Leader(s) Ichiro Murakami Ideology Japanese nationalism | Active region(s) Japan | |
Also known as Volunteer Army Unit for Punishing Koreans Dates of operation October 23, 2002 (2002-10-23)–December 19, 2003 (2003-12-19) Motives Anti-communism, Anti-Americanism | ||
The Voluntary Army Unit for Punishing Traitors (建国義勇軍国賊征伐隊, Kenkoku giyūgun kokuzoku seibatsutai), or simply Kenkoku giyūgun or Kokuzoku seibatsutai, was an armed Japanese nationalist group founded in 2002 by Ichiro Murakami.
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History
Between November 2002 and December 2003, the group carried out 23 attacks in Japan, bomb threats, arson attempts and gun attacks against buildings, which resulted in damaged walls and smashed windows.
Targets included offices of the Japan Teachers Union, buildings in Osaka and Tokyo of the terrorist sect Aum Shinrikyo (which had perpetrated the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995), the pro-North Korea Chongryon association, and in the only threat taken seriously by the Japanese police, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hitoshi Tanaka, who had attempted rapprochement with North Korea in 2002.
The group ceased to exist on 19 December 2003 with the arrest of Ichiro Murakami and 12 other members, for violating gun- and sword-control laws.
Ichirō Murakami ran a business in Gifu selling knives and swords from 1977, and was an amateur collector of Japanese swords. He decided to act after viewing a TV report in October 2002 about Japanese hostages who had recently been released from North Korea after decades of captivity. According to the Asahi Shimbun, he was "a brave Japanese patriot who could not allow North Korea to get away with it". Ichirō Murakami was also highly critical of modern Japanese society, criticizing "this strange existence, like goldfish in an ocean with primitive desires only for sex and food".
Ichirō Murakami recruited members to his group from members of his collectors' association Token tomo no kai (The Sword-Lovers' Society) of which he was president, as well as other sword collectors. In the association's monthly newsletter which he used as a recruitment tool, Murakami once wrote "This is a group of modern Samurai, hoping to do everything in their power to make Japan a truly independent nation" and "We must march into battle under the banner of anti-Communism, anti-Americanism and anti-socialism." The group claimed to have 30,000 members, claiming that all buyers of swords were actually members of his collector's association.
Following Murakami's arrest, one of the group's members committed suicide in Osaka by jumping from a bridge after ritually taking off his shoes.
Ichirō Murakami had some friends in politics, Shingo Nishimura, former deputy of the Democratic Party of Japan and later of the New Renaissance Party, known for being highly critical of North Korea. Following his visit to one of the Senkaku Islands, Shingo Nishimura had been chosen to be a top advisor for the collectors' association. He had appeared on the front page of a famous magazine dedicated to swords, and Ichiro Murakami had donated 2 million yen to his political campaign. Following his re-election to the Diet in November 2003, Shingo Nishimura had thanked Ichirō Murakami for his support, addressing him in a letter which ended Banzai Japan! Banzai the Japanese spirit! Banzai Japanese swords!
After Murakami's arrest, Shingo Nishimura declared that he had no knowledge of any criminal activities, but that he supported Murakami's cause.