REVIEW Western Australian link to Japanese doomsday cult By Commander Jeff Penrose During the year, a joint investigation he release of nerve gas on found evidence that almost two the Tokyo subway in March years before the Tokyo subway -------- this year resulted in 12 gassing, nerve gas experiments people dead and more than 5,500 were undertaken on livestock at an injured and revealed the existence isolated Western Australian sheep of a Japanese doomsday cult station which was then owned by a dedicated to bringing about Japanese religious sect. ‘Armageddon through acts of mass murder. In this article Commander Jeff Penrose outlines the investigation Aum Shinrikyo sect leader, Chizuo Matsumoto, or as the world that swung into action when the new knows him, Shoko Asahara, owners of the property contacted attempted to bring about his the authorities after learning of the doomsday vision by recruiting young intellectuals to develop weapons of Tokyo gassing. Aum Sect leader Chizuo Matsumoto mass destruction. Sect members also known as Shoko Asahara. operated under a mix of Buddhist reincarnation and deliverance beliefs and were occupied in legitimate enterprises as well as a range of criminal activities which included murder, extortion and subversion. The sect was structured similarly to some aspects of the Japanese No. 49 - December 1995 5 REVIEW government which the sect was set to members engaged a mining resources police on charges related to the Tokyo replace when it instigated the consultant to obtain mineral subway gas attack. government’s downfall. exploration licences which would Transport logistics appear to have ensure nobody could enter the been planned well in advance. Sect The Australian connection property to prospect for minerals. members chartered three aircraft to fly According to Aum Sect followers, The sect formed two Australian from Perth to Banjawarn Station. A Australia would be one of the lew companies, Mahaposya Australia Pty new batch of chemicals was ordered to places to he relatively unaffected by Ltd and Clarity Investments Pty Ltd. replace those seized by Customs. One their doomsday prophecy and would Directors of each company were Mr sect member flew from Western be an ideal place to establish a Matsumoto and Yasuko Shimada, an Australia to Melbourne to purchase permanent facility. Australian citizen of Japanese descent two 25 gram bottles of the chemical Thioacetamide, valued at A$190. Documents seized by Japanese and sect member. Mining exploration authorities after the Tokyo subway licences for Banjawarn Station were Eight days after entering Australia, gassing revealed a detailed strategy for purchased by both companies for Mr Matsumoto and the majority of the achieving the cult’s objectives. This A$ 150,000 from the Western group left the country. By October 4, included a reference to an abandoned Australia Department of Mines. In 1993 all of the remaining sect uranium mine in Australia. In 1993, September 1993, the sect purchased members had left Australia. Banjawarn Station for A$540,000 the sect purchased a remote property The AFP sought advice from the through Mr Hayakawa, who had in outback Western Australia. Until Japanese National Police Agency returned to Australia with another the Tokyo gassings, the world was (NPA) about the sect. General verbal sect member Tsuyoshi Maki. ignorant of the capability, extent and advice was provided on the sect’s determination of this fanatical cult to On September 9, 1993, Mr possible involvement in kidnapping in achieve its philosophies. Matsumoto and 24 sect members Japan and that prefectural police were In April 1993, two years before the arrived in Perth from Tokyo. The investigating allegations that members subway attack, the sect’s ‘construction group paid about A$30,000 for excess wanting to leave the sect were being minister’, Kiyohide Hayakawa, and baggage which included tools, unlawfully detained. It would appear the ‘intelligence minister, Yoshihiro generators, ditch diggers and that the NPA was not conversant protective clothing including gas Inoue, arrived in Perth. They were with the sect’s involvement in met by an Australian real estate agent masks and respirators. Customs domestic terrorism or the production officers searched the baggage and of Japanese origin. Over the following of nerve agents. It should also be found an array of chemicals including three days, the group flew to several noted that in Japan the rights of hydrochloric and perchloric acids. The sheep stations and inspected them as religious groups are highly protected hydrochloric acid was in large glass prospective locations to establish a by law. bottles marked “hand soap”. Two sect facility. In October 1993, Mr Matsumoto crates of chemicals and laboratory and four of the original group applied Sect members indicated they equipment were confiscated. wanted to inspect remote properties for visas to return to Australia. Their As a result, two sect members, where they could conduct applications, along with those of Seiichi Endo a biochemist and experiments of benefit to humankind, another 12 sect members were Tomomasa Nakagawa a medical but they did not disclose what the rejected by the Australian Embassy in doctor, were charged with carrying benefits would be. After landing at Tokyo. The circumstances of the dangerous goods on an aircraft. They each station, they went off by group’s arrival in Australia and their described themselves as office workers themselves for some hours. At the failure to openly disclose their on their visa applications. Each was time, they were equipped with plastic activities and antecedents raised a fined A$2,400. boxes containing electronic testing high level of suspicion. This suspicion equipment to which probes were Among the group were Hideo was based on information provided by attached for inserting into the ground. Murai, the sect’s ‘science and the AFP following consultation with It is not known what this equipment technology minister’, who was the NPA investigations and research undertaken. Two sect members was used for during those times away eventually murdered in Tokyo on avoided detection by obtaining visas from the aircraft. April 23, 1995. Also in the group was Niimi Tomomitsu, the ‘home affairs from the Australian Consulate in After viewing several properties, minister’ who, 20 months later, was Osaka. They travelled to Australia the sect members decided to purchase arrested by Japanese police on April and became caretakers for the station. the remote Banjawarn Station, a 12, 1995 on charges of false Mr Matsumoto wrote to the property about 600km north-west of imprisonment of sect members. Western Australian Minister for Perth. The property covers about Another member of the group was the Mines and the Federal Minister for 190,000 hectares. sect‘s ‘intelligence minister’, Yoshihiro Immigration and Ethnic Affairs asking While in Western Australia, sect Inoue, who was arrested by Japanese that the applications he reconsidered. 6 Platypus Magazine REVIEW Found on the property were the remains of a flock of sheep that appeared to have been herded together and killed. Soli samples taken from the site indicated that a nerve agent may have been used. In the letter he said that as he was Australia. His concerns were received bomb threats to his lire. blind, he needed the help of two aides expressed hy revelations that his The international community was and because his life was under threat, Tokyo headquarters had been sprayed oblivious to the global and domestic he needed 17 bodyguards to with “diluted harmful gas” and that criminal activities of the sect. News accompany him on his trip to during his visit to Russia he had broke throughout the world on March 20, 1995 that sarin gas had been used on commuters travelling in five trains on the Tokyo subway system. Twelve people were killed and 5,500 injured. These trains were routed through Kasumigaseki Station which was located beneath the NPA and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Eleven pouches similar to those used for blood transfusions or intravenous drips were found on the trains. The pouches contained traces of sarin. Immediately alter the attack, Banjawarn sect leader Matsumoto went into hiding. Station Sect activities at Banjawarn Station RTH Kalgoorlie After news of the subway attack was reported in Australia, the lawyer for the new owners of Banjawarn Station alerted the AFP to several unusual findings on the property. No. 49 - December 1995 7 ■V REVIEW Immediately federal police officers from Perth, accompanied by a chemist, travelled to Banjawarn Station in a light aircraft provided by the Western Australia Police (WAPOL). It appeared that the sect had established a laboratory in the kitchen of an abandoned house on the station. The laboratory door was marked in Japanese handwriting, ‘Toyoda Laboratory’. This is an obvious reference to Toru Toyoda, a sect member who arrived in Australia with Matsumoto. Toyoda is a physics graduate of Tokyo University. He also described his occupation as “office worker” on his Australian visa application. Toyoda has been arrested for his involvement in Aum related criminal activities. He has admitted to producing sarin for the sect’s gas attacks. Witnesses described the laboratory as a temporary facility containing laptop computers, digital equipment, glass tubing, glass evaporators, beakers, Witness descriptions and residues found on location indicated that an abandoned kitchen at Banjawarn Station appeared to have been used as a laboratory. hunsen burners and ceramic grinding and mixing bowls. There were limestone or calcrete-type rocks on the floor and benches. Other equipment included a small laboratory-size, rock­ crushing machine and two small generators. Soil samples taken from a drain identified a presence of methylphosphonic acid (MPA), a residue of the nerve agent sarin. Japanese documents found at Banjawarn Station were translated as procedures for dissolving rock or ore samples which may be used to determine the presence of a number of elements.