Haruki Murakami's Underground

On March 20, 1995—19 years ago today—members of Aum Shinrikiyo released sarin gas into the subways of Tokyo. This was the first major attack on Japan since World War II. The attack came as a great shock, as it was the first major attack in Japan since the end of World War II. It was followed by a great deal of media sensationalism, focusing mainly on Aum, and largely ignoring the victims of the attack. For this reason, author Haruki Murakami decided to embark on writing a book to correct this imbalance. In Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche, he conducts interviews with the numerous survivors, telling their story, and how the attacks have gone to affect them in the following year.