Saturday marks the 15th anniversary of the sarin nerve gas attacks in Tokyo, one of the most bizarre and tragic domestic terrorist attacks ever. A dangerous religious cult called Aum Shinrikyo (usually translated as "Supreme Truth"), which combined elements of Christianity, Buddhism, yoga meditation and (surprisingly) the Foundation Trilogy of science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov, released sarin gas into Tokyo's subways causing twelve deaths and 54 serious injuries. Cult founder Shoko Asahara (the long-hared scary dude) and his fellow leaders assigned themselves lofty titles like "Prime Minister of Japan" and "Minister of Defense" and actively plotted the overthrow of the Japanese government. The events highlighted just how ineffectual Japan's police can be when they try. When a lawyer named Sakamoto who'd been investigating the cult mysteriously disappeared with his family in 1989, they investigated but couldn't find any verifiable link between the cult and the murder, despite the massive motive. In 1994, the Aum cult did a "test run" of the sarin nerve gas in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, killing eight and injuring 200. The police accused the husband of one of the women who'd been put in a coma by the gas because he happened to have a little knowledge of chemistry, rather than find the actual culprits before more people could be killed.
The Aum cult even made an anime to brainwash its followers. This is a Doraemon parody of it that I like better.
5 comments:
Foundation? Man, that messes with my head. In high school I wrote a rather successful English paper on the Foundation series...
I can think of another crazy, dangerous cult based on the writings of and founded by a science fiction author.
Yes, scary stuff. They also actively tried to buy nuclear weapons in Russia but were rebuffed.
dont people find those parodies being of bad taste?
I mean Korea made all that noyse about Hetalia(which was 100% in my opnion).
But japanese donsent care about it anymore? Didnt it let a scar like 9/11?
It's not funny in the context of people who were injured by the group's activities. But in the end, I think you have to laugh at some things to keep from crying. I don't think Aum left anything as big like the 9-11 scarring, which is/was deep. Hopefully people will be more careful of dangerous groups like that in the future.
Post a Comment