I came close to violent death twice during the time I lived in Japan.
Once would have been at the hands of low-level yakuza, who 'conveyed' me from a part of Tokyo where they were engaged in something private. They could in truth have cut me into little pieces and dumped the bits into the Sumida river. I should have shat myself on the spot... but the experience was so surreal and unexpected - and I was so young and stupid - that I didn't feel anything till my coffee was shaking in my hand an hour later in a cafe. Overall.... that's now just a strange thing that happened to me once, remembered by no-one else but me.
The second time was when I missed a train, and unfortunately this incident is infamous...
It was 1995 and Aum Shinrikyo (Aum Supreme Truth and now called Aleph) released sarin, a poison gas, into the subway near Kasumigaseki in Tokyo. Twelve dead and nearly a thousand affected. It could have been a thousand dead and twelve thousand affected, and it wasn't the last time they tried.
Aum were and are religious nuts. They weren't Right or Left. They were starting something they somehow thought would trigger Armageddon. Their pig of a leader took the concept from the book of Revelation.
There was such shock at the time... for this atrocity was not committed by devious foreigners or a loopy regime like North Korea... it was committed by educated and seemingly respectable people among their own citizenry.
Aum, among their other revolting features, were a hate group. The leadership bought into conspiracy theories about Jews ruling the world, and - needless to say - they were anti-government.
The police swooped. They were on to Aum already.
The public were singularly without outrage that homeland security was taken seriously, that religious cults were watched, and that people storing weapons were not regarded as patriots.
When their compounds were raided, it was discovered that they had imported samples of anthrax and ebola. They had a helicopter.
And a lot of guns.
Could that happen anywhere? Is it a relevant example?
There are a number of grieving families who would think so.
I had forgotten about that incident with the Sarin gas. I get the feeling that the Japanese actually restrict guns a bit more than my country does. I won't be surprised to see some of our own domestic terrorists out-do these guys in the next few years.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't stopped by in awhile. Interesting posts, Quietmagpie. Don't think you'll get a spot on the Japanese Tourism Board, though.
LOL! ex DLB bringing the funny.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading about this incident when I was in college but I was so wrapped up in getting hammered and chasing sorority girls that it just seemed very distant and abstract at the time. Needless to say, I follow politics and world events a bit more closely these days.
You're right, DLB.
ReplyDeleteI love Japan too fully to be good at tourist-friendly summations.
I really really really LOVE the country, for all I know about both its darkness and its sweetness. It has been the magic in my life.
JBW,
We don't have fraternities and sororities in Australia.
I think we miss out on the "college" experience as you have it.
Interesting, both accounts. I recall the sarin attack vividly. What I wasn't aware of, however, was their anti-Semitism and their Revelations motto.
ReplyDeleteI still find it infuriating that so many take a poorly written, absurdly told “history” and turn it into a literal calling to hate, destruction, bigotry and injustice.
What is it about nonsensical writing that attracts so many blind people?