09/11/2026
In March 1970, nine members of the Japanese Red Army hijacked Japan Airlines Flight 351, a Boeing 727 traveling from Tokyo to Fukuoka. Armed with what appeared to be samurai swords and bombs, they seized 129 people on board and demanded that the pilot fly the aircraft to North Korea.
The bizarre twist was that the hijackers' weapons were fake. The swords were replicas, and the bombs were toy or otherwise harmless devices. Despite this, the hijackers successfully maintained control of the aircraft and eventually reached Pyongyang, where they surrendered and the hostages were released.
The incident became known as the Yodogo hijacking, after the aircraft's name. Several of the hijackers remained in North Korea rather than returning to Japan, and some reportedly still live there decades later, making the 1970 hijacking one of the strangest chapters in the history of Japanese terrorism and aviation.