crime

Japan marks 28 years since Aum cult's Tokyo subway sarin attack

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28 years. Where did all that time go?

Japan will never forget these acts of terrorism that destroyed countless lives. Hundreds of survivors of these attacks require 24/7 medical care, and their enture futures were taken away. Rest in Peace to the poor victims.

It is some tiny comfort that 13 of these evil terrorists were eventually hung, which was a far nicer fate than those they attacked.

6 ( +12 / -6 )

So they took away the public trash bins, and I’m still carrying around my trash for 28 years looking for a bin!

please return the bins!!

-1 ( +8 / -9 )

Aleph had at least 1,280 members as of the end of January, according to the Public Safety Intelligence Agency.

If the Public Safety Intelligence agency really cared about public safety, they would publish the names and addresses.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

I rode the same train to Nogizaka (Chioda) that was used to perpetrate this attack...but I worked nights and this occurred during morning rush hour. Unbelievable.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Should never have come to this - the subway attacks.

The abduction of anti-Aum lawyer Sal\kamoto, his wife and child before the attack, was pathetically investigated. Post 1995 their bodies were found, all murdered by Aum.

The Matsumoto sarin attack in 1994 almost a year earlier, killing 8 and poisoning hundreds, was another bumbled investigation by the police. All factors indicated Aum's involvement but the inept police wrongly focused on a local man.

In the preceding years, there were many other cases of Aum illegalities - all of which saw no prosecutions or arrests.

But if the 2 big cases mentioned were handled by "real investigators" then Aum - read shokohara - would have been snuffed out as an organization well before the subway attacks. Raiding their HQ would have found the sarin factory.

Can only be one of the blackest marks on post-war Japanese policing.

10 ( +13 / -3 )

Japan's only terrorist attack on own soil and it was by Japanese.

You just couldn't make it up.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

@browny1,

In total agreement.

Won't be reported on much though in the local press.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Aleph had at least 1,280 members as of the end of January, according to the Public Safety Intelligence Agency.

And how many members of the Yakuza are there?

-9 ( +1 / -10 )

So they took away the public trash bins, and I’m still carrying around my trash for 28 years looking for a bin!

please return the bins!!

So, are you going to pay for the removal of the trash? It's not just Tokyo, but all of Japan. It's not just abut AUM, and while it may have started because of it, it's not the only reason any more.

Who is going to do the cleanup?

Take care of your own trash, and dont expect others to do it for you!

-5 ( +5 / -10 )

I don’t get why you need to keep counting and reminding people of every crime and disaster that occurred.. it’s not like it’s going to prevent futures crimes. Japan to fruitily living in peace they have nothing else to report about crimes other than the occasional familisuicide

-8 ( +0 / -8 )

1995 was a terrible year. Kobe earthquake in and then gas attack in March.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

@yabara, the other reason bins haven’t returned is the gov and councils are stingy. Most countries supply bins. Where the .. do we put our trash in our pocket on the road?

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

So their offshoot groups are still thwarting the authorities by not reporting their activities. Doesn't sound like a cult that has changed or even feels contrite for what they did.

I can't believe that they still receive donations and have at least 1,280 members.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Really? People worried about trash bins???

Like @wallace, I remember that year very vividly, first the Quake down West and the the Sarin attack. Yes, I actually know someone who suffered ON that train. Very fortunately not maimed for life.

We remember days like that.. It's what we do as humans. So hopefully it. won't happen again. Yes, if course there will always be something. No one is 'counting and reminding'

Some very heartless people on here.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Cult's can be extremely violent especially near their end or when their so called dooms day comes. People don't realize that Cults have only on purpose and it is an EVIL minded plan that almost always result in Death.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

If I had gone to work 30 minutes earlier that day I could have been on the train on my way to Kayabacho as my part of my commute was the Hibiya Line from Naka-meguro.

Actually, that very day I had a breakfast meeting at 10 AM with customers from the UK at their hotel so avoided it completely.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Completely sympathetic with victims of this vicious attack. However, in normal daily life for millions in Tokyo, the final impact was, indeed, the banishment of the must needed rubbish bins/cans. The government coping an excuse to eliminate them makes Japan seem more like an underdeveloped, resource-poor country. It is embarrassing, and highly inconvenient on a daily basis for the rest of us.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

I don’t get why you need to keep counting and reminding people of every crime and disaster that occurred.

Negative stuff seems to upset you, but if you had someone who was affected by this you might feel differently. This tragedy could have been easily avoided.

I live and work quite close to the area where Aum produced the Sarin. I've visited the demolished barns where they made it. I've spoken to the locals who saw Aum members stumbling out of windowless sheds and never thought to tell the authorities that something odd is going on around their farms.

They massively regret minding their own business.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

28 years later and people keep joining these doomsdays cults. Happy science dates back to the time Aum was a thing, both hitting on each other. JW, moonies, Baby Garden's still a thing in Korea, etc.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

The doomsday cult's founder, Shoko Asahara, and 12 former AUM members were put to death in 2018.

Well deserved.. And they asked for mercy till last day..

2 ( +2 / -0 )

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