United Red Army

Not to be confused with Red Army Faction (Japan) or Japanese Red Army.
For the 2007 film, see United Red Army (film).

  • United Red Army
  • 連合赤軍
Leader
MotivesGuerrilla warfare and proletarian revolution
Active regionsJapan
IdeologyCommunism
New Left
Major actionsRobbery, murder
Notable attacks
StatusDissolved
Preceded by
Sekigunha
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The United Red Army (連合赤軍, Rengō Sekigun) was a militant organization that operated in Japan between July 1971 and March 1972.[1] The URA was formed as the result of a merger that began on 13 July 1971 between two extremist groups, the Marxist–Leninist–Maoist Red Army Faction (赤軍派, Sekigunha), led in 1971 by Tsuneo Mori, and the Reformed Marxist Revolutionary Left Wing group, Japanese Communist Party Kanagawa Prefecture Committee, also known as the Keihin Anti-Security Treaty Joint Struggle Group (京浜安保共闘, Keihin Anpo Kyōtō), led by Hiroko Nagata.[2]

The group intended to disrupt the Japanese political system to enable the emergence of Communism in the state.[3] The URA came to a sudden end with the Asama-Sanso incident, a 9-day siege and hostage situation that occurred at the group’s mountain hideout in the Nagano Prefecture in February 1972.[4] This event was widely publicized, with viewers across Japan able to view the shoot-out between the radicals and riot police on TV.[5] Public perception of the group was varied. Many were strongly opposed to the group and their tendency toward violence, whilst others sympathized with them and their desire to bring down the police state.[3] The United Red Army had 29 members and lost 14 due to killings in less than a year.

  1. ^ Steinhoff, Patricia (23 March 2011). "Hijackers, Bombers, and Bank Robbers: Managerial Style in the Japanese Red Army". The Journal of Asian Studies. 48 (4): 724–740. doi:10.2307/2058111. JSTOR 2058111.
  2. ^ Perkins, Chris (2015). The United Red Army on screen : cinema, aesthetics and the politics of memory. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-48035-4.
  3. ^ a b Igarashi, Yoshikuni (September 2007). "Dead Bodies and Living Guns: The United Red Army and Its Deadly Pursuit of Revolution, 1971–1972". Japanese Studies. 27 (2): 119–137. doi:10.1080/10371390701494135. S2CID 144992687.
  4. ^ Prohl, Inken; Nelson, John (2012). Handbook of contemporary Japanese religions. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-23435-2.
  5. ^ Shigematsu, Setsu (June 2012). "The Japanese Women's Liberation Movement and the United Red Army". Feminist Media Studies. 12 (2): 163–179. doi:10.1080/14680777.2011.597098. S2CID 143414497.