Tsutomu Shirosaki, Japanese anti-imperialist, released by US for deportation

Until I came across articles posted online by the Denver Anarchist Black Cross, I wasn't aware that the USA held anyone accused of involvement with the now defunct Japanese Red Army. Tsutomu Shirosaki was imprisoned at a low security Federal prison in Yazoo City, Mississippi until January 16^th, and is now being held by immigration authorities for deportation to Japan. I wish him well and hope he doesn't disappear into the Japanese prison system. Terrorism has a romantic aspect, but it is usually futile, as opposed to mass political movements, violent or not. It is impressive that Japanese people went so far for Palestinian national liberation, but ultimately the JRA and related groups don't seem to have accomplished much beyond getting their members imprisoned or killed.

Shirosaki was born December 5, 1947 in Toyama, Japan. He studied engineering in college and became a student activist. At some point he turned to violent actions, robbing banks for political funding. In 1971 he was arrested for trying to rob a Bank of Yokohama office in Tokyo and was given a 10 year prison sentence.

Several years later, on September 28, 1977, five Japanese Red Army members hijacked Japan Airlines Flight 472 from Paris to Tokyo shortly after a stop in Mumbai, India, to force the Japanese government to give them $6 million dollars and release 9 prisoners, including Shirosaki. Six of the prisoners were released to the hijackers in Dhaka, Bangladesh October 2^nd and they took the airliner ultimately to Algeria. The hijackers and ex-prisoners managed to reach Lebanon. Japan demanded that the prisoners turning themselves in, but they refused, so they became fugitives sought by Interpol. All or most of the ex-prisoners were at a loss, only knowing Japanese and not having travelled abroad before. The JRA helped Shirosaki settle in Lebanon, but he denied and still denies being a member of the JRA. He did work with a Palestinian guerrilla group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( http://pflp.ps/english/ ), enabling him stay in Lebanon without a passport.

A new group, the Anti-Imperialist International Brigade, claimed attacks May 14, 1986 against the American, Canadian, and Japanese embassies in Jakarta, Indonesia, saying the attacks were related to the G7 meeting in Tokyo at the time. Two improvised mortars were fired at the US embassy from a nearby national park, two rockets were fired at the Japanese embassy from a hotel room, and three people were injured when a car exploded in front of the Canadian embassy. Seven weeks later Japan blamed the JRA and said one fingerprint belonging to Shirosaki was found in the hotel room. Shirosaki says he ignored the new charges because he was in Lebanon the whole time and was not a member of either group. He says he wasn't aware fingerprints could be easily faked. May 15, 1990 a sealed US indictment accused him of “assault with intent to murder individuals on embassy grounds, attempted murder of individuals on embassy grounds, willfully and maliciously attempting to harm a US embassy, willfully and maliciously attempting to murder embassy personnel with premeditation and malice, and committing a violent attack against internationally protected US government personnel” (September 23, 1996 US DOJ press release).

In the 90's, the Oslo Accords made it difficult for Shirosaki to stay in Lebanon, so he hid his identity and moved to South Asia. Italy began searching for him in December 1987, over an AIIB attack on the US embassy in Rome, relating to an economic summit in Venice.

The NSA found Shirosaki by tracing a phone call and he was arrested by the Nepalese police in Kathmandu, September 21, 1996 and extradited to the US. There was a 15 day trial during which he did not testify. He was convicted of all charges and sentenced to a total of 30 years in prison. February 11, 2007 he was transferred from a prison in Texas to a Communication Management Unit in Indiana, so people on the outside lost contact with him for about two weeks, and the purpose of a CMU is to isolate prisoners. He says his mail was maliciously tampered with more recently. In Indiana Shirosaki developed severe eye problems. In prison he met other political prisoners, including members of the recently released Cuban 5. January 16^th, he was released early for good behavior, and transferred for deportation, probably to an immigration facility in Louisiana. He could challenge the deportation order. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police plan to re-arrest him if he returns and he will be charged with attacking the Japanese embassy in the 1986 Jakarta attack. In April 2001, Fusako Shigenobu, a JRA leader imprisoned in Japan, said the group was disbanded, and the US removed it from a list of active terrorist groups, but the Japanese government thinks it still exists in some form.

Some sources:

https://denverabc.wordpress.com/prisoners-dabc-supports/political-prisoners-database/tsutomu-shirosaki/ (biographical information)

http://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/1996/Sept96/465crm.htm (US DOJ press release from 1996)

http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/109933.php (news summary)

http://www.4-traders.com/JAPAN-AIRLINES-CO-LTD-11551593/news/Japan-Airlines--Red-Army-member-out-of-US-prison-set-to-be-deported-to-Japan-19708321/ (news summary)

A political prisoner support group in Chapel Hill: http://prisonbooks.info/

Who split from whom in the Japanese left: http://broadleft.org/jp.htm