Kōzō Okamoto

Kōzō Okamoto
Kōzō Okamoto (left) and Fusako Shigenobu, leader of the Japanese Red Army at a press conference
Born	(1947-12-07) 7 December 1947 (age 76) Kumamoto, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Known for	Japanese Red Army

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

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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.^[1] He was later detained in Lebanon. During his stay in Lebanon, Okamoto converted to Islam.^[2]

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.^[3] The name in Okamoto's forged passport was Daisuke Namba, Crown Prince Hirohito's would be assassin.^[4] 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.^[5]

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.^[6]

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. Chicago-born and British-trained Kritzman, who was chief lawyer, had experience defending Israelis charged under the Emergency Regulations. Of Okamoto, he complained that "this man will not cooperate."^[7] Okamoto pleaded guilty, ensuring that he did not get sentenced to death. He also protested his attorneys' requests for a psychiatric evaluation. In his final statement he 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."^[8]

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.^[9] Through the PFLP, he stated that he was tortured during his imprisonment, being "forced to eat like a dog" and emerged from imprisonment emaciated.^[10]

On 20 July 1973, PFLP and JRA operatives hijacked Japan Air Lines Flight 404,^[11] 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.

Asylum in Lebanon

On 15 February 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 31 July 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."^[12]

Okamoto is still wanted by the Japanese government and Japan has requested his extradition.^[13] As of 2016^[update], he was reported to be living in a refugee camp near Beirut.^[14] In May 2017, Okamoto gave an interview to the Mainichi Shimbun in Beirut. He said "I want to return to Japan once".^[15]

On 30 May 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.^[16]