Fusako Shigenobu (Japanese: 重信 房子, Hepburn: Shigenobu Fusako, born 28 September 1945) is a Japanese communist activist, writer, and the founder and leader of the now-disbanded militant group Japanese Red Army (JRA).

Born in Japan, Shigenobu became involved in New Left activism while attending night school at Meiji University in Tokyo. In 1969, she joined the Red Army Faction (RAF), a communist group that advocated immediate, armed revolution against the governments of the United States and Japan. Eventually becoming one of its senior leaders, Shigenobu played a significant role in establishing the International Relations Bureau for the organization.

In 1971, she helped found the JRA as an offshoot of the RAF. That same year, Shigenobu and the JRA relocated to the Middle East in an effort to start a world revolution, as well as to assist with the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation while working in concert with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). During the 1970s and 1980s, members of the JRA took part in a number of violent incidents, including bombings, mass shootings, and hijackings. Although Shigenobu did not directly participate in these activities, during this time she attained international fame as the leader and public-facing spokesperson for the JRA.

Throughout her years in hiding and later imprisonment, Shigenobu authored 10 books, including a book of poetry.

Following her arrest in 2000 after several years of hiding, Shigenobu was put on trial for passport forgery and alleged conspiracy involving an attempted hostage-taking operation at the French Embassy in The Hague in 1974. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2006 and released in 2022.

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  • Mokey [none/use name]
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    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Question you loony lefties,

    Why did the US admit they didnt find WMD in Iraq? Why didnt they just fabricate it like everything else?

      • Mokey [none/use name]
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        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Oh that makes sense, so it was more like no one admitted they didnt find them they just stopped talking about it and focused more on the freedom aspect

    • Dolores [love/loves]
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      edit-2
      1 year ago

      i mean its not essential. the story got the work accomplished, nobody went to fuckin jail and they don't think they ever will.

      you only need to cover your ass if there's consequences for not doing so

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Once they were there it didn't matter. They just needed an excuse to get the ball rolling, whip up the hogs, have a scourge to threaten any dissidents in government with. Once the ball was rolling they just kept changing the goal. We're bringing democracy. We're fighting terror, we're supporting entrepreneurs. It's all bullshit.

    • MF_COOM [he/him]
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      1 year ago

      Honestly this question bothers me to this day. I asked the very same question in a mega a couple of years ago. I can't remember what the responses were but I feel like one response talked in a convincing way about how hard it is to fake that kind of thing, like the WMDs have to align to a known chain of custody kind of like a Vermeer. IDK I'm definitely too dumb to know if that's reasonable or not but I thought it was interesting.