and threatening him and his family. Sakamoto refused to be intimidated and fought back even harder.
Realizing the potential problem he was now facing in terms of negative press attention and the possible revocation of his tax exemption, Shoko Asahara decided that ultimately and simply, he had to be rid of this man. A lethal poison was created, and injected by Asahara’s henchmen, who had broken into the family home in the middle of the night, into the veins of Sakamoto, his wife, and his baby son. The bodies were brought back to the Aum site, where Shoko Asahara inspected them with pleasure, and they were then driven away and dumped in different locations miles from the Aum Supreme Truth.
It did not take long for colleagues and family members to notice Sakamoto’s absence. They went to the lawyer’s home and a search of the interior revealed a badge showing the insignia of the Aum Supreme Truth. The police were contacted immediately but on hearing of the possible involvement of Aum, they refused to pursue the matter, claiming that Sakamoto may even have staged his disappearance and planted the badge in order to frame Aum. Media coverage and consequent public interest however, forced them to open some enquiries, but after Shoko Asahara held a press conference in which he denied any responsibility and claimed that over 40,000 of those badges had been produced (in reality only 100 were made), both the media and the police strangely lost interest.
ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Despite the euphoria of getting away with this hideous crime and also of having been able to crush any attempt to upset the balance and the carefully controlled conditions of Aum, Shoko Asahara was becoming increasingly paranoid. Perhaps encouraged by his apparent invincibility, he had decided to run for parliament. The move, was generally viewed as ridiculous. Aum’s policies were contradictory, their budget extortionate, their canvassing intimidating, and their campaigning – hundreds of Asahara’s followers parading through the streets wearing masks depicting the face of their leader – bizarre. Unsurprisingly, they were unsuccessful. Added to this humiliating defeat, their practices were still being questioned.
FAILED REVENGE
He decided to lash out at a world which he believed to be mocking him, and instructed the scientists in the group to begin manufacturing weapons. After careful research, they reported back to him that chemical warfare would be the most effective. What’s more, they could be created in their own laboratories.
The first attempt was a dismal failure. Asahara’s scientists worked away for weeks in Aum’s bio-labs and eventually produced clostridium botulinum, the most lethal and fast-acting poison in existence. Asahara gathered his followers together and took them to the safety of a faraway island, while the team in charge of unleashing this poison on Tokyo began equipping a truck with a spraying device. The attack was to be centred on the parliament buildings, partly for revenge, and partly so that when all the country’s leaders and government officials had died, the path would be clear for Shoko Asahara to step in amongst the confusion and assume his rightful leadership of Japan. The clostridium botulinum however, failed to work, and the scientists were forced back to the labs to find a more reliable alternative.
RUSSIA
Meanwhile Asahara continued his recruitment drive overseas, this time concentrating on Russia. The response he had there was simply overwhelming. He preached to the masses, he formed alliances with government officials, he made huge donations of cash and medical supplies, and an embracing media gave him his own weekly television show to further his cause. Russian citizens flocked in their thousands to join the Aum Supreme Truth. Not only did this provide a massive injection into the finances of the cult, but it also opened the door to Russian scientists and those who had been involved in the Soviet arms and weaponry programme, through both official and clandestine channels.
So the drive began to prepare for war. Plans were made to produce or procure every weapon or method of warfare imaginable. Those who had no expertise in the manufacture of arms, nuclear weapons, chemicals or military vehicles were to be trained to fight. Every member of Aum was to be prepared for the ensuing war. The project was colossal. Factories were taken over and new premises and laboratories were built.
SECOND ATTEMPT
Throughout this time, Asahara’s scientists had been working on and correcting the previously failed production of clostridium botulinum. They believed that they now had the perfected poison. Shoko Asahara saw the forthcoming wedding of Japan’s Prince Naruhito as the perfect occasion to use it. This time, he personally was going to spread the poison. The truck was again loaded with its deadly cargo and on the day of the royal wedding, Asahara and his men sprayed the streets of central Tokyo. Once again, the poison failed, and the population of Tokyo, plus its despised leaders, remained unharmed.
A livid Asahara went back to his scientists who, by now, had realized that the clostridium botulinum they had produced was not going to work. Anthrax however, just might. Not fast-acting, but highly lethal, the poison takes a couple of days to work, during which time the body is subjected to fever, vomiting, boils, sores, eventual swelling of the brain, coma and death. Anthrax can be produced as either liquid or powder. Seiichi Endo, Aum’s chief scientist, chose liquid.
EXPERIMENTATION
The liquid was continually sprayed over the city from the top of an eight-storey building which Aum owned on the east side of Tokyo for several days. When local residents began to complain of an unusual smell in the neighbourhood, the police came to investigate and traced the source back to the building owned by Aum. On discovering to whom the building belonged, the police discontinued any further investigation, again reluctant to contravene the religious protection laws. Asahara explained the smell as an incense he had been using to cleanse the premises, and the police were happy to leave it at that. Aside from the smell, citizens noticed that their plants were wilting, their animals were not well, and that some of them suffered stomach upsets. No one died. Asahara’s scientists had used a veterinary vaccine strain, not fatal.
Frustrated, yet undeterred, Asahara ordered his team of scientists to travel the globe looking for an effective poison and more information on chemical and biological weapons.
Finally, the decision was taken to produce sarin, a deadly nerve toxin originally discovered by German scientists in 1936 but fortunately not successfully produced until the end of the war. In either liquid or gas form, one drop was fatal and it had a similarly gruesome effect as that of anthrax. Asahara could not wait to try out his new deadly weapon. The sarin was taken to Aum-owned land in Australia, where 29 sheep were subjected to the deadly gas. Each and every one died, their death-throes celebrated by a jubilant Asahara.
Choosing a human target on whom to trial the sarin proved no problem for Asahara. He had many enemies. His first attempt to spray the leader of a rival religious group, a threat to the Aum Supreme Truth, failed when the spraying machinery sprung a leak and almost killed one of Aum’s own men.
Asahara then chose to take revenge on three judges who had annulled Aum’s agreed purchase of a food- processing plant a few months previously. Again, the job was botched, but this time the end-result was nevertheless satisfactory to Asahara. The machinery on the vehicle which was positioned outside the residences of the three judges broke down and released a thick vapour cloud. The drivers of the vehicle had to stop their attack, as they could no longer see where they were going, and the gas was taken by the wind to a neighbouring residential area. Although not the intended target, seven people died and hundreds of casualties were treated in hospital.
Amazingly, yet again, Aum was cleared in the ensuing police investigations. Even more incredible due to the fact that police had received a warning that this had merely been a test by the Aum Supreme Truth, and that a gas attack in a confined area could prove even more tragic. The anonymous informant even quoted a crowded subway as an example.
AUM DESERTERS
Asahara had been so crazed and single-minded in his pursuit of the perfect poison, that he was failing to see the cracks appearing within the sect, and the opposition to it which was mounting outside. Disillusion within Aum soon came to his attention however, when he was told about the disappearance of a 62-year-old female member of the group. In spite of investing all of her savings and a large part of her life to Aum, she had become increasingly disturbed by the activities of Shoko Asahara. She had fled, and one attempt to bring her back had failed. When a second Aum official was sent out to retrieve her and failed, her brother was kidnapped and tortured in order to make him divulge information. Despite horrendous suffering, he never betrayed her, remaining loyal right up to the point he died. Furthermore, having already received threatening phone calls before he was kidnapped, he had had the foresight, perhaps out of fear, to leave a note behind which simply said that should he disappear, he had been taken by the Aum Supreme Truth. The police could turn a blind eye no longer and began making the arrangements
