Modern Era · East Asia · War

1995

Tokyo subway sarin attack

March 20, 1995

During the morning rush hour, members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult released sarin nerve gas in five Tokyo subway trains. Thirteen commuters died and thousands were injured. Japanese society, which had thought of itself as safe from terrorism, was shaken. The attack previewed twenty-first-century fears of weaponized science in the wrong hands.