Terrorism Reference Biographies | Shoko Asahara Biography

March 2, 1955

Yatsushiro, Japan

Leader of Aum Shinrikyo

"From now [1993] until the year 2000, a series of violent phenomena filled with fears that are too difficult to describe will occur. Japan will turn into waste land as a result of a nuclear weapons attack."

On the morning of March 20, 1995, thousands of people riding the subway to work in Tokyo, Japan, suddenly felt terribly ill. Some could not stand up and fell down convulsing on the subway platforms. Others could not speak. Some were blinded. Twelve died.

By the end of the morning more than five thousand people had claimed to have been sickened or injured. All were victims of a poison gas attack planned and executed by a religious cult named Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese name that in English means "Supreme Truth." The organization was headed by a man named Shoko Asahara, who had just had his fortieth birthday three...