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Japan Marks Cult Chemical Attack Anniversary
Japan yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the Aum Shinrikyo cult’s sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway that left 12 people dead and thousands injured, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 21, 2004). During morning rush hour on March 20, 1995, five cult members punctured plastic bags filled with the nerve agent. Former leader Shoko Asahara and 12 other Aum members have been sentenced to death in connection with the attack and other crimes, according to AP, while three former members remain at large (Associated Press/USA Today, March 21). Two former senior cult members awaiting their death sentences sent letters to the Yomiuri Shimbun criticizing Asahara. Kenichi Hirose, who helped release the gas on the Marunouchi subway line and was in charge of science and technology for the cult, wrote, “Facing the grave fact that 12 people were killed and many were seriously injured, it is impossible to feel any objection toward receiving the death sentence.” Asahara “was said to have the power to eliminate people’s evil deeds. I could only take his instruction to release the gas as salvation. That it was murder according to common sense did not occur to me,” the letter says. Hirose and fellow letter writer Shigero Sugimoto are both appealing their sentences (Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri, March 21).
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