Kōzō Okamoto

{{Short description|Japanese communist and member of the Japanese Red Army}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Kōzō Okamoto

| image = Kozo okamoto and fusako shigenobu.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Kōzō Okamoto (left) and Fusako Shigenobu, leader of the Japanese Red Army at a press conference

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1947|12|7}}

| birth_place = Kumamoto, Japan

| death_date =

| death_place =

| nationality = Japanese

| other_names =

| occupation =

| years_active =

| known_for = Japanese Red Army

| notable_works =

}}

{{Nihongo|Kōzō Okamoto|岡本公三|Okamoto Kōzō|extra=born December 7, 1947}} is a Japanese communist and member of the Japanese Red Army (JRA), responsible for the massacre of 26 passengers at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Israel.

Biography

Kozo Okamoto is the youngest child of a school principal. His older brother is Takeshi Okamoto, a member of the Red Army Faction, which hijacked an airliner in March 1970 to North Korea. He was a 24-year-old botany student when he was recruited to the Japanese Red Army.LaPierre (1999), p. 202. He was later detained in Lebanon. During his stay in Lebanon, Okamoto converted to Islam.{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/681569.stm |title=Red Army guerrillas arrested |work=BBC News |date=March 18, 2000 |access-date=September 6, 2011}} He later requested to convert to Judaism while he was in an Israeli prison.{{cite news | url=https://www.haaretz.com/2012-06-15/ty-article/.premium/how-the-terrorist-who-attacked-israels-main-airport-escaped-the-death-penalty/0000017f-f86f-ddde-abff-fc6f54370000 | title=How the terrorist who attacked Israel's main airport escaped the death penalty | last1=Segev | first1=Tom }}

Lod Airport massacre

On May 30, 1972, Kōzō Okamoto along with Yasuyuki Yasuda, and Tsuyoshi Okudaira, landed at Israel's Lod Airport via Air France Flight 132 from Rome.{{sfn|Schreiber|1996|p=215}} The name in Okamoto's forged passport was Daisuke Namba, Crown Prince Hirohito's would be assassin.{{Cite news |date=May 31, 2022 |title=Kozo Okamoto's long life after Israel suicide mission |url=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220531-kozo-okamoto-s-long-life-after-israel-suicide-mission |access-date=November 6, 2023 |work=France 24 |language=en}} After disembarking from the plane the three members of the JRA proceeded to the baggage claim area. Upon retrieving their luggage, they took out automatic weapons packed inside the suitcases and opened fire on other passengers in the baggage claim area.

The attack was a joint operation of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO), and the Japanese Red Army. The idea behind the joint effort was for the JRA to carry out attacks for the PLFP, and vice versa, in order to reduce suspicion. The plan worked, as Okamoto and his comrades attracted little attention prior to their attack.

Okamoto and his comrades killed 26 people and wounded 80 more. Seventeen of the victims were Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico.

Yasuyuki Yasuda was accidentally shot dead by one of the other attackers. Tsuyoshi Okudaira was killed by one of his own grenades, either due to premature detonation or a suicide. Kōzō Okamoto was wounded and captured trying to escape the terminal.{{sfn|Schreiber|1996|p=215}}

Trial and release

Okamoto was put on trial in an Israeli military court under the 1948 Emergency Regulations. His court-appointed lawyers were Max Kritzman and David Rotlevy; Kritzman, who was chief lawyer, had experience defending Israelis charged under the Emergency Regulations. Of Okamoto, he complained that "this man will not cooperate".{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,906148-2,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106210438/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,906148-2,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 6, 2012 |magazine=Time |title=ISRAEL: Terrorist on Trial |date=July 24, 1972}} Okamoto pleaded guilty, ensuring that he did not get sentenced to death.{{verify source| reason = was that the reason he pled guilty? |date=November 2024}} He also protested his attorneys' requests for a psychiatric evaluation. In his final statement Okamoto told the court: "When I was a child, I was told that when people died they became stars...We three Red Army soldiers wanted to become Orion when we died".{{cite news | first=Rotem | last=Kowner | date= 27 May 2022 | url= https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-05-27/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/the-strange-story-of-the-terrorists-behind-the-israel-airport-massacre/00000181-0661-dcf3-a395-3fe1d10f0000 | title= The Strange Story of the Japanese Terrorists Behind the '72 Israel Airport Massacre | work= Haaretz }}

Okamoto was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in Israel. During the incarceration, he requested to convert to Judaism and tried to circumcise himself with nail clippers.{{cite news |title=How the terrorist who attacked Israel's main airport escaped the death penalty |newspaper=Haaretz |url=http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/the-makings-of-history/how-the-terrorist-who-attacked-israel-s-main-airport-escaped-the-death-penalty.premium-1.436586 |access-date =September 24, 2012}} He stated that he was tortured during his imprisonment, being "forced to eat like a dog" and emerged from imprisonment emaciated.{{Cite web |title=Japanese militant Kozo Okamoto marks 1972 attack on Israel airport |url=https://www.arabnews.jp/en/japan/article_73115/ |access-date=November 6, 2023 |website=Arab News Japan |language=en}}

On July 20, 1973, PFLP and JRA operatives hijacked Japan Air Lines Flight 404,{{cite news |title=3 seize jet with 145 aboard, order it flown to Mideast |work=The Chicago Tribune |date=July 21, 1973 |pages=1–2}} demanding Okamoto's release in exchange for the hostages on board; Israel refused to comply. Okamoto was released in 1985 after 13 years in prison, as part of the Jibril Agreement, a prisoner exchange with Palestinian militant factions for captive Israeli soldiers. After his release from prison in Israel, Kōzō Okamoto moved to Libya, then Syria, and finally to Lebanon where he reunited with other members of the Japanese Red Army.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} As of 2012 Okamoto was believed to be living in Lebanon.{{cite news | url=https://www.haaretz.com/2012-06-15/ty-article/.premium/how-the-terrorist-who-attacked-israels-main-airport-escaped-the-death-penalty/0000017f-f86f-ddde-abff-fc6f54370000 | title=How the terrorist who attacked Israel's main airport escaped the death penalty | last1=Segev | first1=Tom }}

Asylum in Lebanon

On February 15, 1997, Lebanon detained five Red Army members, Haruo Wakō, Masao Adachi, Mariko Yamamoto, Kazuo Tohira and Okamoto for using forged passports and visa violations. They were sentenced to three years in prison. The sentence was passed by Judge Soheil Abdul-Shams on July 31, 1997. After their prison term was completed, the four other members of the JRA were forcibly deported to Jordan and from Amman, Jordan via a chartered Russian plane to Japan. The Lebanese government, however, granted political asylum to Okamoto because, according to the Lebanese government, he "had participated in resistance operations against Israel and had been tortured in Israeli jails".{{cite news |title=Japanese Red Army member Okamoto wants to return to Japan |publisher=Lebanonwire. |date=May 6, 2003 |url=http://www.lebanonwire.com/0305/03050601KDO.asp |access-date=September 6, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111127205715/http://lebanonwire.com/0305/03050601KDO.asp |archive-date=November 27, 2011}}

Okamoto is still wanted by the Japanese police and Japan has requested his extradition.Press Conference The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan March 21, 2000 {{as of|2016}}, he was reported to be living in a refugee camp near Beirut.{{cite news |url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/12/25/national/crime-legal/japanese-red-army-member-okamoto-living-calmly-lebanon-refugee-camp |title=Japanese Red Army member Kozo Okamoto living quietly in Lebanon refugee camp |date=December 26, 2016 |work=The Japan Times |access-date=January 29, 2017}}

In May 2017, Okamoto gave an interview to the Mainichi Shimbun in Beirut. He said "I want to return to Japan once".{{cite news |url=https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20170531/p2a/00m/0na/011000c |title=Wanted Japanese Red Army member maintains 1972 airport attack wasn't terrorism |work=Mainichi Shimbun |date=November 16, 2019}}

On May 30, 2022, Okamoto appeared at a ceremony in Beirut marking the 50th anniversary of the attack, laying a wreath on the graves of his fellow JRA militants and posing for photos with PFLP supporters.{{Cite news |last=Agencies and TOI staff |title=With last gunman, Palestinian terrorists in Beirut mark 50 years since Lod massacre |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinians-in-beirut-mark-50-years-since-lod-airport-terror-massacre/ |access-date=May 31, 2022 |work=Times of Israel |language=en-US}}

References

=Works cited=

{{cite book |first=Mark |last=Schreiber |title=Shocking crimes of postwar Japan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fqFyA8_NzPwC |access-date=September 6, 2011 |year=1996 |publisher=Tuttle Publishing |isbn=978-4-900737-34-1}}

External links

[http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/press/2000/3/321.html Press Conference The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan 21 March 2000. Regarding the arrest of members of the JRA.]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20141227112810/http://www.archives.gov.il/NR/exeres/A1B1717E-45BA-475D-9613-541C4B566C6E%2Cframeless.htm?NRMODE=Published The Terrorist Attack on Lod Airport: 40 Years After,King Hussein Expresses Sympathy, the Government Considers the Death Penalty, Israel State Archives]

Category:1947 births

Category:Converts to Islam

Category:Japanese mass murderers

Category:Japanese Muslims

Category:Japanese people convicted of murder

Category:Japanese people imprisoned abroad

Category:Japanese prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment

Category:Japanese Red Army

Category:Japan–Palestine relations

Category:Living people

Category:Palestine Liberation Organization

Category:People convicted of murder by Israel