Japanese troops enter Iraq
An advance team of Japanese soldiers crossed into southern Iraq today in a controversial humanitarian mission marking Japan’s most-dangerous overseas deployment since the Second World War.
The Japanese advance group, escorted by Dutch forces, moved from the US military base Camp Virginia in the Kuwaiti desert to southern Iraq.
The engineering and water purification units were heading to Samawah, said Captain Randall Baucom, a US military spokesman in Kuwait.
A forward party of more than 30 Japanese soldiers had arrived in Kuwait on Saturday to prepare for their mission. When fully deployed in Samawah by March, a 1,000-strong Japanese contingent will help purify local water supplies, rebuild schools and provide medical care in southern Iraq.
Non-combatant. There is widespread opposition to the mission in Japan, where the nation’s Second World War defeat and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are considered horrifying reminders of the devastation of war.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told parliament today that Japan has a responsibility to accept some of the risks in Iraq.
“We won’t have fulfilled our responsibility as a member of the international community if we contribute materially and leave the manpower contribution up to other countries because of the possible dangers involved,” Koizumi said to supporters’ cheers and boos from the opposition.
“Japan’s development and prosperity depends on world peace and stability,” Koizumi said. “We will aggressively contribute to the rebuilding of Iraq.”
