Civilian train to throw Molotov cocktails to protect the city while the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, March 1, 2022 REUTERS / Viacheslav Ratynskyi
TOKYO, March 2 – Keichi Kurogi was one of dozens of men in Japan who offered to join the International Legion to Fight Russian Invaders after Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky called for volunteers.
Kurogi, a 39-year-old office worker living in southwestern Japan, told Reuters he called the Ukrainian embassy on Monday after seeing his request for volunteers on Twitter.
“When I saw images of elderly men and women in Ukraine holding guns and going to the front, I felt I had to go in their place,” he said.
The embassy rejected Kurogi’s offer to fight, saying he lacked the necessary military experience.
As of Tuesday, 70 Japanese – including 50 former members of Japan’s self-defense forces and two veterans of the French Foreign Legion – had applied to volunteer, the Mainichi Shimbun reported, citing a Tokyo-based volunteer company.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian embassy confirmed that he had received calls from people who “want to fight for Ukraine”, but declined to give further details.
A post on social media on February 28 from the embassy thanked the Japanese for their many inquiries about volunteering, but added a reservation.
“Every candidate for this must have experience in the Japanese Self-Defense Forces or have undergone specialized training,” the statement said.
In a new Twitter post Wednesday, the Ukrainian embassy in Japan said it was looking for volunteers with medical, IT, communications or firefighting experience. It was not immediately clear whether the volunteers’ positions were remote or involving a trip to Ukraine.
Japan has told its citizens to postpone their trip to Ukraine for some reason, a warning repeated Wednesday by Cabinet Secretary-General Hirokazu Matsuno, who said he was familiar with the reports on the volunteers.
“The Japanese Foreign Ministry has issued an evacuation council for the whole of Ukraine, and we want people to stop all travel to Ukraine, regardless of the purpose of their visit,” he told a news conference.
“We are communicating with the Ukrainian embassy in Japan and we have indicated that there is an evacuation council.
Japan said on Wednesday it would temporarily close its embassy in Kyiv amid growing dangers in the capital.
JAPAN GIVES
The war in Ukraine has sparked strong emotions in Japan, which has a post-war pacifist constitution that has been interpreted in recent years to allow Japan to exercise collective self-defense or help allies who are under attack.
Hundreds gathered to protest the Russian invasion last week in Tokyo, while the Ukrainian embassy said it had collected $ 17 million in donations from about 60,000 people in Japan after sending an online request for help.
One of them was Ryoga Seki, a 23-year-old computer science student at Osaka University who donated a month’s salary as a part-time teacher – 100,000 yen ($ 868) – to Ukraine.
“There are a lot of people here like me who want to do something but can’t move right now,” he said, adding that this was his first big donation and the maximum amount he could transfer from his bank at once.
As for Kurogi, he is adamant that he would volunteer again if Ukraine changed its requirements.
“I come from a generation that doesn’t know war at all,” he said. “Not that I want to go to war, I’d rather go than see children forced to bear arms.”
Additional reports by Kantaro Komiya and Sakura Murakami; Edited by Lincoln Feast
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