Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack

In 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyō cult attacked Tokyo's Kasumigaseki subway station in an attempt to cripple the government of Japan.

The Aum Shinrikyō cult believes that Armageddon, an ultimate battle between good and evil that will annihilate the world as we know it and bring forth a new and pure spiritual one, is imminent and that it is their duty to hasten this battle and expunge the impure and sinful from the earth. In light of these views, Aum began to collect and create weapons of mass destruction in the early and mid-1990s.

The cult tested its new arsenal several times during 1993 and 1994, secretly releasing botulism toxin, anthrax, and poison gas in and around Japan; one of these tests, a June 1994 release of sarin gas in the town of Matsumoto, killed seven people. Sarin, a nerve gas developed ...