Matsumoto sarin attack
The Matsumoto incident was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by members of Aum Shinrikyo in Matsumoto, Japan, in Nagano prefecture, on the evening of June 27 and the morning of June 28, 1994.
Eight people were killed[1] [2] and over 200 were harmed by sarin gas that was released from several sites in the Kaichi Heights neighborhood. The first calls to emergency officials occurred around 11:00 p.m.; by 4:15 a.m. the following morning, six people had died from the poison. On July 3, officials announced that the toxic agent had been identified as sarin by GC/MS. The dead included Yutaka Kobayashi, a 23-old salaried worker, and Yasumoto, a 29-year old medical school student.[3]
Incredibly, Aum was not implicated, even after an anonymous tip implicating the sect was given to police after the gassing. One section read, "Matsumoto was definitely an experiment of sorts. The result of this experiment in an open space: seven dead, over 200 injured. If sarin is released in an enclosed space say, a crowded subway it is easy to imagine a massive catastrophe." [4]
After the incident, police focused their investigation on Yoshiyuki Kōno, whose wife was a victim put in a coma by the gas. It was discovered that Kōno had stored a large amount of pesticide in his residence. Despite the fact that sarin cannot be manufactured from pesticides, Kōno was dubbed by the media "the Poison Gas Man" and received hate mail, death threats, and intense legal pressure.
After the attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, the blame was shifted to the cult Aum Shinrikyo. The police chief, on behalf of the police department and media, publicly apologized to Kōno. Kōno's wife died without waking from her coma in 2008.
The Matsumoto incident preceded the better-known attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. Several Aum Shinrikyo members were found guilty of masterminding both incidents. Combined, the attacks resulted in 20 deaths and thousands of hospitalizations or outpatient treatment. The main motive for the Matsumoto incident was trying to kill the judges handling fraud charges against Aum brought by land owners in Matsumoto, in order to prevent the court from releasing the scheduled verdict. Aum had also used Matsumoto as a test for their future plans to release the gas in Tokyo.
References
- ^ "Main Matsumoto sarin victim dies 14 years after attack" The Yomiuri Shimbun (August 6, 2008).
- ^ "Survivor of Aum's '94 sarin attack dies while in coma" THE ASAHI SHIMBUN (August 6, 2008).
- ^ Kyodo News, "Matsumoto gassings remembered", Japan Times, June 28, 2009, p. 2.
- ^ http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/terrorists/prophet/18.html
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