1974 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing

1974 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing
三菱重工爆破事件
The building where the bombing took place, pictured 2012
Location Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Date August 30, 1974 (1974-08-30)
12:45 am (UTC+9)
Weapon Time bomb
Deaths 8
Non-fatal injuries
 376
Perpetrators East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front

The 1974 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing was a terrorist bombing of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Tokyo, Japan on August 30, 1974. The attack killed eight people and injured 376 others, making it the deadliest attack in Japan until the Tokyo subway sarin attack. It was carried out by the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front (EAAJAF) organization (Higashi Ajia Hannichi Busō Sensen).

Overview

The ultra-leftist EAAJAF militant group was against Japanese imperialism and the state, and targeted Mitsubishi Heavy Industries which were building military weapons that were later used by the United States in Vietnam in the 1970s.[1]

Two home-made time bombs were left at the entrance of the head office block in the busy Marunouchi district by members of the “Wolf” (Ōkami) cell of EAAJAF. The EAAJAF gave a telephone warning eight minutes before the explosion, but it was dismissed as a joke. Another warning came four minutes later, but the telephone exchanger still did not launch an evacuation procedure.

One of the bombs failed to detonate but the other did, around lunchtime.[2] Eight people died, two of which were employees at the company, and two passersby. About 330 people were brought to hospital, 116 of which were Mitsubishi employees.[3] Due to the lack of evacuation, the bombing caused a lot more damage than the terror group expected.

The bombs were powerful, containing 45 kg of explosives. It blasted all of the block's glass up to eleven storeys high,[4] as well as glass from buildings opposite, which included the Mitsubishi Electric headquarters. Vehicles on the streets and some trees were also destroyed. The blast was loud enough to be heard from Shinjuku over 5 km away.

Aftermath

The bombing caused 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, Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka as well as leaders of leftist parties remained silent about the incident.[3]

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]

The members of EAAJAF were arrested on May 19, 1975.[6] In 1987, Masashi Daidoji and Toshiaki Masunaga were convicted and sentenced to death.[4] Daidoji, leader of the former group's Wolf cell, said during court hearings that the bombing was "a mistake". In May 1999 while under 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 on May 24, 2017 at the Tokyo Detention Center.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "August 30th, 1974: The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Headquarters Bombing". 30 August 2014.
  2. ↑ Parry, Albert (23 January 2013). "Terrorism: From Robespierre to the Weather Underground". Courier Corporation – via Google Books.
  3. 1 2 Halloran, Richard. "Tokyo Uneasy for Future After Downtown Bombing; Fears Even Empty Threats Could Cripple Business".
  4. 1 2 Andrews, William (15 August 2016). "Dissenting Japan: A History of Japanese Radicalism and Counterculture from 1945 to Fukushima". Oxford University Press – via Google Books.
  5. ↑ Halloran, Richard. "Tokyo Bomb Blast, the Third In Recent Months, Injures 13".
  6. ↑ "Death-row inmate convicted of 1970s leftist serial bombings dies in prison". 24 May 2017 – via Japan Times Online.
  7. ↑ "Death row inmate apologizes to victims of 1974 bombing. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com.
  8. ↑ "Daidoji - Japan Innocence & Death Penalty Information Center 日本冤罪・死刑情報センター". www.jiadep.org.

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