Fusako Shigenobu

Fusako Shigenobu
重信 房子
Kōzō Okamoto (left) and Fusako Shigenobu (right) at a press conference
Born	(1945-09-28) 28 September 1945 Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Education	Bachelor of Arts
Alma mater	Meiji University
Years active	1971–2001
Organization	Japanese Red Army
Movement	Communism
Criminal charge	2 counts of passport forgery
Criminal penalty	20 years imprisonment from 8 March 2006
Criminal status	In custody
Children	Mei Shigenobu (daughter)

Fusako Shigenobu (重信 房子, Shigenobu Fusako, born 28 September 1945) is a Japanese communist and the former leader and founder of the now disbanded Japanese Red Army (JRA).

Early life

Shigenobu was born on 28 September 1945 in the Setagaya ward of Tokyo. Her father was a teacher at a terakoya or temple school (寺子屋 terakoya) open for poor village children at temples in the south Japanese Kyushu region after World War I. He later became a major in the Imperial Japanese Army dispatched to Manchukuo.

After high school, she went to work for the Kikkoman corporation, and took college courses at night at Meiji University.

Pre-JRA Involvement

Shigenobu received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy and in History from Meiji University. While there, she joined the student movement that was protesting the increase of tuition fees, and this led her to activism in the general leftist student movement Zengakuren of the 1960s. She rose up the ranks of the Zengakuren to become one of its top leaders.

JRA movement

In February 1971, she and Tsuyoshi Okudaira went to the Middle East to create international branches of the Japanese Red Army. Upon arrival, she soon split with the Red Army Faction in Japan due to both geographical and ideological distance, as well as a personal conflict with the new leader, Tsuneo Mori. The Red Army went on to link up with the Maoist Revolutionary Left Wing of the Japanese Communist Party to form the United Red Army. Upon hearing about the internal purge the United Red Army carried out in the winter of 1971–1972, Shigenobu recalls her shock and sorrow. She and Okudaira wrote My Love, My Revolution (わが愛わが革命) as a response.

Shigenobu remained in the Middle East for more than 30 years. Her move was part of International Revolutionary Solidarity, with the idea that revolutionary movements should cooperate and eventually lead to a global socialist revolution. Her destination was Lebanon, and her aim was to support the Palestinian cause. She originally joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as a volunteer, but eventually the JRA became an independent group. She mentions in several of her books "The mission's purpose was to consolidate the international revolutionary alliance against the imperialists of the world."

Shigenobu was listed as a wanted person by the INTERPOL in 1974 after the French embassy hostage-taking in the Hague in which she was believed to be involved.

Process to arrest

Shigenobu continued to escape although she was internationally arranged for her involvement in the 1974 French Embassy attack in The Hague.

According to the materials seized by Shigenobu when she was arrested and the newspapers that reported it, she illegally entered Japan using a forged passport that she illegally obtained by impersonating herself as another person.

She repeatedly entered and left People's Republic of China 16 times from Kansai International Airport since December 1997 to September 2000.

Since 1991, she established the "People's Revolutionary Party" for the purpose of "Armed revolution" in Japan and the masked organization "The 21st Century of Hope" in charge of its public activity department.

It is also said that she used it as a foothold to plan cooperation with the Japanese Socialist Party.

After that, she was hiding in an apartment in Nishinari Ward, Osaka for a while.

In 2000, Osaka Prefecture Security Guard Public Safety Section 3 was inspecting the supporters of the Japanese Red Army and began to investigate the person who was in contact with a woman similar to Shigenobu.

Shigenobu was characterized by nevus, but she had hidden her nevus on her face with makeup.

However, her fingerprints were collected from the coffee cup used by the woman similar to Shigenobu.

Her way of smoking was similar to Shigenobu and she drank at a certain place.

The third security department found that it matched Shigenobu's fingerprint.

26 years after the 1974 French Embassy attack in The Hague, Shigenobu was arrested on 8 November in Takatsuki City, Osaka, where she was hiding.

In addition, the Tokaido Shinkansen was used for her transfer from Osaka to the Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo, and a private room of the "green car" was used to prevent escape.

She was taken in for questioning from a hotel in Takatsuki, near Osaka, in November of that year. Japanese citizens were startled to see a handcuffed middle-aged woman emerge from a train arriving in Tokyo. When Shigenobu spotted the waiting cameras, she raised her hands and gave the thumbs-up, shouting at reporters: "I'll fight on!"

She was sentenced to 20 years in prison on 8 March 2006, and received a final verdict from the Japanese Supreme Court in 2010 with the same terms. The prosecution charged her on three counts, the use of forged passport, aiding another member in the JRA in obtaining a forged passport, and attempted manslaughter by planning and commanding the 1974 occupation and hostage taking at the French embassy in The Hague, the Netherlands. Shigenobu pleaded guilty to the first two charges, but not guilty to the charge linking her to the 1974 embassy hostage taking. Among the witnesses that appeared in her court for the defense was Leila Khaled, known for the 1969 hijacking of TWA Flight 840, and currently a member of the Palestinian National Council. In his final verdict, the judge stated that there was no conclusive evidence of her involvement in the armed occupation of the embassy that resulted in the injury of two policemen, or in the intention of attempted manslaughter, but sentenced her for possibly conspiring with members of her group to occupy the embassy.

Hague Trial

Prosecution

Shigenobu was arrested for involvement in French embassy hostage-taking that took place in The Hague,Netherlands, to recapture (Yoshiaki Yamada) of the Japanese Red Army arrested by the French authorities on 13 September 1974.

Shigenobu was prosecuted for conspiracy joint conviction for illegal arrest and imprisonment, and attempted murder.

Prosecutors said the Japanese Red Army issued a crime statement the day after the execution and requested Palestinian Liberation People's Front (PFLP) from other Japanese Red Army publications to coordinate with the country that accepts arms procurement and released fellows.

Based on evidence from former members who said that Shigenobu remarked for lack of preparation at the meeting after the incident, accused him of leading the crime as a mastermind in the French embassy hostage-taking and sentenced her to life imprisonment.

In response to this, the defense side said, "At the time of the French embassy hostage-taking, the Japanese Red Army did not have an organizational structure and was not in a position to be instructed by Shigenobu because it was a PFLP operation and she was in Libya and has an alibi".

The Tokyo District Court found on 23 February 2006, "Defense Shigenobu played an important role in asking PFLP to coordinate arms procurement and countries accepting freed fellows."

"The details, time, and place of the conspiracy are not clear, but the defendant is conspiring with the criminal through a cooperating organization in the Arab countries, and it cannot be established as an alibi."

The sentence was "Selfish offense that absolutely regards one's principles and claims and does not care about the dangers to many lives and bodies, and no serious remorse is seen".

But on the other hand, "Haruo Wako, the executing offender has decided on the important matters of the crime, and it cannot be asserted that the defendant had a core position but took the lead in the crime".

Then rejected the life imprisonment sentenced by the prosecution and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Imprisonment

On the other hand, Shigenobu's daughter Mei Shigenobu and chief attorney Kyoko Otani filed an appeal on the same day.

In the appeals court, both the defense and the prosecution received terrorist "Carlos" prison sentences in France in the 1970s and 1980s, as in Shigenobu, causing terrorist attacks in many countries around the world, slaughtering a large number of civilians.

Obtained a testimony about the command system of the French embassy hostage-taking and the history of the provision of arms, and submitted it to the court.

On 20 December 2007, the Tokyo High Court upheld the first-instance decision and dismissed the appeal.

Shigenobu filed an appeal, but on 15 July 2010, the decision was made to reject it and the sentence was confirmed.

Shigenobu filed an objection to the decision to reject the appeal, but on 4 August 2010, the Supreme Court No. 2 Small Court (Yukio Takeuchi, Chief Justice) decided to reject the decision, and the first and second trial sentences with 20 years in prison were finalized.

Shigenobu later served.

However, due to the inclusion of three years of detention for 810 days into prison, it was actually 17 years and Shigenobu's planned source was 2027.

After dissolution

Haruo Wakō, who left the Japanese Red Army in 1979 and was involved in 1974 French Embassy attack in The Hague, criticized Japanese Red Army as follows in response that former member Mariko Yamamoto was arrested for shoplifting shredded dried squid products in 2005.

This case shows the actual situation and reality of the Japanese Red Army.

For organizations that have attempted to abduct commercial employees in Europe, occupied the embassy, airplane hijacking, etc., they had the anti-social and anti-people character.

Since then, he has published a critical work on the past internal circumstances of the Japanese Red Army.

In 2001, Fusako Shigenobu announced the dissolution of the Japanese Red Army, which had been virtually collapsed as an organization from prison.

Shigenobu still endorses the same cause, unapologetically claiming that the verdict is only the start of a stronger movement, remaining convinced that she should not have been convicted, claiming that since her group's activities were politically motivated, she should have been offered a "political way out of the situation".

At a press conference before the sentence in February 2006, her lawyers read a haiku she had composed: "[t]he verdict is not the end. It is only the beginning. Strong will shall keep spreading."

In December 2008, she was diagnosed with colon and intestinal cancer and has had three operations to remove them. She is currently detained in International Law Center.

In June 2009, she said for the first time in response to the interview of Sankei Shimbun "I was conceited to change the world" about past activities.

On the other hand, she said,

I ran into armed struggle when the movement was stalled.

Although student activism was thriving in the world, there were places where I returned to my hometown and continued to activity. We may have had different results if we went back home and continued to the activity.

Every year on 30 May, the meeting to commemorate Lod airport massacre is being held in Japan and Lebanon.

The similar appeal is being made on the anniversary of the members.

Fusako Shigenobu, founder and leader of Japanese Red Army also sends the support message and the statement of "thorough do or die resistance" against Israel and others.

Personal life

Fusako Shigenobu is the mother of the journalist Mei Shigenobu, who was born in 1973 in Beirut, Lebanon.

In popular culture

• Eileen MacDonald's 1991 book Shoot the Women First mistakenly conflates Shigenobu with Hiroko Nagata, attributing to her the actions of Nagata at the United Red Army purge of 1971–72.
• Japanese rock singer and longtime Shigenobu friend PANTA has released his album Oriibu no Ki no shitade in 2007. Shigenobu wrote some of the lyrics of the album's songs.
• The actress Anri Ban portrayed her in the Kōji Wakamatsu film United Red Army (2007).
• In 2008, artist Anicka Yi and architect Maggie Peng created a perfume dedicated to Shigenobu, called Shigenobu Twilight.
• In 2010, Shigenobu and her daughter Mei were featured in the documentary Children of the Revolution, which premiered at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam.

Publications

• 1974:　My Love, My Revolution『わが愛わが革命』 Kodansha.
• 1983: 『十年目の眼差から』 話の特集、ISBN 4826400667
• 1984: If You Put Your Ear to the Earth, You Can Hear the Sound of Japan: Lessons from The Japanese Communist Movement 『大地に耳をつければ日本の音がする　日本共産主義運動の教訓』ウニタ書舗、ISBN 4750584096
• 1984: Beirut, Summer 1982 『ベイルート1982年夏』話の特集、ISBN 4826400829
• 1985: Materials: Reports from the Middle East 1 『資料・中東レポート』1（日本赤軍との共編著）、ウニタ書舗、
• 1986: Materials: Reports from the Middle East 2 『資料・中東レポート』2（日本赤軍との共編著）、ウニタ書舗、
• 2001: I Decided to Give Birth to You Under an Apple Tree 『りんごの木の下であなたを産もうと決めた』幻冬舎、ISBN 434400082X
• 2005: Jasmine in the Muzzle of a Gun: Collected Poems of Shigenobu Fusako 『ジャスミンを銃口に　重信房子歌集』幻冬舎、ISBN 4344010159
• 2009: A Personal History of the Japanese Red Army: Together with Palestine 『日本赤軍私史　パレスチナと共に』河出書房新社、ISBN 978-4309244662
• 2012: Season of the Revolution: From the Battlefield in Palestine 『革命の季節 パレスチナの戦場から』幻冬舎、ISBN 9784344023147

See also

• Anti-Japaneseism
• Japanese Red Army
• East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front
• Revolutionary Communist League, National Committee
• Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist Faction)
• Zengakuren
• New Left in Japan