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1974 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing

Coordinates: 35°40′N 139°47′E / 35.667°N 139.783°E / 35.667; 139.783
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1974 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing 三菱重工爆破事件
The building where the bombing took place, pictured 2012
LocationMarunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Date30 August 1974 (1974-08-30)
12:45 pm (UTC+9)
WeaponTime bomb
Deaths8
Injured376+
PerpetratorsEast Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front

The 1974 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing (Japanese: 三菱重工爆破事件) was a terrorist bombing of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Tokyo, Japan on 30 August 1974, killing eight people and injuring at least 376 others. The bombing was committed by the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front, a radical far-left anti-Japanese organization, against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for supplying the United States against North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

The 1974 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack in Japan until the Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995.

Background

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The East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front (Higashi Ajia Hannichi Busō Sensen; EAAJAF) was a Japanese far-left organization, influenced by the New Left movement. Founded in 1972, it espoused a communist anti-Japaneseism ideology, with anarchist leanings. The EAAJAF viewed the Empire of Japan as the "perfect evil" and condemned the Pacific War as an "aggressive war" committed by Japan. In 1971, the EAAJAF's predecessor organization had launched a campaign of non-fatal bombings against the Japanese state, especially targeting symbols associated with Japanese imperialism, but in 1974 escalated its campaign to include the use of violence.

On 14 August 1974, the EAAJAF tried to blow up the bridge over which Emperor Hirohito's royal train was travelling, which they code-named the "Rainbow Operation", but this was aborted because a member was spotted shortly before it was to be put into action.[1]: 194  The following day Mun Se-gwang, a Korean-Japanese member of Chongryon and a far-left militant organization tied to the EAAJAF, attempted to assassinate President Park Chung-hee of South Korea. Despite Mun's failure to kill Park, the attack soured the already fragile Japan–South Korea relations and encouraged the EAAJAF's Wolf cell into committing new terrorist bombings in sympathy with Mun. The EAAJAF targeted Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a large Japanese corporation which manufactured military weapons that were later used by the United States against North Vietnam in the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.[2]

Bombing

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Members of the 'Wolf' (Ōkami) cell of EAAJAF planted two home-made time bombs containing 45 kilograms of explosives in a flower pot at the entrance of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' head office block in the busy Marunouchi district of Tokyo. The EAAJAF gave a telephone warning to the people inside the building eight minutes before the explosion, but it was dismissed as a hoax. Another warning was made four minutes later after the first warning was ignored, but the building was not evacuated. One of the bombs exploded at 12:45 p.m. (UTC+9), lunchtime; the other failed to explode.[3]

Five people, two of them Mitsubishi employees, were killed immediately, and three more died in hospital shortly afterwards. An estimated 376 people were injured in the blast, with about 330 people taken to hospital, of whom 116 were Mitsubishi employees.[4] The explosion shattered the glass of the office block up to the eleventh storey, and that of buildings opposite including the headquarters of Mitsubishi Electric. It was loud enough to be heard from Shinjuku, over 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) away.[1]: 185  Vehicles and some trees in the streets were also destroyed.

Aftermath

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The bombing, which caused many more casualties than the EAAJAF expected due to the lack of evacuation, caused an outrage among the media. One editor said "This incident is a most atrocious challenge to our society. Society itself was the target and the victim." The Japan Times called for a "show of public wrath" against the terrorists. However, rightist Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka and leaders of leftist parties remained silent about the incident.[4] Nervousness among the Tokyo population increased following two other bombings carried out by the group in the city in 1974, with the police still not having made arrests.[5]

Seven members of EAAJAF were arrested on 19 May 1975.[6] In 1987, Masashi Daidoji and Toshiaki Masunaga were convicted and sentenced to death.[1] Daidoji, leader of the former group's Wolf cell, said during court hearings that the bombing was "a mistake". In May 1999 while on death row, he apologized to the victims for the first time, saying "Our causing casualties is not something I can justify. I would like to apologize from the bottom of my heart."[7] Daidoji died of multiple myeloma on 24 May 2017 at the Tokyo Detention Center.[6]

EAAJAF member and bombing participant Satoshi Kirishima, who had been hiding from the Japanese police since 1975,[8] revealed his identity in January 2024 in a hospital in Kanagawa, stating he wanted to die by his real name.[9] It was revealed he had been living under the pseudonym of "Hiroshi Uchida" in Fujisawa. He died three days later in Kamakura.[10]

The 1974 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack as defined by modern standards that had occurred in Japan at the time, and remained the deadliest for over two decades until the Tokyo subway sarin attack on 20 March 1995 which killed 12 people.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Andrews, William (15 August 2016). Dissenting Japan: A History of Japanese Radicalism and Counterculture from 1945 to Fukushima. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9781849049184 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ Andrews, William (30 August 2014). "August 30th, 1974: The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Headquarters Bombing". Throw Out Your Books.
  3. ^ Parry, Albert (23 January 2013). Terrorism: From Robespierre to the Weather Underground. Courier Corporation. ISBN 9780486161853 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ a b Halloran, Richard (September 1974). "Tokyo Uneasy for Future After Downtown Bombing; Fears Even Empty Threats Could Cripple Business". The New York Times.
  5. ^ Halloran, Richard (10 December 1974). "Tokyo Bomb Blast, the Third In Recent Months, Injures 13". The New York Times.
  6. ^ a b "Death-row inmate convicted of 1970s leftist serial bombings dies in prison". The Japan Times. 24 May 2017.
  7. ^ "Death row inmate apologizes to victims of 1974 bombing". Free Online Library.
  8. ^ "Notorious bombing fugitive Satoshi Kirishima reportedly dies after nearly half a century on the run in Japan". CBS News. 29 January 2024.
  9. ^ 病院で発見 指名手配 桐島聡容疑者（70）か　逃亡から約50年 潜伏先は
  10. ^ "連続企業爆破「桐島聡」名乗る男が死亡 末期がんで神奈川県鎌倉市の病院に入院". Sankei Shimbun (in Japanese). 29 January 2024. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
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35°40′N 139°47′E / 35.667°N 139.783°E / 35.667; 139.783

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