Shigenobu, Fusako (1945–)

A wing of the Japanese Red Army (JRA) founded by Fusako Shigenobu was responsible for a series of terrorist attacks, including a 1972 attack on Ben Gurion Airport (now Lod Airport) in Tel Aviv.

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Fusako Shigenobu was an active student member of the Red Army Faction (Sekigun-ha) in the 1960s, while she was working part-time for the Kikkoman Corporation and going to night school at Meiji University. The Red Army, a radical leftist group, wanted to drive out the democratic government and end American involvement in the country so that Japan could become a communist state. The group split into several factions, and in 1971 Shigenobu left Japan to travel in Europe, where she came into contact with members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). She and a handful of followers went to Lebanon to join forces with the PFLP, foreshadowing the origination of the Japanese Red Army (Nihon Sekigun).

The early actions of Shigenobu's faction included kidnappings, murders, and hijackings, mostly on behalf of the PFLP. The deadliest attack was a machine gun and grenade attack at the Ben Guiron Airport in Tel Aviv in 1972. The JRA killed 26 people in the attack, including 16 Americans. Then, in 1974, the JRA invaded the French Embassy in The Hague, took the French ambassador and 10 others hostage, and demanded the release of several incarcerated Red Army members. Shigenobu was thought to be the mastermind of the plan, causing authorities to add her to the international list of wanted terrorists.

One infamous story about Shigenobu involves her ordering the murder of a fellow JRA member who was considered overly “bourgeois.” The condemned woman, who was pregnant at the time, was reportedly buried alive. The incident solidified Shigenobu's reputation as a leader of the JRA.

The JRA was responsible for many terrorist attacks in the 1970s and 1980s, including the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur in 1975, the hijacking of a flight bound from Japan to Paris in 1977, and the seizure of the U.S. and British embassies in Rome in 1987. Four of the terrorists involved in the hijacking of a Japan Airlines plane in 1970 are believed to be in North Korea, which granted them asylum. The question remains one of several issues hindering the normalization of diplomatic relations between Pyongyang and Tokyo. The activities and strength of the JRA decreased in the 1990s due to the fall of the Soviet Union, the advancements made toward peace in the Middle Eastern conflict, and the capture of many members.

By the late 1990s, police had been tipped off that Shigenobu had returned to Japan and was consorting with other members of the group in order to strengthen their support bases. On November 8, 2000, the 55-year-old Shigenobu was finally apprehended in Osaka, Japan, and brought to Tokyo for trial. In a statement made from prison, she proclaimed that she would continue to pursue the goals of the JRA, but now through a legitimate political party instead of a terrorist organization. In February [Page 541]2006, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her involvement in the 1974 kidnapping of French embassy workers in The Hague. Shigenobu underwent surgery for cancer in 2009.

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