Last week's arrest of the top leader of the Japanese Red Army marked the virtual end of decades of terrorism by Japanese leftist extremists. Ms. Fusako Shigenobu, who had been on the international wanted list for a series of terrorist acts, is charged with, among other things, masterminding the occupation of the French Embassy in The Hague in September 1974. For the past 26 years, the 55-year-old terrorist has been at large, living an underground life in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Her arrest has dealt a fatal blow to the Japanese Red Army, which terrorized much of the world in the 1970s in the name of "revolution." With its founding leader in police detention, the group appears to have been reduced to a "non-entity." Attention is now focused on the person of Ms. Shigenobu, who allegedly directed a series of violent assaults in the Netherlands, Israel, Malaysia and other countries in the Cold War years.
Many questions remain as to why she behaved as she did -- including why she risked returning to Japan, and probable arrest, after so many years. She is now undergoing interrogation at the Metropolitan Police Department, and it is hoped that investigators will unravel the whole truth about her activities as well as those of the leftwing Japanese -- and international -- terrorist group she commanded.