EPILOGUE

    The fact that this book concentrated on overseas psychiatric phenomena to explain Aum should not mean that psychiatric treatment does not produce the same results in Japan.

    Psychiatric treatment does not have a great deal of evidence that does any more good than a placebo pill, a sugar tablet. Yet, there is quite some evidence showing that psychiatric treatment itself puts a community at risk.

    Examples of how the community has been at risk by society accepting psychiatric treatment is as follows:

    1. Yuji Nishizawa has been on trial for hijacking an All Nippon Airways flight and killing the captain, Naoyuki Nagashima. Nishzawa had been receiving treatment in mental hospitals. He hijacked and murdered after the treatment, not before. 228

    2. In June 1995 the All Nippon Airways had another plane hijacked by Fumio Kutsumi, who again had been treated for a nervous disorder before he decided to hijack the plane.229

    3. The Kobe boy who was accused of decapitating one boy and killing another, had been receiving mental counseling before the crimes.230

    In the United States high school killings have been increasingly being linked to psychotropic drugs, such as Ritalm, Luvox and Prozac. Shawn Cooper, a 15 year old in Idaho had been taking Ritalin for what was termed "bipolar disorder" before he shot at students on April 16 1999. Harris, an 18 year old student killed a dozen students two days later in Columbine High School after he was put on Luvox. On May 15 Solomon, a 15 year old, was put on Ritalm and shot at fellow students. On May 21 1988 Kip Kinkel, a 15 year old murdered his parents and shot at students after he had been put on Prozac and Ritalm. And there are more. Over 6 million US children are on these mind altering drugs. 231

    In Japan the drug data is kept confidential. How many Japanese children are on psychotropic drugs in not known. Undoubtedly such is the wish of the psychiatrists and the drug companies who proft from the sales of such drugs. But there are indicators that all is not well in Japanese schools. In 1997 violence in Japanese schools was reported to have topped the 10,000 mark for 1996.232 Then school violence rose to 29,685 in 1998.233 This represents a phenomenal increase. The figures

    come from Ministry of Education surveys. For 1998 children who stayed away from school for over 30 days rose 20% over the previous year to 127,694, according to another Education Ministry survey.234 There are insufficient figures to prove psychiatric drug taking is leading to the same kind of crimes that such drugs are suggesting in the United States.

    And as for society as a whole, in 1997 the number of suicides in Japan from alcoholic and psychiatric problems rose above the 4,600 mark, per a survey by the National Police Agency.235

    4. In Fukuoka Prefecture in August 1997 a policeman was stabbed with a 16-centermeter-long knife by a person who had been receiving mental treatment. 236

    But psychiatric crime does not stop at being simple violence. It can also be well premeditated.

    5. Psychiatrist Takashi Yamaguchi was a professor of Hiroshima-Shududo University. He was found guilty of drugging female students and removing their cloths and sexually assaulting them.237

    6. December 1995 clinical psychologist Tsuyoshi Takehana was arrested for indecent assault committed on 12 year old girls.238

    7, Psychiatrist Fumitake Kato was arrested for the theft of psychiatric drugs from the Yamanishi Kita hospital.239

    As for psychiatric hospitals involved in deaths there are: 1. The 26 suspicious deaths at the Yamatogawa Psychiatric hospital, as reported in 1997.240
2. In 1998 the national government investigated 36 national psychiatric asylums and found that over 1,000 people had been harmed therein.241
3. There were investigations into the following psychiatric hospitals in 1998: The National Sanitarium Saigata had a patient die while bound. The Hiamatsu psychiatric hospital had a death in a quiet room. The Amami Psychiatric Hospital was found to have bound a patient to a tree.242
4. In 1999 a Mel prefecture psychiatric hospital was investigated after 19 people were found to have mysteriously have died. Apparently the cause was a flu eppidemic.243

    5. In May 1998 it was found that a patient was bound with a cloths belt at the Saigata psychiatric hospital. The patient died choking on her own vomit-244

    7. In 1994 the Koshikawa psychiatric hospital was closed after 22 mysterious deaths of patients had been exposed by the media. 245

    The point being here is that psychiatric crimes do exist in Japan. The deaths are the most visible peak of what can only be termed exceptionally inappropriate treatment. While this treatment, and the deaths of psychiatric patients, is more or less ignored by society then it is little wonder that Aum sought to use it. Such treatments were seen as socially acceptable by society. As society looked to psychiatry as a solution, then Aum did also.

    The end facts are that psychotropic drugs are relatively cheap to buy. Drug companies vie with arms manufacturers to be the biggest industry in the world today. If society does not change its views on psychiatric treatment and recognize that as a treatment its end result often is death then society will not search for a better solution. Pumping more money into psychiatric experiments and drug companies is not a solution for a better world. Awn proved that if it proved nothing else.

    This book was about Aum and what brought on their criminal phenomena. We covered laws that could ban such things as psychic-driving and depatterning. But perhaps we also need to look at broader solutions for society. Insanities and mental illnesses can be brought upon by vitamin deficiencies, incorrectly diagnosed psychical illnesses and even the intake of toxic substances. Perhaps society should be demanding that doctors in general become more proficient in their existing medical skills to be able to more readily diagnose real physical problems of the body that show themselves as mental symptoms, and not simply reach for the drug prescription as the easy way out.

    Aum was the product of a increasingly bio-chemical oriented society that accepted psychiatric solutions. We need to ask ourselves if this is the way to shape our future of society today.

CONTENTS