Protesters have rallied in Tokyo, urging Japan to pull its troops out of Iraq to save the lives of three Japanese hostages as U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrived for the start of a three-country Asian
tour.
Cheney is expected to urge Japan to keep its troops in Iraq, despite the kidnapping earlier this week of three Japanese civilians by insurgents who have threatened to execute them if Japanese troops are not withdrawn by Sunday night.
Despite appeals from the hostages' families, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he had no plans to pull the country's troops out of Iraq, where they are engaged in a non-combat mission to rebuild the war-torn nation.
Cheney's week-long trip to Asia will also take him to China and South Korea, where talks were expected to focus on efforts to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions but may be overshadowed by the violence in Iraq, the worst since Saddam Hussein's fall a year ago.
Cheney vowed yesterday not to be deterred by the bloody uprising in Iraq and urging anxious allies not to waver.
Roughly 1,000 protesters demanding the troops come home gathered near Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's office hours before Cheney arrived.
In one of several demonstrations, protesters near Koizumi's office banged drums. Others held signs reading "Save the Three".
"The government's response is very cold," said Keiko Sato. "You have to wonder what they think about human life."
The US vice president, one of architects of the Iraq war who once predicted US troops would be "greeted as liberators," delivered his stay-the-course message in back-to-back pep rallies to troops in a giant hanger for F-15 fighters and to Republican loyalists at a fund-raiser in Anchorage, Alaska.
Despite appeals from the hostages' families, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he had no plans to pull the country's troops out of Iraq.
Cheney's weeklong trip to Asia will also take him to China and South Korea, where talks were expected to focus on efforts to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions but will likely be overshadowed by the worst violence in Iraq since Saddam Hussein was removed from power a year ago.
"In Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond, the war on terror requires tremendous coordination with allies around the world," Cheney told the American troops, offering a preview of his appeal for resolve to Japan and South Korea.
Cheney is expected to urge Koizumi and other Japanese leaders to keep their troops in Iraq, despite the kidnapping of its citizens.
"It's a classic case, I think, of those who are opposed to what we're trying to do in Iraq ... trying to change the behaviour of governments through terror, intimidation, the threat of violence," a senior administration official told reporters. "It's important that those of us who are working on this overall effort not allow that to happen."
Koizumi has spent enormous political capital to push through the Iraq deployment. The mission is Japan's riskiest military operation since World War II and a major shift from Tokyo's purely defensive post-war military stance.