1974 French Embassy attack in The Hague
Encyclopedia
On September 13, 1974, three members of the Japanese Red Army
stormed the French Embassy in The Hague allegedly on Fusaku Shigenobu's
orders. The ambassador and ten other people were taken hostage and a Dutch policewoman, Hanke Remmerswaal, was shot in the back, puncturing a lung. After lengthy negotiatons, the hostages were freed in exchange for the release of a jailed Red Army member (Yatsuka Furuya), $300,000 and the use of a plane. The plane flew the hostage-takers first to Aden
, South Yemen, where they were not accepted and then to Syria
. Syria did not consider hostage taking for money revolutionary, and forced them to give up their ransom.
Two of the three members who allegedly attacked the embassy, Haruo Wako
and Jun Nishikawa
have been detained and extradited to Japan
. They are now on trial and have said Shigenobu was involved in the Hague attack.
The other member, Junzo Okudaira
is still at large.
Japanese Red Army
The was a Communist terrorist group founded by Fusako Shigenobu early in 1971 in Lebanon. It sometimes called itself Arab-JRA after the Lod airport massacre...
stormed the French Embassy in The Hague allegedly on Fusaku Shigenobu's
Fusako Shigenobu
is the founder and former leader of the now disbanded Japanese Red Army.-Early life:Shigenobu was born on September 28, 1945 in the Setagaya Ward of Tokyo...
orders. The ambassador and ten other people were taken hostage and a Dutch policewoman, Hanke Remmerswaal, was shot in the back, puncturing a lung. After lengthy negotiatons, the hostages were freed in exchange for the release of a jailed Red Army member (Yatsuka Furuya), $300,000 and the use of a plane. The plane flew the hostage-takers first to Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
, South Yemen, where they were not accepted and then to Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
. Syria did not consider hostage taking for money revolutionary, and forced them to give up their ransom.
Two of the three members who allegedly attacked the embassy, Haruo Wako
Haruo Wako
was a member of the armed militant group, the Japanese Red Army.Haruo Wakō and two other members of the JRA were involved in the seizure of the French Embassy in The Hague in 1974. The ambassador and ten other people were taken hostage and a Dutch policewoman, Hanke Remmerswaal, was shot in the...
and Jun Nishikawa
Jun Nishikawa
is a former member of the Japanese Red Army .He was a member of the group that attacked the French embassy in The Hague in 1974. Nishikawa was arrested in Stockholm in 1975 and freed months later in exchange for hostages taken by the Japanese Red Army at the United States consulate in the Malaysian...
have been detained and extradited to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. They are now on trial and have said Shigenobu was involved in the Hague attack.
The other member, Junzo Okudaira
Junzō Okudaira
, born February 2, 1949, was one of the three Japanese Red Army members who attacked the French embassy in The Hague in 1974.On April 14, 1988, a car bomb exploded in front of the USO Club in Naples, Italy. The explosion killed five people, including a U.S. servicewoman, and injured 15, including...
is still at large.