Saturday 25 July 2026
* Former Commander of the Japanese Red Army
It is with great sadness and sorrow that we mourn the death of our dear comrade Kozo Okamoto, who passed away after a struggle with illness. As we recall his journey today, deep sadness is mixed with bitterness that never leaves us. In addition to the pain of losing a comrade we loved, our hearts are pounding to stand by him in his final days, after the power of oppression separated us from him and prevented us from him until the moment of his departure.
Comrade Kozo Okamoto (born December 1943) was one of the first Japanese solidarity and volunteers to respond to the call of the Palestinian cause.
He left Japan in February 1972, and on May 30 of the same year, as a Japanese volunteer, he participated in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine operation at the Lod airport. He was captured by Israel and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1985, after spending thirteen years in Israeli prisons with daily torture, he was released as part of a prisoner exchange deal brokered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), thanks to the efforts of our comrades in the Palestinian liberation movement, to return to his comrades.
Despite the permanent disabilities left by the psychological and physical torture he was subjected to during his years of captivity in Israel, he was able to gradually recover thanks to the solidarity of his Palestinian comrades and the Japanese Red Army, and continued his life and activity with the support and love of his friends in Palestine and Lebanon.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist system in Eastern Europe and the accompanying political transitions, the Japanese Red Army was subjected to a campaign of arrests in Lebanon in 1997 under pressure from the U.S. and Japanese governments. However, strikes and demonstrations organized by Lebanese and Palestinians in solidarity with the Japanese Red Army resulted in Comrade Okamoto’s granting political asylum, and in April 2000 the Lebanese Government recognized his right of residence, becoming the first political refugee officially recognized by the Lebanese State. Since then, he has lived a quiet life in Lebanon among his Palestinian and Lebanese friends.
The Japanese government continued to demand his extradition, based on the 1972 Lod airport case, and ignored the principle that the same crime could not be tried twice under international law, in addition to the fact that his release came within the framework of a prisoner exchange deal under the Geneva Conventions. Although he had regained his freedom under the swap deal, Comrade Okamoto was not allowed to return to Japan. The arrest warrant continued to deprive him of his liberty. In the face of this continuing persecution, Comrade Okamoto has chosen to remain in Lebanon, between the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples.
In 1972, as he and his Japanese comrades gazed at the starry sky above the temples of Baalbek, the fighters who would later take part in the Lod operation said, “If we are martyred in the struggle, we will become stars in the stars of Orion.” Okamoto later recalled these words before the Israeli military court, reaffirming his pledge to remain a fighter with all those who resist the Israeli occupation for the liberation of Palestine.
Today, his soul has transcended sorrows, and it has undoubtedly joined his comrades who preceded him.
At a time when genocide continues in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, along with the continued occupation of Arab lands and aggression against Iran, the Zionist entity continues its crimes unabated. However, we believe that victory will ultimately be for the Palestinian people, and that our departed comrades look forward to that day.
The resistance of the Palestinian people to the occupation inspires the free everywhere, links the struggle of the Palestinians to the struggles of all peoples in the face of injustice, discrimination and colonialism, and gives strength to our struggles wherever we are. The departure of Comrade Okamoto recalls a period of revolutionary internationalism embodied by the Lod fighters.
Comrade Okamoto, rest in peace.
To our friends in Palestine and throughout the Arab world, we sincerely thank you for the care, solidarity and sincerity that you have surrounded Comrade Okamoto over the years. On the occasion of his passing, we also express our gratitude to the successive Lebanese Governments that have granted him political asylum.
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