Newsletter No. 1230
News-Analysis
December 24, 2008

 

JAPANESE DIPLOMATS PANICKED IN WAKE OF 1972 LOD AIRPORT MASSACRE

Newly declassified diplomatic documents are providing some new insight on the Japanese government’s response to the May 30, 1972, massacre at Lod Airport in Tel Aviv, which was carried out by Kozo Okamoto, Yasuyuki Yasuda, and Tsuyoshi Okudaira of the Japanese Red Army. Broadly, it was already known that the Japanese government was panicked over the affair, but new details have now been revealed.

The documents indicate that the Japanese consul general in San Francisco sent a telegram marked “extremely urgent” that said in part, “There is a need for Japan to immediately express its sincerity and prevent any negative reaction from arising.” On June 1st, the consul general in Honolulu sent a telegram voicing concerns about the potentially serious damage to Japan’s image. Personally, I find it interesting and suggestive that both of these messages came from US-based Japanese diplomats.

Tokyo in fact dispatched Kenji Fukunaga, a Diet member, to Israel as a special envoy. Fukunaga was an old friend of then-Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. Meeting with Meir on June 4th, Fukunaga said Japan was prepared to give Israel US$1.5 million as condolence money for the victims.

This gesture was welcomed in Israel, but it also antagonized many Arab governments. Japan’s ambassador in Damascus reported that Tokyo’s gesture was not appreciated there, broadly indicating that Syrians believed that Japan would be better served by recognizing that Israel had gotten itself into trouble by occupying Arab lands.

On June 10th, the Japanese ambassador to Egypt sent a telegram that summarized the opinions of the top echelon of the Egyptian government. “Is there a need for the Japanese government to make such an apology for the actions of three Japanese?” The diplomat pointed out that the Japanese government need not bear formal responsibility for the actions of a terrorist group. He also warned of a dangerous mood in Cairo: “The topic of economic sanctions against Japan is on the verge of being raised.”

The Asahi Shinbun asked Satoshi Ikeuchi, associate professor at the University of Tokyo and someone whom he have discussed previously as one being of Japan’s very few conservative-oriented scholars of Middle East Studies, for his opinion. This is what he said:

The Japanese government made a maximum effort to avoid worsening its image at a time when it was trying to enter the club of advanced economies. At the same time, the Arab nations welcomed the terrorist act by the Japanese Red Army because it represented support by a foreign nation for its cause without having to act on their own. The apology by the Japanese government must have been seen as a rejection of that cause.