In July 2025, the Trump administration declassified some files related to the assassination of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK). Although critics have dismissed the declassification as revealing very little new information about the assassination itself, and indeed experts contend that the documents containing Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) surveillance operations against him will remain classified for several years, the declassifications have highlighted the concern of the US Intelligence Community (USIC) that the assassination might be used to fuel the anti-Vietnam War movement. Despite its global impact, little has been examined of the links between MLK’s ideology and its interpretation by Japanese peace activists, notably the Beheiren (the Peace for Vietnam Citizens’ Alliance, which operated from 1965 to 1974 during a social uprising among Japanese students opposing the Vietnam War). Martin Luther King Jr.’s effort to merge civil rights with pacifist teachings did not remain confined to the United States. Japanese peace activists, particularly the Beheiren, reinterpreted King’s message as part of a broader struggle that connected the plight of African Americans, the resistance of the Vietnamese, and the grievances of Okinawans under the US–Japan security framework. In doing so, they transformed King’s legacy into a transnational language of minority rebellion and anti-imperialist solidarity. At first, MLK’s activities were primarily aimed at liberating black people in the United States. In this context, the relationship between MLK and US President Lyndon Johnson was amicable until the middle of the 1960s, as Johnson considered him a “natural ally” in realising the administration’s civil rights agenda. The connection between the civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam War movement was not apparent at first. However, MLK gradually called for halting the bombardment in Vietnam, urging a peaceful resolution, albeit at first avoiding explicitly condemning the war. Eventually, in April 1967, he openly opposed the war, delivering the speech known as 'Beyond Vietnam'. Many inside the civil rights movement were concerned about his stance on merging civil rights and peace movements. Even so, MLK stood firm, pledging “hostility to poverty, racism and militarism” in the address in April 1967, even in the face of some labelling him as an extremist.
The FBI’s surveillance of MLK
Due to the massive civil mobilisation and potential connection with communism, the FBI was concerned about MLK’s involvement in the burgeoning civil rights movement as well as the anti-Vietnam War protests. In late 1961 the FBI began surveilling him, and allegedly uncovered him communicating with Benjamin Davis, the leader of the Black Communists. In October 1962, the FBI launched an investigation called COMFIL, the code name for Communist Infiltration investigations with only “tenuous, circumstantial evidence”. After King delivered the 'Beyond Vietnam speech in April 1967, the FBI accelerated its surveillance operations to disrupt “militant black nationalist groups”. And even after MLK’s assassination a campaign to discredit him continued.
MLK and the Beheiren
MLK had cultivated the idea of pacifism early as the 1950s, when he linked the movement against domestic racial injustice and the global peace movement. At the same time, an increasing number of black activists suggested the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were “inextricably linked to colonialism and racial [in]enquality”. Indeed, MLK appeared to have sympathised with Japan, sending a letter in 1967 to the Japanese people, emphasising the horror of the nuclear disaster, and even implying he might visit the country. At the same time, Japan became a prominent place for anti-Vietnam War protests. As I wrote in my previous Insights piece, the Beheiren was a group loosely tied to individuals who sympathised with the communist ideology. The Beheiren took up and echoed communist narratives, incorporating the emerging civil rights movement and the peace movement. Indeed, one of the group’s key figures, Oda Makoto, described how the Japanese government regime acquiesced to violence and numerous types of discrimination, including class, race and ethnicity. The group repeatedly lambasted the bombardment in Northern Vietnam, asserting that there were “numerous Vietnam wars”, and that the Vietnamese people who were fighting against invasion were the same as the black people fighting against segregation in the US. In the group's monthly pamphlet/newspaper, the Beheiren News, both struggles were referred to as equally “right” to fight. On the ground, it seemed that the Beheiren interpreted MLK’s movement as a new avenue of the peace movement. As one activist reminisced, in the late 1960s they had been inspired by MLK’s summons and other liberal news media, which led to accelerating the Beheiren's defection operations, in part supported by broadcasting anti-Vietnam war programs to US military personnel in Japan. Some documents in the MLK files demonstrate the concern of the USIC that his assassination in April 1968 might provoke broader anti-Vietnam War protests in Japan. In the USIC was concerned that the Beherein had the “versatile ability [to] seize suitable targets of opportunity” – such as the MLK assassination - to incite an anti-American movement, as well as fuel the global peace movement. Following the assassination of MLK, the CIA issued a situation report closely monitoring the Deserters' situation in Stockholm. At the time, a Japanese tabloid paper reported that US intelligence tried to discourage their soldiers from defecting by disseminating propaganda. The target was reportedly black military officers stationed in West Germany, and led them to say that “black people were discriminated against even in Stockholm”.
The Assessment of Japanese Intelligence
Although Japanese intelligence has not linked the MLK assassination and Beheiren’s defection operations, they appeared to be concerned about the upheavals incited by the Beheiren. Indeed, a Cabinet Research Office (predecessor of the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, CIRO) monthly report in October 1969 stated that the Beherien was “radicalised” because it had transformed from upholding anti-war rhetoric to spearheading numerous operations, including defection operations and hosting international peace conferences. The Cabinet Research Office was also concerned about the influence of former communists, such as Yoshikawa Yuichi, on the group’s decision-making that could make the group take more extreme tactics to realise their goal of opposing the Vietnam War.
The Beheiren’s reaction
As explained in my previous Insights piece, the Beheiren had already conducted defection operations of US military personnel before the MLK assassination, famously, for example, the Intrepid Four. The MLK assassination files show that Beheiren diversified its defection operations after the assassination by incorporating a broader international context into their rhetoric, which in turn turbocharged its anti-Vietnam War operations. For example, the group issued a monthly report calling for mass demonstrations against the military hospital in Tokyo, where injured military officers from the Vietnam War had been staying. The group apparently targeted black soldiers, in particular, to defect after the MLK assassination. The groups claimed that they had completed another large defection operation by May 1968, resulting in five deserters. Among them was Terry Whitmore, a black soldier from Memphis, where MLK was assassinated. Indeed, he reminisced that the event ultimately led him to defect.
Additionally, in the context of the anti-Vietnam rhetoric, the group disseminated the narrative that the Japanese government repressed Okinawans under the umbrella of the US-Japan alliance. These attitudes were reflected in the urging of the Okinawan people to an uprising against US forces in the region, indicating that the group's anti-Vietnam movement was merging with ethnonationalism. The Japan Technical Committee to Aid Anti-War GIs (JATEC), an operational wing of the Beheiren, published the Dassouhei Tuushin (Defectors Bulletin), in August 1969. This publication encouraged more proactive defection operations, including instructions about how to talk with targets of defections, where they should meet, etc. The publication also portrayed the black soldier as another victim of warfare, by illustrating the ties with the Vietnam-black and Okinawan uprising. Beheiren’s Kyoto local branch also issued the Betonamu Tuushin (Vietnam Bulletin), and hosted international conferences in Kyoto in the summer of 1968, inviting numerous intellectuals and activists, such as Noam Chomsky and other black movement activists. At the end of this conference, an agreement was signed among participants, stipulating that they would support defection operations from the US military without elaborating on precise tactical details.
Conclusion
The declassified MLK files reveal that US intelligence services, such as the CIA, were concerned that the assassination would embolden Japanese activists, fuelling defection campaigns and protests with international resonance. Japanese intelligence, by contrast, did not explicitly assess the assassination’s impact, but instead noted Beheiren’s gradual radicalisation and the influence of former communists over its tactics. Both perspectives nonetheless recognised that by the late 1960s Beheiren’s activism was expanding into a more internationalised and confrontational movement.
Ultimately, the impact of MLK's assassination extended far beyond Memphis. It reshaped the contours of protest in Japan, linking domestic dissent to global struggles against the Vietnam War and demonstrating how a single event could reverberate across continents. This suggests that the legacy of King’s assassination must be understood not only within the US civil rights story but also as a catalyst for transnational activism in opposition to the Vietnam War.
Satoshi Yoda is a PhD candidate in the War Studies Department at King's College London with expertise in hybrid warfare and influence operations. He holds a Master’s degree in Intelligence and International Security from King's College London and is currently conducting research focused on security in the Asia-Pacific.
Picture taken from the declassified MLK assassination files.
