TOKYO - The harsh criticism facing Japanese citizens taken hostage in Iraq stems from government resentment over their families' call for Tokyo to withdraw its troops from the country, one of the hostages said Tuesday.

Five Japanese civilians were taken captive in Iraq earlier this month in two groups - one of three hostages and a second of two. The kidnappers of the first group threatened to kill them unless Japan pulled its troops out of southern Iraq.

Hostage family members urged Tokyo to meet the demand. The government refused and all were released unharmed, but officials were angered by the families' position, said Nobutaka Watanabe, who was in the second group of hostages.

Some of the hostages have been vilified in the tabloid press in Japan and government officials have accused them of recklessly going into Iraq without proper security and imperiling Japanese policy.

On Monday, officials said three of the hostages were charged a total of $21,000 to cover their plane tickets home and other miscellaneous expenses connected with their return to Japan.

Japan has some 550 ground troops in southern Iraq on a noncombat humanitarian mission. The dispatch was fiercely debated at home, and the government is eager to avoid any trouble that could increase opposition to its involvement in Iraq.

Watanabe was taken hostage with freelance journalist Junpei Yasuda outside of the besieged city of Fallujah. The two, who said they were more like detainees than hostages, told reporters they were treated well by their captors.

The first group of three hostages has received the brunt of media coverage in Japan. Their kidnapping was announced in a video showing them blindfolded, kneeling before their heavily armed captors.

The kidnapping triggered an outpouring of concern for the hostages' safety, but the concern gave way to criticism and many suggested the hostages themselves shared part of the blame by going to a dangerous place.

Watanabe and Yasuda, however, said the families' reaction was justified.

"Their captors made political demands, so the families had to respond in a political fashion," Yasuda said.