Defense ministry told only 3 sections to search for Iraq logs

April 9, 2018

Tokyo- A senior official of the Defense Ministry's Joint Staff instructed only three sections in February last year to search for daily activity logs from the Ground Self-Defense Force's 2004-2006 mission in Iraq which the ministry initially claimed were "nonexistent," according to ministry sources.

The official issued the instruction after then Defense Minister Tomomi Inada made a remark questioning the absence of the activity reports from Iraq, but there was no clear-cut search instruction from her, the sources said Saturday.

The revelation suggests that Inada's remark was vague as an instruction and was not communicated appropriately, raising questions whether civilian control over the Self-Defense Forces worked properly.

It was revealed this week that the Iraq reports had been discovered in March last year but the discovery was not reported to the defense minister for more than a year until this month, raising suspicion of a cover-up.

According to the sources, Inada made the remark in question on Feb. 22, 2017, two days after she told parliament that there were no daily reports from GSDF troops who took part in the controversial postwar reconstruction support mission in Iraq.

In her office, Inada asked the then administrative vice chief of staff of the Joint Staff whether the Iraq activity reports were really nonexistent.

Inada probably doubted the absence of the reports, a senior ministry official said.

The Joint Staff took her remark as a directive. An official of the Joint Staff Councilor's office subsequently sent emails to relevant officials of three sections, one each in the Joint Staff Operations Department, the Ground Staff Office and the Air Staff Office.

The emails asked them to check for the daily logs from Iraq and specify the sections that have confirmed the absence of such reports. The messages referred to Inada's question but contained no clear language showing her remark as a directive.

The officials of the three sections replied the emails within the same day, saying such daily logs from Iraq were not stored.

The senior ministry official said the emails was not necessarily written appropriately.

On Feb. 16, 2017, the ministry said there were no daily activity reports from GSDF troops on the Iraq mission, in response to an inquiry from an opposition lawmaker.

The revelation of how ministry officials acted on Inada's remark in the month suggests that she made the similar denial in parliament before issuing a clear search instruction for Iraq reports. Opposition parties may raise questions about her attitude. Jiji Press