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Indeholder "Part One: Underground", "Map of the Tokyo Subway", "Tokyo Metropolitan Subway: Chiyoda Line", "Kiyoka Izumi: Nbody was dealing with things calmly", "Masaru Yuasa: I've been here since I first joned", "Minoru Miyata: At that point Takahashi was still alive",
"Part One: Underground" handler om ???
"Map of the Tokyo Subway" handler om ???
"Tokyo Metropolitan Subway: Chiyoda Line" handler om ???
"Kiyoka Izumi: Nbody was dealing with things calmly" handler om ???
"Masaru Yuasa: I've been here since I first joned" handler om ???
"Minoru Miyata: At that point Takahashi was still alive" handler om ???
"Toshiaki Toyoda: I'm not a sarin victim, I'm a survivor" handler om ???
"Tomoko Takatsuki: It's not even whether or not to take the subway, just to go out walking now scares me" handler om ???
"Mitsuteru Izutsu: The day after the gas attack, I asked my wife for a divorce" handler om ???
"Aya Kazaguchi: Luckily I was dozing off" handler om ???
"Hideki Sono: Everyone loves a scandal" handler om ???
"Tokyo Metropolitan Subway: Marunouchi Line (Destination: Ogikubo)" handler om ???
"Mitsuo Arima: I felt like I was watching a programme on TV" handler om ???
"Kenji Ohashi: Looking back, it all started because the bus was two minuts early" handler om ???
"Soichi Inagawa: That day and that day only, I took the firs door" handler om ???
"Sumio Nishimura: If I hadn't been there, somebody else would have picked up the packets" handler om ???
"Koichi Sakata: I was in pain, yet I still bought my milk as usual" handler om ???
"Tatsuo Akashi: The night before the gas attack, the family was saying over dinner, 'My, how lucky we are'" handler om ???
"Shizuk Akashi: Ii-yu-nii-an (Disneyland)" handler om ???
"Tokyo Metropolitan Subway: Marunouchi Line (Destination: Ikebukuro)" handler om ???
"Shintaro Komada: 'What can that be?' I thought" handler om ???
"Ikuko Nakayama: I knew it was sarin" handler om ???
"Tokyo Metropolitan Subway: Hibiya Line (Departing: Naka-Meguro)" handler om ???
"Hiroshige Sugazaki: 'What if you never see your grandchild's face?'" handler om ???
"Kozo Ishino: I had some knowledge of sarin" handler om ???
"Michael Kennedy: I kept shouting 'Please, please, please!' in Japanese" handler om ???
"Yoko Iizuka: That kind of fright is something you never forget." handler om ???
"Tokyo Metropolitan Subway: Hibiya Line (Departing: Kita-Senju; Destination: Naka-Meguro)" handler om ???
"Noburu Terajima I'd borrowed the down payment, and my wife was expecting - it looked pretty bad" handler om ???
"Masanori Okuyama: In a situation like that the emergency services aren't much help at all" handler om ???
"Michiaki Tamada: Ride the trains every day and you know what's regular air" handler om ???
"Tokyo Metropolitan Subway: Hibiya Line" handler om ???
"Takanori Ichiba: Some loony's probably sprinkled pesticides or something" handler om ???
"Naoyuki Ogata: We'll never make it. It we wait for the ambulance we're done for" handler om ???
"Michiru Kono: It'd be patetic to die like this" handler om ???
"Kei'ichi Ishikura: The day of the gas attack was my sixty-fifth birthday" handler om ???
"Tokyo Metropolitan Subway: Kodemmacho Station" handler om ???
"Ken'ichi Yamazaki: I saw his face and thought: 'I've seen this character somewhere'" handler om ???
"Yoshiko Wada, widow of Eiji Wada: He was such a kind person. He seemed to get even kinder before he died" handler om ???
"Kichiro Wada, Sanaé Wada, parents of Eiji Wada: He was an understanding child" handler om ???
"Koichiro Makita: Sarin! Sarin!" handler om ???
"Dr. Toru Saito: The very first thing that came to mind was poison gas - cyanide or sarin" handler om ???
"Dr. Nobuo Yanagisawa: There is no prompt and efficient system in Japan for dealing with a major catastrophe" handler om ???
"Blind Nightmare: Where Are We Japanese Going?" handler om ???
"Part Two: The Place That Was Promised" handler om ???
"Preface" handler om ???
"Hiroyuki Kano: I am still in Aum" handler om ???
"Akio Namimura: Nostradamus had a great influence on my generation" handler om ???
"Mitsuharu Inaba: Each individual has his own image of the Master" handler om ???
"Hajimi Masutani: This was like an experiment using human beings" handler om ???
"Miyuki Kanda: In my previous life I was a man" handler om ???
"Shinichi Hosoi: 'If I stay here,' I thought, 'I'm going to die'" handler om ???
"Harumi Iwaura: Asahara tried to force me to have sex with him" handler om ???
"Hidetoshi Takahashi: No matter how grotesque a figure Asahara appears, I can't just dismiss him" handler om ???
"Afterword" handler om ???
En sekt, kaldet Aum Shinrikyo, er ledet af en mand, Shoko Asahara, der har en ide om at slippe giftgassen sarin ud i undergrundsbanen i Tokyo. Planen bliver sat i værk og 12 bliver dræbt.
Desværre er dette ikke plottet til en thriller, men en virkelig hændelse. Haruki Murakami har interviewet mange af de involverede og fået en meget, meget stærk bog ud af det.
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Covers the 1995 Tokyo Gas Attack, during which agents of a Japanese cult released a gas deadlier than cyanide into the subway system, as documented in interviews with its survivors, perpetrators, and victim family members. In March 1995, agents of a Japanese religious cult attacked the Tokyo subway system with sarin, a gas twenty six times as deadly as cyanide. Attempting to discover why, Murakami conducted hundreds of interviews with the people involved, from the survivors to the perpetrators to the relatives of those who died. Underground is their story in their own voices. Concerned with the fundamental issues that led to the attack as well as these personal accounts, Underground is a document of what happened in Tokyo as well as a warning of what could happen anywhere. This is an enthralling and unique work of nonfiction that is timely, vital, and as brilliantly executed as Murakami's novels. From Haruki Murakami, internationally acclaimed author of the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood, a work of literary journalism that is as fascinating as it is necessary, as provocative as it is profound. It was a clear spring day, Monday, March 20, 1995, when five members of the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo conducted chemical warfare on the Tokyo subway system using sarin, a poison gas twenty-six times as deadly as cyanide. The unthinkable had happened; a major urban transit system had become the target of a terrorist attack. Attempting to discover why, Murakami conducted hundreds of interviews with the people involved, from a subway authority employee with survivor guilt, to a fashion salesman with more venom for the media than for the perpetrators, to a young cult member who vehemently condemns the attack though he has not quit Aum. Through these and many other voices, Murakami exposes intriguing aspects of the Japanese psyche. And, as he discerns the fundamental issues leading to the attack, we achieve a clear vision of an event that could occur anytime, anywhere. Hauntingly compelling and inescapably important, Underground is a powerful work of journalistic literature from one of the world's most perceptive writers. Concerned with the fundamental issues that led to the attack as well as these personal accounts, Underground is a document of what happened in Tokyo as well as a warning of what could happen anywhere. This is an enthralling and unique work of nonfiction that is timely and vital and as wonderfully executed as Murakami's brilliant novels.… (more)
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Murakami's aim in the first part (explained in a final chapter) was, firstly, to humanise the stories of the victims, and secondly to understand whether there was anything within Japanese society which made the cult, and the attack, possible. He also wanted to work on something specifically Japanese, to mark his return from living in the US.
He certainly succeeded in his first aim - the stories of what individuals actually experienced on the day may seem quite similar, but they gradually build up a very effective picture of the horror of the events of that day, all the more terrifying for the everyday setting.
I'm not so sure about the second. Some of the details certainly seem to me to be typically Japanese - the fact that people carried on struggling to get to work even though they could hardly see or walk, the small number of voices who were angry at the unco-ordinated reaction of the emergency services, the fact that very few of the interviewees talk about their personalities when describing how they reacted to events - but most of it could have happened anywhere.
Even the cult members interviewed are recognisable personalities - the nihilistic teen, the woman who turns to spirituality after starting to question whether there's more to life than parties, karaoke and meeting men. I found their stories more interesting than those of the victims - partly because it's an experience which I can't imagine ever having (and a good insight into the way that people were brainwashed), and partly because the stories themselves are more varied. But what they all have in common is that they were attracted to the cult because its worldview was easier to deal with than the contradictions and confusions of the real world - life within the cult was tough, but there was a clear system of rewards and punishments for your actions - very seductive when you are used to it, and probably the reason why it was possible to order adherents to carry out such horrific crimes.
This book is, in many ways, Murakami's response to this argument - the accreted detail of seventy lives explicitly stands against the totalitarian logic of a cult like Aum. It is a deeply humane work, much more than simple reportage.
It's definitely not the first book to read if you know nothing about Aum Shinrikyo, though. Well, maybe there's enough background material on the Web. Wikipedia has an interesting
There's nothing in this book about some previous events that should have set the police in action--a fatal gas release near the Aum Shinrikyo center (in Matsumoto, Nagano) or the murder, along with his wife and child, of a lawyer trying to sue the cult. Nor is there much about Shoko Asahara's background, the cult's tenets (nothing really), the cult's reach in Russia and other countries, nor the proliferation of cults and odd religions in Japan.
That last bit might surprise people who haven't lived in Japan. Sure, where aren't there cults? Btu the oft-heard theory in Japan is that the drive to be part of group--a complete-system group--makes them particularly appealing. And you can't live in Japan for two minutes without noticing the powerful need and pressure to be part of a group. It used to be said that that explained why most of the members of the Soka Gakkai were working-class or at least non-salarymen class: they needed something to substitute for the comforts of the salaryman system.
As many others have pointed out, this book resembles a workman-like journalist's work. Murakami gives a nod to Studs Terkel in the early pages. But Murakami is a novelist, so you expect or hope that he's be able to stretch farther and make larger connections, especially because he's lived abroad. No, I mean especially because he was never salaryman material; he's always been an outsider (tho it often feels like just about every Japanese person says that), I thought he'd bring some insight into what pulls a person feeling like an outsider to this group, or the person just not satisfied with the purely material compensations that define the good life in Japan.
For anyone that's lived in Japan, the lack of preparation and coordination among hospital and emergency organizations won't be any surprise. And of course the reaction to the Kansai earthquake had far more fatal consequences (see also the JAL crash in 1985). Since Murakami also wrote a book about that (which I haven't read), I thought he'd make some comments on that. Or rather: what do the people he interviewed, such as the subway workers or the soldier, think about the fractured response? Aren't they mad, even if they wouldn't say so in a crowded room?
Whenever I read the account of an ex-member, and even of a few current members, and he or she would describe being absorbed by books about Buddhism or Nostradamus or philosophy or yoga (oddly enough, not a lot of manga)--so far, so good. But the person never reached the point of disclosing what was so special, what was the final appeal of Aum. I could never catch a glimmer. The doctrine, the practices, friends, the camaraderie? Perhaps there's never a satisfying answer to such questions, but it had to be something that these folks had been mulling over themselves.
The Wikipedia article mentions that after Aum had been in its yogic and meditation phase for several years, Asahara made a decision that he had to be charismatic and "rebranded" the religion. Yet the charisma and Asahara himself don't seem to be a big deal in the accounts of the ex-members. This seems to come from a book by the psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism. He's quite a clear writer for a psychiatrist, so it's probably a more satisfying book than this one.
Something else Murakami doesn't touch on at all: the advertising, pr, the high profile of the religion: what does that have to do with the "Japanese psyche" in his subtitle? why did it become so popular, so fast?
What is revealed about the Japanese psyche doesn't involve the Aum members. Rather, these were the accounts of the subway workers and sarin victims. OK, so some of the poisoned people felt a little sick or weird but continued on to work. Yes, that seems like a strange reaction, but who among us has experienced that particular kind of illness? Would you want to get back on a train or a series of trains for the hour or two it would take to get home? Standing, squished next to other commuters? The office is actually the much more appealing option.
But then there were the accounts of the victims. And the female subway worker or ex-worker? At any rate, she obviously had some emergency training. People were obviously sick, lying on the sidewalk while she was trying to get people to flag down taxis.
And passersby not coming to help? Now *that* is classic, predictable Japanese behavior. *Don't stand out.* I thought it was strange that Murakami didn't hammer that point home, but then this was originally written in Japanese, so perhaps he didnt' have to.
(BTW, if you're ever in Japan in such a situation or if you're just asking directions in Japanese and a whole line of people ignore you--assuming the unseeing freeze face because one person already has--look for the oddball, the kid with orange hair, piercings and motorcycle boots, a manual worker, any youngish un-salaryman or woman. That person will be glad to answer you.).
And, no, I don't buy that this is bystander behavior you'd see the world over. Yes, if there's "a couple" arguing on the street, even if the man is beating up the woman, the US bystander studies have repeatedly shown that passersby will fail to help. Since Americans and most Westerners are a lot more individualistic than the Japanese--they're less fearful of being different, you'd probably see similar behavior the world over in such a situation.
But the post-sarin scenario Murakami describes isn't a similar situation; the passerby helper wouldn't have put himself or herself in danger by helping others. These victim were just ill and someone (someones, I hope) was trying to help them.
The 9/11 aftermath might provide a useful comparison. There you have countless stories of strangers helping dazed people, bringing them into their homes, to hospitals and so on. I think Thai people would react the same way. The Japanese ... are extra-peculiar.
While frustrating, Underground paints an interesting portrait of the Japanese psyche. For the same reasons it failed as a documentary, I thought it was excellent as a social commentary. You get a feel for the personalities (and idiosyncracies) of the victims, and what drove many of them to remain in the subway that morning after it was clear that something was horribly wrong.
Also, I would also recommend that anyone unfamiliar with Tokyo geography keep a good map of handy.
In the course of the interviews, the victims, including ordinary workers on the way to their offices as well as subway workers, reflect on what happened, how they reacted, and what they observed of others' reactions. What struck me was how long it took for anyone to realize how serious the situation was. The perpetrators had the sarin (in liquid form in plastic) wrapped in newspaper, which they placed on the floor of a subway car. As they exited, they stabbed the sarin package with a specially sharpened umbrella tip to break the package and release the sarin. Passengers noticed fumes and some would leave the car at the next stop, but passengers at the next stop would see a car with empty seats and get in the contaminated car to continue to the next stop. This occurred despite there sometimes remaining on board people who were obviously very ill or even unconscious. Sometimes at a stop, a subway worker would come on board, remove an unconscious passenger, "mop" up the "spill", and the car would proceed on. Even passengers who felt ill with symptoms such as difficulty seeing (a "feeling" of blackness descending) or difficulty breathing would proceed to work, often walking past people collapsed on the subway platforms or sidewalks, only seeking help when they totally collapsed or when they heard news reports at work about what had happened. One passenger described the scene: "People foaming at the mouth....half of the roadway was absolute hell. But on the other side people were walking to work as usual....It was as if we were a world apart. Nobody stopped. They all thought, 'Nothing to do with me.'"
The volume I read contained an added section of later interviews Murakami did with members and former members of the cult which carried out the attack. These members all claimed to have been unaware that the attack was planned, but many of them admit that had the leader ordered them to carry out these attacks they are not sure they would have been able to resist such an order.
This book is very different than Murakami's fiction (although I guess you could say the general theme of the Japanese character and the ennui and alienation of today's youth apply in both cases). Murakami acknowledges his debt to the oral histories of Studs Terkel. A fascinating read.
3 1/2 stars
The author Haruki Murakami provides an interesting account of the viewpoints and perspectives of the various people involved in the attacks. The first half of the book (which I understand was first published as a separate piece) focuses on interviews Murakami gives of different passengers, subway workers, family members, and doctors/emergency personnel. The second half involves conversations with the terrorist group Aum.
I started out strong, but I think I lost a little steam when many of the interviews began to sound extremely similar - although I did appreciate the work Murakami put into the book to give each voice its own character/background. I found myself towards the second half of the book doing a little more skipping around and skimming the interviews. In my opinion, this is definitely a good book for someone interested in the Tokyo attacks specifically, or Japan culture in general.
I will say that what I found most interesting was how the victims' overall reaction - especially those from the passengers themselves - differed so much from what I would expect should something like this happen in the U.S. Many people "smelled something weird," (later determined to be the poison gas), but simply covered their noses and stayed in their seats - even when people on the same train began to exhibit severe physical ailments, passing out, losing sight, etc. A common observation was that nobody rushed to the exit - much to the frustration of the subway employees - and even when discovering they were going blind/having trouble breathing, their mentality was "oh well, I need to get to work." Even the medical response was lackadaisical (few/no ambulances, doctors having to learn about what is happening through TV only, etc.) although many people seem to be extremely irritated about that. In this regard, the book provided an interesting comparison in culture, especially with regards to emergency response.
There are different editions of Underground, but mine (Kindle edition) consists of three parts- Part 1- interviews with the victims of the attack, Part 2- interviews with the Aum cult members- none of them with the perpetrators, and Part 3- a book review- an essay by Murakami prompted by the publication of the book written by one of the cult member responsible for the release of the gas and serving the life sentence at the time.
Even though mostly unedited interviews make up most of the book, there are some very enlightening remarks by Murakami in between the parts and in the final essay; enlightening in the sense of understanding the background for 1Q84 since the cult from 1Q84 bears an uncanny resemblance to Aum Shinrikyo in many respects. It's all there from the intellectual makeup of the people in it, through the split of the cult into two groups down to the presence of the incinerator on the cult's grounds (which was used to burn the body of at least one of the victims). What comes through Murakami’s comments are the dangers of a society of non-engagement and of giving into beliefs, especially the ones that condone cruelty. Quite interesting. No wonder people have been reading it voraciously in Japan, and no wonder it is disguised into supernatural in 1Q84.
As for the book format, it was powerful in some respects and weak in others. It conveyed the human factor very well, but didn’t provide enough systematized information on the cult for me. I suppose the format is unique and nothing similar has been written on that topic. What came out of it was not only the portrayal of the attack and the psychology of the cult but also the portrayal of the Japanese people, their daily lives, beliefs, habits and work ethics.
The Kindle edition had some annoying language errors, yet overall I would definitely recommend it.
The second half of "Underground," which consists of interviews with former Aum members, will probably be of more interest to the average reader, perhaps because extraordinary evil, for better or for worse, seems to cast a spell that ordinary life can't quite compete with. The ex-members certainly paint an interesting portrait of the cult: it was strict in some ways, but remarkably forgiving in others. Its theology was a confusing new-age mishmash, and many of the members don't entirely regret their experiences with the group. I noticed that many of the former members share a rather logical cast of mind which sometimes contrasts oddly with their spiritual interests, though I suppose that it might explain why they found a cult that talked discussed spiritual advancement in terms of a precise hierarchy and seemed to have been organized like a multinational corporation appealing. It's also interesting to note the hold that Aum still has on many of its former members: many admit to keeping up relationships they made while in the cult and to still finding some of the group's meditative techniques useful. Their contact with the group, like that of their victims, seems to have very long-term implications. Even though most of the former cult members that Murakami interviews seem to have left the group before things got really dark, these interviews provide a startlingly matter-of-fact account of a demonstrably evil organization in action.
In spite of its weaknesses, this book is still worth reading. The interviews with the victims and perpetrators are valuable and honest, shedding light on both the universalities and the cultural peculiarities of the time and place. Those interested in disasters or in Japanese culture will find the book interesting.
Worth reading if you're interested in the subject.
As you read the book it clarifies the way people think in japan and the reaction or lack there of in case something dreadful happens, mostly because they do not expect any malice from within which would cause such extreme damage. It reminded me of the extinction of the dodo. The isolation of a species makes it vulnerable as the fear which is so primal & essential for survival is lost ultimately leading to its downfall.
Luckily, (in this case unluckily) the Japanese society has evolved to such an extent that there is not a lot to fear however this does not excuse the government and emergancy services to not have any plans just in case something aweful does happen.
I would like to agree with the other reviews i have read about this book that the Murakami would be fasinated by the cult members because they sound like the characters from his novels, which mirror his own thinking about life the universe and everything within it.
What fascinated me more, however, was the second part of the book containing interviews with Aum followers and former followers. The interviewees were not involved in the Sarin gas attack, not even indirectly, but they were part of this cult. Who were these people? Were they really the monsters that were described in the media? It struck me - and it feels a bit cruel to say this - that these people were so much more interesting characters. It seemed to me that Murakami really did his uttermost best to write down the statements of the victims with a lot of respect, and that he sincerely detests the gas attack, let me be clear about that. But in the end, he too was more interested in the people who committed the crimes, or were at least part of the organization responsible for the attack.
Having read several of Murakami's novels I am not amazed by his interest in the Aum followers. These people seem to have more than a few characteristics in common with Murakami's main characters. Most of all, they wonder about the world, about the meaning of life, they feel they cannot adapt to the routine of daily life, they do not feel at home in a capitalist and materialistic world, they are looking for a kind of spirituality that they can't find in the standard religions. They feel they need to retreat from the "normal world" to find a deeper truth within themselves. This reminded me strongly of the guy in the Wind up bird chronicles, the guy who sat at the bottom of an empty well for I don't know how many days.
It seemed to me that in the short notes of the author, the preface, the conclusions, Murakami is visibly searching for answers within himself, answers to questions like: why do I - and my main characters - have so much in common with these people, could I have committed a crime as horrific as this gas attack, where did it all go wrong? How did all these intelligent and sympathetic people end up in a crazy movement? In the end, he seems rather happy to have found at least one difference, which is that he accepts the confusion and the illogic ways of reality, that he uses them in a positive (literary) way, instead of turning away from them like the Aum followers did. Still, he isn't that sure, ending his book with the sentences: "That might very well be me. It might be you."
Murakami has done an excellent job in his documentation of the event, speaking to both
Second Murakami book I read after 'Kafka On The Shore' and pleasantly surprised by his none fiction writing.
The second half of the book, written after the publication of the first half, contains more interviews, this time with members of Aum some of whom are still unwilling to admit that the cult was responsible, and others who were disillusioned even before the gas attack.
On Monday, March 20, 1995--a day falling between two holidays--select members of Aum Shinrikyo coordinated and executed a release of sarin gas, a highly toxic chemical weapon designed for military use, in various locations throughout the Tokyo subway system. Many people, including novelist Haruki Murakami, were frustrated and unhappy with the media's coverage of the attack and related events. The media tended to focus on Aum and the more sensational aspects of the incident, often trampling or completely ignoring the personal experiences of the victims. Partially in response to this, Murakami decided to pursue and conduct interviews and collect individuals' stories. Of the thousands of people immediately affected by the sarin gas attack, Murakami and his assistants were only able to positively identify around one hundred forty people. Still carrying emotional, psychological, and physical scars, even fewer were willing to be interviewed. In the end, only sixty people agreed to allow their interviews to be published.
Thirty-four of these interviews are included in the first part of the book, "Underground." Murakami proceeds train by train, collecting similar stories together to create a more cohesive whole that allows the same events to be viewed from multiple perspectives. Each section of "Underground" begins with an overview of the Aum members who released the sarin gas in that particular location and a description of their actions. Before each individual interview, Murakami provides a brief introduction and personal commentary about that person. This allows their stories to not only be put in to the context of the events of March 20th, but into the context of their own personal histories and lives. These are not faceless individuals; they are real people who have lived through a terrible and traumatic episode, but this is not the only thing that defines them.
In "The Place That Was Promised," Murakami interviews eight members of Aum Shinrikyo. Some of the interviewees were still members at the time while others had left or were excommunicated from the organization. None were directly involved with the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo underground. Neither did any of them condone the actions of their fellow members. It does help to already have some basic knowledge of Aum and its beliefs to fully understand these interviews. But even if you don't, what is revealed through their stories is that they are normal people, just like anyone else, who turned to religion out of frustration with the society around them. Murakami does tend to be more argumentative while interviewing the Aum members. Before reading Underground, I knew very little about the Tokyo sarin gas attack. While the event is unquestionably tragic, Murakami handles the interviews with respect and is careful not to exploit the stories that have been entrusted to him. Underground is an compelling oral history.
Experiments in Manga
However, it was worth perservering with the book as much for the anthropological insight in to the Japanese psyche and in to Murakami's
Part one, relaying the victims' accounts of the Tokyo subway sarin attack was delivered in a most bizarrely naive and prosaic style, with a trite summary by Murakami detailing their family history, superior moral values and general stoicism. This perhaps does give some insight in to the Japanses character - there was a complete lack of victimhood and a strong attachment to work as a source of identity.
Shocking how under prepared Tokyo was for disaster at scale, considering the likelihood of catastrophic events striking Japan. The lack of help or authority during the attack was appalling. You can't help but think that while the number of victims may have remained unchanged, perhaps the severity and health outcomes would have been less serve if the authorities had acted with authority. The refusal of treatment by hospitals is particularly upsetting, and the number of willing bystanders in the face of the something like this is tragic. I hope that lessons learned from this attack will be applied for effect in the next event.
The second half focusing on the cult is interesting. The members and the rationale of their actions before and after the attack is enlightening. Perhaps playing them up as victims too, which sure cults are bad, that doesn't excuse them of individual culpability. I could live without this part.
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Omslagsillustration: Noma Bar
Omslaget viser et stiliseret metrotog på vej gennem en tunnel
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
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