Three Japanese Red Army commondos seized eleven hostages at the French embassy in The Hague. They left the Netherlands in a Boeing 747. Their whereabouts remain a mystery.

The pattern was all too familiar. Three men, armed with pistols and a grenade, strode into the French embassy in The Hague just before closing time and occupied the fourth floor of the modern concrete and glass building. Seizing eleven hostages, including French Ambassador Count Jacques Senard and several business…