Status Grade Scale Modified by instructor Instructions Murakami Haruki interview
ID: 154325 • Letter: S
Question
Status Grade Scale Modified by instructor Instructions Murakami Haruki interviews a number of former Aum In progress Points (max 3.00) Sep 2, 2018 1:52 am Shinrikyo members in his Underground. What about Aum attracted these people to the cult, and what does this tell us about the problems that are inherent in Japanese society today? Make reference to at least one of the interviewees Submission Assignment Text This assignment allows submissions using the text box below only. Type in your submission. Save frequently while working.Explanation / Answer
Aum Shinrikyo is a Japanese doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. This organisation was responsible for the Tokyo Subway Sarin attacks. Asaharas's mission was to take upon himself the sins of the world and he claimed that he could transfer spiritual power to his followers and take away their sons and bad deeds. Work was one of the most important criterias for the people who were interviewed to join Aum clan . Majority of the interviewers expressed disillusionment with the extreme materialsm that is prevalent in the Japanese society and also the Japanese media. Moreover the inefficiency of the Japanese government to deal with emergency attacks. Additionally the Aum clan members handed over their personal responsibility to Asahara blindly owing to his preachings of Japanese Buddhism principles. This shouldn't have been the case .This gave Asahara the opportunity to influence the people to bad paths without them even logically thinking. It is considered by experts as one of the major reasons of the attacks.
This attacks points out to the problems that are currently prevalent in Japanese society. Firstly is the materialism concept of Japanese government. Then comes the sensionalist attitude of the Japanese media. Apart from this, one of the main point is the Japanese response to the gas attacks. Instead of visualising the darker realities behind the subway attacks they condemned the attacks as " good versus evil " or " us versus them" or " sanity versus madness". They condemned the people who decided this attach as an isolated group of lunatic fringe instead of facing the truth behind the gas attacks thus the book has been given the title " Underground". This book also criticised the crisis management system of Japan government as well as the lack of openness about its failings in the past which could have helped to rectify the present and future.