ARMED STRUGGLE IS NOT TERRORISM
‘Empress of terror’: Japanese Red Army founder released from prisonFusako Shigenobu, who served 20 years for French embassy siege, believed to have masterminded deadly Tel Aviv attack
Japanese Red Army founder Fusako Shigenobu leaves jail in Tokyo after spending 20 years behind bars.
Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images
Agence France-Presse in Tokyo
Agence France-Presse in Tokyo
Sat 28 May 2022
The founder of one of the most feared terrorist organisations of the 1970s has walked free from a Japanese prison after completing a 20-year sentence for the siege of the French embassy in the Netherlands.
Once described as “the empress of terror”, Fusako Shigenobu founded the Japanese Red Army, a radical leftist group that carried out armed attacks worldwide in support of the Palestinian cause.
On Saturday, 76-year-old Shigenobu left the prison in Tokyo with her daughter as several supporters held a banner saying “We love Fusako”.
“I apologise for the inconvenience my arrest has caused to so many people,” Shigenobu said after the release. “It’s half a century ago ... but we caused damage to innocent people who were strangers to us by prioritising our battle, such as by hostage-taking.”
The founder of one of the most feared terrorist organisations of the 1970s has walked free from a Japanese prison after completing a 20-year sentence for the siege of the French embassy in the Netherlands.
Once described as “the empress of terror”, Fusako Shigenobu founded the Japanese Red Army, a radical leftist group that carried out armed attacks worldwide in support of the Palestinian cause.
On Saturday, 76-year-old Shigenobu left the prison in Tokyo with her daughter as several supporters held a banner saying “We love Fusako”.
“I apologise for the inconvenience my arrest has caused to so many people,” Shigenobu said after the release. “It’s half a century ago ... but we caused damage to innocent people who were strangers to us by prioritising our battle, such as by hostage-taking.”
Fusako Shigenobu during her arrest in 2000.
Photograph: Toshiyuki Aizawa/Reuters
She is believed to have masterminded the 1972 machine gun and grenade attack on Tel Aviv’s Lod airport, which left 26 people dead and injured about 80.
Shigenobu had lived as a fugitive in the Middle East for around 30 years but was arrested in Osaka in November 2000 after secretly returning to Japan using a false passport and checking into a hotel disguised as a man.
The former soy sauce company worker was sentenced to two decades behind bars six years later for her part in the 1974 siege of the embassy in the Hague.
Shigenobu maintained her innocence over the siege, in which three Red Army militants stormed into the embassy, taking the ambassador and 10 other staff hostage for 100 hours.
Two police officers were shot and seriously wounded. France ended the standoff by freeing a jailed Red Army guerrilla, who flew off with the hostage-takers in a plane to Syria. Shigenobu did not take part in the attack personally but the court said she coordinated the operation with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Born into poverty in post-war Tokyo, Shigenobu’s odyssey into Middle Eastern extremism began by accident when she passed a sit-in protest at a Tokyo university when she was 20. Shigenobu quickly became involved in the leftist movement and decided to leave Japan aged 25.
She is believed to have masterminded the 1972 machine gun and grenade attack on Tel Aviv’s Lod airport, which left 26 people dead and injured about 80.
Shigenobu had lived as a fugitive in the Middle East for around 30 years but was arrested in Osaka in November 2000 after secretly returning to Japan using a false passport and checking into a hotel disguised as a man.
The former soy sauce company worker was sentenced to two decades behind bars six years later for her part in the 1974 siege of the embassy in the Hague.
Shigenobu maintained her innocence over the siege, in which three Red Army militants stormed into the embassy, taking the ambassador and 10 other staff hostage for 100 hours.
Two police officers were shot and seriously wounded. France ended the standoff by freeing a jailed Red Army guerrilla, who flew off with the hostage-takers in a plane to Syria. Shigenobu did not take part in the attack personally but the court said she coordinated the operation with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Born into poverty in post-war Tokyo, Shigenobu’s odyssey into Middle Eastern extremism began by accident when she passed a sit-in protest at a Tokyo university when she was 20. Shigenobu quickly became involved in the leftist movement and decided to leave Japan aged 25.
She announced the Red Army’s disbanding from prison in April 2001, and in 2008 was diagnosed with colon and intestinal cancer, undergoing several operations.
Shigenobu said on Saturday she will first focus on her treatment and explained she will not be able to “contribute to the society” given her frail condition. But she told reporters: “I want to continue to reflect [on my past] and live more and more with curiosity.”
In a letter to a Japan Times reporter in 2017 she admitted the group had failed in its aims. “Our hopes were not fulfilled and it came to an ugly end,” she wrote.
Reign of terror
February 1971: Shigenobu founds the Japanese Red Army in Lebanon
May 1972: Group kills 26 people and injures 80 in an attack at Lod airport in Tel Aviv
September 1974: French embassy stormed in The Hague. Ambassador and 10 others freed in exchange for release of jailed member
August 1975: More than 50 hostages taken at embassy in Kuala Lumpur
September 1977: Japan Airlines plane hijacked and forced to land in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Japanese government releases six members and pays $6m ransom
April 1988: Five killed in Red Army bombing of US military social club in Naples
November 2000: Shigenobu arrested in Osaka
Palestinian NGOs laud release of Japan terror head with Lod massacre role
By MICHAEL STARR - Yesterday
The Jerusalem Post
Palestinian NGOs and activists celebrated the end of the prison term of "empress of terror" Fusako Shigenobu on Saturday, the co-founder of the Japanese Red Army (JRA) terrorist organization who coordinated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to commit the 1972 Lod Airport Massacre which killed 26 and injured dozens.
By MICHAEL STARR - Yesterday
The Jerusalem Post
Palestinian NGOs and activists celebrated the end of the prison term of "empress of terror" Fusako Shigenobu on Saturday, the co-founder of the Japanese Red Army (JRA) terrorist organization who coordinated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to commit the 1972 Lod Airport Massacre which killed 26 and injured dozens.
"Human rights" groups praise arch-terrorist
"Fusako Shigenobu is finally free!" wrote the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), the celebration coming just a day before the Lod terrorist attack's anniversary. "Palestinians everywhere salute and celebrate Fusako Shigenobu for her extraordinary dedication to our national struggle, and her friendship with our people."
The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network organized a livestream to celebrate her release with Shigenobu's daughter May. The NGO said in a press release that it saluted her, describing her as a "revolutionary" and "political prisoner" who had been unjustly imprisoned. Brighton BDS called her story "amazing."
Upon her release, Shigenobu and her daughter dressed in Palestinian keffiyehs, as can be seen in a video published by May Shigenobu. She had been involved with Palestinian
"Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its strongest support and solidarity to Fusako Shigenobu, internationalist prisoner of the Palestinian liberation struggle. She has been jailed in Japan for over 21 years as a political prisoner for her role as a founder of the revolutionary organization the Japanese Red Army (JRA), which struggled for a revolutionary future for Japan as well as working hand in hand with Palestinian revolutionaries in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) for a liberated Palestine."Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Lod Airpot massacre
"It's amazing seeing the amount of cognitive dissonance and apologism for literal terrorism from far-left activists," tweeted Oliver Jia, a Kyoto-based researcher on Japan-DPRK relations. "I know it's a radical stance to take, but maybe we shouldn't glorify violent mass murderers. Just throwing that out there."
Three Japanese members of the Trotskyite communist JRA, trained by the Marxist-Leninist PFLP, launched an attack at Lod International Airport in 1972, throwing grenades and firing with automatic rifles, according to Yoshihiro Kuriyama and Patricia Steinhoff in the scholarly journal Asian Survey. Eight Israelis, 17 Puerto Rican Christian pilgrims, and a Canadian citizen were killed. Among the dead included prominent scientist Aharon Katzir.
Katzir was the elder brother of Ephraim Katzir, who became the President of Israel a year later. Samidoun claimed that Katzir was the target of the attack, and asserted that civilians were killed in crossfire with Israeli security forces — Shifting blame to Israel for their deaths.
Two terrorists died in the attack, the sole surviving JRA member being Kozo Okamoto. For Asian Survey, Steinhoff interviewed Okamoto, who said that while there was a personal concern for the Palestinian movement, the operation was conducted primarily for the Trosksyite notion of world revolution. He said in his trial that the intent was to target passengers, visitors, and police.
He served over a decade in prison before being released in a prisoner exchange. According to the Associated Press, he is reportedly still in Lebanon and wanted by Japanese authorities.
Fusako Shigenobu
Shigenobu fought alongside the PFLP, spending time in Lebanon and the Middle East for decades, eventually founding her Red Army offshoot.
Shigenobu went into hiding after the Lod massacre and was arrested in 2000. A year after she was arrested, she dissolved the JRA, the AP reported.
"When Shigenobu was arrested for her revolutionary work, she told onlooking crowds, 'I’ll fight on!' Even when on trial, she never wavered in her principled commitment to anti-imperialism and the Palestinian struggle," said PYM,
However, Shigenobu has expressed remorse for her terrorism, according to the AP saying when she was released, “I have hurt innocent people I did not know by putting our struggles first. Although those were different times, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize deeply.”
No comments:
Post a Comment