by Ray Black
AUM ASSOCIATION OF MOUNTAIN WIZARDSV & SHOKO ASAHARA
After such disappointment, in spite of his extensive research into the many religions and sects of Japan, Chizuo decided that he would have to establish his own sect and subsequently founded the Aum Association of Mountain Wizards, officially Aum Incorporated. To finance this sect, Chizuo returned to making and selling his dubious herbal remedies.
A trickle of recruits initially registered for Aum yoga classes, but following a carefully placed advert in the Twilight Zone magazine which showed Chizuo levitating through meditation, members began to enrol in their hundreds. Soon Aum was receiving enough money to open schools nationwide, and Chizuo’s reputation as a caring and gentle spiritual leader was spreading.
Whilst on one of the spiritual retreats, which Chizuo found himself more and more at liberty to enjoy now that he could afford to leave the running of his schools in the capable hands of his deputies, he met a companion who informed him that Armageddon was imminent and that only a race pure in spirit could survive. As his friend spoke, Chizuo realized that this was the calling he had been waiting for. He was the chosen one, and he would lead this race to salvation. He returned back to his following, and declared that it was up to them to save the world. He also changed his name, to Shoko Asahara, as Chizuo Matsumoto was too plain a name for the saviour of their civilisation.
Shoko Asahara embraced this vocation with enormous energy and enthusiasm, travelling far and wide to spread his word and to meet other spiritual groups with whom he could ally. His followers were whole-heartedly supportive, and new recruits joined his school daily. An opportune photo with the Dalai Lama on a trip to India furthered his cause as he claimed that he had been selected by the Dalai Lama to reveal the true teachings of Buddha to the people of Japan. He was chosen in this mission, he said, as he had been given the mind of a Buddha.
Asahara came back and made personal appearances, wrote a book, and held classes in how to improve spiritual powers. Those who saw him came away convinced of the amazing results and talked wildly of how he had helped them to reveal their untapped potential. Realizing his own potential, Shoko Asahara soon declared that in fact he was closing down the Aum Association of Mountain Wizards, and opening instead the Aum Supreme Truth. What had begun as a simple yoga school which cultivated psychic ability was to become a global religion.
AUM SUPREME TRUTH
The most fundamental conviction of the Aum Supreme Truth, was its belief in the forthcoming Armageddon and the absolute certainty that only those who achieved spiritual enlightenment through the teachings of Shoko Asahara could survive the ever-nearing disaster. The payments flooded in from Japanese citizens who wanted to hear and learn from the teachings of Shoko Asahara and in so doing, safeguard their place when the day of reckoning came.
As Asahara’s power and influence spread even further, so his already-slipping grasp on reality began to fade into oblivion. He was no longer just taking money from those who came to hear him preach but, for extortionate sums, offering them the chance to partake in ceremonies such as drinking his blood, which had magical powers, and selling them vials of his used bath water, or clippings of his body hair.
The membership figures for Aum Supreme Truth in Japan had reached 1,500 by the end of 1987, and a new office was opening in America, entitled Aum USA. Joining fees, annual ‘course costs’, and all the additional donations offered by the faithful ensured that Shoko Asahara’s mission could keep on expanding. In 1988, in a location at the foot of Mount Fuji, the live-in headquarters of the Aum Supreme Truth was constructed. Here, for a fee of $2,000 per week, followers came to listen to Shoko Asahara, receive one meal a day, sleep on the floor, be encouraged to join Aum, and sever any contact with any non-members, be they friends or family. The ‘truly faithful’ even moved in permanently, offering up their savings, their estates, and all their material possessions to the greater good of Aum and Shoko Asahara.
REJECTION
The only disadvantage of Aum’s ever-increasing wealth was the taxation levied upon it, so Shoko Asahara tried to register Aum with official religious status which would mean that he would be awarded substantial tax relief. At first the application was rejected. The status was only granted to religious groups which were run according to certain guidelines and word had spread about Aum separating parents from their children and punishing rule-breaking with food and sleep deprivation. Under the Japanese Religious Corporation Law therefore, Aum was not worthy of the concessions. The rejection infuriated Shoko Asahara and he consequently set his followers the task of hounding government officials, making threatening phone calls and writing threatening letters. When Asahara involved lawyers, who claimed that the officials were in violation of the religious freedom laws, the application was finally accepted and the heavy taxes alleviated.
UNWANTED PRESS ATTENTION
Although a success for Aum, the debacle had drawn unwelcome attention from the press, and several newspapers began to write about the twisted religion of the Aum Supreme Truth. When the editor of one such newspaper, faced with a furious Shoko Asahara and a group of his followers, refused to withdraw his article, a hate campaign was launched against him, his family and his place of work. When the poor editor suffered a fatal stroke, Shoko Asahara was pleased and believed that heaven had had its vengeance for the defamatory articles.
More and more people began to object to the practices of the Aum Supreme Truth, yet the authorities felt helpless to intervene. So sensitive was the new-found religious freedom on which Japan now prided itself that they simply could not be seen to be suppressing any kind of religious group, even though accusations of cult activities had been made against the organisation.
It was not only the weak-willed and easily led individuals of society who found guidance in Aum. Brilliant scientists, physicists and engineers also succumbed to the enchantment of Aum and the charisma of its leader. This empowered Shoko Asahara, and made Aum Supreme Truth all the more dangerous.
It was not only the outside world who were becoming uneasy about the activities of this ever-expanding cult. Inside the compound, disillusion was creeping in and a few members who felt that they had not achieved the spiritual enlightenment which they had been promised, began to voice their concerns. These ‘dissenters’ were summoned to the master and told that their irrational apprehension was caused by mental instability, all the more reason to stay with Aum and become stronger. Those who did not return to the fold, and declared their wish to leave Aum completely, were never seen again.
When the families of these victims tried to contact their loved ones and were told time and time again that they were in ‘training’, they turned to the police. Yet, although the police were being forced by the ever-mounting complaints about the cult to investigate further, they were still not taking the appropriate action, and therefore the friends and families sought legal support.
TSUTSIMI SAKAMOTO
One man, a lawyer who specialized in human rights and who, having taken on a similar case with the Moonies, had previous experience with cults, took on the case of one family who were trying to get their daughter back. Word soon spread though and before long, Tsutsimi Sakamoto was representing 23 families who wanted Shoko Asahara to release their children.
The further Sakamoto delved into the activities of the Aum Supreme Truth, the more resistance he met, and the more lies he heard. A committed family man himself, this only made him more determined. He made a claim for the families’ rights to have proper access to their children, a request which met with the offer of letting one of his clients see their daughter. This was not good enough for Sakamoto and he fought for the same response for all of his clients. He went further, representing a former member of Aum, who had paid $7,000 to drink the magical, power-giving blood of Shoko Asahara, and having noticed no difference as a result wanted his money back. It could not be proved, he claimed, that the blood had magical properties, and he demanded to see the medical report which stated o
therwise.
When the media heard of Sakamoto’s involvement and interviewed him, wherein he announced that Aum had imprisoned its members against their will and under false pretences, all negotiations between him and Aum ceased. Shoko Asahara tried to damage Sakamoto’s reputation, sending out flyers which made false allegations against him and threatening him and his family. Sakamoto refused to be intimidated and fought back even harder.
Realizing the potential problem he was now facing in terms of negative press attention and the possible revocation of his tax exemption, Shoko Asahara decided that ultimately and simply, he had to be rid of this man. A lethal poison was created, and injected by Asahara’s henchmen, who had broken into the family home in the middle of the night, into the veins of Sakamoto, his wife, and his baby son. The bodies were brought back to the Aum site, where Shoko Asahara inspected them with pleasure, and they were then driven away and dumped in different locations miles from the Aum Supreme Truth.
It did not take long for colleagues and family members to notice Sakamoto’s absence. They went to the lawyer’s home and a search of the interior revealed a badge showing the insignia of the Aum Supreme Truth. The police were contacted immediately but on hearing of the possible involvement of Aum, they refused to pursue the matter, claiming that Sakamoto may even have staged his disappearance and planted the badge in order to frame Aum. Media coverage and consequent public interest however, forced them to open some enquiries, but after Shoko Asahara held a press conference in which he denied any responsibility and claimed that over 40,000 of those badges had been produced (in reality only 100 were made), both the media and the police strangely lost interest.
ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Despite the euphoria of getting away with this hideous crime and also of having been able to crush any attempt to upset the balance and the carefully controlled conditions of Aum, Shoko Asahara was becoming increasingly paranoid. Perhaps encouraged by his apparent invincibility, he had decided to run for parliament. The move, was generally viewed as ridiculous. Aum’s policies were contradictory, their budget extortionate, their canvassing intimidating, and their campaigning – hundreds of Asahara’s followers parading through the streets wearing masks depicting the face of their leader – bizarre. Unsurprisingly, they were unsuccessful. Added to this humiliating defeat, their practices were still being questioned.
FAILED REVENGE
He decided to lash out at a world which he believed to be mocking him, and instructed the scientists in the group to begin manufacturing weapons. After careful research, they reported back to him that chemical warfare would be the most effective. What’s more, they could be created in their own laboratories.
The first attempt was a dismal failure. Asahara’s scientists worked away for weeks in Aum’s bio-labs and eventually produced clostridium botulinum, the most lethal and fast-acting poison in existence. Asahara gathered his followers together and took them to the safety of a faraway island, while the team in charge of unleashing this poison on Tokyo began equipping a truck with a spraying device. The attack was to be centred on the parliament buildings, partly for revenge, and partly so that when all the country’s leaders and government officials had died, the path would be clear for Shoko Asahara to step in amongst the confusion and assume his rightful leadership of Japan. The clostridium botulinum however, failed to work, and the scientists were forced back to the labs to find a more reliable alternative.
RUSSIA
Meanwhile Asahara continued his recruitment drive overseas, this time concentrating on Russia. The response he had there was simply overwhelming. He preached to the masses, he formed alliances with government officials, he made huge donations of cash and medical supplies, and an embracing media gave him his own weekly television show to further his cause. Russian citizens flocked in their thousands to join the Aum Supreme Truth. Not only did this provide a massive injection into the finances of the cult, but it also opened the door to Russian scientists and those who had been involved in the Soviet arms and weaponry programme, through both official and clandestine channels.
So the drive began to prepare for war. Plans were made to produce or procure every weapon or method of warfare imaginable. Those who had no expertise in the manufacture of arms, nuclear weapons, chemicals or military vehicles were to be trained to fight. Every member of Aum was to be prepared for the ensuing war. The project was colossal. Factories were taken over and new premises and laboratories were built.
SECOND ATTEMPT
Throughout this time, Asahara’s scientists had been working on and correcting the previously failed production of clostridium botulinum. They believed that they now had the perfected poison. Shoko Asahara saw the forthcoming wedding of Japan’s Prince Naruhito as the perfect occasion to use it. This time, he personally was going to spread the poison. The truck was again loaded with its deadly cargo and on the day of the royal wedding, Asahara and his men sprayed the streets of central Tokyo. Once again, the poison failed, and the population of Tokyo, plus its despised leaders, remained unharmed.
A livid Asahara went back to his scientists who, by now, had realized that the clostridium botulinum they had produced was not going to work. Anthrax however, just might. Not fast-acting, but highly lethal, the poison takes a couple of days to work, during which time the body is subjected to fever, vomiting, boils, sores, eventual swelling of the brain, coma and death. Anthrax can be produced as either liquid or powder. Seiichi Endo, Aum’s chief scientist, chose liquid.
EXPERIMENTATION
The liquid was continually sprayed over the city from the top of an eight-storey building which Aum owned on the east side of Tokyo for several days. When local residents began to complain of an unusual smell in the neighbourhood, the police came to investigate and traced the source back to the building owned by Aum. On discovering to whom the building belonged, the police discontinued any further investigation, again reluctant to contravene the religious protection laws. Asahara explained the smell as an incense he had been using to cleanse the premises, and the police were happy to leave it at that. Aside from the smell, citizens noticed that their plants were wilting, their animals were not well, and that some of them suffered stomach upsets. No one died. Asahara’s scientists had used a veterinary vaccine strain, not fatal.
Frustrated, yet undeterred, Asahara ordered his team of scientists to travel the globe looking for an effective poison and more information on chemical and biological weapons.
Finally, the decision was taken to produce sarin, a deadly nerve toxin originally discovered by German scientists in 1936 but fortunately not successfully produced until the end of the war. In either liquid or gas form, one drop was fatal and it had a similarly gruesome effect as that of anthrax. Asahara could not wait to try out his new deadly weapon. The sarin was taken to Aum-owned land in Australia, where 29 sheep were subjected to the deadly gas. Each and every one died, their death-throes celebrated by a jubilant Asahara.
Choosing a human target on whom to trial the sarin proved no problem for Asahara. He had many enemies. His first attempt to spray the leader of a rival religious group, a threat to the Aum Supreme Truth, failed when the spraying machinery sprung a leak and almost killed one of Aum’s own men.
Asahara then chose to take revenge on three judges who had annulled Aum’s agreed purchase of a food-processing plant a few months previously. Again, the job was botched, but this time the end-result was nevertheless satisfactory to Asahara. The machinery on the vehicle which was positioned outside the residences of the three judges broke down and released a thick vapour cloud. The drivers of the vehicle had to stop their attack, as they could no longer see where they were going, and the gas was taken by the wind to a neighbouring residential area. Although not the intended target, seven people died and hundreds of casualties were treated in hospital.
Amazingly, yet again, Aum was cleared in the ensuing police investigations. Even more incredible due to the fact that police had received a warning that this had merel
y been a test by the Aum Supreme Truth, and that a gas attack in a confined area could prove even more tragic. The anonymous informant even quoted a crowded subway as an example.
AUM DESERTERS
Asahara had been so crazed and single-minded in his pursuit of the perfect poison, that he was failing to see the cracks appearing within the sect, and the opposition to it which was mounting outside. Disillusion within Aum soon came to his attention however, when he was told about the disappearance of a 62-year-old female member of the group. In spite of investing all of her savings and a large part of her life to Aum, she had become increasingly disturbed by the activities of Shoko Asahara. She had fled, and one attempt to bring her back had failed. When a second Aum official was sent out to retrieve her and failed, her brother was kidnapped and tortured in order to make him divulge information. Despite horrendous suffering, he never betrayed her, remaining loyal right up to the point he died. Furthermore, having already received threatening phone calls before he was kidnapped, he had had the foresight, perhaps out of fear, to leave a note behind which simply said that should he disappear, he had been taken by the Aum Supreme Truth. The police could turn a blind eye no longer and began making the arrangements for a massive raid of the Aum Supreme Truth compound, buildings and offices. Unfortunately, this decision had come just too late for the people of Tokyo.
MARCH 20, 1995
His megalomania now uncontrollable, Shoko Asahara was still clinging on to his earlier vision of the destruction of government buildings, an attack from both the ground and the air on a massive scale. The target that Aum eventually agreed on was not attacking the individuals that Asahara had originally wanted to punish, but was equally cataclysmic in scale.