The Age of Invisible Threats: Between Aum Shinrikyo and Bioterrorism (1990-2001)

The Age of Invisible Threats: Between Aum Shinrikyo and Bioterrorism (1990-2001)

In the 1990s, Japan was faced with an insanity. The Sarin gas attack on the subway on March 20, 1995, was a symbolic act of this madness. Targeting the Tokyo commuter rush, liquid sarin was sprayed inside subway cars, killing 14 people and seriously injuring more than 6,000 others. Behind this attack was a political ambition to strike a direct blow to the nation's core and a doomsday prophecy within the cult. Earlier, in 1994, sarin gas was also sprayed in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, killing eight people and injuring 600. Both incidents shook the world as rare cases in which Aum, which had scientists and doctors among its followers, manufactured and used chemical weapons on its own.

But Aum's threat did not stop there. In 1993, there were traces of an attempt to spray anthrax in Tokyo. Fortunately, the strain used was non-toxic and caused no damage, but this was clearly an attempt at bioterrorism. They also attempted to cultivate botulinum, but both failed. Aum's plan was a complex terrorist attack using both chemical and biological weapons.

Meanwhile, about six years after the Aum attacks, the world was once again confronted with "invisible terror" in the United States in 2001, shortly after the 9/11 attacks, when mail containing anthrax was sent to various parts of the United States, killing five people and infecting 17 others. The anthrax mailings were psychological bioterrorism aimed at instilling a deep sense of anxiety and fear in society beyond physical destruction, and it took a long time to identify the perpetrators.

The Aum Shinrikyo terrorist attacks and the anthrax incidents in the U.S., while having different backgrounds and motivations, are both examples of attempts to use "science" as a weapon in an asymmetrical battle. Both chemical and biological weapons became symbols of contemporary threats, in which individuals or small groups can wield massive destructive power on behalf of the state. And in between, society was forced to confront "invisible death. Invisible poisons, silent bombs. What they brought was a memory of horror that was deeper and longer than the number of deaths.