Oh, brother: Japanese Hostages Talk About Their Ordeal.

They said their captors treated them relatively well, despite a grim video aired repeatedly on Japanese television in which the kidnappers manhandled the three at gunpoint and pointed knives at their throats.

Imai said the abductors told them to act afraid and to cry during the taping, but added that they were rough with them while the cameras were on “and so it was really frightening.”

He said they had been assured before the video that they would not be killed. “When they realized we weren’t spies, their attitude toward us changed,” Imai said. “A man who called himself `General’ said he was sorry many times.”

Photojournalist Koriyama, who was abducted in a separate car from the aid workers, said he believed the abductors were acting in self-defense.

“They were not terrorists,” he said. “They were resistance fighters, defending themselves against the attacks of the U.S. troops.”