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.