn’t that be considered treason?
Here’s a Russian newsoutlet that says Japanese spetsnats were heading for Iraq to free the hostages. I think the Russians goofed up the spetsnats thing though. Everybody knows it’s the Russians that’s got them spetsnats, Japan has ninjas.
Well, that covers a significant percentage of Japanese people. More specifically about 40%.
Stop the press! People who know each other actually hang out together in a strange land!
I understand that this is actually one of the few ways civilians can make it into Iraq. Seems odd but really isn’t.
It’s not weak soup. It’s tinfoil hat territory.
What about all the other foreigners who were taken hostage at the same time? Did they all plan their own capture? That Italian guy sure played his part seriously.
Please, please go ahead and laugh about others’ lives. It makes the rest of us feel better.
As jovan said, there are a lot people who would rather discredit the three than support them. Among the most despicable are the “wide shows” which are bitching about them not taking “person responsibility” about this, while at the same time using free lance journalists for reports on Iraq.\
