Thirty years ago this week, a self-proclaimed messiah and his followers stunned Japan and the world with a brazen terror attack.
During the height of the morning rush hour, members of Aum Shinrikyo opened bags of sarin, a deadly nerve gas, on subway trains as they arrived at stations in the heart of Tokyo where central government offices were located. The attack killed over a dozen people and wounded thousands more.
While stunning, the attack did not bring the nation to its knees. It did expose the inability of the political and law enforcement authorities to deal with a group that had made clear its belief that it and its followers were above the law — and the appeal of that claim to many within the country.
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