Today in Technology History
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March 20
Six years ago, a Japanese cult released nerve gas in the Tokyo subway system, with deadly results.
The Aum Shinrikyo cult -- its name refers to "supreme truth" -- was founded in the mid-1980s by Shoko Asahara, a blind yoga teacher and failed tonic salesman. The cult was always violent, using brainwashing and murder, but things got much worse when Asahara became obsessed with doomsday.
The cult spent untold millions of dollars researching chemical and biological weapons (as well as imaginary laser weapons). As early as 1990, Aum Shinrikyo tried to deploy botulism and anthrax, but failed.
The cult then manufactured sarin, one of the oldest nerve gases, and used it to kill four people in 1994. The next year, when investigators started closing in, the cult attacked the subway. On the morning of March 20, 1995, five cult members carried plastic pouches with low-grade sarin onto five separate trains. They deposited the bags on the train floors and pierced them with umbrellas.
Over the next few hours, the situation became hellish. Thousands of passengers suffered nausea and coughing; many collapsed or vomited. Rescuers and hospitals were unprepared for an emergency of this magnitude. In all, 12 people died and 5,500 were injured -- some with permanent neurological damage.
Hundreds of cult members were arrested in the aftermath of the attack. Asahara was captured two months later; his trial began in 1996 and is still not finished.
In the wake of the attack, many urban governments have tried to develop plans to respond to chemical terrorism.
Related links:
Click here to visit the homepage of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which renamed itself "Aleph" after the 1995 attack.
Click here to learn about the sarin nerve agent.
Click here to read a biography of Shoko Asahara, from the Encyclopedia Britannica.
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