Self-loathing produces a global menace
As a Japanese terrorist is released from prison, the utopian ideology which led to terrorism is still ravaging the world
Fusako Shigenobu, founder of the far Left terrorist organisation Japanese Red Army (JRA), has just been released from prison after 20 years. For over three decades, she was a notorious international terrorist operator who sprung out of Japan’s New Left movements to link up with Palestinian terrorists and carry out numerous attacks outside Japan. The JRA is associated with the Lod Airport massacre and numerous hijackings and bombings around the world in the 70s and 80s.
The JRA sprang out of the Japanese New Left which emerged from the student protest movements of the 50s and 60s. The New Left was and is split into various currents, but a common thread among them was their rejection of the “Old Left” parties JSP (now SDP) and JCP, considering them part of the system they aimed to overthrow. This resulted in a hostile relationship between mainstream Japanese progressives and the New Left which continues today.
The New Left spawned violent groups such as the JRA, United Red Army and East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front, who carried out numerous terrorist attacks with the goal of revolution in Japan and throughout the world. They were motivated above all else by a hatred of Japan itself: the Japanese state, people, culture and history. If this sounds familiar to you, it does, because it is the same self-loathing ideology which underpins much modern Woke thought but with a distinctly local flavour.
Besides carrying out terrorist attacks against ideological targets, New Left groups also engaged in internecine conflict which led to affiliates of these groups killing each other. The level of violence from these groups has declined, likely because they have less in a way of human and material capacity to do so. Still, such groups persist and might be analogous to Far Left and Antifa-type groups you see in the West, but they evolved differently.
These days, New Left movements mainly protest in support of progressive causes, but also engage in anti-Japanese activities including opposition to the Japanese monarchy - something which even the mainstream Left parties will never do (as it would cost them votes). In short, unlike European and American Antifa, these extremists have never been truly embraced even by mainstream progressives and liberals in Japan.
In any case, demonstrations by radical groups of both Left and Right in Japan take place with a police escort, often featuring counter-protesters along the pavement, but from what I’ve seen rarely turn violent, not these days anyway.
In any case, the story of Shigenobu and the JRA is a useful reference and a warning sign in studying extremist anti-Western ideology. These people were motivated by a missionary zeal to spread their ideas around the world, linking up with other terrorists to attack both their own country and other countries. Like the terrorist cult Aum Shinrikyo, the New Left aimed to destroy and remake Japanese society in its own image, which every revolutionary ideological movement aims to do.
Today’s anti-Western Woke ideologues differ little from these radicals in content, and this is what makes them dangerous. It is not such a big step from virtue signalling to attacking statues, to then carrying out terrorist attacks even in other countries. The Leftist intellectual monoculture in universities supports this and breeds radicalisation. The release of Shigenobu should be a timely reminder.
Shigenobu is a revolting human being. In another era, she would have surely been executed for treason, and deservedly so.
You are so right about the correlation between the radical leftist movements of the 20th century and the woke movement of the 21st century, each not only fuelled by the rhetoric of Marxism, but the works that emanated from the evil minds of philosophers and ideologues such as Marcuse and Gramsci.
The pernicious characteristics of the woke left are truly horrifying, and yet mainstream society simply perceive this phenomenon as either a benign inconvenience, or the cure-all to our social ills.
Very few make the connection between the insidious origins of leftist ideology, and the seemingly palatable social and political landscape that has manifested in the modern era.
Your line about how easily the leftist ideological response can escalate from rhetoric to violence is excellent - "It is not such a big step from virtue signalling to attacking statues, to then carrying out terrorist attacks even in other countries."
Another great article. Thanks, David.