Japan's army shows its human face

Japan's army shows its human face

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

Lt. Kimura and his fellow field doctors braced for another busy
day, with some 50 patients already forming a queue in front of
the medical center that the Japanese Self Defense Force (JSDF)
has set up in an open field in Banda Aceh's south western
subdistrict of Lam Ara.

One patient last week was Ivan, a three-year-old who developed
a serious case of diarrhea after swallowing large volumes of
seawater when he nearly drowned in the Dec. 26 tsunami. Kimura, a
medical doctor, immediately prescribed an intravenous drip to
prevent the boy from suffering further dehydration.

Nearby, Japanese soldiers were seen mounting their gear onto
two trucks, before being dispatched to conduct pest control
operations.

Elsewhere, helicopters bearing Japanese insignias flew back
and forth from the city's Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport to various
parts of the west coast, carrying supplies for displaced people.

Such scenes are, of course, in marked contrast to those of
March 1942, when the Japanese Imperial Navy and Army arrived in
Indonesia in full force, quickly accepting the surrender of the
country by the Dutch colonial army.

Now, armed with medicines, syringes and fumigators instead of
guns, rifles and grenades, the JSDF -- or Jieitai as they are
known in their home country -- have come to Nanggroe Aceh
Darussalam on a peaceful humanitarian mission.

In the largest-ever operation for the Japan military since
World War II, the 900-strong mission comprises 230 Japanese
Ground Self Defense Force personnel under the command of Col.
Muramoto Takachi, and includes a 20-member medical staff.

The ground force is supported by some 600 seamen from three
Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force vessels -- the Kunisaki
transport ship, the Kurama destroyer and the Tokiwa supply ship
-- under Vice Admiral Sasachi Tasanobu. The ships were sent
directly from their base in Hokkaido.

"The ships are equipped with three Chinook helicopters and two
Blackhawks for aid distribution operations," JSDF public affairs
officer, Lt. Col. Hiroji Yamashita said. "We have also deployed
two Hercules C-130 aircraft for transporting emergency relief aid
between Banda Aceh and the Utapao airbase in Thailand."

He said the medical center was set up three days after they
arrived on Jan. 16 at the airport. After tending to refugees in
the area, on Jan. 25 the JSDF moved the center to Lam Ara --
closer to several refugee camps.

"The medical center can treat an average of 200 patients a
day," Yamashita said.

He said that the disease prevention operations since Jan. 31
have managed to sanitize some 13,700 square meters of various
areas in Banda Aceh. JSDF personnel fumigated and cleaned up
bodies of foul water left behind by the tsunami, which were
liable to become breeding grounds for diseases such as malaria,
dengue fever and cholera.

After its defeat in World War II, in which the Japanese
Imperial military was accused of many atrocities, Japan's post-
war constitution stripped the country of any military except for
a self-defense force. Controversy on this issue heated up again
recently when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pushed for the
development of the JSDF into a full military.

Regarding their presence now in Aceh, so far no one has
complained at all.

Risnawati, a young mother in Lam Ara, said that the JSDF
medical center was a real help to locals, as many had developed
various diseases after the tsunami. She went to the center to
have her skin sores treated, while her 16-month-old son Arinal
was treated for diarrhea.

"Many Acehnese are indeed still traumatized with anything that
has anything to do with military, but the presence of the
Japanese is really welcomed here," Risnawati said. As a 24-year-
old she was more than likely not referring to experience under
the Japanese military, but rather to years of living in between
the Indonesian Military and the armed wing of the Free Aceh
Movement (GAM).

The Japanese troops are among the many here who have had the
opportunity to show the human faces behind the fatigues.