The , usually abbreviated ("Liberation Faction"), was a Japanese radical Marxist group active in the 1960s and 1970s as part of the

Japanese New Left The in Japan refers to a diverse array of 1960s Japanese leftist movements that, like their counterparts in the Western New Left, adopted a more radical political stance compared to the established "Old Left," which in the case of Japan was emble ...

. Kaihō-ha had a young workers wing and a student wing. Their student wing was called the . They wore blue helmets when engaging with hand-to-hand combat with other radical groups or the police. Kaihō-ha played a major role in several of the protest movements of the era, including the 1968-69 Japanese university protests and the

Sanrizuka Struggle The Sanrizuka Struggle (三里塚闘争, ''Sanrizuka tōsō'') is a series of civil conflicts and riots involving the Government of Japan, Japanese government and the agricultural community of Sanrizuka, comprising organised opposition by farme ...

against the construction of

Narita Airport , also known as Tokyo-Narita International Airport or simply Narita Airport, formerly and originally known as , is the secondary international airport serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the only other one being Haneda Airport (HND). It is about e ...

History

In 1960, the

Zengakuren Zengakuren is a league of university student associations founded in 1948 in Japan. The word is an abridgement of which literally means "All-Japan Federation of Student Self-Government Associations." Notable for organizing protests and marches, ...

nationwide student federation dissolved in a series of schisms arising from contentious debates over who was to blame for the failure of the massive Anpo protests to prevent passage of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. Hoping to capture a slice of the splintering student movement in Japan, the

Japan Socialist Party The was a major socialist and progressive political party in Japan which existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was the primary representative of the Japanese left and main opponent of the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party for most of its ex ...

(JSP) established a new party youth wing, the , usually abbreviated ') to institutionalize the piece of

controlled by JSP-affiliated student activists. Thereafter, the "" was one of several Zengakurens competing for the title of the "true" Zengakuren. In 1964, however, Shaseidō itself experienced a schism over the JSP's party platform of "Structural Reform," which some of the radical youth activists felt was too gradualist. Those activists who favored immediate push for socialist revolution broke away to form the Shaseidō "Liberation Faction" in 1965, under the slogan "immediate worldwide proletarian revolution." This was the origin of Kaihō-ha.

Activities

In 1966, Kaihō-ha joined with two other radical student sects,

Chūkaku-Ha is a Japanese far-left revolutionary group, often referred to as Chūkaku-ha (, "Central Core Faction") in Japanese. Their main goal is to have Japan, and the entire world, adopt communist policies. Chūkaku-ha rejects imperialism and Stalinism ...

and the Second Bund, to form the "Three-Faction Zengakuren" (') in order to pursue immediate revolution through violent direct action. On October 17, 1967, Kaihō-ha participated in an effort by the Sanpa Zengakuren to physically prevent Prime Minister

Eisaku Satō was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1964 to 1972. He is the third longest-serving Japanese prime minister, and is ranked second by longest uninterrupted service. Satō is best remembered for securing the return ...

from traveling to the United States to meet with U.S. president

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...

, leading to a violent struggle with police in which one student activist was killed. In 1968 and 1969, Kaihō-ha participated in the 1968-69 Japanese university protests on various campuses around Japan. Beginning in 1968 and lasting into the 1980s, Kaihō-ha participated the violent

against the construction of

. In 1971, the JSP severed all ties with Kaihō-ha and evicted its members from the party. Kaihō-ha had an intense, long-running conflict with rival New Left group Kakumaru-ha. By 1980, Kaihō-ha had killed around 20 members of Kakumaru-ha.

Schism

In 1981, Kaihō-ha splintered into the and the .

References

Works cited

* {{New Left in Japan 1965 establishments in Japan Anti-imperialism in Asia Communist organizations in Japan Left-wing militant groups in Japan New Left in Japan Terrorism in Japan