Description
Aum Shinrikyo's sarin attack on the Tokyo subway in March 1995 left an indelible mark on Japanese society. This is the first book to offer a comprehensive study of the competing memories of Aum Shinrikyo's religious terrorism. Developing a sociological framework for how uneven distributions of power and resources shape commemorative processes, this book explores how the Aum Affair developed as a 'cultural trauma' in Japanese collective memory following the Tokyo attack. Interrogating an array of sources including mass media reports and interviews with victims and ex-members, it reveals the multiple clashing narratives over the causes of Aum's violence, the efficacy of 'brainwashing' and 'mind control', and whether capital punishment is justified. It shows that although cultural trauma construction requires the use of moral binaries such as 'good vs. evil', 'pure vs. impure', and 'sacred vs. profane', the entrenchment of such binary codes in commemorative processes can ultimately hinder social repair and reconciliation.
About the Author
Rin Ushiyama is Lecturer in Sociology at Queen's University Belfast, a post he has held since 2021. He holds a PhD in Sociology (2017) from Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge. Previously, he was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Sociology, Cambridge, and a Research Fellow at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. He is currently a Co-Editor of Cultural Sociology (British Sociological Association/SAGE). He is a cultural and political sociologist interested in contested memories of violence, including war, terrorism, and colonialism with a regional focus on East Asia. His latest research investigates historical denial in the context of contemporary Japan and East Asia.
Reviews
Drawing on a remarkably wide range of evidence, Ushiyama sets out a definitive account of a famous modern Japanese tragedy. The book exposes many fundamental aspects of Japan at the present time, while being much more than simply a study of that country alone. It draws out multiple implications for wider sociological analyses of culture, collective memory and trauma, belief, and religion. * David Inglis, Professor of Sociology, University of Helsinki *
The 1995 Tokyo subway attack by the Japanese religious group Aum Shinrikyo was a seismic event that triggered debates about the nature of Japanese society and culture. Rin Ushiyama's book, the first full-length study in English of Japanese memories of and responses to the Aum Affair, is a theoretically nuanced examination that analyses how public intellectuals, political agencies, media concerns, and the victims of Aum reacted to, thought about and remembered Aum's violence. In examining how the Aum Affair has shaped Japan's collective memory, Ushiyama not only sheds light on the nature of contemporary Japan but provides theoretical insights into wider theories about social memory and responses to trauma. * Ian Reader, Professor Emeritus, University of Manchester *
Mistakenly, I believed I had read as much as I needed or wanted to read about Aum Shinrikyo by 2018, when Asahara Shoko was executed as a result of the 1995 release of sarin gas in the Tokyo subway. Now, however, Dr Rin Ushiyama has taken the action forward by meticulously recording the varied and changing narratives of those affected, both directly and indirectly, by Aum's nefarious actions. Be they perpetrators, victims, officials, media, 'anti-cultists', scholars or intellectual commentators, each contributes to the collective memory and subsequent actions of a traumatised Japan. This is a story well worth telling - and, indubitably, well worth reading. * Eileen Barker, Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics *
The book really reads like a story. I was constantly eager to know how the plot would continue. This is especially commendable when taking into account that Ushiyama studies a wide variety of actors, each with their own perspectives on the event. * Social Forces *
The book really reads like a story...This is especially commendable when taking into account that Ushiyama studies a wide variety of actors, each with their own perspectives on the event. * Social Forces *
Book Information
ISBN 9780197267370
Author Rin Ushiyama
Format Hardback
Page Count 230
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 160mm * 19mm
About the Author
Rin Ushiyama is Lecturer in Sociology at Queen's University Belfast, a post he has held since 2021. He holds a PhD in Sociology (2017) from Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge. Previously, he was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Sociology, Cambridge, and a Research Fellow at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. He is currently a Co-Editor of Cultural Sociology (British Sociological Association/SAGE). He is a cultural and political sociologist interested in contested memories of violence, including war, terrorism, and colonialism with a regional focus on East Asia. His latest research investigates historical denial in the context of contemporary Japan and East Asia.
Reviews
Drawing on a remarkably wide range of evidence, Ushiyama sets out a definitive account of a famous modern Japanese tragedy. The book exposes many fundamental aspects of Japan at the present time, while being much more than simply a study of that country alone. It draws out multiple implications for wider sociological analyses of culture, collective memory and trauma, belief, and religion. * David Inglis, Professor of Sociology, University of Helsinki *
The 1995 Tokyo subway attack by the Japanese religious group Aum Shinrikyo was a seismic event that triggered debates about the nature of Japanese society and culture. Rin Ushiyama's book, the first full-length study in English of Japanese memories of and responses to the Aum Affair, is a theoretically nuanced examination that analyses how public intellectuals, political agencies, media concerns, and the victims of Aum reacted to, thought about and remembered Aum's violence. In examining how the Aum Affair has shaped Japan's collective memory, Ushiyama not only sheds light on the nature of contemporary Japan but provides theoretical insights into wider theories about social memory and responses to trauma. * Ian Reader, Professor Emeritus, University of Manchester *
Mistakenly, I believed I had read as much as I needed or wanted to read about Aum Shinrikyo by 2018, when Asahara Shoko was executed as a result of the 1995 release of sarin gas in the Tokyo subway. Now, however, Dr Rin Ushiyama has taken the action forward by meticulously recording the varied and changing narratives of those affected, both directly and indirectly, by Aum's nefarious actions. Be they perpetrators, victims, officials, media, 'anti-cultists', scholars or intellectual commentators, each contributes to the collective memory and subsequent actions of a traumatised Japan. This is a story well worth telling - and, indubitably, well worth reading. * Eileen Barker, Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics *
The book really reads like a story. I was constantly eager to know how the plot would continue. This is especially commendable when taking into account that Ushiyama studies a wide variety of actors, each with their own perspectives on the event. * Social Forces *
The book really reads like a story...This is especially commendable when taking into account that Ushiyama studies a wide variety of actors, each with their own perspectives on the event. * Social Forces *
Book Information
ISBN 9780197267370
Author Rin Ushiyama
Format Hardback
Page Count 230
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 160mm * 19mm
