Japanese Aum Lesson For The World

JAPANESE AUM’S LESSON FOR THE WORLD

On 20 March 1995, Aum members simultaneously released the chemical nerve agent sarin on several Tokyo subway trains, killing 12 people and injuring up to 6,000 more. Today’s law enforcement is constantly dealing with smaller and smaller terrorist groups. Throughout history, large armies have fought battles, but today individuals fight battles. With modern technology and an open market for weapons of mass destruction, terrorism has reached a level obtainable by even the smallest groups. The Japanese Aum taught the world a lesson on how easily an organization can threaten a nation with chemical and biological terrorism.

The Aum Shinrikyo (meaning the Aum Supreme Truth) was built on the belief of one man being the messiah. Chizuo Matsumoto was born blind in one eye and partially sighted in the other to an extremely poor craftsman of straw mats. As a young boy, Chizuo attended local schools, dreamt of being a leader, and even boasted to peers of one day being the Prime Minister of Japan. Chizuo went out to find wealth with his disadvantages and came up with a plan that started a cult, the Aum Shinrikyo. Under this new cult Chizuo was named Shoko Asahara, due mostly in part to a messiah needing a more flashy name (Kaplan, 12). This new self-made messiah has proved that anyone with a little charisma can influence people to do extraordinary acts that would normally not be considered. Unlike other leaders of terrorist organizations, for example bin Laden, Asahara did not have a lot of money to start a new organization. This is only one example of how easy it was for one charismatic person to get an organization ready for an attack with chemical and biological weapons.

The Aum Supreme Truth organization was established in 1985 with Asahara as the modern-day messiah. Very quickly, Aum collected a large following through various means, including, but not limited to, leafleting and street corner proselytizing (Susumu, 387). Aum’s classes on yoga, herbal healing and meditation also played a part. Additionally, Aum owned a number of computer stores, bookstores and noodle shops through which it was able to gain recruits. Using these methods for enrollment, the Aum was able to gather a following for the new messiah to lead them to peace and tranquility. These acts of street corner recruitment and storefront displays showed that there is no place safe from a terrorist organization’s reach to influence the public mind.