JAPAN: Conviction of Cult Leader Ends Wait, But Concern Remains

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Feb 27 2004 (IPS) - Friday’s death sentence meted out to the founder of a Japanese doomsday cult that carried out murder and gas attacks years ago ends a long, tortuous wait for justice by thousands of survivors, but concern remains over the susceptibility of youngsters to joining such groups.

Amid tight security, 48-year-old Shoko Asahara, founder of the doomsday Aum Shinrikyo cult, was sentenced to death on Friday after judges found him guilty on 13 charges of indiscriminate murder, attempted murder and gas attacks. The trial began in 1996.

In its ruling, seen as key in deterring acts of terror, the Tokyo District Court said that Asahara had aimed ”to seize Japan and become king”.

Asahara has appealed the sentence. Defence lawyers argued that Aum senior members conducted the crimes without Asahara’s knowledge.

Mixed emotions greeted the conviction and death sentence.

“The death sentence is lenient when compared to our struggle to accept what has happened. The road to reconciliation is still long. I can never forgive or forget,” says a tearful Kiyoe Iwata, 63, whose daughter died in the Tokyo subway sarin-gas attack by Aum followers in 1995.

Iwata’s daughter, a budding career woman who loved traveling, was commuting to work in a jampacked subway car, when the gas attacks took place.

The attacks, carried out in different subways, killed 12 people and injured 5,500, some of them so badly that they could no longer lead normal lives.

The chilling attack also alerted the world to a new form of terrorism – it was the first time nerve gas was used by a civilian group to murder innocent people.

But while the Friday decision sends a tough message, lawyer Taro Takimoto, who was attacked by sarin by Aum for his work in helping followers to escape the cult, believes that it has not helped eradicate fear about another attack by similar cults that operate by the hundreds in Japan.

Takimoto, a member of the Japan De-Cult Council, an organisation educating youth against joining cults, believes the only way to eradicate groups such as Aum, is for Japan to launch such a systematic programme in schools and universities.

“There must be civic and government-sponsored education projects that discuss the deadly consequences of joining cults that often exploit youth in the name of religion,” he explains.

While it has been officially disbanded, Aum continues operate under the name of Aleph and its leaders have said they renounce violence. But government officials believe it remains a dangerous group.

Kazuaki Okazaki, 39, one of the arrested followers now on death penalty for killing a lawyer, told judges during his trial that he joined Aum because he was “sick” of modern society where he was judged for his abilities to perform rather than accepted as he was.

Shoko Egawa, an expert on Aum, explains: ” The lack of self-esteem and purpose in young people makes them vulnerable to joining cults like Aum that tell them that believing in their dogmatic teachings will give them hope”.

Police have arrested 11 young Aum cultists who confessed that they had manufactured sarin and other deadly toxic gases secretly in Aum laboratories.

Tomomasa Nakagawa, a doctor on death row for the sarin subway attack, told the court during his trial that he was ordered to commit the attack by Asahara.

He confessed to obeying Ashara’s orders to commit murder by releasing sarin that he was carrying in a bottle into the subway. He said he believed in the Aum doctrine that by serving Asahara he was doing good.

Those confessions played a key role in the conviction of the blind Asahara.

While prosecutors described Asahara’s actions as the most heinous in Japanese criminal history, the cult founder, who is still revered among his dwindling flock of around 1,000 followers, remained silent during his trial.

Analysts contend that this silence is aimed at protecting his cult. Takimoto says that by Asahara’s staying silent, his followers will not be able to ”escape the power of AUM cult. This was his purpose”.

Pages of documentation filed during Asahara’s and his followers’ trials have showed how police had not suspected a sinister network around the AUM cult that had at its peak more than 10,000 followers.

More horrifying revelations included the cult’s in-house production of narcotic drugs used systematically on followers, widespread extortion of money, and carefully developed plans – some of which were successful – to wipe out anyone who dared oppose the working of the cult.