On May 8, 1972, members of the Palestinian Black September Movement called William Nassar’s group (two guys and two girls) hijacked a Sabina airliner during its flight from Brussels to Tel Aviv. Upon landing, the hijackers demanded the release of 100 Palestinian revolutionary fighters thrown in Israeli dungeons, in exchange for the 100 passengers on-board. The Red Cross requested an extension for the ten-hour deadline, and to allow them to provide food and water to the passengers until the hijackers’ demands had been met. The requests were granted, but the cost was their demise. The Red Cross had knowingly sent the food with Israeli commandos disguised as airport ground staff. The shooting led to the injury of some passengers, the death of the two Palestinian men and unknown number of Israeli commandos, and the injury and arrest of the two Palestinian girls (given life sentences).
Left: Okamoto Kozo. Right: Fusako Shigenobu (head of the Japanese Red Army)
In response to the way the Israelis negotiate prisoner exchanges, three weeks later (May 30, 1972), Kozo Okamoto (岡本 公三), Yasuyuki Yasuda (安田安之), and Tsuyoshi Okudaira (奥平剛士), three members of the Japanese Red Army (JRA), arrived at Ben Gurion Airport (coming on an Air France flight from Rome). They pulled out their rifles at the baggage claim and randomly shot at passengers and staff. The official reports claim that Yasuda was killed by Israeli fire, while Okudaira killed himself with a grenade after shooting at passengers disembarking from an El Al (Israeli) airliner. Okamoto survived the bloodbath in which 31 were killed and about 80 injured, and two El Al planes were wrecked. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in Israel, but was released back into Lebanon as part of a prisoner exchange in 1985. Japan had requested his extradition but the Lebanese government gave him political asylum.
The Japanese Red Army, in alliance with George Habash’s Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) named it the Deir Yassin Operation, planned by PFLP’s Wadi’ Haddad and JRA’s Okamoto.
But this article is not about those leftist Japanese university students who have fought for Palestine from their Lebanon base. It is about a different Japanese hero, who, in the same year of Deir Yassin Operation, was working on what would become the greatest anime in Arab history. He is Go Nagai (永井豪), the Japanese genius artist behind the creation of Grendizer (グレンダイザ), published in 1975. It was dubbed into Arabic by, ironically, Lebanese artists, at Al-Ittihad Al-Fanni Studios in Lebanon.
The story is about Daisuke, the duke of the planet Fleed, who had escaped total genocide at the hands of Vega forces by hijacking Vega’s most lethal weapon: a robot/spaceship called Grendizer. Daisuke lands on Earth and is discovered by the head of the Japanese Center for Space Research, who conceals Daisuke’s identity by adopting him as his son. Together, they build a hi-tech fighting brigade, with several other Earth fighters like Kouji Kabuto (from the famous Nagai 1972 anime — Mazinger Z), to defend Earth from Vega forces, which have settled the moon and turned it into their military base.
The intro song includes lyrics like “send fire, destroy the enemies… fight evil, resist greed, defend till victory.” And the powerful voice of Duke Fleed, dubbed by Lebanese artist Jihad Al-Atrash, is imprinted in millions of Arab minds, when he yells: “الويل للطاغين (Woe to the oppressors)!” before Grendizer blasts them away. Today, Arab kids’ best TV shows include Pokimon and Barney. There seems to have been a government-led campaign to kill idealism in children programs since the early nineties.
Nagai had this to say to “Egypt Today,” in defense of his cause, during his Middle East tour in 2009:
“I was particularly saddened when I found out that in many countries I was considered to be an author who loves to depict battles and destruction just for the fun of it. [...]The reason why I depict the effects of war in my comics is because I strongly believe that a person should learn from childhood how war can be destructive and how much people and societies may suffer from it, just the same way I learned it from the stories of adults around me when I was a little child. If we raise a child telling him only the nice and happy things of life, he will be unable to cope with all the hardships he will inevitably meet in his adulthood; if he doesn’t know the devastating effects of violence and repression, he could [...] cause incredible damage and suffering to the people around him.
“I guess this is one of the reasons why Japanese people, who have been raised for the last 60 years reading comics that some people abroad have labeled as hyper-violent, chose not to be involved in war after 1945 and have stated in their very constitution that they renounce war, as opposed to a country like the US, which has strong censorship against violence in animation and programs for children, but has been at war for most of its recent history.
Go Nagai 永井豪
“I am looking forward to a genuine Arab entertainment industry to spread to the world in order to help other cultures tear down the walls of misunderstanding. I can’t wait to see the works of young Egyptian animators and other valuable young artists of the Middle East. They carry on their back the burden of thousands of years of history and of one of the most fascinating cultures in the world, and it’s up to them to define how to deliver it to the people of the whole planet.”
Related posts:
- Palestine: Sweet and Sour Ties
- Japan and Middle East Politics in History
- Palestine From Different Eyes
- Top 10 Wikileaks Palestine Nuggets
- Guest Post: Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Deserve Civil Rights
can you please put up a post talking about the wehdat vs faseli game, its ridiculous how arab racism against palestinians is ok in the middle east. its disgusting in jordan as you saw the tensions boiling over, we should have no pride for jordan until this issue is addressed by the royal family and they live up to the fifa claim of "say no to racism." Enough is enough the Palestinian people need all of their rights in arabic countries, the status of refugee should not be an excuse anymore.
There was even a wikileaks talking about the racism against palestinians displayed at wehdat vs fasali games
heres the aljazeera video about the incident:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttB4qOMQjPg&fe…
Posted by Say no to racism! | December 12, 2010, 11:48 pmwat bout the Pharaohs who have intentionally colluded with the Zionist dogs to bring about the starvation and humiliation of a million people in Gaza?
Let's scream "Fuck you" to Egypt too.
Posted by Ooo | December 20, 2010, 6:41 amArabs are retards. I wish the Turks would come occupy us again. At least we'd be united and they can suppress our stupid internal fighting.
Posted by Zogmak | December 13, 2010, 9:38 amStop pretending to be an Arab.
I dont know what idealistic history you are referring to but the Arabs have yet to be united in the way that you imply. The Arab world is seperated by geography (North Africa, parts of East Africa, Gulf, etc) and to an extent, language and culture.
Idiots like you, for what ever reason, see all Arabs as the same. Get a life
Posted by Mimi | December 13, 2010, 11:09 amYou must have imagined that my post was referring to an idealistic history when I made no such reference to one. But people like you like to use cheap attacks and insults masked with fancy lingo thinking that it somehow makes you sound smart and more credible than someone like me who uses crude language.
In addition, fancy person, it's very interesting that you're accusing me of pretending to be an Arab. As your post implies, your obviously baseless accusation rests on these premises:
(1) You said that the Arab world is seperated by geography, and to an extent language and culture. Interesting, there seems to be a slight implication in this statement suggesting that division is perhaps inevitable, or dare I say, even favourable? And we all know whose interests are served best with division (let me give you a hint fancy one, it ryhmes with Zionist Entity and Sykes Picot)…
Posted by Zogmak | December 13, 2010, 12:42 pmMimi, easy.
Zogmak is an Arab…from Gaza actually…
Posted by woozies | December 13, 2010, 12:49 pmZogmak is not from Gaza, they do not have power or internet today, c'mon.
Posted by Hanitizer | December 13, 2010, 1:43 pmTrue, He's a Gazan living in a place with power and internet.
Posted by woozies | December 13, 2010, 5:58 pmThis site is infested with fucking morons.
Posted by Zogmak | December 14, 2010, 3:18 am…(2) I see all Arabs as the same, therefore for some reason I am an idiot who is pretending to be an Arab.
My post never implied such a thing. In fact I know Arabs are remarkably diverse in in their infinite retardedness. What I was implying is that having 'relatively' open borders (such as under the Ottomans) and one big asshole govern us is better than the status quo (i.e. strict visa requirements, squabbles between leaders in which case citizens suffer the consequences – think Jordan & Qatar, Kuwait & the PLO, etc…) and numerous asshole governing us.
And finally, just to show you how ridicilous your post is why don't you think of the USA, which is culturally different from state to state,with countless diverse cultures mixed in, yet they manage to retain unity. The intial American colonies also contained German, Dutch, French and Spanish speaking areas!! Think of the EU with open borders and numerous languages and religions. And then think of how silly you and your post is fancy person.
If I upset you you can cry over it with your wine and cheese crowd when you meet to discuss Noam Chomsky's latest ejaculation hahahahahaha (BEE-ATCH!)
Posted by Zogmak | December 13, 2010, 12:42 pmTo be more specific, I should say America was colonised early on by people who speak diverse languages.
Posted by Zogmak | December 13, 2010, 12:44 pm"Okamoto survived the bloodbath in which 31 were killed and about 80 injured" , "Lebanese government gave him political asylum"
Arabs promoting terrorism and defending terrorists.
Posted by 911 | December 13, 2010, 12:44 pmZogmak, are you actually complaining that the Jews don't forcibly repress all your Arab divisions? Would you prefer to live in a world where Israel acted towards the Arabs the way the Ottomans did? Because if you really feel that way, I can pass the message on.
Posted by Victor_Shikhman | December 13, 2010, 1:04 pmBtw, I just want to mention that I really enjoy what Kabob has evolved into. There's no more pretense to civility, to justice, to a desire for peace. The naked worship of murder and brutality, the extolling of savage ideology and the demand that it be taught to children is really quite refreshing. As Ben Gurion understood, what's important is not whether someone is a moderate or extremist, but whether what they believe is representative of the masses. I believe Kabob is finally hitting its stride, expressing the thought prevalent in the Arab and Arab American mainstream without the restraints and inhibitions of the past.
This is important for you, to be true to yourselves, and it is even more important to us, the rest of us, to understand who you are. Carry on.
Posted by Victor_Shikhman | December 13, 2010, 2:19 pmVictor, you, as Ben Gurion would say, are an idiot.
Carry on.
Posted by woozies | December 13, 2010, 6:01 pmWell if you look at the Israeli mainstream it's quite worse. And as Go Nagai pointed out, pretending to be non-violent (as he suggested when he mentioned the heavily American censored American animation) and actually being non-violent are two different things.
America is quite possibly the most brutal empire ever. Think of the millions they carpet bombed to death in Vietnam alone (we won't mention Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, South America, etc…). Vietnam alone FAR outdoes any so-called deathly violence perpetuated by any other nation in the 20th century (with the exception on Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia).
But maybe facts like these are not important to silly billies like you because they might act as a hindrance to your silly billiness.
Posted by Zogmak | December 13, 2010, 8:56 pmAs for the Zionist Regime, hahaha, I hope that's not the model for a nation that doesn't preach non-violence, OMG hahaha. This coming from a nation whose people go take binoculars and watch a war in progress, whose soldiers wear T-shirts showing a pregnant Palestinian women suggesting they should kill her and also get rid of the future 'terrorist' baby at the same time. The nation whose little children right messages on missiles about to launched to Lebanon. A nation where Rabbis routinely villify Arabs and Gentiles and claim that harming/killing them is required.
In the early 1980s Israel's bombing of Beirut killed roughly 20,000 civilians more than all the so-called Lebanese/Palestinian attacks against the Zionist Terrorist Entity – so the Zionist Entity far outdoes it's regional foes in violence (and please don't be silly and try to claim that the shithole Zionist Entity is fighting defensive war and seeks place you delusional poop head).
Posted by Zogmak | December 13, 2010, 8:56 pm"In the early 1980s Israel's bombing of Beirut killed roughly 20,000 civilians more than all the so-called Lebanese/Palestinian attacks against the Zionist Terrorist Entity"
Imagine how many more would have died if Israel had gone Arab on Lebanon.
Posted by Yahooooooood | December 17, 2010, 9:56 amYou must be a moron if you're trying to suggest that Israel (aka the Zionist Entity) is somehow better than the Ottomans. Go back to Europe where you came from Khazarian Pig. Your people are the rejects and scum of Europe.
Posted by Zogmak | December 13, 2010, 8:59 pmStay classy, Zogmak. Stay classy.
Posted by Yahooooooood | December 17, 2010, 9:36 amZogmak is my bro. Your diction, flow, and style are baller. Crush these fools.
Posted by Yassir | December 15, 2010, 11:42 pm