Newsletter No. 200
February 24, 2006

 

FUSAKO SHIGENOBU SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS IN PRISON

Fusako Shigenobu, founder of the Japanese Red Army (JRA), was sentenced to a 20-year jail term yesterday by the Tokyo District Court. She was convicted of attempted murder and kidnapping for her role in the 1974 Hague incident, and for using false passports. She is now 60 years old and has served four years in jail already, so theoretically she would be released in sixteen years when she is 76.

Shigenobu founded the JRA in 1971, and it was the most radical fringe of the Japanese Leftist movement of that time. The JRA was dedicated to overthrowing the Japanese government, abolishing the Imperial family, and sparking a world socialist revolution. They formed an alliance with George Habash’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). By far the most deadly action of the JRA was the May 1972 attack on Lod Airport in Tel Aviv, which killed twenty-six people and injured dozens more. That action was led by Kozo Okamoto, who still lives in Lebanon with dreams of returning to Japan and going to university.

The 1974 Hague incident involved taking hostages at the French embassy, including the ambassador. No one was killed, but two police officers were shot and wounded. Shigenobu was in Libya at that time, but the Tokyo court judged that she played a key role in planning the operation and in obtaining weapons. Shigenobu has not been accused of personally taking part in any violent actions.

The other actions for which the JRA is most notable was the seizure of the American Embassy in Kuala Lumpur in 1975, and the highjacking of a Japan Airlines flight over India in 1977.

By the 1990s, Shigenobu had concluded that violence was ineffective and decided to continue her struggle through non-violent, legal, political means. Also, the JRA’s dreams of world revolution had faded by that time, and Shigenobu seemed to focus her efforts on the Palestinian cause, which she still believes in.

Shigenobu was arrested in Osaka in November 2000, and in April 2001 she declared the JRA to be formally disbanded and apologized to the victims of the JRA’s violence.

In the court’s ruling Chief Judge Hironobu Murakami asserted that, “the defendant played a leading role in the abduction plan. The Hague incident was part of a series of crimes. It’s unlikely that the seizure was planned without the defendant.”

Based on that wording, it seems that Shigenobu’s direct involvement was not actually proven beyond a reasonable doubt in the courtroom.

Judge Murakami also stated that: "(The members) believed in the ultimate legitimacy of their ideology, advocacy and conduct, and not only endangered the life and safety of many others but also used such situations to achieve their unlawful goals… The crime was extremely mean, selfish and self-centered, and there is no room for leniency."

Again, there is an evident lack of logic in this statement. If the judge acknowledges that members really believed that they were sacrificing themselves to bring about a world revolution that would, in their view, make this a better world, then how could that be described as being “extremely self-centered”? Dangerously naive and possibly fanatical -- yes -- but self-centered? It seems to me that truly “self-centered” Japanese would have no interest in foreign struggles of any kind.

Fusako Shigenobu’s own reaction to the ruling was as follows: “I’ll continue to fight!... It was an unjust ruling that did not examine the facts as they are, and only accommodated the wishes of those in power.” She left the courtroom with a show of bravado, giving two thumbs up to the crowd. Her lawyers said that they will appeal the sentence, and released a haiku poem that she quickly composed for the occasion:

The verdict is not the end.
It is only the beginning.
Strong Will shall keep spreading.

Shigenobu still has her supporters, some of which were with her in the courtroom. The spokesperson for this group is May Shigenobu, the 32-year-old daughter of Fusako Shigenobu and a Palestinian guerilla in Lebanon. May Shigenobu had this to say about the verdict: "I think the verdict is judging the incident of 30 years ago through the eyes of the present day. It seems to be trying not only the events of 30 years ago, but also the entire era of the history."

There are several books published in Japanese by Fusako Shigenobu, some of which are listed in the Shingetsu Bibliography. The main academic expert in this field is Patricia Golden Steinhoff of the Faculty of Sociology, University of Hawaii at Manoa.