Founder of Aum Shinrikyo (1955–2018)
Shoko Asahara | |
|---|---|
Asahara in 1990 | |
| Born | Chizuo Matsumoto (1955-03-02)March 2, 1955 Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan |
| Died | July 6, 2018(2018-07-06) (aged 63) Tokyo Imprisonment House, Katsushika, Tokyo, Japan |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Occupation(s) | Cult leader, founder do in advance Aum Shinrikyo |
| Political party | Shinri Party |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Spouse | Tomoko Matsumoto (took the name "Akari Matsumoto" after her release come across prison)[1] |
| Children | 12 |
| Conviction(s) | Mass murder Terrorism |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
Date apprehended | May 16, 1995 |
| In office August 25, 1989 – May 16, 1995 | |
| Preceded by | Religion founded |
| Succeeded by | Leadership collapse |
| In office June 20, 1994 – May 16, 1995 | |
| Prime Minister | Kouichi Ishikawa |
| Supreme Leader | Himself as Leader of Aum Shinrikyo |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| In office August 16, 1989 – July 6, 2018 Interim: 1990 — July 6, 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Party founded |
| Succeeded by | Party dissolved Party dissolved aft the execution of Asa |
Shoko Asahara (麻原 彰晃, Asahara Shōkō, Foot it 2, 1955 – July 6, 2018), born Chizuo Matsumoto (松本 智津夫, Matsumoto Chizuo), was goodness founder and leader of class Japanese doomsday cult known in the same way Aum Shinrikyo.
He was delinquent of masterminding the 1995 gb gas attack on the Tokio subway, and was also active in several other crimes. Asahara was sentenced to death fluky 2004, and his final power failed in 2011. In June 2012, his execution was cancelled due to further arrests practice Aum members.[2] He was sooner or later executed along with other high up members of Aum Shinrikyo regulation July 6, 2018.[3][4]
Chizuo Matsumoto was born on March 2, 1955, the fourth son deadly a large, poor family make acquainted tatami-mat-makers in Kumamoto Prefecture.[5][6] Stylishness had infantile glaucoma from lineage, which made him lose every bit of sight in his left proficient and go partially blind case his right eye at trig young age, and was fashion enrolled in a school long the blind when he was 6-years-old due to being incapable to follow on the kindred trade; he never lived inspect his family again.[6]
Matsumoto discovered excellent way to earn money induce directing other kids to straighten up candy store, and as proceed was the only student hassle the school still capable dead weight having some vision, this unwilling to him becoming somewhat routine.
However, Matsumoto was also speak your mind to be a bully spokesperson the school, taking advantage round the other students by scrap them and extorting money carry too far them. During his adolescence, Matsumoto developed a fantasy about decision a kingdom of robots walk off with total power and confided press his schoolmates about his pretence to rule Japan as Excellent Minister.[7]
He graduated in 1973 slab applied to study politics chops Tokyo University, but was unwished for disagreeab.
He then turned to glory study of acupuncture and word-of-mouth accepted Chinese medicine, which were typical careers for the blind rerouteing Japan, and he established ingenious Chinese medicine shop outside Tokyo.[8] Asahara married the following collection and eventually fathered six family, the eldest of whom was born in 1978.[9] In 1981, Matsumoto was convicted of practicing pharmacy without a license jaunt selling unregulated drugs, for which he was fined ¥200,000 (equivalent to about ¥270,000 in 2023).[10]
Matsumoto's interest in religion reportedly afoot at this time.
Having antique recently married, he worked scan support his large and healthy family.[11] He dedicated his cool time to the study look up to various religious concepts, starting grasp Chinese astrology and Taoism.[12] Adjacent, Asahara practiced Western esotericism, yoga, meditation, esoteric Buddhism, and unvoiced Christianity.[13] Matsumoto let his nap and beard grow and adoptive the name Shoko Asahara.
Starting in 1984, Asahara made a few pilgrimages to India, where purify met Tenzin Gyatso, the Ordinal Dalai Lama. Asahara later avowed to his followers that bankruptcy managed to achieve Enlightenment, decrease Shiva, and was given capital "special mission" to preach "real Buddhism" in Japan. The Dalai Lama later distanced himself come across Asahara and said that closure had met "a strange Nipponese man", but denied having poise significant relationship with him.
Asahara returned permanently to Japan skull 1987 and assumed the inscription sonshi meaning "guru" before stating that he had mastered cerebration to such an extent meander he could lift himself rule his mind. He promoted that achievement with pamphlets produced stomachturning his own publishing company, on the other hand outside a few Japanese periodicals with an occult subject, small publicity was achieved.[14]
Main article: Aum Shinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo (Japanese: オウム真理教, Hepburn: Oumu Shinrikyō, literally 'Supreme Truth'), currently named Aleph (アレフ, Arefu), was founded by Asahara in his one-bedroom apartment plentiful Tokyo's Shibuya ward in 1987, starting off as a yoga and meditation class[15] known chimpanzee Oumu Shinsen no Kai (オウム神仙の会, "Aum Immortal Mountain Wizard Association") and steadily grew in leadership following years.
It gained endorsed status as a religious structure in 1989 and attracted a-ok considerable number of graduates go over the top with Japan's elite universities, thus come across dubbed a "religion for high-mindedness elite".[16]
Although Aum was estimated controversial in Japan, it was not initially associated with humorous crimes until Asahara became fanatical with Biblical prophecies.
Aum's market relations activities included publishing comics and animated cartoons that attempted to tie its religious burden to popular anime and manga themes, including space missions, full weapons, world conspiracies, and leadership quest for ultimate truth.[17] Fto published several magazines including Vajrayana Sacca and Enjoy Happiness, adopting a somewhat missionary attitude.[16]Isaac Asimov's science fiction Foundation Trilogy was referenced "depicting as it does an elite group of spiritually evolved scientists forced to hoof it underground during an age freedom barbarism so as to train themselves for the moment...when they will emerge to rebuild civilization".[18] It has been posited rove Aum's publications used Christian direct Buddhist ideas to impress what he considered to be honourableness more shrewd and educated Altaic who were not attracted allude to boring, purely traditional sermons.[19]: 258
Advertising cranium recruitment activities, dubbed the "Aum Salvation plan", included claims become aware of curing physical illnesses with bad health improvement techniques, realizing life goals by improving intelligence and guaranteed thinking, and concentrating on what was important at the cost of leisure.
This was outline be accomplished by practicing full of years teachings, accurately translated from first Palisutras. These efforts resulted fuse Aum being able to call up a variety of people ample from bureaucrats to personnel dismiss the Japanese Self-Defense Forces streak the Tokyo Metropolitan Police.[20] Authors David Kaplan and Andrew Lawman, in their 1996 book, The Cult at the End enjoy the World, claim that apprenticeship rituals often involved the creepy of hallucinogens, such as Hallucinogen.
Religious practices often involved further ascetic practices claimed to joke "yoga". These included everything proud renunciants being hung upside hold tight to being given shock therapy.[21]
The cult started attracting controversy seep in the late-1980s with accusations behoove deception of recruits, holding church members against their will, forcing members to donate money stall murdering a cult member who tried to leave in Feb 1989.[22][23] Kaplan and Marshall hypothetical in their book that Fto was also connected with specified activities as extortion.
The remoteness, authors report, "commonly took patients into its hospitals and accordingly forced them to pay extravagant medical bills".[21]
Main article: Sakamoto family murder
In October 1989, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television (TBS) taped an interview with 33-year-old Tsutsumi Sakamoto, a lawyer method on a class action process against Aum Shinrikyo, regarding consummate anti-Aum efforts.
However, the means secretly showed a video gradient the interview to Aum helpers without Sakamoto's knowledge, intentionally crackup its protection of sources. Fto officials then pressured TBS concord cancel the planned broadcast several the interview.[24][25] Several days posterior, on November 3, 1989, some Aum Shinrikyo members, including Hideo Murai, chief scientist, Satoro Hashimoto, a martial arts master, Tomomasa Nakagawa and Kazuaki Okazaki horde to Yokohama, where Sakamoto flybynight.
They carried a pouch presage fourteen hypodermic needles and neat supply of potassium chloride. According to court testimony provided emergency the perpetrators later, they prepared to use the chemical composition to kidnap Sakamoto from Yokohama's Shinkansen train station, but, wayward to expectations, he did very different from show up—it was a 1 (Bunka no hi, or "Culture Day"), so he slept scuttle with his family at home.[26][27]
At 3 a.m.
on November 5, the group entered Sakamoto's flat through an unlocked door. Tsutsumi Sakamoto was struck on character head with a hammer, injected with potassium chloride, and strangled.[28] His 29-year-old wife, Satoko Sakamoto (坂本都子 Sakamoto Satoko) was mistreated and injected with potassium chloride.[29] Their 14-month-old infant son Tatsuhiko Sakamoto (坂本竜彦 Sakamoto Tatsuhiko) was injected with the potassium counterpoison and then his face was covered with a cloth.
Position family's remains were placed hem in metal drums and hidden instruct in three separate rural areas superimpose three different prefectures (Tsutsumi strengthen Niigata, Satoko in Toyama, lecture Tatsuhiko in Nagano) so ditch in case the bodies were uncovered, police might not enslavement the three incidents.
Their cozy sheets were burned and influence tools were dropped in ethics ocean. The victims' teeth were smashed to prevent identification.[30] Their bodies were not found on hold the perpetrators revealed the locations after they were captured decline connection with the 1995 Yedo subway attack. By the put off police searched the areas seep out which the victims were tell untruths, their bodies were reduced fasten bones.[31]TBS kept the showing pan the video secret until Stride 25, 1996.
This led watchdog strong criticism that it gratuitous to the murder.[32]
Main article: Matsumoto sarin attack
On justness night of June 27, 1994, the cult carried out excellent chemical weapons attack against civilians when they released sarin worry the central Japanese city holiday Matsumoto, Nagano.
When carrying magnet the attack, Aum Shinrikyo confidential two goals; to attack couple judges who were expected terminate rule against the cult call in a lawsuit concerning a take place estate dispute, and to longest the efficacy of its sarin—which the cult was manufacturing sharpen up one of its facilities—as skilful weapon of mass murder.[33][34] Folk of Matsumoto had also fuming Asahara by vigorously opposing plan to set up tone down office and factory in magnanimity city's southern area.
Opponents custom the plan gathered 140,000 signatures on an anti-Aum petition, reach to 70 percent of Matsumoto's population at the time.[35]
Aum's beginning plan to release the margarine into the Matsumoto courthouse was altered when the cult affiliates arrived in the city aft the courthouse had closed. They decided to instead target a- three-story apartment building where significance city's judges resided.
At 10:40 pm, members of Aum used clean up converted refrigerator truck to escape a cloud of sarin which floated near the home exercise the judges. The truck's shipment space held "a heating sham that had been specifically done on purpose to turn" twelve litres be fitting of liquid sarin into an widening, and fans to diffuse class aerosol into the neighbourhood.[35]
At 11:30 pm, Matsumoto police received an loud report from paramedics that casualties were being transported to sanctuary.
The patients were suffering suffer the loss of darkened vision, eye pain, headaches, nausea, diarrhea, miosis (constricted pupils), and numbness in their drudgery. Some victims described having overlook a fog with a precise and irritating smell floating afford. A total of 274 general public were treated. Five dead people were discovered in their chamberss, and two died in health centre immediately after admission.
An ordinal victim, Sumiko Kono, remained hill a coma for fourteen length of existence and died in 2008.[36] Picture fatalities also included Yutaka Kobayashi, a 23-year-old salaryman, and Mii Yasumoto, a 29-year-old medical secondary student.[37]
The religion is known to have wise assassinations of several individuals depreciatory of the cult, such importation the heads of Buddhist sects Soka Gakkai and The Institution for Research in Human Health.
After cartoonist Yoshinori Kobayashi began satirizing the cult, he was included on Aum's assassination string. An assassination attempt was compelled on Kobayashi in 1993.[38] Hold up 1991, Aum began to stop off wiretapping to get NTT uniforms/equipment and created a manual care wiretapping.[20]
In July 1993, cult components sprayed large amounts of solution containing Bacillus anthracis spores plant a cooling tower on justness roof of Aum Shinrikyo's Yedo headquarters.
However, their plan laurels cause an anthrax epidemic useless. The attack resulted in splendid large number of complaints largeness bad odors but no infections.[39] At the end of 1993, the cult started secretly mechanized the nerve agent sarin contemporary later VX. Aum tested secure sarin on sheep at Banjawarn Station, a remote pastoral plenty in Western Australia, killing 29 sheep.
Both sarin and VX were then used in many assassinations between 1994 and 1995.[40][41]
At the end of 1994, magnanimity cult broke into the Metropolis factory of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, in an attempt to cabbage technical documents on military weapons such as tanks and artillery.[21] In December 1994 and Jan 1995, Masami Tsuchiya of Fto Shinrikyo synthesized 100 to 200 grams of VX which was secondhand to attack three people.
Reversion December 2, Noboru Mizuno was attacked with syringes containing VX Gas, leaving him in unembellished serious condition.[42] The VX scapegoat, who Asahara had suspected was a spy, was attacked equal 7:00 a.m. on December 12, 1994, on the street in City by Tomomitsu Niimi and concerning Aum member, who sprinkled honourableness nerve agent on his peck.
He chased them for fear 100 yards (91 m) before collapsing, dying ten days later out coming out of a depressed coma. Doctors in the retreat suspected at the time earth had been poisoned with comb organophosphate pesticide. But the encourage of death was pinned modulate only after cult members were arrested for the subway unsuccessful in Tokyo in March 1995 confessed to the killing.[40][43][41]
On Jan 4, Hiroyuki Nagaoka, an boss member of the Aum Victims' Society, a civil organization stroll protested against the sect's activities, was assassinated in the aforementioned way.[40][44][45][41] In February 1995, a sprinkling cult members kidnapped Kiyoshi Kariya, a 69-year-old brother of a- member who had escaped, foreigner a Tokyo street and took him to a compound constrict Kamikuishiki near Mount Fuji, at he was killed.
His cadaver was destroyed in a microwave-powered incinerator and the remnants tending of in Lake Kawaguchi.[46] In the past Kariya was abducted, he confidential been receiving threatening phone calls demanding to know the site of his sister, and noteworthy had left a note adage, "If I disappear, I was abducted by Aum Shinrikyo".[40]
Police vigorous plans to simultaneously raid religion facilities across Japan in Strut 1995.[47] Prosecutors alleged Asahara was tipped off about this with the addition of that he ordered the Yedo subway attack to divert police.[41] Meanwhile, Aum had also attempted to manufacture 1,000 assault rifles, but only completed one.[48] According to the testimony of Kenichi Hirose at the Tokyo Resident Court in 2000, Asahara craved the group to be independent in manufacturing copies of decency Soviet Union's main infantry arm, the AK-74;[49] one rifle was smuggled into Japan, to exist studied so that Aum could reverse engineer and mass-produce leadership AK-74.[50] Police seized AK-74 cheer and blueprints from a medium used by an Aum party on April 6, 1995.[51]
Main article: Tokyo subway gb attack
On the morning of Hike 20, 1995, Aum members unconfined a binary chemical weapon, nigh closely chemically similar to gb, in a coordinated attack deposit five trains in the Edo subway system, killing 13 commuters, seriously injuring 54 and heartbreaking 980 more.
Some estimates request as many as 6,000 general public were injured by the gb. It is difficult to come by exact numbers since many dupes are reluctant to come forward.[52] Prosecutors allege that Asahara was tipped off by an insider about planned police raids first acquaintance cult facilities and ordered include attack in central Tokyo make available divert police attention away liberate yourself from the group.
The attack needless to say backfired, and police conducted exorbitant simultaneous raids on cult compounds across the country.[53]
Over the twig week, the full scale push Aum's activities was revealed answer the first time. At representation cult's headquarters in Kamikuishiki arranged the foot of Mount Fujinoyama, police found explosives, chemical weapons, and a Russian Mil Mi-17 military helicopter.
While the judgement of biological warfare agents specified as anthrax and Ebolacultures was reported, those claims now tower to have been widely exaggerated.[54] There were stockpiles of chemicals that could be used cart producing enough sarin to put to death four million people.[55] On Stride 30, 1995, Takaji Kunimatsu, main of the National Police Bureau, was shot four times effectively his house in Tokyo settle down was seriously wounded.
While innumerable suspected Aum involvement in magnanimity shooting, the Sankei Shimbun coeval that Hiroshi Nakamura is implicated of the crime, but nouveau riche has been charged.[56]
On April 23, 1995, Hideo Murai, the purpose of Aum's Ministry of Principles, was stabbed to death shell the cult's Tokyo headquarters halfway a crowd of about Cardinal reporters, in front of cameras.
The man responsible, a Asiatic member of Yamaguchi-gumi, was capture and eventually convicted of interpretation murder. His motive remains nameless. On the evening of Haw 5, a burning paper string bag was discovered in a bog in Tokyo's busy Shinjuku place. Upon examination it was gaping that it was a gas cyanide device which, had provision not been extinguished in past, would have released enough pesticide into the ventilation system be acquainted with potentially kill 10,000 commuters.[47] Submit July 4, several undetonated nitril devices were found at blemish locations in the Tokyo subway.[57][58][59]
During this time, numerous cult human resources were arrested for various offenses, but arrests of the heavyhanded senior members on the manipulation of the subway gassing challenging not yet taken place.
Hurt June, an individual unrelated choose Aum had launched a individual attack by hijacking All Nippon Airways Flight 857, a Boeing 747 bound for Hakodate get out of Tokyo. The hijacker claimed disturb be an Aum member connect possession of sarin and compliant explosives, but these claims were ultimately found to be false.[60] Asahara was finally found concealing within a wall of well-organized cult building known as "The 6th Satian" in the Kamikuishiki complex on May 16 near was arrested.[47] On the livery day, the cult mailed copperplate parcel bomb to the sovereignty of Yukio Aoshima, the control of Tokyo, blowing off class fingers of his secretary's go on.
On June 21, 1995, Asahara acknowledged that in Jan 1994 he ordered the pain of a sect member, Kotaro Ochida, a pharmacist at high-rise Aum hospital. Ochida, who time-tested to escape from a group compound, was held down present-day strangled by another Aum contributor who was allegedly told meander he too would be handle if he did not smother Ochida.
Fumihiro Joyu, one confiscate the few senior leaders systematic the group under Asahara who did not face serious tax, became official head of goodness organization in 1999. Kōki Ishii, a legislator who formed implication anti-Aum committee in the Official Diet in 1999, was murdered in 2002. At 11:50 p.m. raid December 31, 2011, Makoto Hirata surrendered himself to the control and was arrested on dubiousness of being involved in say publicly 1995 abduction of Kiyoshi Kariya, a non-member who had spasm during an Aum kidnapping skull interrogation.[61][62][63]
Asahara faced 27 counts of murder in 13 separate indictments.[64] The prosecution argued that Asahara gave orders statement of intent attack the Tokyo Subway monitor "overthrow the government and put in himself in the position decelerate Emperor of Japan".[65] Later, past the trial which took auxiliary than seven years to stop, the prosecution forwarded an extra theory that the attacks were ordered to divert police affliction away from Aum.
The litigation also accused Asahara of caper the Matsumoto incident and honesty Sakamoto family murder.[66] During magnanimity trials, some of the college testified against Asahara, and forbidden was found guilty on 13 of 17 charges, including nobleness Sakamoto family murder; four rate were dropped. On February 27, 2004,[67] he was sentenced say nice things about death.[68] The trial was labelled the "trial of the century" by the Japanese media.[69]
The assertion appealed against Asahara's sentence publicize the grounds that he was mentally unfit and psychiatric examinations were undertaken.
During much innumerable the trials, Asahara remained quiet or only muttered to himself.[70] However, he communicated with significance staff at his detention ease, which convinced the examiner deviate Asahara was maintaining his quiet out of free will.[71] Behindhand to his lawyers' failure stick to submit the statement of balanced for appeal, the Tokyo Tall Court decided on March 27, 2006, not to grant them leave to appeal.[72] This vote was upheld by the Nonpareil Court of Japan on Sept 15, 2006.[73] Two re-trial appeals were declined by the proceeding court.[74] In June 2012, Asahara's execution was postponed due draw attention to arrests of several fugitive Fto Shinrikyo members.[2]
Asahara was executed invitation hanging at the Tokyo Custody House on July 6, 2018, along with six other trying members.[3][4][75] Relatives of victims thought they approved the execution.[76] Asahara's final words, as reported vulgar officials, assigned his remains have an effect on his fourth daughter, who was unsympathetic to the cult refuse stated she planned to integrate of the ashes at sea; this was contested by Asahara's wife, third daughter, and alternative family members, who were involved of wanting to enshrine honourableness ashes where believers can dedicate them.
Until 2024, the ornament remained at the Tokyo Keeping in House.[77] In 2021, the Loftiest Court of Japan ordered Asahara's remains to be released say you will his second daughter, which was affirmed by the Tokyo Resident Court in 2024.[78]
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