Aum Shinrikyo Case Study

The attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995, by a cult, was the first time in recent history, that a domestic terrorism entity had been able to use a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) with any means of accuracy. It was also the first time a modern country had dealt chemical or biological weaponry since World War II (WWII). It is worth mentioning that cult followings were nothing new in the world. But in imperialistic Japan, ideology such as this, had never before been seen. However, the attack in Japan, by Aum Shinrikyo proved the lengths a small, organized group of domestic dissenters can achieve with the proper motivation.

The Aum Shinrikyo was a religious group started in rural Japan by a poor, blind, ambitious farmer named Shoko Asahara. (Jones 2008). He began his adult

life as a practitioner of holistic medicine. He and his followers started a yoga group in 1984 that drew its roots from Buddhism, and Hinduism, which was initially focused on psychic powers and influencing the Japanese youth. Attempting to practice New Age medicine in a country so deeply rooted in imperialism, proved to be an arduous task, but Asahara prevailed. Its roles consisted of members of all strata and classes including doctors, lawyers, and scientists, along with the less educated members of Japanese society. Growing to over ten thousand members in the first decade, the Aum Shinrikyo group quickly expanded its territory, including sects in the United States and Europe. The group quickly gained popularity, and through the use of tax free status in these countries, the group was able to amass a great deal of wealth, eventually leading down a path of drugs, fraud and organized crime. It didn’t take long until Asahara became frustrated with the Japanese Society not recognizing his abilities, and he began to grow his cult into something far more vicious than most of his followers intended. After losing a close election, Asahara began preaching on nuclear apocalyptic war, between the US and Japan. This is when the group took a real turn to the dark side. The years that followed were filled with increasing government surveillance and media attacks on Aum Shinrikyo, which led Asahara to convince his followers to begin killing for what he called enlightenment. Japan’s strict orderly society allowed for the police to conduct most of its investigations by the use of civilian tips. Which had managed to permit Japan to have one of the lowest crime rates of any modernized countries. Its police force began to investigate different intelligence received from the public after the Aum Shinrikyo members had become enamored with hi-tech weapons such as ray guns and lasers.
Asahara began hearing dissention in his ranks and decided he wanted to develop a nuclear weapon to ensure his apocalyptic sermons would prove true. He focused the efforts of his scientists toward non-conventional weapon development. He then created a doctrine stating that only the members of the cult would survive the coming war with the United States. Asahara was at war with the local government and began to use abduction and manipulation to test the loyalty of him members through the use of his newly developed doctrine. This was cause for the police to begin look into claims of neighbors of funny smells coming from the Aum Shinrikyo compound and houses of various members. Several police investigations had proven no significant threat existed with the cult. Which seemed to have no real backlash since the people and most of the media adhered to the same ideology.
Having little faith in the local police investigations, Asahara began to have his scientists dabble in nuclear weaponry. Finding this endeavor to be a bit troublesome, his scientist quickly convinced him to change to biological warfare. In 1993, the cult had unsuccessfully developed a weapon containing Anthrax but, by choosing the wrong strain and their initial attack produced zero casualties. After this failure, Asahara turned to chemicals instead. By 1994 his followers had developed Sarin using a recipe developed by Nazi Germany during WWII.
In 1994 after being involved in a lawsuit, in which they had been accused of obtaining land illegally, Asahara had the perfect opportunity to test his newly acquired chemical weapon.

He ordered his cohorts to attack the village in which the judges of the case lived, producing over 150 casualties. After this attack, the local police launched another investigation, but again were unable to tie anything to the cult due to most of the evidence being circumstantial. Having never dealt with domestic terrorism, the Japanese police force attributed the sickness to WWII munitions found locally around the village. In the coming years police continued to compile intelligence on the Aum Shinrikyo group. With the police conducting more and more investigations into the cult activity, Asahara began to plan his ultimate attack. During an earlier investigation, the police were able to obtain information about chemicals being stored at the house of one of the less educated members. This proved to be reason for alarm for Asahara. In early 1995, he had gotten word that the police were planning a raid on the Aum Shinrikyo compound. This is when he began to plot his largest attack, the Sarin subway attack of

1995.
On March 20, 1995 five of his followers boarded separate trains. At 8:00 AM they punctured plastic bags containing Sarin, and fled as gas filled the subway tunnels. An attack such as this was an oddity in Japan and having no precedence, it took the authorities several hours to conclude it was an act of terrorism. This attack produced 12 civilian deaths and 3,796 illnesses. This was the first time a small domestic group used such a weapon in modern times. The people of Japan had seen no such terror since WWII. It had never been thought, that such a small group of seemingly innocent people, could have been so brutal to civilians. Without having ever seen such devastation, the Japanese government had no response plan to cover an attack of this nature. This caused the countries across the world to take head of small disgruntled groups. Seemingly overnight watch groups began to pop up with the sole mission as to keep an eye on these so-called, cults. However, after the attack in the Japan subway in 1995, never again will a blind cleric be able to lead a group of like-minded followers without government intervention. At the conclusion of a lengthy trial, Asahara was sentenced to death in 2004.