Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack And The Japanese Psyche is a non-fiction book by Murakami Haruki. The book tells the story of the Tokyo gas attacks that were carried out by Aum Shinrikyo on March 20th, 1995 through interviews Murakami conducted with the victims of the attack as well as members of the Aum cult.
The book is split into two parts: the first part being the victims and the second part being the cult members.
Each victim Murakami interviewed has his or her own section of the book, which generally ranges from 4-5 pages long. Each person usually has a brief summary of who the person is and what their life is all about. Then that individual section is categorized under whichever subway line the person was on when the attack took place.
The victims stories are all unique and interesting: ranging from interesting differences in facts (in one section people try to decide whether or not a handkerchief that was waved out of an emergency vehicle was red or black) to incredibly touching stories (one girl, who was so badly affected by the sarin gas that she is now basically brain dead, wants nothing more than to visit Disneyland). With each personal experience brings an incredible amount of depth is added to the story, helping to paint a picture of what the day must have truly been like.
The cult members section tends to deal with their experiences in the cult rather than what part they had in the gas attack, although there are a few who talk only about their part in the gas attack as most didn’t even know the gas attack was going to take place. Some members talk about how the cults leader, Shoko Asahara, abused them or how they were thrown into solitary confinement during their stay at the cult headquarters. However, it’s interesting to see that many of the people interviewed are still in the cult even though the cult has gotten so much negative publicity since the gas attack.
Also included in the book is a brief editorial, titled Blind Nightmare: Where Are We Japanese Going?, in which Murakami Haruki tries to explain key points of the Japanese society and how it relates to what happened on the 20th of March in 1995.