Japan Airlines Flight 351 was hijacked by nine members of the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction (a predecessor of the Japanese Red Army) on March 31, 1970, while flying from Tokyo to Fukuoka, in an incident usually referred to in Japanese as the Yodogo Hijacking (???????????, Yodog? Haijakku Jiken).
Video Japan Airlines Flight 351
Hijacking
Armed with samurai swords and pipe bombs, the hijackers took 129 hostages (122 passengers and seven crew members), later releasing them at Fukuoka Airport and Seoul's Kimpo Airport (after an abortive attempt to disguise the airport as North Korean). They then proceeded to Pyongyang's Mirim Airport, with Japan's Transport Minister now as hostage, where they surrendered to North Korean authorities, who offered the whole group asylum. The hijackers' motive was to defect to North Korea. Using North Korea as a base, they thought they could promote rebellion in South Korea and elsewhere across East Asia.
Maps Japan Airlines Flight 351
Later events
The alleged mastermind of the hijacking, who did not take part in the actual operation, was Takaya Shiomi. Shiomi was arrested, convicted, and served almost 20 years in prison in Japan. After his release in 1989, suffering from poor health, Shiomi obtained a lowly paid job as an attendant at a multi-level parking facility in Kiyose, Tokyo, where he was working as late as 2008. He mentioned that they were supposed to go to Cuba in the first place. He joined an antibase movement in Okinawa and an antinuclear campaign, and wrote several books related to the Red Army Faction. In April 2015, he run in the city assembly elections in Kiyose, campaigning on an anti-Abe platform and against the city's policies which are "bullying" the elderly. He died on November 14, 2017 of heart failure at a Tokyo hospital.
Moriaki Wakabayashi was an early member (bass player) in the long-running avant-garde rock band Les Rallizes Dénudés. In a March 2010 interview with Kyodo News, Wakabayashi stated that the hijacking was a "selfish and conceited" act. Wakabayashi added that he wished to return to Japan and was willing to face arrest and trial for his role in the hijacking. In April 2014 he was still alive, and residing in the North Korea together with other members of his group.
In 1985, Yasuhiro Shibata returned to Japan in secret to raise money for the group, was arrested, and was sentenced to five years in prison. Yoshimi Tanaka was arrested in Thailand with a large amount of counterfeit money and repatriated to Japan in March 2000, where he was sentenced; he died before its completion. However, the other hijackers remain at large, according to Japan's National Police Agency.
The leader of the group, Takamaro Tamiya, died in 1995 and Yoshida Kintaro sometime before 1985. Takeshi Okamoto and his wife Kimiko Fukudome were probably killed trying to flee North Korea. Takahiro Konishi, Shiro Akagi, Kimihuro Uomoto and Moriaki Wakabayashi still reside in North Korea; all except Takeshi Okamoto were confirmed to have been alive as of 2004 when they were interviewed by Kyodo News. In June 2004, the remaining hijackers made a request to North Korean authorities that they be allowed to return to Japan, even if they are to be punished for the hijacking.
Notable passengers
The future Roman Catholic Archbishop and Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao was one of the passengers on the flight. Japanese pop singer Mita Akira was also on the flight, as was Shigeaki Hinohara. Hinohara, was one of the world's longest-serving physicians and educators.
See also
- Japanese people in North Korea
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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