Murakami – Underground – Review

 

Tokyo, Japan, March 20, 1995 – Under unusual circumstances, the Japanese Railway (JR) had been forced to stop three trains during peak hours. At one station, the announcement is that there has been an "explosion" along the tracks, and customers are ordered off the train. Many people existing are coughing on the Chiyoda Line, and a few are collapsing on the platform. A woman turns around to see a train attendant attempting to mop up a newspaper drenched in clear liquid (the attendant later died.) As she reaches street level from the escalators, people are lying on the road; a young woman of 21 years of age is vomiting in the corner of a building, covering her face out of shame. The entire area is in chaos. Unknown to the rest of the city, a similar catastrophe is occurring at other stations. There has been a terrorist attack, a chemical attack discovered later to be Sarin Gas. The terrorists are later discovered as a well-known cult in Japan, Aum Shinrikyo, its leader is a charismatic man, Shoku Asahara, the single guru of the cult.

In Underground (1997), the famous novelist, Haruki Murakami, takes a deep dive into this terrorist attack, interviewing several survivors, telling their experiences from their unique perspectives. In the Preface, Murakami clarifies that he wanted to put a 'face' and personality to the interviewees, avoiding what the Tokyo press described as “victims.” thereby creating an aura of shame around the survivors – some of these survivors were indeed later stigmatized, a currently popular term we now know as "victim shaming."

After the chaos turns to relative calm; a reported 13 deaths and 5,500 are affected in various levels of infection; however, all continue to experience trauma, stress, and Sarin symptoms years after the ordeal.

As readers of the famed novelist, we must ask why he spent almost two years researching, tracking down survivors, interviewing, getting doors slammed in his face and risking drudging up the memories of the survivors that they would rather forget? The author had left Japan six years before, writing and publishing novels and living abroad, believing he could better describe his country's settings and tones.

 When Murakami read of the event, he knew it was time to return to his home and re-evaluate the people, society and Japanese culture overall. One can see that this terrorist attack affected the man on many levels as a Japanese man and a human being.

In Part Two of the text, Murakami interviews current and ex-members of the cult. Interestingly, the 'guru,' Shoku Asahara, recruited and attracted not only young people in search of spiritual meaning and belonging but also highly educated surgeons, businessman, and scientists into the 'religion.' We also come to discover that Aum Shinrikyo is a well-run organization, capable of even greater destruction. After the economic “bubble” of the '80s, Japan went into a financial slump. This disabused much materialism in Japanese society, causing some to search for a greater spiritual purpose.

Murakami does his own autopsy of the event, analyzing Japanese society, and what possible beliefs and “forces” could lead to such a violent and senseless act.

This is certainly not your common Murakami subject or project, however for this reader, the text provided great insight into Japanese culture and the human condition.