Aum Shinrikyo Scandal
In March 1995, a nerve gas attack by devotees of the Japanese religion Aum Shinrikyo killed twelve and injured thousands of commuters on the Tokyo subway. Police investigations subsequently found that besides this attack, Aum had engaged in criminal activities since the 1980s, including a nerve gas attack in the town of Matsumoto in June 1994, murders of opponents and dissident members, and attempts to manufacture biological and chemical weapons.
Led by its founder, Asahara Shoko, a charismatic leader who claimed to possess psychic powers, Aum was a millennial movement that believed the world was evil; only through ascetic practice could one escape its negative influences and attain salvation. Asahara preached that catastrophe would engulf the world at the end of the twentieth century, resulting in a war between the forces of good and evil in which he and his disciples would lead the forces of good and crush evil materialism. This message, along with Aum's promises of enhanced spiritual powers, attracted ten thousand followers, the majority of whom were young, well educated, and idealistic. Around eleven hundred followers renounced the world and severed all ties with their families to live at Aum's communes.
Aum's zealous followers failed to persuade the wider public of the validity of their message of imminent catastrophe, and this failure, coupled with strong criticism from opponents, including parents of members, made the organization increasingly introverted and hostile to the outside world. It used violence against members suspected of lacking faith, attacked critics, and confronted local authorities that impeded the development of its communes. Asahara's teachings became more extreme, emphasizing that Aum alone taught the truth, which had to be defended at all costs; those who opposed this truth deserved to die and go to hell. Such doctrines eventually legitimated the murder of opponents, while the belief in the imminence of a final war, coupled with Asahara's paranoia in which he believed the world was conspiring to persecute and destroy his movement, fueled an escalating cycle of violence.
Aum attempted to establish a political party and campaigned in elections in 1990, but lost. After this, the group abandoned all hope of influencing the world, which it condemned as unworthy of salvation, and began to manufacture biological and chemical weapons for use in the inevitable final war that Asahara prophesied. By March 1995, police raids were planned against the movement. Learning of these, Asahara ordered a preemptive strike on the Tokyo subway to stall the police and strike a blow against the materialist society he hated.
Immediately afterward, the police moved on Aum, uncovering evidence of its extensive criminality. Nearly two hundred Aum devotees were charged with serious offenses, including murder. Some were imprisoned or sentenced to death, while others, including Asahara, still await trial. Punitive laws have been enacted against the organization, and the majority of followers have renounced their faith. Around one thousand devotees continue to proclaim their faith in Asahara and support Aum.
The Aum affair provoked debates in Japan about the nature of Japanese society. While public interpretations portrayed Asahara as a crazed manipulator who beguiled naive and idealistic people into sharing his paranoid visions, they also recognized that his criticisms of society had a particular resonance for many people. Thus, the Aum affair was seen not only as a product and expression of the problems and failures of Japanese society, but also as an expression of the need for reform.
Further Reading
Kisala, Robert J., and Mark R. Mullins, eds. Religion and Social Crisis in Japan: Understanding Japanese Society through the Aum Affair. Basingstoke, U.K., and New York: Palgrave and St. Martin's.
Reader, Ian. (2000) Religious Violence in Contemporary Ja-pan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo. Richmond, U.K., and Honolulu, HI: Curzon and University of Hawaii Press.
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