for a massive raid of the Aum Supreme Truth compound, buildings and offices. Unfortunately, this decision had come just too late for the people of Tokyo.
MARCH 20, 1995
His megalomania now uncontrollable, Shoko Asahara was still clinging on to his earlier vision of the destruction of government buildings, an attack from both the ground and the air on a massive scale. The target that Aum eventually agreed on was not attacking the individuals that Asahara had originally wanted to punish, but was equally cataclysmic in scale.
The new target was Kasumigaseki station, on the Tokyo subway, the weapon was sarin, and the attack was scheduled for the morning rush hour, 8 a.m. on Monday March 20, 1995. Sealed bags of the poison were to be taken into the subway by five chosen Aum members, punctured, and then left to diffuse.
On the chosen morning at the appointed time, the perpetrators, who had their own antidote pills to the poison, all boarded separate trains bound for Kasumigaseki station. As the trains drew nearer they released the sarin and disembarked at the next stop.
The gas took effect instantly. Commuters on the deadly trains became nauseous. Some began to collapse, and others ran from the trains to the station exits, passing more sick and collapsed passengers as they went. Railway staff immediately contacted the emergency services and soon ambulances had arrived at the scene.
Five thousand five hundred people were injured by the Aum attack that fateful morning. Some will never recover fully from the damage that the sarin gas did, and some had a relatively lucky escape with only minor injuries. Twelve people in total died. Speculation abounded regarding the cause of the attack, but when experts examined the site after everyone had been evacuated, they confirmed that it was no gas leak, but rather an attack with the manufactured gas sarin.
AFTERMATH
An elated Shoko Asahara greeted the five executors of this evil when they returned to the compound. He paid them, praised them, and then told them to go into hiding. With the Tokyo public in shock and beseeching the authorities for answers to this tragedy, a massive impending police raid was planned. Although this was a secret operation, the plans were leaked to Asahara by Aum informers within the police, and the sect therefore began a huge clean-up operation of the compound and laboratories, hiding every trace of chemicals and any incriminating evidence or reports which could have linked them to the attack. Asahara and his followers took flight.
Aum’s attempts to conceal their activities were useless. The investigators found vast amounts of dangerous substances, chemicals which could be used to produce enough sarin to kill millions of people, and the equipment to make and distribute the deadly poison. They also unearthed torture chambers, millions of dollars, gold and drugs. Although some of the followers had remained at the compound, no arrests were made.
From a secret hiding place, Asahara reacted to the police raids by launching his legal team into action. They denied all accusations of the attack, claiming that the chemicals were used for fertilisers, and even accused the American military of the sarin attack in order to frame their peaceful and innocent organization.
Neither the public nor the police believed this and the investigations increased. Aum then launched their own attack on the Tokyo police department. The chief of the national police agency was shot in the head four times as he entered his office, but miraculously survived. Warnings were issued that should the persecution of Aum continue then more police would be killed.
Slowly and painstakingly, the police did manage to track down and arrest some of the more senior Aum members for holding followers against their will, but they could not charge these individuals with the gas attack, and nothing and no one was leading them to the one man they wanted. Numerous searches revealed only a warning that should they find Asahara’s hideout and attempt to enter, sarin gas would pour down on them and everyone would die together.
Refusing to give up, Asahara continued to issue threats to the police and even produced and circulated a booklet which foretold further catastrophe, this time on a phenomenal scale. He gave April 15, 1995 as the date for this impending disaster. Needless to say, mass panic spread across Tokyo. People left the city, businesses closed, nobody wanted to be around if Aum were to strike again. But the date passed without incident.
Although over 100 Aum members had been arrested, mostly only for minor offences, Tokyo was still not safe with Asahara and some of the chief architects of Aum’s evil still at large. This was to be proved on May 5, a Japanese public holiday, when an already very alert police department was called to a crowded subway station after a bag had been discovered burning in one of the toilets. The flames were put out, and the deadly contents of the bag revealed. Two condoms were found inside, one filled with sodium cyanide and the other filled with sulfuric acid. Had the two condoms melted and mixed their contents, the result would have been hydrogen cyanide and it could have killed tens of thousands of subway-users.
ASAHARA CAPTURED
Finally, on May 16, 1995, police stormed the compound one more time and found Shoko Ashara hiding in one of the buildings. He was brought out to full media coverage, with the eyes of all Japan upon him.
Bringing Shoko Asahara and the inner circle of the Aum Supreme Truth to justice has been a colossal, massively time-consuming task. Beginning in April 1996, the trial made slow progress due to the large number of crimes the cult had been accused of, and the density of evidence to be presented. It was also hindered considerably by Asahara’s refusal to co-operate, falling asleep during proceedings and mostly remaining silent except for occasionally mumbling inaudible comments and statements.
Originally refusing even to enter a plea and declaring only that he had ‘nothing to say’, Asahara eventually pleaded not-guilty in 1997 to all charges against him, diverting the blame on all counts to the followers of Aum who, he claimed, had become uncontrollable and acted against his wishes. His lawyers claimed that he was a ‘genuine man of religion’ and as such could never have instructed such crimes to be committed.
The scene outside the court on February 27, 2004, the day Asahara was due to receive his verdict, was chaos. Thousands of members of the public had arrived to hear the charges read against him. They were awarded their justice. Shoko Asahara, found guilty of 13 charges of murder and attempted murder, and 11 other members of Aum were sentenced to death.
Yet even with Asahara now sentenced to death and never to return to the outside world, many believe that Aum still poses a threat to Japan and the rest of the world. Aum continues to grow, led now by Fumihiro Joyu, and renamed ‘Aleph’ in January 2002. It has supposedly renounced violence and the former practices of Shoko Asahara, at least those which they consider dangerous. They have paid compensation to the victims of Aum’s attacks – money from the group’s assets and from profits gained by Aum-run computer companies.
Aleph does however, still revere Shoko Asahara as a genius in yoga and Buddhist meditation, and will continue to practise these methods taught by him. Members are still recruited, and revenue is still generated. The Japanese government claims that Aleph’s followers still maintain an absolute faith in Asahara and his doctrine and it is therefore viewed with great suspicion and monitored closely. In an effort to keep a tight control on the group, legislation has been passed by parliament allowing the police freely to inspect the premises of the group.
To date, none of the convicted members of Aum have been executed. They have all launched appeals, which it is estimated will take years to settle.
At the height of its success, the net assets of the Aum Supreme Truth totalled in excess of one billion dollars. Chizuo Matsumoto could be said to have achieved his childhood dream.
Luke Woodham
Up until october, 1997 the Pearl High School was an average Mississippi government run school. An all singing and all dancing American dream with a mission motto to: ‘instill a strong educational foundation that enables all students to become confident, self directed, lifelong learners in a changing technological world.’
There was no way that the school could have prepared for what happened on October 1, 1997 when an armed student entered the grounds and unleashed a frenzied attack which resulted in the deaths of two students and the injury of several others.
Luke Woodham was a 16-year-old second year student who throughout his school life had found it extremely
