Kōzō Okamoto (岡本 公三 Okamoto Kōzō, born December 7, 1947) was a 24-year-old botany student from a respectable middle-class family when he was recruited to the Japanese Red Army (JRA).[1] He was later detained in Lebanon. During his stay in Lebanon, Okamoto converted to Islam in what was seen as an attempt to avoid being returned to Japan.[2] As one of the perpetrators of the Lod Airport Massacre, he is a convicted mass murderer and is still wanted by the government of Japan.
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On May 30, 1972, Kōzō Okamoto along with Yasuyuki Yasuda, and Tsuyoshi Okudaira, arrived at Israel's Lod Airport in Tel Aviv, via Air France Flight 132 from Rome.[3] After disembarking from the plane the three members of the JRA proceeded to the baggage claim area. Upon retrieving their luggage, they took out automatic weapons packed inside the suitcases and proceeded to open fire on other passengers in the baggage claim area.
The attack was a joint operation of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Japanese Red Army. The idea behind the joint effort was for the Japanese to carry out attacks for the Palestinians, and vice versa, in order to reduce suspicion. The plan worked, as Okamoto and his comrades attracted little attention prior to their attack.
They killed 26 people and injured 71 others. Yasuyuki Yasuda was killed in the attack when he ran out of ammunition. Tsuyoshi Okudaira committed suicide by placing a grenade against his body. Kōzō Okamoto was wounded and captured trying to escape the terminal.[4] The attack became known as the Lod Airport Massacre. The victims were mostly Puerto Rican Christians on a pilgrimage to Israel. One of the Israeli victims was scientist Aharon Katzir, whose younger brother Ephraim became the fourth President of Israel in 1973.
In the letter claiming official responsibility for the attack carried out by the Japanese Red Army, the PFLP referred to it as Operation Deir Yassin. This was to portray it as revenge for the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre. The letter also stated that the operation was carried out by the Squad of the Martyr Patrick Arguello. Patrick Arguello had been shot and killed two years earlier, on September 6, 1970 on an Israeli El Al jet he had attempted to hijack together with PFLP member Leila Khaled.
Asked whether he regretted killing innocent people, Okamoto said, "I had no option but to shoot for the sake of armed struggle. Now I can only pray for the victims."[5] Asked what would be the first thing he would do if he got out of prison, he replied: "I shall go around the world expressing my regret to the Jewish and Puerto Rican people."[6]
The Israeli government charged Okamoto under the Defence Emergency Regulations, originally created by the British Mandatory authorities in 1945 and applied to both Israeli and Arab guerrillas.[7] His court-appointed lawyer was Max Kritzman. Chicago-born and British-trained Kritzman had experience defending Israelis charged under the Emergency Regulations before 1948. Of Okamoto, he complained that "this man will not cooperate."[8] Throughout the trial, Okamoto undermined his defense to guarantee a death sentence.
Kōzō Okamoto was sentenced to life imprisonment in Israel. On July 23, 1973, PFLP and JRA operatives hijacked Japan Air Lines Flight 404, demanding Okamoto's release in exchange for the hostages onboard; Israel refused to comply. Okamoto was released in 1985 after 13 years, as part of a prisoner exchange with Palestinian militant factions. After his release from prison in Israel, Kōzō Okamoto moved to Libya, then Syria, and finally to Lebanon where he reunited with other members of the Japanese Red Army.
On February 15, 1997, Lebanon detained five Red Army members, Haruo Wakō, Masao Adachi, Mariko Yamamoto, Kazuo Tohira and Kōzō Okamoto for using forged passports and visa violations. They were sentenced to three years in prison. The sentence was passed by Judge Soheil Abdul-Sams on July 31, 1997. After their prison term was completed, the four other members of the JRA were forcibly deported to Jordan and from Amman, Jordan via a chartered Russian plane to Japan. The Lebanese government, however, granted political asylum to Kōzō Okamoto because, according to the Lebanese government, he "had participated in resistance operations against Israel and had been tortured in Israeli jails."[5]
Kōzō Okamoto is still wanted by the Japanese government. It has been requested that he be extradited to Japan.[9]