Fusako Shigenobu
[2] In 1969, she joined the Red Army Faction (RAF), a communist group that advocated immediate, armed revolution against the governments of the United States and Japan.
That same year, Shigenobu and the JRA relocated to the Middle East in an effort to start a world revolution, as well as to assist with the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation while working in concert with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Following her arrest in 2000 after several years of hiding, Shigenobu was put on trial for passport forgery and alleged conspiracy involving an attempted hostage-taking operation at the French Embassy in The Hague in 1974.
[7] After high school, Shigenobu went to work for the Kikkoman corporation in a soy sauce factory while taking night courses at Meiji University.
In February 1971, Shigenobu decided to relocate to the Middle East with a self-appointed mission to establish an international branch of the RAF for these purposes.
[citation needed] Soon after arriving in Lebanon, Shigenobu 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.
[12] Mori's faction went on to link up with the Maoist Revolutionary Left Wing of the Japanese Communist Party to form the United Red Army, a separate group from Shigenobu's JRA.
Upon hearing about the internal purge the United Red Army carried out in the winter of 1971–1972, Shigenobu recalled her shock and sorrow.
Shigenobu seems to have had advance knowledge of the attack, as she had written to friends in Japan advising them to be on the lookout for a "historic event" in the revolutionary struggle to take place in May 1972.
[19] On August 5, 1975, five JRA militants stormed the American Insurance Associates Building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, taking more than 50 hostages, including the United States consul and the Swedish chargé d'affaires.
[citation needed] The final JRA-linked attack occurred on April 14, 1988, when a powerful car bomb exploded outside the United Service Organizations (USO) military recreational club in downtown Naples, Italy, killing five people (only one of them an American), and injuring 15 others.
[citation needed] Shigenobu was arrested on November 8, 2000, outside a hotel in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture,[22][23] after entering Japan illegally through Kansai International Airport using a forged passport that she obtained by impersonating another person some time between 1997 and 2000.
[25] In April 2001, while imprisoned awaiting trial, Shigenobu formally disbanded the Japanese Red Army in a statement to the press faxed from her prison.
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.
[citation needed] Based on the testimonies of former JRA members, who testified that Shigenobu had scolded them for lack of preparation at a meeting after the incident, and accused her of masterminding the attack, prosecutors sought a sentence of life imprisonment.
[citation needed] In response to these charges, Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, argued that the prosecutors lacked evidence for Shigenobu's direct involvement and relied on "forced" confessions which were retracted at the time of the trial.
[5] In his final verdict, Judge Hironobu Murakami of Tokyo District Court found on February 23, 2006, that Shigenobu "played an important role in asking cooperating organizations to procure weapons and coordinate with countries that accept released compatriots."
However, Murakami 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.
However, the judge did find Shigenobu guilty of the lesser charge of conspiring with others to attack the embassy, and sentenced her to 20 years in prison on March 8, 2006.
Shigenobu commented that she would be focusing on her cancer treatment, explaining she would not be able to "contribute to society" given her condition, stating that she would continue to reflect on her past and "live more and more with curiosity.
