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The Worst Terrorist Attack In Japanese History and the Death Cult That Perpetrated It
The height of the era of bioterrorism
On March 20th, 1995, rush hour in Tokyo began as it always did. Thousands of people lined up on platforms in a bid to catch the train. Hundreds of passengers got on and got off in droves, participating in one of the busiest commuter systems on the planet. However, within the thousands of regular commuters lurked a number of domestic terrorists. These men, carrying newspapers and umbrellas, did not look out of place as they stepped onto predetermined trains. What followed next was the worst terrorist attack in Japanese history.
The terrorists were members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult. Wrapped in their inconspicuous newspapers were bags of liquid sarin, a highly lethal nerve agent. After they boarded the crowded Tokyo subway cars, they dropped the bags of sarin and punctured them using the specially sharpened tips of their umbrellas. The perpetrators then exited the train and vanished into the city, leaving chaos behind.
The sarin leaked into the air and started to affect everyone in close proximity to the source. Five separate trains were attacked with sarin. The enclosed subway cars and tunnels allowed the nerve agent to spread quickly. In the end, over 5,510 people were affected, and fourteen people died from the exposure. The most common complaints were vision problems, headaches, and confusion.
The attack spread panic throughout the city. The Japanese raided the cult headquarters in Tokyo, using a military force for backup in case the confrontation became violent. In the end, multiple members behind the attack were executed in 2018 by the Japanese government.
But who were the people who conducted this attack? What was Aum Shinrikyo, the cult behind the dastardly plan? Where did these people get access to sarin, a heavily controlled and highly dangerous substance?
Aum Shinrikyo is a Japanese new religious movement that takes symbology, mythology and language from all of the largest religions in the region. It uses Buddhist…
