Japan on Thursday marked the 30th anniversary of the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack by the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, which killed 14 people and injured over 6,000.
At 8 a.m. — around the same time Aum members released sarin gas on five trains on the Hibiya, Chiyoda and Marunouchi subway lines 30 years ago — survivors, relatives of the victims, government representatives and Tokyo Metro officials observed a moment of silence at a memorial service in Kasumigaseki Station, where all of the three lines intersect.
“Coming here brings back vivid memories of that day and brings out the sadness in me,” said Shizue Takahashi, 78, whose husband, Kazumasa, then 50 and working as an assistant stationmaster at Kasumigaseki, was one of the two employees of the Teito Rapid Transit Authority, now Tokyo Metro, killed in the terror attack that also left 6,286 people injured.
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