Aum Shinrikyo

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Twenty years ago Japan was to become a nuclear wasteland, according to the leader of a sect who claimed that the only survivors would be his followers and 10% of the major cities. It was in the lead up to this year of the predicted apocalypse, 1997, that he ordered shocking acts that would eventually result in his group being labelled a terrorist organisation, and himself and 12 other sect members being sentenced to death.

CW: references to physical and emotional abuse, controlling behaviours, references to suicide, murder, and psychological trauma associated with being in a cult. Please consider whether you would like to listen on this basis. Content is not suitable for children.

UPDATE: An Aum Shinrikyo update episode was released on 21 March 2018. It includes a small correction from this episode.

UPDATE 2: The death penalty was carried out in Japan in July of 2018. Aum sympathizer Kazuhiro Kusakabe left 8 injured on 1 January 2019 when he drove into a crowd of people in the Harajuku district of Tokyo.

If you have been personally affected by involvement in a cult, or would like to support those who have been, you can find support or donate to Cult Information and Family Support if you’re in Australia (via www.cifs.org.au), and you can find resources outside of Australia with the International Cultic Studies Association (via www.icsahome.com).

If you or someone you know is in crisis or needs support right now, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 in Australia, or find your local crisis centre via the International Association for Suicide Prevention website at www.iasp.info.

EPISODE LINKS

• Profile: Shoko Asahara — BBC News, 27 February 2004
• A Guru's Journey – A special report. The Seer Among the Blind: Japanese Sect Leader's Rise — by Nicholas D. Kristof with Sheryl WuDunn, The New York Times, 26 March 1995
• Daughters of doomsday cult leader fight to save their 'loving' father — by Justin McCurry, The Guardian, 19 April 2006
• How a Religious Sect Rooted in Yoga Became a Terrorist Group — by Jennifer Latson, TIME, 20 March 2015
• Asahara’s No. 3 daughter writes on life during, after cult — by Keiji Hirano, Japan Times, 26 March 2015
• Former Aum cultist publishes memoir on gas attacks, Asahara — by Eiji Shimura, The Asahi Shimbun, 10 January 2017
• Sarin gas attack survivor recalls near miss on Tokyo subway — by Julian Ryall, South China Post, 19 March 2015
• Why Japan's Terror Cult Still Has Appeal — by Tim Larimer, TIME, 10 June 2002
• 20 Years Ago, A Shadowy Cult Poisoned The Tokyo Subway — by Charlotte Alfred, Huffpost, 20 March 2015
• Aum Shinrikyo: Final appeal relating to Tokyo subway sarin attack dismissed by Japan's High Court — by Rachel Mealey, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 8 September 2016
• Japan jails Aum Shinrikyo cult member Makoto Hirata — BBC News, 7 March 2014
• Last Aum cult fugitive Katsuya Takahashi arrested in Japan — BBC News, 15 June 2012
• Tokyo 1995 sarin attack: Aum Shinrikyo cult trials end — BBC News, 21 November 2011
• Aum Shinrikyo: The Japanese cult surfacing in Europe — BBC News, 6 April 2016
• Matsumoto: Aum’s sarin guinea pig — by Paul Murphy, Japan Times, 21 June 2014
• The man accused of poisoning Matsumoto’s civilians — by Paul Murphy, Japan Times, 21 June 2014
• In Japan Gas Attack, He's The Wrong Man — by Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, 2 June 1995
• Historical Justice and Memory — Edited by Klaus Neumann and Janna Thompson, University of Wisconsin Press, 28 July 2015
• Asahara’s wife given shorter prison term — Japan Times, 9 September 1999
• Japan Sect's Role in Murder Case Emerges, Prompting Outcry — by Nicholas D Kristof, The New York Times, 14 March 1996
• Hundreds In Japan Hunt Gas Attackers After 8 Die — by Nicholas D Kristof, 21 March 1995, The New York Times
• Most Evil (TV series), Cult Leaders (episode) — Discovery Channel, 14 October 2007
• The Cult at the End of the World: The Terrifying Story of the Aum Doomsday Cult, from the Subways of Tokyo to the Nuclear Arsenals of Russia — by David E. Kaplan and Andrew Marshall, Crown Publishers, 1996
• Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism — by Robert Jay Lifton, Henry Holt and Company, 1 September 2000
• Aum Shinrikyo Cult Leader Shoko Asahara Documentary, self-published DIY documentary — by Zeug films, 8 October 2013 (includes footage of Shoko Asahara meeting Takeshi Kitano on Japanese television)
• Japan's rush hour of the gods — by Robert Garran, pp30-35, The Australian Magazine, 28 September 1996
• Ex-Aum Shinrikyo member Katsuya Takahashi gets life in prison over 1995 sarin attack — by Tomohiro Osaki, Japan Times, 30 April 2015
• Aum cult fugitive was turned away from Tokyo police station — by Justin McCurry, The Guardian, 4 January 2012
• Tokyo Gas Attack Arrest Reawakens National Trauma — by Martin Fackler, The New York Times, 7 June 2012
• Japan Arrests Fugitive Wanted in 1995 Gas Attack — by Martin Fackler, The New York Times, 3 June 2012
• Court acquits Kikuchi of 1995 Aum bombing, deeming she was unaware of plot — by Tomohiro Osaki, Japan Times, 27 November 2015
• Aum Supreme Truth: last Tokyo subway attack suspect is arrested — by Justin McCurry, The Guardian, 15 June 2012
• Sarin gas attack in Tokyo — Witness, BBC World Service, 21 March 2012
• Tokyo sarin attack: Recalling doomsday cult's deadly assault — BBC, 17 March 2015
• Book Review - Destroying the World to Save It — by Rev. Walter Debold, Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 18, 2001
• Understanding Apocalyptic Terrorism: Countering the Radical Mindset— by Frances L. Flannery, Routledge, 20 August 2015
• Japanese doomsday cult still kicking — by Julian Ryall, Al Jazeera, 4 February 2005
• Japan: Dissent threatens sect's return — by Julian Ryall, Al Jazeera, 20 November 2005
• 20 Years after the Aum Shinrikyo Attacks, A Former Leader Speaks Out— by Alec Gordon, Tokyo Weekender, 13 March 2015
• Attacker Fatally Stabs High Official of Japanese Sect — by Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, 24 April 1995
• Jet Is Stormed And Hijacker Held in Japan — by Sheryl WuDunn, The New York Times, 22 June 1995
• Japanese Police Storm Plane, Grab Hijacker — by T.R. Reid, The Washington Post, 22 June 1995
• Secretive Japan Sect Evokes Both Loyalty and Hostility — by Sheryl WuDunn, The New York Times, 24 March 1995
• Global Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Case Study on the Aum Shinrikyo — by the Senate Government Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, 31 October 1995
• It gassed the Tokyo subway, microwaved its enemies and tortured its members. So why is the Aum cult thriving? — by Andrew Marshall, The Guardian, 15 July 1999
• Russia police raids target Japan Aum Shinrikyo cult — BBC News, 5 April 2016
• Why have 30,000 Russians joined Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo? — by Brendan Cole, International Business Times, 7 April 2016
• Cannes Film Festival: Bean Cake
• Sarin Gas and the Odd Couple — IMDB page
• 20 years later, a survivor recounts Japan's sarin gas attack and how it affected his life — Associated Press, 20 March 2015
• Psychological aspects of the Aum Shinrikyo affair — by Alexander E. Raevskiy, Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, Volume 7, Issue 1, 2014
• A Guilty Verdict for the Last Aum Defendant: What We’ve Learned About Mind Control Over the Past 20 Years — by Egawa Shōko, Nippon.com, 22 July 2015
• Hard Legacy for Japan Sect Leader's Family — by Calvin Sims, The New York Times, 1 September 2000
• The Sunk Cost Fallacy — by David McRaney, You Are Not So Smart, 25 March 2011
• High court upholds life sentence for Aum member Katsuya Takahashi for role in subway sarin attack — Japan Times, 7 September 2016
• A Cloud of Terror––and Suspicion — Newsweek, 2 April 1995
• The Asahara Trial: Doctor says gas damaged woman’s brain — Japan Times, 23 April 1998
• Japanese cult used VX to slay member — by Pamela Zurer, Chemical and Engineering News, Vol 76 (no. 35), p7, 1998
• Cult attraction: Aum Shinrikyo’s power of persuasion — by Masami Ito, Japan Times, 14 March 2015
• VX survivor recalls brush with Aum assassin in ’95 — Japan Times, 25 February 2017
• Filmmakers explore Japan’s infamous doomsday cult, Aum Shinrikyo, with mixed results — by Mark Schilling, 9 December 2014
• For Ex-Cult Members in Japan, a Hard, Slow Recovery — by Sheryl WuDunn, The New York Times, 5 June 1995
• Bankruptcy for AUM cult complete, victims to share 1.5 billion yen — Mainichi Shimbun, 26 March 2008
• Sarin victim shares her pain — Mainichi Shimbun, 1 October 1999
• Aum split over 'fees' to guru's wife — by Keisuke Nishikawa, Asahi Shimbun, 22 September 2006
• Aum Shinrikyo plagued by guru’s whims, journalist says — by Yumi Wijers-Hasegawa, Japan Times, 25 April 2003
• Wolves Within the Fold: Religious Leadership and Abuses of Power — by Anson D. Shupe, Rutgers University Press, 1998
• Japanese Society — by Chie Nakane, Hachette UK, 2016
• Inside Matsumoto's Head — Asahi Shimbun, 1 November 2003
• 2 ex-senior members of Aum tell all — The Yomiuri Shimbun, 21 March 2005
• Was an Extremist Cult Responsible for the Doomsday Device Detonated in the Outback? — by Lulu Morris, National Geographic, 21 September 2017