Approximately 20 minutes after takeoff, a young man named Takamaro Tamiya got up from his seat, drew a katana and shouted, "We are Ashita no Joe!" He stated his intent to hijack the plane and instructed the other hijackers to draw their weapons. The hijackers then took 129 people (122 passengers and seven crew members) hostage and commanded the pilots to fly the plane to Havana, Cuba, where they intended to receive training by communist military groups
Can other fandoms even compete
The American head of Pepsi was on board that flight, somehow.
One of the hijackers was the bassist of the band Les Rallizes Dénudés, Moriaki Wakabayashi, who was apparently still alive and living in the DPRK as recently as 2014.
It's always surprising to me how many plane hijackings happened in the 70s
Les Rallizes members are still active, at least most of them. They re-released some records lately. Surprised the government never charged them or the US never extradited them
Some JRA members also shot up an Israeli airport with a Palestinian group
I'm not sure where they were going with this one honestly. They wanted to take the plane to Cuba, but it was a domestic flight in a Boeing 727 from Tokyo to Fukuoka. The plan was to get to Cuba and get training as guerilla fighters. But the airline didn't have nearly enough fuel to cross an ocean. Instead it was negotiated that the plane would get refueled in Fukuoka, the hostages released, then taken to Pyongyang, DPRK. Why did the Red Army guys not realize a 727 isn't big enough to cross the Pacific ocean? Just a weird plan, but they were also allowed to bring samurai swords on board for some reason
Socialist insurrection back around 1970 seemed so wild and spur of the moment. Like the Weather Underground bombing the Pentagon.
The only Ashita No Joe-related media i've ever partaken in is notoriously bad Neo-Geo fighting game Legend of Success Joe
