Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche
5 journalers for this copy...
After reading "Norwegian Wood", i decided i must read more of Murakami, and found this one in my local bookstore.
Synopsis (amazon.co.uk)
In spite of the perpetrators' intentions, the Tokyo gas attack left only twelve people dead, but thousands were injured and many suffered serious after-effects. The novelist Haruki Murakami interviews the victims to try and establish precisely what happened on the subway that day. He also interviews members and ex-members of the doomsdays cult responsible, in the hope that they might be able to explain the reason for the attack and how it was that their guru instilled such devotion in his followers.
Synopsis (amazon.co.uk)
In spite of the perpetrators' intentions, the Tokyo gas attack left only twelve people dead, but thousands were injured and many suffered serious after-effects. The novelist Haruki Murakami interviews the victims to try and establish precisely what happened on the subway that day. He also interviews members and ex-members of the doomsdays cult responsible, in the hope that they might be able to explain the reason for the attack and how it was that their guru instilled such devotion in his followers.
i'm yet to read this book so i'm passing it on to stubee to read first, then it will come back to me to read before i send it out to AlteredState.
Thanks to Robert-Walker for sending me this. I'll read this once I've finished Alex Garland's - The Coma, rate it and send it back. I love Murakami's work so I'm really looking forward to this. Thanks again.
Update - Friday 25th February 2005
Finished this excellent work by Murakmi - A very interesting account of the lives of the victims of the 1995 Tokyo Underground Terrorist 'Sarin' Gas Attack and a fascinating insight into some of the minds of Aum* 'cult' members (I don't like the use of the word 'Cult' but it's the first word that comes to mind!)
I'm sending this back to Robert-Walker - Robert, enjoy the read and thank you so much for sending me this!
* Aum are the group responsible for the attack
Update - Friday 25th February 2005
Finished this excellent work by Murakmi - A very interesting account of the lives of the victims of the 1995 Tokyo Underground Terrorist 'Sarin' Gas Attack and a fascinating insight into some of the minds of Aum* 'cult' members (I don't like the use of the word 'Cult' but it's the first word that comes to mind!)
I'm sending this back to Robert-Walker - Robert, enjoy the read and thank you so much for sending me this!
* Aum are the group responsible for the attack
Thanks for returning this book Stubee, i will get to read it soon i hope.
I still have not got around to reading this so I'm loaning it out to wubbaducky
Journal Entry 6 by wubbaducky from not specified, not specified not specified on Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Arrived safe and sound in the post today from the ever-mysterious R-W but oh - Robert Walker? Really?? That's not half as much fun! Can you go back to being mysterious again so I can continue disproving your theory please? :) Anyway, looking forward to reading this one and thanks you for sharing!
Journal Entry 7 by wubbaducky from not specified, not specified not specified on Sunday, May 14, 2006
I read this in conjunction with Geisha by Liza Dalby, so I gained two very different views of Japan but I have to say, I really loved this book! The glimpses into each victim's life was like peering through a window and left so many unanswered questions but it was simply tantalising and really brought home the number and ordinariness of the people who were affected by the gas attack. It's impossible not to feel for the victims as you read their stories but what was surprising was how 'normal' the Aum members interviewed seemed. Admittedly disaffected and disillusioned with the world but how many of us haven't felt that way on occasion? The ending of the book was just perfect.
Thanks for lending the book out! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when you get round to reading it.
Thanks for lending the book out! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when you get round to reading it.
Thanks wubbaducky for looking after my book. I guess now after two good reviews i should read this for myself.
Watch this space
Watch this space
With this book Murakami turns his attention away from the amazing works of fiction he writes. Living in Tokyo Japan on the 20th March 1995 Murakami was no doubt wrapped up in the days events, the release of the liquid sarin on random trains on the Tokyo underground, carried out by the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo. Murakami says he wrote this book because he wanted to know what it was like for normal people going about a normal days business suddenly caught up in an extraordinary event.
The gas attack left twelve people dead and thousands injured, and Japan at that time was relatively free from acts of terrorism. So in this book Murakami interviews those caught up in the days tragic events, he chronicles where they were heading at the time, their feelings on the trains, what they did during the immediate panic and the affects that the sarin gas has had on them since.
He concludes the book by interviewing members and ex-members of the Aum cult. A few points that I noted were that hardly anyone, even among those among the ex-members condoned the people who carried out the attack and the one ultimately responsible, their guru and leader Shoko Asahara. What surprises me more is that the members of this cult, in order to reach 'enlightenment' were often given drugs, electo shock treatment, put in solitary confinement, yet they all say it was a good experience, no wonder Asahara was able to find willing volunteers to actually carry the sarin onto the trains and release it.
this sentence tickled me somewhat, Murakami speaking to one of the cults members says "By the way, are you interested in Nostradamus's prophecies?"
'Very much so. Nostradamus had a great influence on my generation. I'm planning my life's schedule around his prophecies. I have a desire to kill myself. I want to die. I don't mind dying very soon. But since the end is coming in two years (1999). I think I might be patient for a bit longer. I want to se with my own eyes what will happen at the end. I'm interested in doomsday religions. In addition to Aum, I have contacts among Jehovah's Witness. What they talk about is nonsense, though.'
Well I don't know what finally happened to this guy, but I do know this, 1999 has long gone, and the nonsense that Jehovah's Witnesses speak is all happening before our very eyes.
Reading Murakamis interviews with this cults members it struck me that these were just people like you and I, people searching for answers to life's puzzles, Isn't it strange that despite having these same issues, some turn to the writings contained in Gods word the bible, yet other sincere people turn to these strange cults.
Another member tried to justify the attacks by saying that life is full of despair and will only go away in the afterlife. So that those who died on those trains are now enjoying the benefits of the afterlife and will one day thank those who carried out the attacks, and also they're now in the afterlife and are able to welcome their dead loved ones in time too. If this is true I thought, why don't the members and their guru all kill themselves and leave all those innocent people alone?
But this book is not about those behind the attacks, it's about those people, people like you and I who unfortunately get carried up in events like this, events which now, over ten years later, are all too frequent, but the Bible does tell us that we are living in the last days of a wicked system, so attacks like this will one day be a thing of the past.
An interesting book.
The gas attack left twelve people dead and thousands injured, and Japan at that time was relatively free from acts of terrorism. So in this book Murakami interviews those caught up in the days tragic events, he chronicles where they were heading at the time, their feelings on the trains, what they did during the immediate panic and the affects that the sarin gas has had on them since.
He concludes the book by interviewing members and ex-members of the Aum cult. A few points that I noted were that hardly anyone, even among those among the ex-members condoned the people who carried out the attack and the one ultimately responsible, their guru and leader Shoko Asahara. What surprises me more is that the members of this cult, in order to reach 'enlightenment' were often given drugs, electo shock treatment, put in solitary confinement, yet they all say it was a good experience, no wonder Asahara was able to find willing volunteers to actually carry the sarin onto the trains and release it.
this sentence tickled me somewhat, Murakami speaking to one of the cults members says "By the way, are you interested in Nostradamus's prophecies?"
'Very much so. Nostradamus had a great influence on my generation. I'm planning my life's schedule around his prophecies. I have a desire to kill myself. I want to die. I don't mind dying very soon. But since the end is coming in two years (1999). I think I might be patient for a bit longer. I want to se with my own eyes what will happen at the end. I'm interested in doomsday religions. In addition to Aum, I have contacts among Jehovah's Witness. What they talk about is nonsense, though.'
Well I don't know what finally happened to this guy, but I do know this, 1999 has long gone, and the nonsense that Jehovah's Witnesses speak is all happening before our very eyes.
Reading Murakamis interviews with this cults members it struck me that these were just people like you and I, people searching for answers to life's puzzles, Isn't it strange that despite having these same issues, some turn to the writings contained in Gods word the bible, yet other sincere people turn to these strange cults.
Another member tried to justify the attacks by saying that life is full of despair and will only go away in the afterlife. So that those who died on those trains are now enjoying the benefits of the afterlife and will one day thank those who carried out the attacks, and also they're now in the afterlife and are able to welcome their dead loved ones in time too. If this is true I thought, why don't the members and their guru all kill themselves and leave all those innocent people alone?
But this book is not about those behind the attacks, it's about those people, people like you and I who unfortunately get carried up in events like this, events which now, over ten years later, are all too frequent, but the Bible does tell us that we are living in the last days of a wicked system, so attacks like this will one day be a thing of the past.
An interesting book.
Now making its way eastwards to kiyoitsukikage in Poland
Journal Entry 11 by kiyoitsukikage from Brixton, Greater London United Kingdom on Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Arrived!! Thanks a lot!
Journal Entry 12 by kiyoitsukikage at Brixton, Greater London United Kingdom on Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Reserved for Savotar once I've read it
Journal Entry 13 by kiyoitsukikage at Brixton, Greater London United Kingdom on Monday, February 20, 2012
A great book, doesn't only tell you about the attack & its aftermath for the interviewees, but also - in line with the title - an insight into the Japanese soul.
Journal Entry 14 by kiyoitsukikage at Brixton, Greater London United Kingdom on Friday, May 18, 2012
The book will be finally sent on today!
Journal Entry 15 by Savotar at Turku, Varsinais-Suomi / Egentliga Finland Finland on Saturday, May 26, 2012
The book arrived this week. Thank you very much, Kiyoitsukikage!