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Letter from Japan: Flashback
Doomsday cult still a powerful force in soul-searching Japan
By PETER McKILLOP
March 10, 2000
Web posted at 2 a.m. Hong Kong time, 1 p.m. EST
This week I experienced one of those strange flashbacks you normally only see in movies. As I headed to the subway on a bright, clear sunny Tokyo morning, I came across dozens of harried looking commuters clustered around the subway entrance nervously chatting on their mobiles or frantically trying to flag down cabs.
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It was almost five years to the day when I experienced a similar sensation. Same subway, almost the same time. Only then, but for the grace of God, I narrowly missed being gassed by Shoko Asahara's gang of bizarre pranksters who had named themselves Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth). Then, as now, Tokyo's subway system was paralyzed. Only this year, thank God, it was not a nerve gas attack but only a grisly train derailment.
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Five years after one of the world's most bizarre acts of terrorism, I and millions of other residents of Japan remain spooked by Asahara and his group of nutcase followers. We are haunted by this vile act of terrorism--12 people died and more than 5,000 became ill--and grimly follow the latest scene in what seems like a nightmarish movie that won't end.
Today, Asahara sits in terminal judicial gridlock. Why it takes more than five years to try an alleged mass killer is beyond me. A couple of his henchmen have been found guilty and are awaiting their destiny with their maker. Other members continue to spook Japan with their stubborn refusal to disband. Just recently, red-faced government officials admitted they had been purchasing software from computer companies that were secretly owned by members of this doomsday cult.
For a person raised on the sacred belief that freedom to pursue your own religion, no matter how nutty, is a fundamental benchmark of a true democracy, Japan's struggle with Aum creates mixed feelings. Part of me cheers the vigilante efforts of angry local communities to isolate and block Aum members from living in their neighborhoods. I secretly smile whenever Japanese police raid and harass Aum hideouts. I even think it is O.K. that Japan's Diet has passed legislation that makes Aum illegal.
Clearly, emotion plays a part in my support of these anti-democratic efforts. I was minutes from having my lungs destroyed for no particular reason. Yet, at the same time, I worry about the implications of this blatant attempt to infringe on Aum's right to worship.
Everyone, including the members of Aum, should be allowed to pray to their God of choice without being harassed. What Japan is struggling with now is how to protect that right when the religious group commits the equivalent of shouting "FIRE" in a theater. Should Aum be allowed to remain a viable religion after committing a heinous crime against humanity, and then refusing, until recently, to apologize for its actions.
Japanese authorities, to their credit, have moved cautiously to protect public safety and the right of freedom of worship. Still, the game of cat and mouse being played by Aum followers and the police sends shivers up my back. And given the real scare that millions of people in Japan felt this week when they first heard of the subway derailment, all of us are still spooked by the bizarre actions of this strange cult.
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