Japanese Red Army
The Japanese Red Army (日本赤軍, Nihon Sekigun) (JRA) is an international organisation founded by Ms. Fusako Shigenobu in February 1971 after breaking away from the Japanese Communist League - Red Army Faction. The group had about 40 members at its height and once was one of the most feared guerrilla movements. The JRA has close ties to the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). By the early 1980s, the JRA was no longer active in Japan and was almost entirely dependent on the PFLP for financing, training and weaponry.
The JRA's stated goals are to overthrow the Japanese government and monarchy and to start a world revolution.
The group is also known as the Anti-Imperialist International Brigade (AIIB), Nippon Sekigun, Nihon Sekigun, Holy War Brigade, and the Anti-War Democratic Front.
Members
- Haruo Wako, former leader (?)
- Osamu Maruoka, former leader, arrested in November 1987.
- Fusako Shigenobu, founder and leader. In November 2000, she was arrested in Osaka, Japan. This surprised many people since she was thought to live in Lebanon. Shigenobu is accused of orchestrating attacks, kidnappings and hijackings. At one time labeled by critics as "the most feared female terrorist in the world", helped plan the 1972 incident at Lod Airport.
- Yu Kikumura was arrested with explosives on the New Jersey Turnpike and is serving a 22 year prison sentence in the United States.
- Yoshimi Tanaka was sentenced to 12 years for the hijacking that ended in North Korea.
- Ekita Yukiko, a long-time JRA activist, was arrested in March 1995 in Romania and subsequently deported to Japan. She received a sentence of 20 years for attempted murder and violating the explosives law in a series of bombings targeting large companies in 1974 and 1975. The trial of Ekita was originally started in 1975 but was suspended when she was released from prison in 1977. Her release was part of a deal with the Japanese Red Army during the hijacking of a Japanese airliner to Bangladesh.
- Kozo Okamoto contributed to the attack on the Israeli Lod airport, now Ben Gurion International Airport, in 1972. He was jailed in Israel following the Tel Aviv airport attack. In May 1985, Okamoto was freed in an exchange of prisoners between Israeli and Palestinian forces. Subsequently, he was imprisoned in Lebanon for three years for forging visas and passports. The Lebanese authorities granted Okamoto asylum in 1999 because he fought against Israel.
- Masao Adachi, Kazuo Tohira, Haruo Wako, and Mariko Yamamoto were also imprisoned in Lebanon on charges of forgery yet were sent to Jordan. As the Jordanian authorities refused to allow them into Jordan, they were handed over to Japan.
- The government hopes to extradite several others members from North Korea, which granted them asylum. The issue is one of several issues blocking the establishment of diplomatic ties between Pyongyang and Tokyo.
Terrorist activities
During the 1970s and 1980s, JRA carried out a series of attacks around the world, including:
- March 31, 1970: The JRA hijacked a domestic Japan Airlines Boeing 727 carrying 129 people at Tokyo International Airport. Eight Red Army members wielded samurai swords and carried a bomb during Japan's most infamous hijacking. The plane was forced to fly to Fukuoka and later Gimpo Airport in Seoul, where all the passengers were freed. It then flew to North Korea, where the Red Army members abandoned the plane and the crewmembers were released. Tanaka is one of nine Japanese Red Army members accused in the hijacking, but is the only one to be convicted. Three of Tanaka's alleged accomplices later died in North Korea and five remain there. According to Japan's National Police Agency, another accomplice may also have died in North Korea.
- May 30, 1972: The Lod Airport Massacre: A machine gun and grenade attack on Israel's Lod Airport in Tel Aviv, now Ben Gurion International Airport, left 26 people dead, including two JRA members. About 80 others were injured.
- July 1973: Red Army members led PFLP guerrillas in hijacking a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane over the Netherlands. The passengers and crew were released in Libya, where hijackers blew up the plane.
- January 1974: Red Army attacked a Shell Oil facility in Singapore and took five hostages; simultaneously, the PFLP seized the Japanese embassy in Kuwait. The hostages were exchanged for a ransom and safe passage to South Yemen in a Japanese Airlines plane.
- September 13, 1974: The French Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands was stormed. The ambassador and ten other people were taken hostage and a Dutch policewoman, Hanke Remmerswaal, was shot in the back, puncturing a lung. After a few days of difficult communication and setting ultimatums, the hostages were freed in exchange for the release of a jailed Red Army member (Yatuka Furuya), $300,000 and the use of a plane. The plane flew the hostage-takers first to Aden, South Yemen, where they were not accepted and then to Syria.
- August 1975: The Red Army took more than 50 hostages at a building housing several embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hostages included the US consul and the Swedish charge d'affaires. The gunmen won the release of five imprisoned comrades and flew with them to Libya.
- September 1977: The Red Army hijacked Japan Airlines Flight 472 over India and forced it to land in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Japanese Government freed six imprisoned members of the group and paid a $6m ransom.
- December 1977: A suspected lone member of the army hijacked an internal Malaysia Airlines flight carrying the Cuban ambassador to Tokyo Mario Garcia. The Boeing 737 then crashed killing all onboard after he shot both pilots and himself.
- May 1986: The Red Army fired mortar rounds at the embassies of Japan, Canada and the United States in Jakarta, Indonesia.
- June 1987: A similar attack was launched on the British and United States embassies in Rome, Italy.
- April 1988: Red Army members bombed the US military recreational (USO) club in Naples, Italy, killing five.
- In the same month, JRA operative Yu Kikumura was arrested with explosives on the New Jersey Turnpike highway, apparently to coincide with the USO bombing. He was convicted of these charges and is serving a lengthy prison sentence in the United States.
- The JRA launched a series of 17 bombings on buildings belonging to large corporations, including Mitsui & Co. and Taisei Corp, injuring 20 people. Eight people were killed in the bombing of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s head office building in Tokyo.