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The Japanese Red Army is an international terrorist group founded by Ms.
Fusako Shigenobu in February 1971 after breaking away from Japanese
Communist League - Red Army Faction, with close ties to the Popular Front
for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The group, having about 40 members at
its height, once was one of the most feared guerrilla movements, spreading
terror around the world over a period of 16 years.
Stated goals were to overthrow the Japanese Government and monarchy and
to start a world revolution.
Members
- Hurao 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, to the surprise of many, since she was thought
to live in Lebanon. Ms. Shigenobu is accused of masterminding deadly
attacks, kidnappings and hijackings.
- Yu Kikumura, was arrested with explosives on the New Jersey Turnpike
and is serving a long prison sentence in the United States.
- Yoshimi Tanaka was sentenced to 12 years for the hijacking that ended
in North Korea.
- Ekita Yukiko, a longtime 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
originally started in 1975 but was suspended when she was released from
prison in 1977 in a deal with the Japanese Red Army during the hijacking
of a Japanese airliner to Bangladesh.
- Kozo Okamoto contributed in the attack on the Israeli airport in 1972.
In May 1985 Okamota, who was jailed in Israel following the Tel Aviv
airport attack, 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, Haro Wako, and Mariko Yamamoto were also
imprisoned in Lebanon on charges of forgery yet were sent to Jordan and,
as the Jordanian authorities refused to allow them into Jordan, 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: hijacking of 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 flight, bound for the city of Fukuoka, 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 defected
and the crew members 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, though one may also have died, according to Japan's
National Police Agency.
- May 1972: A machine gun and grenade attack on Israel's Lod Airport in
Tel Aviv, now Ben Gurion International Airport, leaves 26 people dead,
including two Red Army members, and about 80 others injured.
- July 1973: Red Army members lead PFLP guerrillas in hijacking a Japan
Airlines (JAL) plane over the Netherlands. The passengers and crew are
released in Libya, where hijackers blow up the plane.
- January 1974: Red Army members blamed for blowing up storage tanks at
an oil refinery in Singapore.
- September 13, 1974: The French Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands is
stormed, the ambassador and ten other people are taken hostage and a Dutch
police woman, Hanke Remmerswaal, is shot in the back, puncturing a lung.
After a few days of difficult communication and setting ultimatums, the
hostages are freed in exchange for the release of a jailed Red Army member
(Yatuka Furuya), $300,000 and use of a plane, that flies the
hostage-takers first to Aden, Yemen, where they are not accepted, finally
ending their voyage in Syria.
- August 1975: The Red Army takes more than 50 hostages at a building
housing several embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hostages include
the US consul and the Swedish charge d'affaires. The gunmen win the
release of five imprisoned comrades and fly with them to Libya.
- September 1977:The Red Army hijacks a JAL plane over India and forces
it to land in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Japanese Government frees six
imprisoned members of the group and pays a $6m ransom.
- May 1986: The Red Army fires mortar rounds at the embassies of Japan,
Canada and the United States in Jakarta, Indonesia.
- June 1987: A similar attack is launched on the British and United
States embassies in Rome, Italy.
- April 1988: Red Army members bomb 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.
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.
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