CLOSE-UP
KEIKO SAKAI
Conundrum Iraq
Japan Times
One year ago this month, an advance team from Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) arrived in Iraq on a mission -- so the Japanese public was told -- to help rebuild the wartorn country. The rest of the main contingent of 600 troops soon followed.
Then, on Dec. 9, 2004, amid simmering debate over whether the dispatch fell foul of Japan's war-renouncing Constitution -- and after an Asahi Shimbun poll registered over 60 percent opposition to it -- the Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi extended the Self-Defense Forces' stay by another 12 months.
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Interviewed at the IDE offices in Chiba City, east of Tokyo, Sakai shed light on why, though less than 1 percent of Japan's total oil imports are now from Iraq, Koizumi has firmly linked Japan's membership of Bush's "coalition of the willing" to Japan's energy security.
What was life in Iraq like during your stay?
I lived there in the late 1980s, before the 1991 Gulf War and the subsequent economic sanctions, so the economic situation was good.
In the sense that it was a totalitarian state in which you were always watched, yes, there was a distinct lack of psychological freedom -- but there was more economic freedom than now.
During the three years I was there, it was a very easy place to live. In the wake of Saddam Hussein's removal, the psychological oppression has completely disappeared. In that sense it's more free, but the economic and social restrictions have become extremely severe.
How was it to be a foreign woman in Saddam's Iraq?
It was a breeze. Iraq was making sincere efforts toward the advancement of women. There was a socialist system in place, and many women in Iraq were rising to ministerial and parliamentary ranks. And (the men) were very kind to me -- kinder than Japanese men (laughter). It was a very easy place to be.
Supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr have reportedly said recently that they regard the Japanese as helping to occupy Iraq. How pervasive do you believe that view is in Iraq? Is it growing, and if so, how effective are Japan's efforts to counter it?
Frankly speaking, most Iraqis believe any foreign troops bearing arms are occupiers, and they don't want occupiers to remain on their soil. But there are two main strands of thinking on this.
Most Sunni Iraqis want to get occupiers out by force, now. Shiites, meanwhile, want to engage in a political process first and establish a government. Then they'll have a good excuse to ask the occupiers to go home.
Some people think that even if the Japanese are occupiers, a Japanese presence is needed for now -- particularly the private construction companies -- and that some months down the line maybe private companies will come and construct big projects. The problem is that if the SDF turns out to be more occupier than contributor to economic development, then the people will attack them.
Iraqis can remember seeing Japanese corporations -- Mitsubishi, Marubeni, Taisei Corp. and so on -- so whenever they think about Japan, they tend to think about construction.
For them, Japan equals construction companies....the rest...
