The Tokyo Gas Attack & the Japanese Psyche
Monday, 20 March, 1995. A beautiful clear spring morning. You get up at the normal time, wash your face, eat breakfast, dress, head for the station. You board the crowded train. Nothing out of the ordinary. It promises to be a perfectly ordinary day. Then five men, followers of the Aum cult, poke at some plastic bags on the floor with the sharpened tips of their umbrellas, releasing into the carriage an invisible cloud of deadly Sarin nerve gas . . .
Twelve people died and thousands suffered serious after-effects. This book tracks down 60 of the reported 3800 victims, introducing their backgrounds and lifestyles. As each interviewee recounts his or her experiences, our perspective shifts like the view through a kaleidoscope, until we are left with a sense not only of the horror of the attack but of the overwhelming complexity of a single day.
