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In the last week, the Japanese Government has moved to give its police investigators wide-sweeping new powers- in a bid to crack down on an apocalyptic religious cult called the Aum Supreme Truth.
The cult's leader and key followers are on trial for a murderous nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways just over four years ago; an attack designed to cripple Japanese society.
Just over two years ago Aum- bankrupt and depleted of numbers- narrowly escaped being outlawed.
That was an escape Japan's justice officials now bitterly regret with the cult once again on the rise and the Japanese residents forming their own vigilante groups to try and stop Aum regaining its former power.
Here's our Tokyo Correspondent Jill Colgan with a report that goes behind the cult's closed doors.
| Starts: 01:00:00:00 |
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Today is an anniversary for Shizue Takahashi. | 00:12 |
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An anniversary she spends at her husband's graveside. | 00:14 |
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It was four years ago today he was murdered.
...His lungs filled with a poisonous nerve gas that crippled, then killed him.
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1:51 "I can never forget what happened; not for as long as I live. My life has been destroyed because of it. I feel an intense sense of anger and frustration." 2:07
| 00:35 |
Her anger is twofold: at her husband's killers and at a government that failed to destroy the cult that bred them.
| 00:53 |
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(Grab Takahashi) 12:53: They should be outlawed. They're nothing but a bunch of murderers. | 01:03 |
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The next morning peak hour in Tokyo, March 20th 1995.
Millions of Japanese commuters are hurtling towards work and school on the city's subway labyrinth.
| 01:28 |
In the space of a few minutes, the lives of thousands would be altered.
(breaker- sirens, slow mo pix)
| 01:43 |
At five locations on three different subway lines, deadly nerve gas is released.
| 02:12 |
Passangers begin staggering from subway exits around the city, nauseous, vomiting, convulsing and collapsing- the sarin gas crippling their nervous systems.
| 02:19 |
More than five thousand people are hurt, some with horrific injuries; one woman's contact lenses fuse to her eyes; both eyes have to be surgically removed.
| 02:39 |
The poison kills twelve people.
(Police raiding Aum's facilities) | 02:54
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Each anniversary of her husband's death, Shizue Takahashi visits the spot where he died. | 03:04 |
Her husband: Kazumasa, was a subway worker; he spent his dying moments trying to carry a bag of the deadly poison away from passengers.
| 03:10 |
(grab Takahashi) 3:36: I'm so proud of him. (edit) 4:07: The hardest thing is not being to talk with him anymore. We were together every day: having meals, going out, talking about the children. We talked about even the small things. Now I feel so lonely- even as I prepare my meals. I've lost my soulmate. 4:33 | 03:22 |
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Se has spent her life campaigning with the families of the other victims and survivors of the attack.
| 03:53 |
(guy) (check TC) "Some of these victims are still attending psychiatrists; some are still in hospital. The government should be looking into the plight of these people. 25:08
| 03:59 |
39:07 (woman) I wonder what good came of the deaths of the 12 who died, including my husband. Aum is still active and trying to regain a foothold. My heart is full of bitterness towards Aum. I think the souls of the dead are turning in their graves. 39:35
(Takahashi at home)
| 04:16 |
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The crucial point for Shizue Takahashi is the group's refusal to admit it was responsible for the sarin gas attack.
| 04:48 |
(grab Takahashi) 8:50: Aum conducted it's so-called religion with a doctrine of murder. I don't think that it is fundamentally a religion at all. It should have been banned. Its members should be banned from any kind of gathering. They've been brainwashed. They should have been given proper counselling to free them of brainwashing. 9:24
(Concert pix)
| 04:56 |
This is the face of Aum today- young Japanese joining as new recruits.
| 05:37 |
Though their guru is behind bars, a core of Aum followers have kept the cult alive.
Now their recruitment drive has picked up speed.
| 05:48
05:56 |
(selling tickets at concert) "Hello, one thousand yen please..."
| 06:01 |
Just two years ago Aum narrowly avoided being outlawed; authorities believed then, the cult was too shattered ever t be a threat again.
| 06:08 |
Aum now has between one thosand and fifteen hundred members.
It's run by a band of reclusive leaders who carefully avoid the spotlight.
(nat sot concert... singing about Asahara)
| 06:25 |
In more than three hundred prayer meetings late last year, Aum drew 7000 people.
| 06:37 |
The feeling in Japan? Aum is on the rise again.
(nat sot residents in Sanwa town)
| 06:47 |
Sanwa Town, two hours drive north of Tokyo, residents have formed a vigilante group; the cult has moved into the neighbourhood and locals want them out.
(residents) Man: "Get out Aum, you conducted that cruel sarin gas attack Group: Get out, get out!"
| 06:59
07:10 |
It's bordering on becoming an angry mob when Aum's mouthpiece, a mild-mannered priest called Araki, comes out.
| 07:27 |
10:33: Resident: Your group committed murders. What we're doing is only natural. 10:45: You know why we're doing this, you remember!
10:48: Araki: What I want to say is, since 1995 when the incident happened... listen to me, listen to me, listen to me! Since we left Kamiku, in '96, '97 and '98 we've just been going about our activities. There haven't been any problems before now. So, I'm telling you I can't understand why this year, suddenly, problems are arising. 11:07
| 07:36 |
(vox pops women) 31:42 We're afraid they're going to get a foothold here. They've already been kicked out of Nagano prefecture and other places. We're very scared they'll try and make Sanwa town their stronghold. 31:54
| 08:01 |
When local council officials arrive to process Aum's request for more members to reside at the site- they're immediately swamped by residents.
| 08:16 |
21:24: Go on, try nd get through if you can, we'll stop you- absolutely. 21:35: What do you think you're doing? They're a nationwide menace. The duty of the town hall is to protect local residents! Official: This is our duty too... We can't accept it- we'll never accept it! (edit) 23:39 Woman: "It's terrible, how can Sanwa town allow murderers to live here? We'll stop paying our taxes. Don't try and fool us. How can the town council allow murderers to live here?"
(whole group shouting)
| 08:25 |
The council officials retreat and the residents are jubilant. (cheering)
| 09:04 |
In the days that follow, Aum files a protest with the council alleging discrimination.
| 09:10 |
But the cult is now facing increasing pressure.
| 09:76 |
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Desperate to improve their image, Araki finally agrees to our repeated requests to enter the cult' Tokyo headquarters.
| 09:24 |
It's a scene that would terrify survivors of the sarin gas attack.
| 09:43 |
The cult stil openly worships the guru...whose role as master has been delegted to his young sons, aged just 5 and 7.
(chanting)
| 09:48 |
30:00 "My suffering is joy, the suffering of others is my suffering, my suffering is joy, the suffering of others is my suffering."
| 09:59 |
The half-blind guru's techings are a blend of Buddhism and mysticism; among his divine powers: levitation, astral travel, he ability to become invisible and to bring enlightenment to others.
| 10:05 |
Among his past lives, he's been Jesus Christ.
| 10:21 |
(grab Araki) 7:49 the Master, as I and others have witnessed, has achieved and surpassed all the conditions written in the scriptures tht are needed to become a saint. As long as we regard our scriptures as the basis of our belief, Asahara is literally a saint." 8:10
| 10:26 |
This is one of a hundred Aum dwellings.
About twenty members live here; an austere lifestyle driven by the desire to spead their master's teachings.
| 10:50 |
(girl posting Internet site- English audio: "Hello this is Shoko Asahara")
| 11:04 |
Araki told me he has absolutely no doubt that his guru, Shoko Asahara was NOT the mastermind behind the sarin gas attack.
| 11:11 |
27:24 Araki: "Of course, we cannot believe it. That's my personal view and that of most followers. Then who did it? | 11:19 |
27:43 I don't know who did. We don't have any solid evidence or the ability to find the real culprit, but the facts of the case and the background to the incidents being discussed in court are full of contradictions. There are too many questions that remain unanswered.
| 11:28
11:37 |
(grab Tsuchimoto) "People like this always feel isolated and because they feel isolated they don't mind destroying those who don't obey their doctrine. Their desire for destruction- their destructive instinct is very strong. 14:59
(mock courtroom students walk in)
| 12:13 |
In this mock courtroom at Teikyo Univerisity, former top prosecutor Takeshi Tsuchimoto is training Japan's next generation of lawyers and prosecutors.
| 12:38 |
It was to him, that Japanese lawmakers turned for advice in stopping Aum- seeking his expertise in a bill targeting organised crime: a bill to give Japanese police strong new investigative powers.
| 12:53 |
1:04 The important point to remember is that their doctrine is still the same as it was when Asahara was leading the cult. Unless they change that belief, we have to regard them as dangerous. (edit) 16:16 We cannot see it on the surface, but Aum has the potential to become a terrifying group. We shouldn't see them as a religious order- they're an organisation. We should fully understand that they are a terrorist group. It wasn't extremists who acted in the group in past attacks- it was the group itself.
| 13:07 |
Japan's public Public Security Agency claims Aum has a vast source of undeclared income.
| 14:11 |
Agency sources told us Aum made nearly ninety million dollars in sales just last year from computer shops in Tokyo's electronics district.
| 14:20 |
Aum denies running any computer shops; but when we confronted staff at one of their alleged businesses, they refused to deny they were Aum.
| 14:36 |
(confrontation- hand over camera/ arguing)
Woman: Get out, get out (in shop)
| 14:42 |
Outside, shoppers were matter-of-fact about who runs the shop.
| 14:56 |
(vox pops) 5:54 I hear it's Aum's shop. It's well-known around here. I've heard it from lots of people. The prices are really low and it's been long said that its Aum's shop.
| 15:01 |
(Aum pix)
They have money, they have new members; but there's another reason Japanese authorities are worried: the approaching Year 2000.
| 15:24 |
Asahara has widely preached Armageddon telling followers to expect a catastrophic event as soon as September this year.
| 15:45 |
Police fear what the cult might do, to fulfil their guru's prophecies.
| 15:55 |
(grab Araki) 28:47 This year, 1999, is the year of the big event according to master Asahara. 28:52 (edit) 29:26 There were big floods last year, but there will be an even bigger disaster- a global one." 29:33
| 16:02 |
(Tsuchimoto) Me- Qu: Do you have any proof of any wrongdoing by Aum at the moment? Ans: On that point, I have to say ‘no comment' so as not to disturb the ongoing investigation. 24:01
(walking along road)
| 16:18
16:23
16:40 |
For Shizue Takahashi, this story has an appalling postscript.
| 16:44 |
She has just discovered that the apartment downstairs has been occupied by none other than Aum followers- who've moved premises to become closer to their guru.
| 16:49 |
(grab Takahashi) 23:37 When I learned Aum has moved into the same building I panicked. (edit) 24:53 Every night, when I go to bed, I cry. I feel so frustrated. When I imagine a poster of Asahara might be just below here I cannot fall asleep." 25:08
| 17:01 |
For families of Aum's victims, the cult's mere existence is a daily reminder of Japan's worst post-war mass murder.
| 17:30 |
They're urging the powers-that-be not to let the chance slip away- this time to rid Japan of the Aum cult. (#ENDS) | 17:40 |
| Ends 01:12:56:00 |