[1] Haruo Wakō and two other members of the JRA (Junzo Okudaira and Jun Nishikawa) were directly involved in the seizure of the French Embassy in The Hague in 1974.

After lengthy negotiations, the hostages were freed in exchange for the release of the jailed JRA member Yatsuka Furuya, $300,000 and the use of a Boeing 707 aeroplane, which flew the hostage-takers to Syria.

Both seizures resulted in the successful demand for release of six fellow members (including Jun Nishikawa) of the JRA from imprisonment in Japan and a flight to Libya.

[3] The hostages included the United States consul Robert Stebbins and the Swedish chargé d'affaires Fredrik Bergenstråhle and his secretary.

[4] In May 1997, Wakō was imprisoned with five other suspected JRA members in Lebanon on charges of forgery before four of them were deported to Jordan in March 2000, the fifth, Kozo Okamoto, was granted asylum for health reasons.