25 The Japanese Red Army (Dr. Patricia Steinhoff)

On this episode of the Japan Station podcast we are talking about the Japanese Red Army (Nihon Sekigun, 日本赤軍), a Japanese militant communist group established in 1971 with the intent of overthrowing the Japanese government and taking down Japan's monarchy.

About Dr. Patricia Steinhoff

Dr. Patricia Steihoff is one of the world's leading experts on the topic of Japanese social movements. With a career spanning more than five decades, Dr. Steinhoff has researched a wide range of topics, including the Japanese justice system, Aum Shinrikyo, and the radical left groups that emerged out of the Japanese protest cycles of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her work on the Japanese militant group known as the Japanese Red Army is particularly comprehensive and has been extremely important for shedding light on the topic. Dr. Steinhoff retired from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa in Honolulu at the end of the 2018-2019 school year.

Topics Discussed

• How Dr. Steinhoff became interested in researching the Japanese Red Army
• The phenomenon of tenkō (転向, literally, changing direction)
• The 1972 terrorist attach on Lod Airport in Israel
• What it was like going to Israel to interview Kozo Okamoto, the only Japanese Red Army member to survive the Lod Airport attack
• What exactly the Japanese Red Army was
• What led to the creation of the Japanese Red Army
• The role of Fusako Shigenobu
• Some of the guerrilla tactics the Japanese Red Army would use
• The 1970 plane hijacking that would result in the "Yodogo Exiles"
• The student protests that occurred in Japan during the 1960s and '70s and how authorities in Japan reacted to them
• What became of the Japanese Red Army
• The impact the Japanese Red Army had on Japan and its judicial system
• And much more!