Japan Soldiers Head to Iraq for Mission

TOKYO - A group of soldiers assigned to help rebuild Iraq took off from the northern island of Hokkaido on Tuesday, inaugurating the main part of Japan's highly contested mission.

The soldiers departed on a government plane from an army base outside Sapporo, about 520 miles northwest of Tokyo, a Ground Self-Defense Force official said on condition of anonymity.

The group of about 80 troops are part of a total dispatch of about 1,000 ground, sea and air forces being sent to the region. They are due to build residential quarters for the 500-strong force Japan is expected to have on the ground in southern Iraq by March.

The troops will purify water and carry out other humanitarian tasks in Iraq. Japan has already dispatched advance teams and three C-130 cargo planes to the area - the first time Japan's military has been deployed to a combat zone since World War II.

Earlier, about 1,600 relatives and friends saw off the 80 soldiers at a departure ceremony.

The mission is being hotly debated in Japan, where many fear the soldiers will be targeted by insurgents and could get drawn into the fighting there. Many also argue that the dispatch violates Japan's postwar pacifist constitution.