Japanese Red Army members hijack JAL plane to North Korea
March 31, 1970
Nine members of the Japanese Red Army faction wielding swords and pipe bombs hijack a Japan Airlines jetliner called the Yodo and demand to be taken to North Korea. The first hijacking in Japan is eventually resolved with no casualties as the hijackers seek and obtain asylum in the isolated communist nation. Four of the hijackers are still believed to be living in North Korea.
Workers look over the Japan Airlines Yodo jet at Fukuoka Airport. The flight departed Tokyo's Haneda Airport on the morning of March 31, 1970, with a crew of seven and 122 passengers besides the nine members of the Japanese Red Army faction who hijacked the plane.
Passengers on the Japan Airlines Yodo jet return to Fukuoka Airport after being released in Kimpo Airport in South Korea. After the jet was hijacked and the members of the Japanese Red Army faction demanded that it be taken to North Korea, the plane was flown to South Korea, where it remained for three days. Shinjiro Yamamura, the transport parliamentary vice minister at the time, agreed to become a hostage in exchange for releasing all the passengers.
Shinji Ishida, the pilot of the Japan Airlines Yodo jet, smiles after landing the plane back at Haneda Airport on April 5, 1970, about 122 hours after the plane departed the same airport. The plane left Pyongyang carrying Shinjiro Yamamura, the transport parliamentary vice minister at the time, and three crew members, including Ishida.
Japanese police distributed wanted posters of the Japanese Red Army faction members who hijacked the Japan Airlines Yodo jet. Three members of what has come to be called the Yodo group died in North Korea, including the group's leader, Takamaro Tamiya. Four members are still believed to be living in North Korea, more than 40 years after the hijacking.
Police escort Yasuhiro Shibata, one of the Japanese Red Army members who hijacked the Japan Airlines Yodo jet, out of Kobe District Court in May 1988. Shibata, who was still a minor at the time of the hijacking, secretly returned to Japan, but was arrested in 1988 and served a prison sentence before being released in 1994. He died in June 2011 at age 58. Another member, Yoshimi Tanaka, was repatriated to Japan in 2000 from Cambodia, where he had been in hiding, and died of illness in January 2007.
