Aum Shinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo (
Japanese: オウム真理教) (or
Aum Supreme Truth) is the name of a
cult operating in
Japan. The cult is now known by the name
Aleph. The group is most famous for their\n
1995 sarin attack\non the
Tokyo subway system, which was considered
terrorist.
The group is also known as
A.I.C. Sogo Kenkyusho or \n
A.I.C. Comprehensive Research Institute.
Description
\nThe cult was established in 1987 by Shoko Asahara. Aum, better known as Om in the West, is a Sanskrit word meaning "powers of destruction and creation in the universe," and Shinrikyo means "teaching of the supreme truth".
Approved as a religious entity in 1989 under Japanese law, the group ran candidates in a Japanese parliamentary election in 1989 through Shinrito, the political arm of the group. The group did very poorly in the elections.
Following the political failure, Asahara began to emphasize the imminence of the end of the world and stated that the United States would initiate Armageddon by starting World War III with Japan. Some time between 1990 and 1993 Asahara ordered the production of chemical weapons, including sarin. Cult member and organic chemist Masami Tsuchiya directed the operation. In 1994 the group announced the formation of an independent Aum government. Following the Tokyo subway attack (see below), the Japanese Government arrested Asahara and 200 cult members.
The group had its recognition as a religious organization revoked in October 1995, but in 1997 a government panel decided not to invoke the Anti-Subversive Law against the group, which would have outlawed the cult. In 2000, Fumihiro Joyu took control of Aum following his three-year jail sentence for perjury. Joyu was previously the group's spokesman and Russia Branch leader. Under Joyu's leadership Aum changed its name to Aleph and claims to have rejected the violent and apocalyptic teachings of its founder.
The cult continues to recruit new members, engages in commercial enterprise, and acquire property, although the cult scaled back these activities significantly in 2000 in response to public outcry. The cult maintains an Internet homepage here.
Doctrine
\nAsahara preached a mixture of pseudoscience, Nostradamus, esoteric Buddhism and millennarian Christianity, claiming that modern Japanese society was corrupt, nuclear holocaust was imminent and that Aum would save and/or recreate the world through magic powers and science.
An important part of Aum's doctrine was the controversial Buddhist idea of poa, that under certain circumstances murder could spiritually elevate both the victim and the killer. This belief was a key rationalization for the numerous murders committed by Aum members, of people both inside and outside of the organization.
Activities
\nThe first murder that Shoko Asahara committed was against a 25-year old man. After he insulted Asahara, Asahara ordered him dunked in near-freezing water. The man's friend, Taguchi Shuji, criticized Asahara for what he did. Taguchi was summoned to a meeting in February 1989. Asahara decided to kill Taguchi. Murai and a few others blindfolded Shuji, while a rope was tied around his neck. Shuji's neck broke and he died. Nobody was charged for the crime.
On October 31, 1989, a lawyer working against Aum Shinrikyo, Tsutsumi Sakamoto, successfully persuaded Shoko Asahara to submit to a blood test to test for the "special power" that the leader claimed was present throughout his body. He found no sign of anything unusual. To prevent the disclosure of this outcome, Aum Members planned to kidnap Sakamoto from the underground (subway) and inject him with a drug. On November 3, 1989, several Aum Shinrikyo members drove to Yokohama. They included Hideo Murai, the chief scientist, and Satoro Hashimoto, a martial arts master, as well as Doctor Nakagawa, carrying a pouch of fourteen syringes and a supply of potassium chloride. However, they found no sign of Sakamoto at the train station. Realizing it was a holiday, Asahara instructed the men to kill Sakamoto, along with his family, at his apartment. At 3 A.M., the men broke into the apartment through an unlocked door, first finding the Sakamoto's crying infant, 14-month old Tatsuhiko Sakamoto. The boy was injected with a deadly drug. The men then surprised Tsutsumi and wife, Satoko Sakamoto, in bed. Tsutsumi was struck on the head with a hammer, his screaming wife bashed into submission. The two were injected with the drugs, but Tsutsumi still struggled. The Aum members finally subdued the lawyer, strangling him. After the family was dead, their bodies were placed in metal drums and hidden in rural areas. Their bed-sheets were burned and the tools were dropped in the ocean. The victims' teeth were smashed to pieces to frustrate identification.
On March 20, 1995, Aum members simultaneously released the nerve agent sarin on several Tokyo subway trains, particularly in Kasumigaseki Station, killing twelve persons and injuring up to 6,000. Recent studies put the number of persons who suffered actual physical injuries closer to 1,300, with the rest suffering from some form of psychological trauma (see Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway).
The group was responsible for other chemical incidents in Japan in 1994 - once in Kita-Fukashi in June, killing seven, and again by accident in July. Its efforts to develop biological agents were unsuccessful.
Japanese police arrested Asahara in May 1995, and he remained on trial, facing 27 murder counts in 13 separate indictments. His trial began in 2000, final arguments by the prosecution were made in April, 2003 and by the defence in November, 2003. He was sentenced to death in February, 2004.
Other charges against Asahara include the murder of Kiyoshi Kariya, a notary.
Stories from survivors of the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack and former members of the cult are collected in the book The Underground by renowned Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami.
Strength
\nAum's current membership is estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 persons. At the time of the Tokyo subway attack, the group claimed to have 9,000 members in Japan and up to 40,000 worldwide.
Location/area of operation
\nAum's principal membership is located only in Japan, but a residual branch comprising an unknown number of followers has surfaced in Russia. They acquired the remote 500,000 acre (2,000 km²) Banjawarn Sheep Station (ranch) in Western Australia in April of 1993 and appear to have done some sort of weapons testing there.
See also: Terrorist organisations in Asia
1. Terrorist Group Profiles, Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate School
External link
\n* Crime Library Article on Aum Shinrikyo
Category:New religious movements
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