1 00:00:02,120 --> 00:00:07,320 Speaker 1: Zone Media, Welcome to could happened Here? I'm Andrew Sage 2 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:10,639 Speaker 1: of the True Channel Andrewism and one of the last 3 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:13,280 Speaker 1: times I was on here. I was discussed in political 4 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:17,079 Speaker 1: cults generally drawn from the work of Dennis Tourist and 5 00:00:17,120 --> 00:00:19,880 Speaker 1: Tim Worforth in their book On the Edge Political Cults 6 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: Left and Right. We learned about the roller coaster emotional ride, 7 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:27,400 Speaker 1: the individual's experience during cult recruitment, where their feelings and 8 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:30,480 Speaker 1: ideas are manipulated and they are drawn into an exclusive 9 00:00:30,520 --> 00:00:33,800 Speaker 1: and isolating group. We explored the common techniques used by 10 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:39,720 Speaker 1: political cults, including creating rigid belief systems, immunity to falsification, authoritarianism, 11 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:44,199 Speaker 1: arbitrary leadership, deification of leaders, intense activism, and the use 12 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:47,400 Speaker 1: of loaded language. We also had to the contradictory positions 13 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:50,720 Speaker 1: often held by members of political cults, so as advocating 14 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:56,080 Speaker 1: for liberty while supporting totalitarianism, believe in equality alongside late leaders, 15 00:00:56,160 --> 00:01:00,960 Speaker 1: accumulating privileges, promoting sexual morality while exploit in members, and 16 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:04,000 Speaker 1: demanding free speech rights while suppressed and dissent within the group. 17 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:08,040 Speaker 1: And we also examined Robert Lifton's eight conditions that indicate 18 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:12,440 Speaker 1: the presence of ideological totalism within cults, which include miliu control, 19 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:16,160 Speaker 1: mystical manipulation, the demand for purity, the cult of confession, 20 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:19,440 Speaker 1: the sacred science loading, the language, doctrine of a person, 21 00:01:19,720 --> 00:01:23,600 Speaker 1: and the dispensive existence. If you want the details on 22 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:25,959 Speaker 1: all of that, you can check out the first episode 23 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:29,120 Speaker 1: in Political Cult Series, or you could pick up the 24 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:31,640 Speaker 1: book on political cults yourself. As I said, on the 25 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:34,520 Speaker 1: Edge Political Cults Left and Right by Dennis Teurish and 26 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:38,280 Speaker 1: Tim Allforth. I also had an episode where I spoke 27 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:41,480 Speaker 1: about the Trotskyist turned right wing cult of Lyndon Laroche, 28 00:01:41,640 --> 00:01:46,960 Speaker 1: which was primarily based in USA but today joined by Garrison. 29 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:49,040 Speaker 1: I want to take a look at the deadly cult 30 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:54,600 Speaker 1: that arose from the Japanese student movement the United Red Army. 31 00:01:55,560 --> 00:01:56,560 Speaker 2: Very exciting stuff. 32 00:01:56,800 --> 00:01:57,640 Speaker 3: In my research for this. 33 00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:00,400 Speaker 1: Episode, I looked at Dead Bodies and Living God by 34 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:04,760 Speaker 1: Yoshikuni Igarashi, the Japanese Women's Liberation Movement in the United 35 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:08,800 Speaker 1: Red Army by set Sushiyamatsu, and Hijackers, Bombers and bank 36 00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:09,919 Speaker 1: Robbers by Patricia g. 37 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:10,600 Speaker 3: Steinhoff. 38 00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:14,320 Speaker 1: So let's get into it, and to do so, we're 39 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:17,680 Speaker 1: going to need some historical context, not necessarily as in 40 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:20,280 Speaker 1: depth as digging into the evolution of post war Japan, 41 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:22,799 Speaker 1: which is such a deep and complex period in history 42 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:25,480 Speaker 1: that it really deserves and has given special attention by 43 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:29,600 Speaker 1: historians that I have not the knowledge to buster. We do, however, 44 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:31,960 Speaker 1: need to take a look more specifically at what the 45 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 1: conditions were like in the country in the late sixties 46 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:40,960 Speaker 1: and early seventies. After the war, Japan was transitioned into 47 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:43,480 Speaker 1: something of a liberal democracy. 48 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:45,079 Speaker 3: With all of that entails. 49 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:47,720 Speaker 1: You know, the US rolled in and occupied Japan and 50 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:49,959 Speaker 1: forced all these changes and reforms, and so by the 51 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:53,360 Speaker 1: late sixties and seventies you have post war children who 52 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:56,200 Speaker 1: were now adults and had gone through and witnessed these 53 00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:59,720 Speaker 1: systems through his hand. They saw the limits of democracy 54 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: and capitalism. Japanese society was firmly under the thumb of 55 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:07,240 Speaker 1: the US as well, which created its own grievances amongst population. 56 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:10,880 Speaker 1: The Japanese government had become a key supporter of US 57 00:03:10,919 --> 00:03:14,160 Speaker 1: imperialism in the Cold War era. Both the Korean War 58 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:17,200 Speaker 1: and the Vietnam War were facilitated through the US's military 59 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:21,040 Speaker 1: bases in Japan, and the Japanese left did not like that. 60 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:21,880 Speaker 3: At all. 61 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:26,120 Speaker 1: Naturally, in response, the state would crush them, as states 62 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:29,799 Speaker 1: are apt to do. When the Japanese were taken to 63 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:33,920 Speaker 1: the streets and solidarity, the state increased their surveillance, repression, 64 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:37,360 Speaker 1: and incarceration. Some on the Japanese left would come to 65 00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:39,960 Speaker 1: see Japan as a police state with US back in, 66 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:43,320 Speaker 1: but that wasn't the left's only a see with Japanese society. 67 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:47,920 Speaker 1: Japan's economic success postwar thanks to the US, had brought 68 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:52,160 Speaker 1: the establishment of a mass consumer society that gave the population, 69 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:56,280 Speaker 1: even in rural areas and among poor factory workers, greater 70 00:03:56,440 --> 00:04:00,000 Speaker 1: access to information and consumer goods, and that ended up 71 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:02,760 Speaker 1: posing an issue for the left in Japan because many 72 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:06,000 Speaker 1: of the organizations were struggling to adjust to the shift. 73 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:11,560 Speaker 1: Times to court Yoshikuni Igarashi directly, the new left critique 74 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:14,720 Speaker 1: of post war society had long been too rigid to 75 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:19,200 Speaker 1: address the rapidly changing social conditions of Japan. Each person 76 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:22,600 Speaker 1: was complicit with the political and economic mechanisms that produced 77 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:26,760 Speaker 1: social injustice insofar as he or she took advantage of them. 78 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:31,000 Speaker 1: It was simply impossible to undo the effects of the system. 79 00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:35,200 Speaker 1: When many in society cherished their newly found agency as consumers. 80 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:38,080 Speaker 1: So the left in Japan was fixated on this very 81 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:42,120 Speaker 1: romanticized image of the rugged workers and not really engaging 82 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:44,880 Speaker 1: with what the workers themselves thought about and wanted to 83 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:50,320 Speaker 1: see transformed in their circumstances. Like, yeah, it's understandable that workers, 84 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:53,560 Speaker 1: despite being exploited, would also cling to some of the 85 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:57,640 Speaker 1: comforts they've gained even under those poor circumstances, and these 86 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:01,440 Speaker 1: left organizations weren't adequately in caging with that. They were 87 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:04,480 Speaker 1: engagement with the fact that, yeah, this poor factory workers, 88 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:08,000 Speaker 1: poor and suffering, but they also appreciate the fact that 89 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:13,680 Speaker 1: they have access to all these new technologies and all 90 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:16,000 Speaker 1: this new entertainment media and all that stuff. They were 91 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:19,480 Speaker 1: still stuck in this very late nineteenth and early twentieth 92 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:22,920 Speaker 1: century sort of understanding. Yeah, so they were kind of 93 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:27,359 Speaker 1: ideologically stuck and disconnected. They had this one vision of 94 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:30,680 Speaker 1: the struggle and it wasn't really being updated with the 95 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:33,960 Speaker 1: changing times. So it's no surprise really what we'll resulved 96 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:35,799 Speaker 1: from this late sixties status. 97 00:05:35,839 --> 00:05:36,039 Speaker 3: Cool. 98 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:38,880 Speaker 1: First, I think we should stop I understanding the various 99 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:43,440 Speaker 1: associations of Seki Gun, which is the Red Army. There 100 00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: were three major related groups under the label of Psekiguon 101 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:51,120 Speaker 1: that shared a very particular vision to quote putsisher g 102 00:05:51,279 --> 00:05:55,040 Speaker 1: sign off. One, we have the original group led by 103 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:59,800 Speaker 1: Shiamin Takaya, which began as the pseki guner of a 104 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:04,279 Speaker 1: student organization in nineteen sixty eight and dropped the her designation, 105 00:06:04,520 --> 00:06:08,640 Speaker 1: becoming psaka Gun sometime after it became independent in mid 106 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:13,120 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine. Nice two, you had a remnant of 107 00:06:13,160 --> 00:06:16,400 Speaker 1: the original Psykagoon which in nineteen seventy one joined with 108 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:20,200 Speaker 1: another group to become Rengo seki Gun United Red Army, 109 00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:23,599 Speaker 1: and remember that because of the focus of today, and 110 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:26,160 Speaker 1: they became under the leadership of the Seka Gun head 111 00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:30,360 Speaker 1: Mori Sunyo. And then three lastly, he had a group 112 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:34,200 Speaker 1: that developed in Lebanon beginning in nineteen seventy one under 113 00:06:34,200 --> 00:06:38,400 Speaker 1: the leadership of Okidaira Takeshi and psaki Gun member Chigenaugu 114 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:45,800 Speaker 1: Fusako and formally broke with Rango Sekukun. And this group 115 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:48,560 Speaker 1: formally broke with Ngo Zeka Gun the United Red Army 116 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:52,280 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy two. They were called the Japanese Red Army. 117 00:06:53,080 --> 00:06:55,599 Speaker 1: So you have the Red Army faction Psychic gun Her, 118 00:06:56,440 --> 00:07:00,120 Speaker 1: which dropped the her designation and became Psaki gun And 119 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:02,640 Speaker 1: you had a remnant from the original psychogo In which 120 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:05,320 Speaker 1: joined with another group to become Rango psycgo in the 121 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:06,240 Speaker 1: United Red Army. 122 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:07,599 Speaker 3: And then you had a group. 123 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:11,360 Speaker 1: That broke away from the United Red Army and became 124 00:07:11,400 --> 00:07:16,320 Speaker 1: the Japanese Red Army. Very classic Marxist Leninist party split 125 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:21,239 Speaker 1: in practices. So in the early days Sekiguna, the parent 126 00:07:21,440 --> 00:07:25,760 Speaker 1: Revolutionary all of the later two groups beckoned Japan's brightest students, 127 00:07:25,840 --> 00:07:28,840 Speaker 1: the children of many elites. And when I say elites, 128 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:34,240 Speaker 1: I mean these youths would have been regular degular academics, doctors, bureaucrats, 129 00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:37,720 Speaker 1: and corporate careerists if not for them joining this organization. 130 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:42,080 Speaker 1: Having passed their entrance exams, immersed in the anti mainstream 131 00:07:42,120 --> 00:07:44,840 Speaker 1: culture of the universities at the time, they seize that 132 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:48,760 Speaker 1: freedom to create organizations against mainstream Japanese society. 133 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:49,520 Speaker 3: The Red Army. 134 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:52,880 Speaker 1: Psakigunna had split from its parent group, a national student 135 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:56,920 Speaker 1: organization called the Communist League, informally bunned over a quote 136 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:01,600 Speaker 1: unresolvable policy dispute. Itself had come out to The first 137 00:08:01,640 --> 00:08:04,520 Speaker 1: major factional split in nineteen fifty eight in the postwar 138 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:08,720 Speaker 1: Japanese national student organization known as Zenger Couldn't, which was 139 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:11,600 Speaker 1: formed by folks who had been expelled from or left 140 00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:15,480 Speaker 1: the Japanese Communist Party. So, just to bring out to speed, 141 00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:18,200 Speaker 1: there you have the Japanese Communist Party, and then some 142 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:21,240 Speaker 1: people who were expelled from that party created their own 143 00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:25,360 Speaker 1: organization known as Anger Couldn't, and then that zenger Kuren 144 00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:26,720 Speaker 1: organization split. 145 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:30,280 Speaker 2: Do you know what else could benefit from a split? 146 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:44,000 Speaker 2: Right now? It's this episode with this ad break and 147 00:08:44,040 --> 00:08:44,600 Speaker 2: we're back. 148 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:46,319 Speaker 1: One of the splits that came out of that was 149 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:48,400 Speaker 1: the Communist League, which we be came known as the Bund, 150 00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:52,800 Speaker 1: and the Bund had a split within it that bothed 151 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:55,880 Speaker 1: the Red Army, and the Red Army had. 152 00:08:55,760 --> 00:09:01,240 Speaker 2: Its own splits, yes, as so as all these groups 153 00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:02,120 Speaker 2: love to. 154 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:06,720 Speaker 1: Do, yes, lots of split it And according to segin Off, 155 00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:11,880 Speaker 1: Bund actually had a really remarkable history of internal factional splits. 156 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:15,920 Speaker 1: In fact, even for its own cohort is quite exceptional. 157 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:20,319 Speaker 1: That generated over fifty separate groups. In addition to Psychicguna, 158 00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:24,600 Speaker 1: which had become Psychicgoon, Droppin'd ha as I said. After 159 00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:28,520 Speaker 1: it became independent from BUND in nineteen sixty nine, again nice. 160 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:32,920 Speaker 1: And then after the split, Psechicgoon immediately copied the already 161 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:36,880 Speaker 1: outdated Communist party setup that BUND had initially inherited from 162 00:09:36,920 --> 00:09:39,920 Speaker 1: its own parent organization. I mean everything from the central 163 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:43,480 Speaker 1: Committee to the Politbreu, to the secretariat to the former 164 00:09:43,520 --> 00:09:47,400 Speaker 1: representation from regional and local units, though a lot of 165 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:51,440 Speaker 1: these structures mainly existed on paper according to former members. 166 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:58,720 Speaker 1: So what was Psechigoon doing well? The members were already 167 00:09:58,880 --> 00:10:03,920 Speaker 1: experienced in orchestrating mass activities typical of the era's student movement. 168 00:10:04,559 --> 00:10:09,040 Speaker 1: They excel in producing and disseminating political publications, organizing meetings, 169 00:10:09,080 --> 00:10:13,080 Speaker 1: and coordinating street demonstrations. But eventually they realize this stuff 170 00:10:13,200 --> 00:10:17,520 Speaker 1: just isn't working. They need something bolder. The group aimed 171 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:22,600 Speaker 1: for innovative action rather than organizational innovation, adopted the Red 172 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:26,440 Speaker 1: Army moncle and aligned themselves as soldiers within a loosely 173 00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:32,160 Speaker 1: structured central committee. And despite being a legal entity in 174 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:36,000 Speaker 1: post war Japan, Sekigoon quickly found itself at art of 175 00:10:36,040 --> 00:10:40,080 Speaker 1: the state due to its provocative intentions and actions. The 176 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:44,960 Speaker 1: group openly declared its intention to incasion legal activities no 177 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:50,040 Speaker 1: can upsect whatsoever, triggering intense police surveillance and a confrontational 178 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:54,079 Speaker 1: relationship from the outset. Their journey transitions swiftly from public 179 00:10:54,559 --> 00:10:59,240 Speaker 1: legal events to clandestine and unlawful activities such as weapon making, 180 00:10:59,559 --> 00:11:03,679 Speaker 1: high packings, bombings, weapons theft, and bank robberies. And with 181 00:11:03,800 --> 00:11:08,520 Speaker 1: that unfailiar territory came many mistakes and much really. 182 00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:12,959 Speaker 2: In so they went from having meetings and making the 183 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:17,880 Speaker 2: zines to doing other stuff. Is what I is, is 184 00:11:17,880 --> 00:11:22,720 Speaker 2: what I take it for. Translated to a modern politically 185 00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:23,520 Speaker 2: active audience. 186 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:28,800 Speaker 1: They went from doing like peaceful protests, you know, peaceful marches, 187 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:32,320 Speaker 1: sit ins that sort of thing too, like bank. 188 00:11:32,200 --> 00:11:34,920 Speaker 3: Robberies, embombents. Yeah. 189 00:11:35,559 --> 00:11:38,800 Speaker 1: And on top of that, they really had the they 190 00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:42,840 Speaker 1: had the inflated sense of self to grandiously label their 191 00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:47,160 Speaker 1: attempted uprisings as the Tokyo War, the Osaka. 192 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:48,800 Speaker 2: War, sure, sure Kyoto war. 193 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:54,720 Speaker 1: I mean their actions in a sense, it is some 194 00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:57,839 Speaker 1: urban guerrilla warfare that they might have been engaging in. 195 00:11:57,920 --> 00:12:00,000 Speaker 1: With some of these actions very glad to sign, very 196 00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:05,640 Speaker 1: direct and violence and stuff. And there was a stee response. 197 00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:09,559 Speaker 2: A lot of a lot of like more of these 198 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:13,400 Speaker 2: like extremely violent militant insurrectory type can kind of get 199 00:12:13,880 --> 00:12:16,680 Speaker 2: that inflated sense of what they're doing. And even though 200 00:12:16,679 --> 00:12:20,040 Speaker 2: I don't think ted Kay is an insurrectionist, but still 201 00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:24,560 Speaker 2: it's it kind of It's it's like, did he think 202 00:12:24,559 --> 00:12:27,160 Speaker 2: that blowing someone's fingers off every five years was going 203 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:32,560 Speaker 2: to trigger the collapse of industrial civilization? And you're like, maybe, 204 00:12:32,559 --> 00:12:37,840 Speaker 2: maybe not, but that doesn't seem like a really great plan. Yeah, 205 00:12:37,920 --> 00:12:40,760 Speaker 2: if you're just taking someone's fingers off, yet you think 206 00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:43,000 Speaker 2: you're like the only one who's standing in the way 207 00:12:43,040 --> 00:12:47,440 Speaker 2: between industrial society and uh and the future of a 208 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:49,640 Speaker 2: desolate Earth. But I don't know, it's it's it is 209 00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:55,720 Speaker 2: a complicated things sometimes. Yeah, yeah, it's always hard to 210 00:12:55,760 --> 00:13:00,520 Speaker 2: gauge the successfulness of your own actions. 211 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:01,640 Speaker 1: Indeed, indeed, but I mean in this case, I think 212 00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:05,680 Speaker 1: we can gauge the success because well, first of all, 213 00:13:05,720 --> 00:13:09,880 Speaker 1: their actions all eventually led to police raids, arrested in indictments. Sure, 214 00:13:10,040 --> 00:13:13,480 Speaker 1: And also we could measure success based on the achievement 215 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:17,880 Speaker 1: of particular goals, and all of their attempted uprisings were 216 00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:20,080 Speaker 1: made with the aim of global revolution. 217 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:21,959 Speaker 3: Based on Trotsky's ideas. 218 00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:24,760 Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, So they were trying to build an army 219 00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:27,760 Speaker 1: that would not only lead in revolution in Japan but 220 00:13:27,880 --> 00:13:31,040 Speaker 1: also eid in revolutionary activities worldwide. So some of their 221 00:13:31,080 --> 00:13:33,680 Speaker 1: members even sought support and training from groups like the 222 00:13:33,679 --> 00:13:39,040 Speaker 1: Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine huh yeah. And eventually 223 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:43,160 Speaker 1: they tried to organize guerrilla training with intent to attack 224 00:13:43,240 --> 00:13:46,880 Speaker 1: the Prime Minister's residents, but a police raid foiled their 225 00:13:46,880 --> 00:13:49,520 Speaker 1: plans and arrested fifty three of their members, which led 226 00:13:49,559 --> 00:13:53,280 Speaker 1: to the core of the organization Zekurgun to go underground. 227 00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:55,120 Speaker 3: And then while they were. 228 00:13:55,120 --> 00:14:00,360 Speaker 1: Underground, their style of organization had to evolve. Initially they 229 00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:04,120 Speaker 1: resemble the sort of cumbersome bureaucracy of a communist party, 230 00:14:04,559 --> 00:14:09,360 Speaker 1: but eventually they reinvented themselves to become similar rather to 231 00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:14,800 Speaker 1: the Japanese managerial styles of the time period. In short, 232 00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:17,040 Speaker 1: because I'm really trying to get to the juicy bits 233 00:14:17,080 --> 00:14:21,240 Speaker 1: of what was happening. The communication hurdles so they faced 234 00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:25,680 Speaker 1: due to that underground police surveillance led to a sophisticated 235 00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:30,160 Speaker 1: telephone network managed by Lea's wives and girlfriends. Organizational decision 236 00:14:30,200 --> 00:14:34,280 Speaker 1: making went from ecalitan debates to hierarchical orders, and after 237 00:14:34,400 --> 00:14:39,080 Speaker 1: any activities they engage in evaluations so like quarterly reports 238 00:14:39,080 --> 00:14:41,720 Speaker 1: and like a corporate office, to refine their approach for 239 00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:42,280 Speaker 1: next time. 240 00:14:43,360 --> 00:14:44,360 Speaker 3: So given all that. 241 00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:47,120 Speaker 1: History and context, what happens next relation shouldn't be all 242 00:14:47,160 --> 00:14:50,800 Speaker 1: too surprising. In December nineteen seventy one, the few remaining 243 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:54,520 Speaker 1: not arrested or dead members of Psychagoon's underground Army joined 244 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:57,880 Speaker 1: forces with another group in a similar situation called Kakome 245 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:02,320 Speaker 1: Saha or Revolutionary Left, to form the United Red Army 246 00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:06,560 Speaker 1: aka Rango Sekigun, which established themselves in a remote cabin 247 00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:09,560 Speaker 1: in the Japanese Alps in the dead of winter in 248 00:15:09,720 --> 00:15:13,400 Speaker 1: Guma Prefecture, and tried to work out the ideological and 249 00:15:13,520 --> 00:15:17,640 Speaker 1: organizational differences that came from uniting the two organizations. 250 00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:20,320 Speaker 3: The new group was led by the Red. 251 00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:24,080 Speaker 1: Army faction leader Sunyo Muri and second in command by 252 00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:27,840 Speaker 1: Hiroko Nagata, the leader of the Revolutionary Left. 253 00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:32,960 Speaker 3: And quick quick digression. It's actually a big deal. 254 00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:37,480 Speaker 1: Nagata was a woman, and that was sort of a 255 00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:41,320 Speaker 1: win in a sense, I mean a win, not in 256 00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:44,800 Speaker 1: a broader sense, probably not a win considering what happens next, 257 00:15:44,880 --> 00:15:47,800 Speaker 1: but a win in the sense that at the time 258 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:50,120 Speaker 1: there was a big issue with the Japanese New Left 259 00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:53,960 Speaker 1: and its patriarchal nature, where women typically only had any 260 00:15:54,040 --> 00:16:00,480 Speaker 1: kind of say or authority in relation to their male partners. 261 00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:03,359 Speaker 3: So it was kind of nice. 262 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:09,080 Speaker 1: To see Nagata get elevated to a position where she 263 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:13,280 Speaker 1: didn't have to be connected to a male figure in 264 00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:16,240 Speaker 1: the movement in order to have any kind of say 265 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:18,160 Speaker 1: or any kind of political sway. Of course, what she 266 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:20,560 Speaker 1: did with that say, what she did with that political 267 00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:25,440 Speaker 1: sway was not all too hot, but yeah, I digress. 268 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:30,400 Speaker 1: Under the direction of Mari and Girl Bossnagata, about twenty 269 00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:34,960 Speaker 1: five United Red Army members underwent revolutionary training to prepare 270 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:38,520 Speaker 1: for armed struggle against the state. At this point, though, 271 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:41,800 Speaker 1: you have to wonder what exactly they were hoping to achieve. 272 00:16:42,640 --> 00:16:46,760 Speaker 1: They weren't even connected any Legismo workers struggles in the country. 273 00:16:47,040 --> 00:16:51,000 Speaker 1: They weren't organizing their communities. They has created these revolutionary 274 00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:53,400 Speaker 1: cells where they would hold film to their rigid political 275 00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:58,640 Speaker 1: aims and refuse to engage in reality. To quote Yoshikuni 276 00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:02,120 Speaker 1: Igarashi directly, from the earliest days of the New Left, 277 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:07,040 Speaker 1: confrontations with the police were endowed with performative value. By 278 00:17:07,080 --> 00:17:09,439 Speaker 1: taking the beatens of police batons on their heads and 279 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:13,360 Speaker 1: being sprayed with tear gas, Raleigh participants presented themselves both 280 00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:16,400 Speaker 1: as victims of the state repressive power and as agents 281 00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:20,320 Speaker 1: of resistance against it. However, by the early nineteen seventies, 282 00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:23,399 Speaker 1: it became obvious that their performances were not enough to 283 00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:26,879 Speaker 1: break through the satuscope. It was also apparent that popular 284 00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:29,560 Speaker 1: support for the movements had aoracious limit and was starting 285 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:32,760 Speaker 1: to wane. As new left organizations began to see the 286 00:17:32,800 --> 00:17:36,000 Speaker 1: futility of trying to build widespread support, the acts of 287 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:39,800 Speaker 1: violence lost their performative aspect. Rather than presenting themselves as 288 00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:42,640 Speaker 1: both victims and agents of resistance as they had done before, 289 00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:46,200 Speaker 1: many organizations, including the Red Army and the Revolutionary Left, 290 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:50,320 Speaker 1: began to escalate their violence. The activists engaged in this 291 00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:55,400 Speaker 1: increasingly brutal struggle became a sort of self appointed revolutionary elite, 292 00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:58,560 Speaker 1: a group that demanded of its members a stepped up 293 00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:02,360 Speaker 1: bodily commitment in the form of an ever intensifying regimen 294 00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:06,480 Speaker 1: of physical training and corporeal deprivation, and a willingness to 295 00:18:06,560 --> 00:18:10,560 Speaker 1: die for the cause. The United Red Army's revolutionary struggles 296 00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:14,120 Speaker 1: at the mountain bases demonstrated the process through which violence 297 00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:17,760 Speaker 1: came to dominate the lives of its members. At another 298 00:18:17,800 --> 00:18:20,119 Speaker 1: point in the general article, he says that while the 299 00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:24,480 Speaker 1: paradegmatics shift caused by Japan's high growth economy demanded a 300 00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:28,080 Speaker 1: new theory and practice of political engagement, United Red Army 301 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:31,320 Speaker 1: members merely wished to undo the effects of economic development, 302 00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:34,879 Speaker 1: literally seeking to establish a critical purchase outside of the 303 00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:39,520 Speaker 1: existing system. Aspiring to transform themselves into a revolutionary elite. 304 00:18:39,800 --> 00:18:43,480 Speaker 1: They physically distanced themselves in mountain bases while vole rising 305 00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:47,320 Speaker 1: violence as a means to achieve alternative political conditions. Their 306 00:18:47,359 --> 00:18:50,119 Speaker 1: two stage strategy of exiting and then striking back of 307 00:18:50,160 --> 00:18:56,040 Speaker 1: the system, however, proved completely inadequate. At one point, early on, 308 00:18:56,160 --> 00:18:59,840 Speaker 1: two members in this mountain cabin in the Japanese Alps 309 00:19:00,119 --> 00:19:02,159 Speaker 1: decided that they want it's a piece out of the 310 00:19:02,200 --> 00:19:04,359 Speaker 1: United Red Army, probably go back to live in a 311 00:19:04,359 --> 00:19:09,600 Speaker 1: normal life. So in retaliation, Nagata organize the assassination with 312 00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:11,560 Speaker 1: the help of United Red Army members. 313 00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:14,280 Speaker 3: Yeah, like, how dare you leave? 314 00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:21,160 Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah, I mean this whole Red Army saga is 315 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:24,000 Speaker 2: is a really great example of how an extremely militant 316 00:19:24,480 --> 00:19:29,000 Speaker 2: leftist force really really does mirror so many, so many 317 00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:33,320 Speaker 2: cult dynamics. And like I I the stakes are high. 318 00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:35,679 Speaker 2: I get it. Like you have a lot of like 319 00:19:35,720 --> 00:19:39,640 Speaker 2: intense shared experiences with people, it can produce a whole 320 00:19:39,640 --> 00:19:42,960 Speaker 2: bunch of emotional, volatile reactions. I'm sure what they all 321 00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:46,679 Speaker 2: went through. I can, I can barely even begin to 322 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:50,600 Speaker 2: understand with with my like with my background and more 323 00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:57,119 Speaker 2: like a like anarchist instructionary action. But yeah, you know, 324 00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:01,880 Speaker 2: it's the whole, the whole hitman's squad for whenever members 325 00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:05,680 Speaker 2: like age out in their late twenties, this is certainly 326 00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:06,640 Speaker 2: an interesting move. 327 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:12,679 Speaker 1: Indeed, and if that wasn't bad enough, it gets worse. 328 00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:19,000 Speaker 1: So clearly, the fact that people want to leave means 329 00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:22,359 Speaker 1: that the character of their members are not good enough. 330 00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:25,719 Speaker 1: So the United Red Army wanted to improve the character 331 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:30,000 Speaker 1: of its members, so under Maury and Nagata's directives, they 332 00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:34,240 Speaker 1: underwent a purge through a process of collective and individual 333 00:20:34,359 --> 00:20:35,840 Speaker 1: self criticism. 334 00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:38,080 Speaker 3: It's always self criticism. 335 00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:41,600 Speaker 1: Of these people, so before long, self criticism became this 336 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:44,880 Speaker 1: sort of high stakes test of each member's revolutionary commitment 337 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:49,639 Speaker 1: call into question everything from their engagement and romantic relationships 338 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:55,000 Speaker 1: to their appreciation of material possessions. Any such attachments were 339 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,080 Speaker 1: seen as evidence that these members were not committed enough 340 00:20:58,119 --> 00:21:01,640 Speaker 1: to the cause. In fact, they were the worst thing 341 00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:06,480 Speaker 1: you could possibly be, a counter revolutionary and then things 342 00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:09,400 Speaker 1: got worse. So just to clarify, and this is according 343 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:13,080 Speaker 1: to prititioner G. Stegnoff, who studied the organizational structure. 344 00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:13,280 Speaker 3: Of these groups. 345 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:17,720 Speaker 1: When the United Eatonomy came together, they engaged in standard 346 00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:20,800 Speaker 1: consensus decision making procedures, which is how they came into 347 00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:23,600 Speaker 1: agreement that the members needed to be tough fund into 348 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:28,840 Speaker 1: revolutionaries capable of fighting the police. But despite engagement and consensus, 349 00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:32,639 Speaker 1: from time to time, the organization was very strictly vertical. 350 00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:36,280 Speaker 1: The central committee had a separate room from everyone else 351 00:21:36,320 --> 00:21:39,080 Speaker 1: in the cabin and the internet conditions made it easier 352 00:21:39,119 --> 00:21:42,919 Speaker 1: to stand out if you weren't cooperating with directives. To 353 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:45,800 Speaker 1: quote one section of the article, when the top leaders 354 00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:48,359 Speaker 1: introduced violence in order to speed up the transformation of 355 00:21:48,359 --> 00:21:51,440 Speaker 1: the weakest members, no one was able to confront leadership 356 00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:54,840 Speaker 1: to stop it. Those who disagreed tended to use traditional 357 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:59,720 Speaker 1: Japanese methods of indirection expressed in opposition by silence and withdrawal, 358 00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:02,439 Speaker 1: and given the purpose of the group's activity and the 359 00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:05,600 Speaker 1: expectation of full participation that is built into the ground 360 00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:10,679 Speaker 1: rules of consensus decision making, silence and withdrawal were interpreted 361 00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:15,240 Speaker 1: as unrevolutionary weakness, and participating in violence against others were 362 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:18,840 Speaker 1: soon defined as evidence of one's own sincere commitment to 363 00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:23,240 Speaker 1: become a better revolutionary. Those who failed to participate energetically 364 00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:26,879 Speaker 1: in the violence against others became the next victims of 365 00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:27,359 Speaker 1: the pooch. 366 00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:31,280 Speaker 2: Yeah that that all makes perfect sense to me. 367 00:22:31,359 --> 00:22:34,800 Speaker 3: Actually, yeah, I. 368 00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:38,080 Speaker 1: When they deemed somebody to be a counter revolutionary, the 369 00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:42,160 Speaker 1: others would be ordered to punish them through beatens, torture, 370 00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:46,400 Speaker 1: and exposure to the elements without food or shelter. As 371 00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:50,760 Speaker 1: you can imagine, people died. So when the first victims died, 372 00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:54,679 Speaker 1: leaders said that they had died of defeatism because they 373 00:22:54,680 --> 00:23:00,600 Speaker 1: couldn't overcome their own weakness. Six weeks later, in February 374 00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:04,280 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two, twelve of the twenty five members We're 375 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:08,560 Speaker 1: Dead One sign off points out that ironically, in between 376 00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:11,440 Speaker 1: bouts of the POGE, the United Read Army members were 377 00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:14,639 Speaker 1: able to break into groups and carry out tasks like 378 00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:18,080 Speaker 1: building a new cabin, planning the next attack, and bury 379 00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:20,840 Speaker 1: in the bodies of the dead comrades. Yeah, so imagine 380 00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:24,400 Speaker 1: that you're like jump in between these pooge sessions and 381 00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:26,040 Speaker 1: like building a cabin with your buds. 382 00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:31,200 Speaker 2: You know, honestly, I don't doubt it. Like I this 383 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:33,439 Speaker 2: all does make a sort of weird sense to me. 384 00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:36,400 Speaker 2: Like I've seen I've seen radical groups kind of fall 385 00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:40,160 Speaker 2: apart in not ways that lead to like mass purging 386 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:43,560 Speaker 2: as in like murder, but I've seen groups fall apart 387 00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:46,040 Speaker 2: in similar ways to this. You'll have like a smaller 388 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:49,320 Speaker 2: insular click who tries storming really active and like keep 389 00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:52,480 Speaker 2: going and doing stuff while also spending all their extra 390 00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:58,040 Speaker 2: time towards continually purifying their member base. Because once you 391 00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:02,359 Speaker 2: once you start that like pureification and process, like you 392 00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:06,120 Speaker 2: can't stop. You have to keep the spotlight on someone else, 393 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:07,720 Speaker 2: so then it's not on you, Like you have to 394 00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:12,760 Speaker 2: be proactive in constantly purifying the member group or else 395 00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:15,760 Speaker 2: someone's gonna set their target on you, like it has. 396 00:24:16,119 --> 00:24:18,760 Speaker 2: I can I can totally see how this would have 397 00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:22,280 Speaker 2: this would have gone down, And I think smaller versions 398 00:24:22,320 --> 00:24:25,560 Speaker 2: of this still remain to be a massive problem among 399 00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:30,320 Speaker 2: radical organization structures, even structures that claim to be horizontal, 400 00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:33,919 Speaker 2: they still have like an insular a click of like 401 00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:37,280 Speaker 2: the people who are like the cool group, who's going 402 00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:40,080 Speaker 2: to replicate a lot of these same things, And how 403 00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:43,720 Speaker 2: even though it's not technically vertical in practice, they still 404 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:47,439 Speaker 2: are able to do a lot of these same like 405 00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:52,520 Speaker 2: top down and overriding decision making processes. 406 00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:56,080 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's uh. 407 00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:58,600 Speaker 1: And this is really what sort of motivated me to 408 00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:02,560 Speaker 1: start to talk about political cults a bit more. I 409 00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:05,320 Speaker 1: mean that and reading the book, looking at this case 410 00:25:05,359 --> 00:25:07,080 Speaker 1: and reading the book, because I really. 411 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:10,920 Speaker 3: I want people to recognize it. It's not like. 412 00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:16,160 Speaker 1: This strange, out of this world thing that can never 413 00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:21,600 Speaker 1: take place in your personal life. Like it's very easy 414 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:27,280 Speaker 1: for any political organization to become a cult. There's no 415 00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:32,040 Speaker 1: ideology that's immune to that. And so through these case 416 00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:34,879 Speaker 1: studies and through the breakdown to the various components and 417 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:39,440 Speaker 1: elements of cult cults and cult behavior, cult tactics, I 418 00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:42,640 Speaker 1: want people to be able to recognize the signs. Because 419 00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:44,800 Speaker 1: what I really hate the most, and this is why 420 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:47,240 Speaker 1: I focus mostly on left wing cults, not as much 421 00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:50,760 Speaker 1: right wing cults. Is to see people who had so 422 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:56,639 Speaker 1: much potential to contribute meaningfully to like revolutionary change, and 423 00:25:56,680 --> 00:26:02,200 Speaker 1: then they just get all their energies redirected in self 424 00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:07,359 Speaker 1: criticism sessions and purification rituals and probably strain lopin. 425 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:10,080 Speaker 2: Let's take an ad break here and we'll be right 426 00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:14,439 Speaker 2: back to continue talking about the body count of the 427 00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:27,240 Speaker 2: Red Army. Okay, we are back. 428 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:32,359 Speaker 3: So twelve bodies dead and buried. 429 00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:37,520 Speaker 2: But on the upside, they have a new cabin so true, 430 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:41,600 Speaker 2: come on, you know, it's it's a small price to pay. 431 00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:48,720 Speaker 1: So eventually the leaders Maury and the Gata left, which 432 00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:51,600 Speaker 1: gave each of the United Red Army members a chance 433 00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:54,760 Speaker 1: to escape before they too succumbed to the fate of death. 434 00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:56,920 Speaker 1: So I find really interesting is that all of them 435 00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:01,520 Speaker 1: wanted to leave, but they didn't financing themselves to leave 436 00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:03,440 Speaker 1: until after the leadership left. 437 00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:05,680 Speaker 2: They were all too scared of each other. 438 00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:11,280 Speaker 1: Yeah, and so they once they took that opportunity to 439 00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:14,520 Speaker 1: escape before they two died, And of course the police 440 00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:18,040 Speaker 1: were hot on all of their tales. Maria and Nagata 441 00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:22,480 Speaker 1: got arrested, and eventually there were only five members left 442 00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:27,119 Speaker 1: and they were armed to the teeth. They ended up 443 00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:31,000 Speaker 1: hiding in a mountain lodge and managed to capture a hostage, 444 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,760 Speaker 1: which was the wife of the owner of the mountain lodge, 445 00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:39,960 Speaker 1: and Setsu Shigamatsu describes very succinctly what came next quote. 446 00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:44,760 Speaker 1: Between nineteenth and twenty eighth of February, these five remaining 447 00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:48,160 Speaker 1: members of the United Red Army held off over fifteen 448 00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:52,040 Speaker 1: hundred riot police at the lodge, which was called Asama Sansu, 449 00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:56,199 Speaker 1: and this arm standoff and hostage taken incident became an 450 00:27:56,320 --> 00:28:01,760 Speaker 1: unprecedented television spectacle. Television news coverage of the incident began 451 00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:05,120 Speaker 1: in nineteenth February with hundreds of media staff on site 452 00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:07,800 Speaker 1: to work the story. On the twenty eighth of February, 453 00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:11,680 Speaker 1: continuous live televised news coverage lasted for ten hours and 454 00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:16,399 Speaker 1: forty minutes. This constituted an unprecedented broadcasting event in Japan. 455 00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:21,719 Speaker 1: This constituted an unprecedented broadcasting event in Japan's media history 456 00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:24,680 Speaker 1: that has never been surpassed in terms of its duration 457 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:29,440 Speaker 1: and ratings. At the climax the police operation in twenty February, 458 00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:33,080 Speaker 1: with eighty nine point seven percent view of ratings. According 459 00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:37,199 Speaker 1: to the National Broadcasting Corporation, almost the entire country was 460 00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:40,760 Speaker 1: watching the same thing on TV. The United Right Armi's 461 00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:43,880 Speaker 1: form of small scale insurgency against the state was thus 462 00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:48,560 Speaker 1: rendered hyper visible, and this drew unprecedented attention to this 463 00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:51,880 Speaker 1: due left sect. So after the remaining members were captured, 464 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:56,440 Speaker 1: between the interrogations, media interviews and autobiographies, the whole of 465 00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:59,320 Speaker 1: Japan and the world got to hear what really went 466 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:01,520 Speaker 1: on immediately out. 467 00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:02,400 Speaker 3: For the hostage situation. 468 00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:06,680 Speaker 1: Despite their rather fringe style, the United Rate Army actually 469 00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:10,600 Speaker 1: had some public sympathy until the truth of how bad 470 00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:13,280 Speaker 1: things were came to light. They even made a movie 471 00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:17,520 Speaker 1: about it. The news of the purge practically devastated not 472 00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:22,080 Speaker 1: only the broader Sekagoon organization, but also transformed the course 473 00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:25,800 Speaker 1: of the radical left in Japan and beyond. Remember, they 474 00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:29,080 Speaker 1: did have a branch in Lebanon, which thankfully did not 475 00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:34,040 Speaker 1: make the same Persian mistakes. Still, though many in Japan 476 00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:38,320 Speaker 1: lost hope in revolution as a result of the publicity 477 00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:42,120 Speaker 1: of those actions. Political activism had already been on a 478 00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:45,479 Speaker 1: decline in the late sixties and early seventies, but the 479 00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:48,200 Speaker 1: shock of the purge was like a nail in the coffin. 480 00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:51,800 Speaker 1: A lot of people literally distanced themselves from their own 481 00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:55,680 Speaker 1: leftist movements because of how staggering that news was. The 482 00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:59,920 Speaker 1: Purge literally purged leftism as a major force in Japanese society. 483 00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:03,960 Speaker 1: And it's only recently with writers like Go Hih sight too, 484 00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:07,000 Speaker 1: that Marxism must start to gain some attention again. 485 00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:11,000 Speaker 2: And this is like around what this is like the 486 00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:13,560 Speaker 2: are we in the sixties seventies? 487 00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:17,640 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, all listen to this took place in the 488 00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:21,440 Speaker 1: The Purge took place between December nineteen seventy one and 489 00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:22,840 Speaker 1: February nineteen seventy two. 490 00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:29,200 Speaker 2: Really really the last dying breath of the militant trotsky Ites, 491 00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:29,680 Speaker 2: I guess. 492 00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:37,960 Speaker 1: Indeed, indeed, if we look at the techniques used by 493 00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:44,640 Speaker 1: political cults, rigid belief systems, check you know, immunity to falsification, 494 00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:51,520 Speaker 1: check authoritarianism, check arbitrary leadership, check deification of leaders, most 495 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:55,880 Speaker 1: likely out I didn't seeing the evidence of that, specifically, 496 00:30:56,240 --> 00:31:01,880 Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised. Intense activism, check us off fluted language. 497 00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:07,760 Speaker 1: I'm sure, yeah, I bet you see basically all of 498 00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:11,280 Speaker 1: those tactics employed in this organization, and you just see 499 00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:15,800 Speaker 1: the result of it, and I think it's stories ideas 500 00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:19,560 Speaker 1: that need to be no one sort of such mystiques 501 00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:24,920 Speaker 1: can be avoided in the future. So yeah, that's the 502 00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:28,600 Speaker 1: story of the United Red Army. This has been it 503 00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:29,280 Speaker 1: could happen here. 504 00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:32,560 Speaker 2: It certainly could happen. No, I think it is a 505 00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:36,880 Speaker 2: It is a really good example. Now it doesn't map 506 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:40,040 Speaker 2: on one to one because I don't think many many 507 00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:44,840 Speaker 2: people are are doing exactly what the Red Army did 508 00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:48,760 Speaker 2: in terms of their their style of militant struggle. But 509 00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:52,160 Speaker 2: there's there's there's smaller scale versions, and there's still the 510 00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:54,920 Speaker 2: kind of insular group dynamics, whether that's like just an 511 00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:58,560 Speaker 2: affinity group, whether that's like a larger collective. I think 512 00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:00,440 Speaker 2: there's a lot of a lot of lesson is to 513 00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:04,520 Speaker 2: learn from the Red Army, And it'd be wrong just 514 00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:08,440 Speaker 2: to dismiss this whole example as being a little bit 515 00:32:08,520 --> 00:32:13,239 Speaker 2: too far fetched or just like two different because it is. 516 00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:16,720 Speaker 2: It is a really tragic story, and I feel like 517 00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,080 Speaker 2: people could learn learn more from this than what they 518 00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:20,360 Speaker 2: initially think. 519 00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:25,400 Speaker 1: Indeed, I agree, So don't go out there and start 520 00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:27,920 Speaker 1: to unite your Red Army folks. 521 00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:31,360 Speaker 2: To try and avoid that if you want to build 522 00:32:31,360 --> 00:32:34,240 Speaker 2: a cavin, you can do it without burying twelve of 523 00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:40,600 Speaker 2: your friends anyway. Thank you, Thank you for that. 524 00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:42,520 Speaker 3: Andrew the problem. 525 00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:48,160 Speaker 2: Where can the fine listeners find you on the internet? 526 00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:53,480 Speaker 1: YouTube dot com slash andrewism and nowhere else. Oh I 527 00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:58,360 Speaker 1: guess also Patreon dot com slash saint true. But other 528 00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:00,400 Speaker 1: than that, I can't be found on the tonight. 529 00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:03,960 Speaker 2: I don't make exist, good for you, good for you, 530 00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:07,920 Speaker 2: just like the Red Army who doesn't exist anymore. 531 00:33:13,640 --> 00:33:16,000 Speaker 4: It could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media. 532 00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:18,880 Speaker 4: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 533 00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:22,040 Speaker 4: coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 534 00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:25,239 Speaker 4: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can 535 00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:28,000 Speaker 4: find sources for It could Happen Here, updated monthly at 536 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:31,240 Speaker 4: coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.