Chapter 2

BEFORE THE RAIDS

    After the raids it was subsequently reported, and it became very apparent, that it were the doctors of Aum who were involved in most of the killings. The reports exposed the following:

    The first person to die was during a training exercise in October 1988. A young man died from a cold bath immersion under the supervision of Dr. Ikuo Hayashi. Another Aum member, 21 year old Soji Taguchi, became disgruntled about Aum over this. Taguchi was strangled to death in February 1989 to maintain his silence. 1

    In April 1994 an 81 year old woman died at the hands of Aum doctors. 18 She had a grand daughter who was an Aum member and just before her death she had signed over to Aum her estate of a 140 square meter plot of land and an apartment in Tokyo's Sugiami ward. 19 Dr. Ikuo Hayashi had injected her with an overdose of the mind altering drug thiopental.

    On the 4th November 1989 the lawyer, Tsusumi Sakimoto, his wife and their one year old child, were killed by Dr. Tomomasa Nakagawa. Lawyer Sakimoto had become too outspoken as an anti Aum critic. He was injected with potassium chloride which causes heart failure when given in large doses. An Aum member's badge was left on the floor of Sakimoto's home. 20

    Summer 1993 a foul odor was detected around the Aum compound in Kameido in Tokyo's Koto Ward. The police later explained this was from an attempt by Aum to spray anthrax bacillus in the vicinity of a neighboring building, but that perhaps the bacillus had not been fully developed. Dr. Seiichi Endo and others did the spraying. 21

    On the 6th June 1993 a 25 year old man, Naoki Ochi, died after he was suspended upside down with ropes tied around his ankles, and hoisted into the air and suspended. His upper body was bound with ropes while his body was covered with a cloth bag. He fell unconscious and died shortly afterwards. His body was later burned inside the Aum compound. 22

    On the 27th June 1994 in Nagoya, Dr. Nakagawa and others led a raid on judges chambers that killed 7 with sarin gas and injured 600 others. 23

    In January 1994 Dr. Nakagawa held the disillusioned ex-Aum member, Kotaro Ochida, who had attempted to rescue his mother from Aum. Ochida was then strangled with a piece of rope by another who had accompanied Ochida on the rescue mission. Nakagawa was later to say, "I just wanted Ochida to not feel a lot of pain, so I pinioned him. 24

    In December 1994 Tadahito Hamaguchi, 28, was found to have died with a decomposed organic phosphorus in his blood, which was decomposed VX gas, possibly the most deadly nerve gas known to man. One drop of this chemical on the skin can kill a person.

    Hamaguchi had collapsed on the street in Osaka, and died ten days later in hospital without ever regaining consciousness. Tomomitsu Niimi, 31, Home affairs Chief of Aum, confessed to the killing in July 1995.25

    Niimi also confessed to being involved in a gas attack on Daiske Ikeda, the Honoree Chairman of the Soka Gakkai Buddhist sect. The attack failed and the attackers were partially poisoned instead. 26 Dr. Nakagawa was present for the attack.

    Niimi also confessed to using VX gas to kill an 83 year old man on the 2 December 1994, as well as five other disillusioned Aum members. 27

    On February 1995 the notary public Kiyoshi Kariya, 68, was abducted after persuading his 62 year old sister not to donate her property to Aum. Dr. Tomomasa Nakagawa was later to confess that he had killed Kariya with an overdose of the mind altering drug thiopental. Kariya had been kidnapped outside his Meguro office in Shinagawa Ward as he walked home. It was reported later that the body of Kariya had been cremated inside the Aum compounds. 28

    While the police were investigating the disappearance of Kiyoshi Kariya they were beginning to work out that Aum was becoming the logical source of this and other crimes. Also, the Yomouri newspaper had released the story that sarin had been found in soil samples near the Aum compound after there were reports from a nearby factory of a bad smell emanating from Aum.29 Aum members then used weed killer to kill off

    some nearby vegetation and then tried to sue the nearby factory for trying to kill them with sarin. Aum dropped the suit after the police raids established that Aum had been producing sarin.

    Per the testimony of Dr. Ikou Hayashi, because the police found sarin near the Aum compound, and police were still investigating the seven deaths from the sarin attack in Nagoya, Aum knew that they would soon be raided. They later received confirmation of the impending raid from an Aum member in the Self Defense Forces. It was estimated by key Aum members that a sarin attack on the Tokyo subway would divert attention away from Aum.

CONTENTS