> Freed From Captivity in Iraq, Japanese Return to More Pain > By NORIMITSU ONISHI
> > Published: April 23, 2004 > > Associated Press > Nahoko Takato and Noriaki Imai, two hostages freed by their Iraqi captors, >arrived in Japan on Sunday and have gone into hiding.
> > TOKYO, April 22 ? The young Japanese civilians taken hostage in Iraq returned home this week, not to the warmth of a yellow-ribbon embrace but to a disapproving nation's cold stare.
> > Three of them, including a woman who helped street children on the streets >of Baghdad, appeared on television two weeks ago as their knife-brandishing >kidnappers threatened to slit their throats. >A few days after their release, they landed here on Sunday, in the eye of a peculiarly Japanese storm. > > "You got what you deserve!" read one hand-written sign at the airport where they landed. "You are Japan's shame," another wrote on the Web site of one of the former hostages. They had "caused trouble" for everybody. >The government, not to be outdone, announced it would bill the former hostages $6,000 for air fare.