Aum Shinrikyo

Doomsday Japanese cult infamous for its 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system. Led by a self-proclaimed messiah, at its height, Aum Shinrikyo boasted some 10,000 adherents, mostly Japanese and Russians, seeking salvation in the cult's combination of yoga, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Christianity. The cult claims that an upcoming Armageddon will destroy the world, and the only people left unharmed will be Aum's members, who subsequently will form the basis of a new, enlightened civilization. Since the conviction of its founder in connection with the subway attack, the group has reorganized under a new name with a greatly reduced following.

In its heyday during the early 1990s, Aum was a highly complex enterprise with profitable businesses, considerable real estate holdings, chemical and biological laboratories, and even a political party of the same name. Following the Tokyo subway terrorist attack, which left 12 people dead, Aum Shinrikyo was officially disbanded and many of its leaders were convicted of murder.

Aum Shinrikyo was founded in 1985 by the charismatic, partially blind Asahara Shoko (born Chizuo Matsumoto). A student of acupuncture, yoga, and traditional Chinese medicine, Asahara built his movement with promises of mystical enlightenment, levitation, mind reading, and teleportation.

Following a trip to the Himalayan Mountains in 1987, Asahara began to claim his status as the reincarnated Jesus Christ, able to perform miracles and protect his followers from the imminent destruction of the world that he predicted was coming. Asahara's assorted systems of belief grew to include the prophecies of Nostradamus, selected Hindu deities, and Tibetan notions of reincarnation. “Aum” is a Sanskrit word that refers to the universal powers of destruction and creation, and “Shinrikyo” is Japanese for “teaching of the supreme truth.”

[Page 55]Having expressed a desire to rule Japan as early as his childhood years, Asahara first attempted to gain power in 1990 by running for the Japanese Parliament. However, Japanese voters failed to take him or his fellow Aum candidates seriously, and the group was soundly defeated in the elections. That experience embittered Asahara, who subsequently modified his spiritual message from isolation and self-purification to deliverance of the world by any means necessary, including the annihilation of the cult's perceived enemies.

Aided by substantial financial resources and a large contingent of highly educated Japanese doctors, engineers, and scientists, Aum was able to build an array of chemical and biological facilities. In 1993, the cult began producing highly dangerous substances, including sarin gas, botulism toxin, and anthrax. After a number of apparently failed attempts to use chemical agents on targets, including judges' houses, the Japanese Diet (Parliament), and other government buildings, Asahara ordered his followers to mount a more complex terrorist attack.

During the morning rush hour of March 20, 1995, several members of Aum Shinrikyo boarded seven subway trains in Tokyo and used the sharpened tips of umbrellas to pierce plastic bags full of deadly sarin. Twelve people were killed and more than 5,000 were injured by the poisonous vapors. All seven trains were traveling toward Tokyo's center, carrying government workers whose annihilation seems to have been the purpose of the attack.

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