Underground
by Haruki Murakami
Part 1: Underground
* How do such promising people get hooked by AUM or others like it?
Chiyoda Line
1. Kiyoka Izumi (26)
- Worked for JR and Airlines
- Mid-career switches are unusual
- "With Japanese companies, I had always learned that you were expected to arrive 30 minutes to an hour before starting."
- "I'd rather not be danced around by the media."
2. Masaru Yuasa (24)
- Young station attendant
- "I took off the next day and returned for round-the-clock duty on the 22nd."
3. Minoru Miyata (54)
- "How about instead of filming us, you help one or two of us get to the hospital?"
3. Toshiaki Toyoda (52)
- Older station attendant
- p. 32 - would people here refuse to be interviewed?
- p. 35 - How did he know this would happen?
4. Tomoko Takatsuki (26)
- Office Lady (OL)
- "They didn't know at the office whether to believe me or not."
5. Mitsuteru Izutsu (38)
- Salaryman / Shrimp Buyer
- p. 41 - Why do they get to work so early?
6. Aya Kazaguchi (23)
7. Hideki Sono (36)
- Salaryman
- What was the media response like?
Maranouchi Line (to Okikubo)
1. Mitsuo Arima (41)
2. Kenji Ohashi (41)
3. Shoichi Inagawa (64)
- p. 65 - How do we know he's a mellow guy?
4. Sumio Nishimura (46)
- Station attendant
- Good for details
- What do you think about his last sentence?
5. Koichi Sakata (50)
- Accountant
- Why does he buy the milk?
6. Tatsuo Akashi (37)
- brother of Shizuko Akashi
7. Shizuko Akashi (31)
Maranouchi Line (to Ikebukuro)
1. Shintaro Komada (58)
2. Ikuko Nakayama
Hibiya Line (departing: Naka-Meguro)
1. Hiroshige Sugazaki
2. Kozo Ishino
3. Michael Kennedy
4. Yoko Iizuka
Hibiya Line (departing: Kita-Senju)
1. Noboru Terajima
2. Masanori Okuyama
3. Michiaki Tamada
Hibiya Line
1. Takanori Ichiba
2. Naoyuki Ogata
3. Michiru Kono
4. Keiichi Ishikura
Kodemmacho Station
1. Kenichi Yamazaki
2. Yoshiko Wada
3. Kichiro Wada and Sanae Wada
4. Koichiro Makita
5. Dr. Toru Saito
6. Dr. Nobuo Yanagisawa
Interim: Blind Nightmare - Where are we Japanese Going?
- Right vs Wrong (p. 196)
- "The AUM 'phenomenon' disturbs precisely because it is not someone else's affair." p. 198
- The allocated narrative - p. 200 + 201 (politics?)
- Memory as narrative - what does this mean?
-
Part 2: The Place that was Promised
Preface: "Still, talking to them so intimately made me realize how their spiritual quest and the process of novel writing, though not identical, are similar."
1. Hiroyuki Kano (b. 1965)
2. Akio Namimura (b. 1960)
- "They don't fit into the system because they are not comfortable with it, or because they have been excluded from it. That's the kind of people who join AUM."
3. Mitsuharu Inaba
- "Like when you're a new employee of a company, you just do what the people above you tell you to do. Psychologically, it's a great relief."
4. Hajime Masutani
- "The Self is what should be discovered, not discarded. Terrorist crimes like the gas attack result from this process of easily giving up on the self. If the Self is lost, then people will become completely insensitive to murder and terrorism."
5. Miyuki Kanda (b. 1973)
- "As you train, you go deeper inside yourself and come face-to-face with your sins, your passions, as they rise up. In ordinary society most people keep these in check by drinking or having a good time, but that's impossible for those of us in training."
6. Shinichi Hosoi
- "I feel I'm living like ordinary, everyday people now. It took me a long time to reach this emotional equilibrium."
7. Harumi Iwakura
- "When I reached my mid-twenties more and more of my friends started to get married, leave the company and move away. I wasn't as young as I had been. My lifestyle seemed increasingly pointless."
8. Hidetoshi Takahashi
Outside Links:
AUM anime
AUM Documentary
Another Doc
More about Japanese Religious Cults
Uninvited Japan on AUM attack
Nomonhan Incident
The Banality of Evil
Interview with Murakami
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