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Aum Shinrikyo
Japan, cultists

What is Aum Shinrikyo?
Aum Shinrikyo is a Japanese religious cult obsessed with the apocalypse. The previously obscure group became infamous in 1995 when some of its members released deadly sarin nerve gas into the Tokyo subway system, killing 12 people and sending more than 5,000 others to hospitals. The attack came at the peak of the Monday morning rush hour in one of the busiest commuter systems in the world. Witnesses said that subway entrances resembled battlefields as injured commuters lay gasping on the ground with blood gushing from their noses or mouths.

What was the significance of the sarin attack?

Subway riders injured in Aum Shinrikyo
sarin gas attack, Tokyo, March 20, 1995.
(AP Photo/Chikumo Chiaki )

It was the most serious terrorist attack in Japan's modern history, causing massive disruption and widespread fear in a society that is virtually free of crime. But the subway attack also showed the world just how easy it is for a small cult or group of terrorists with limited means to engage in chemical warfare.

What is sarin?
Sarin, which comes in both liquid and gas forms, is a highly toxic and volatile nerve agent developed by Nazi scientists in Germany in the 1930s. Chemical weapons experts say that sarin gas is 500 times more toxic than cyanide gas. Although sarin is very complex and dangerous to make, experts say that the gas can be produced by a trained chemist with publicly available chemicals.

How did Aum successfully make sarin gas?
The cult recruited bright young university graduates, particularly scientists, and put them to work developing biological and chemical weapons. Aum tried several biological and chemical attacks before the subway assault, including a successful 1994 attack that killed 7 people. After the 1995 subway attack, Japanese police discovered that Aum had accumulated hundreds of tons of chemicals in order to make enough sarin gas to kill millions of people. The cult had also acquired a Russian military helicopter that could have been used to distribute the gas, the police said.

How did Aum get the sarin into the subway system?
Aum members transported the sarin as a liquid solution, tightly contained in packages made to look like lunch boxes or bottled drinks, the Japanese police said. The perpetrators punctured the packages with umbrellas and left them in subway cars and stations, where they began to leak a thick liquid containing sarin.

Did Aum ever consider biological terrorism?
Yes. According to the testimony of several cult members convicted in the 1995 attack, Aum had also experimented with biological warfare, including numerous attempts to spread anthrax and botulism. A 1998 inquiry by the New York Times found that the cult carried out at least nine biological attacks; the strikes failed largely because Aum "never got its hands on germs of sufficient virulence."

Why would a religious cult like Aum turn to terrorism?
Aum Shinrikyo is a doomsday cult whose teachings are based on tenets borrowed from Hinduism and Buddhism. Its more benign activities include yoga, meditation, and breathing exercises. But at the center of the group's belief is reverence for Shoko Asahara, Aum's founder, who teaches that the end of the world is near. The police have portrayed the nerve gas attack as the cult's way of hastening the apocalypse.