Aum: The Cult at the End of the World (1996) | Hacker News Reader

Aum: The Cult at the End of the World (1996)

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I was studying in Japan when the sarin attack occurred. An interesting time to be learning Japanese, words like kidnapping come up a lot more often in the newspaper than they did normally.

In hindsight, throwing a party at our foreigners dorm and putting up posters with Asahara Shoukou dancing with a bear were probably done in poor taste, as the university president asserted to us.

posted/dug up because today members of Aum were hanged in Japan

Not only does Japan still have the death penalty, they don't tell people which day they're to be executed.

https://twitter.com/TimothyS/status/1015029767450423296

Something they had in common with their victims. I quite like the idea. And being Japanese and familiar with the law this would have been taken into account when they decided to randomly kill innocent people so they were cool with it too.

I am having trouble finding more information on this. Do you mean that the sentence is approved, and then they intentionally wait a random number of days to carry it out? Or that it happens as soon as it’s approved and the defendant is kept in the dark about the process?

The Wikipedia article on capital punishment in Japan is quite thorough.

No, it does not really answer this question.

There is a schedule based on availability and procedures. The time between the final legal decisions and the act isn't random, it just seems that way because those decisions happen behind closed doors. Outsiders don't see the full logic behind the dates/times but that doesn't make it random.

That makes sense. Where could I read a detailed account of these hearings and procedures for a typical case, in English?

There isn't one. These things are not simple. You won't even find one for US death penalty cases. Death penalty proceedings don't follow a set timetable or pattern. There is a system, but the path each case takes through that system is very unique.

I understand, but I could come up with some US death row case histories that I think are representative of how things work here, even though none process identically. I am sure there is a way to review some Japanese death row cases from start to finish. If they aren’t currently available in English, this could be the start of an educational project. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

It was easy to forget, reading this, that it was actual news and not the synopsis of a scifi thriller. It's surreal.

Good book about the attacks: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003XT604U/

Why do cults always steal woo from Eastern religions?

In this case, probably because they were from an Eastern society?

Perennialism in general lends itself well to almost any interpretation you want to place on it.

Selection bias. When they steal it from Christianity, they're called denominations.

In the article it’s noted that the Aum cult borrowed the idea of Armageddon from Christianity.

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