English Literature

The year 2004 was not as friendly to the Japanese, who offered voluntary services in Iraq for they were held captives and most were the times when they were threatened and even killed depending on the severity of the captors. For example in April, there were 5 hostages in Iraq who upon release were received with criticism when they returned home.

The Japan and U.S. troops criticized and shamed their civilians for taking the initiative to travel to a government danger declared zone.  Even though the government had a role to play in the provision of security, this was not so obvious because the abductors demands were just but a temptation to the loss of government stability and loss of responsibility.  The best thing was therefore to warn the civilians against traveling to the danger zones until it was confirmed safe to do so.  The discussion below covers how the hostages were treated by the captors, the government and the media role in solving the problems.

How the captors treated the captives
The captors mistreated the captives to a large extend in which majority of them were beheaded at Iraq while in hostage. For example, a recent case of Shosei Koda of Japan, who had been working in New Zealand and part time worker at Amman in Jordan, was taken hostage by the Al Qaeda group under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had threatened to be beheaded if Japan would not have withdrawn her troops from Iraq.  Kodas family living at Nogata ascertained his identity from his vedio footage shown on a television. Reports confirmed that, Koda entered Iraq through the Japanese embassy found in the country. He was only 24 years and a civilian who traveled in New Zealand under a work visa. Despite advice not to visit Iraq, he entered Iraq by bus with the intention of staying at his Iraq friends home.  However, he had no visa for Iraq. It was said that he was only a traveler but not a journalist.  His parents requested fervently that the government took charge to see to it that the boy was returned home at what ever cost.  Unfortunately he was beheaded.

Others taken hostage in the same year were a journalist and Japanese civilians in April 2004 aged 18, 32 and 36.  These were threatened to be burnt alive unless the Japan troops were evacuated from Iraq.  They were tortured, blindfolded and threatened with knife cutting edges.  The journalist managed to escape narrowly after convincing the abductors that they were just touring the country and that they were not among the Japans troop members.

However, the best that the government tried in order to rescue captives was to make calls and negotiate actively to convince the Iraq abdicators that the hostages were genuinely in Iraq for the good of Iraq. For example, the 18 year old boy from Japan was detained while he researched on the depletion of Uranium yet he was harmless to the Iraqs.  A pledge was made to release him and the rest after 24 hours although the release did not take the exact agreed time.  The release depended on the withdrawal of the troops.  

The governments negotiations on their release
The government under the leadership of the prime minister, Koizumi, a hard hearted leader, did not yield to the demands of the captors of withdrawing their war troops form Iraq. Upon receiving the news on Japanese hostage in Iraq in most instances, stakeholders in Japan would try to form a task force that would deal with the cases as soon as possible.  The rescue team found it hard to trace the trappers because they were rarely connected to the native local authorities.  However, the abductors at times issued threats on the Japan government to withdraw their armies from Iraq failure to which their captives would be killed.  In response to this kind of messages, Japan did not withdraw her troops from Iraq.

The role of the media on hostage
The media on the other hand has had a great impact on the release of the detainees.  Most important, the press assisted a great deal in the disclosure of information on the abducted people trying to obtain video clips or footing to identify the victims though the media television and announcing to the government to make the necessary steps towards their rescue. Press information did not only assist the government, but also the Japanese in identifying their relatives who were held to captivity by the bandits.  Peace keeping associations and war ships were also made aware of the danger spots in the country (Farrell, 2004).  The media was used to warn the Japanese against unsecured travel to the borders of Iraq or in to the country.

Conclusion
In conclusion, despite the Japanese residents organizing demonstrations called the Anti-war protests asking the government to push for the release of the abducted Japanese civilian, the politicians only laid a blaming hand on the hostages for their irresponsibility and troubling Japanese peace.  Negotiations showed that the government would not relent at all.