title: Chemical Terrorism: Horrors in Tokyo Subway and Matsumoto City
author:  Anthony T. Tu 
description: Dr. Tu's account is a fascinating analysis of how chemicals were used in terrorism in Japan. -- <i>Eric Croddy, Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program, Monterey Inst. of International Studies,Monterey, CA</i>
zlib_text: # TOKYO METROPOLITAN SUBWAY: CHIYODA LINE  
  
  
  TRAIN A725K
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/Mura_9780307762757_epub_L05_r1.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  Two men were assigned to drop sarin gas on the Chiyoda Line: Ikuo Hayashi and
  Tomomitsu Niimi. Hayashi was the principal criminal, Niimi the driver-
  accomplice.
  
  
  
  
  
  Why Hayashi—a senior medical doctor with an active “frontline” track record at
  the Ministry of Science and Technology—was chosen to carry out this mission
  remains unclear, but Hayashi himself conjectures it was to seal his lips.
  Implication in the gas attack cut off any possibility of escape. By this point
  Hayashi already knew too much. He was devoted to the Aum cult leader Shoko
  Asahara, but apparently Asahara did not trust him. When Asahara first told him
  to go and release the sarin gas Hayashi admitted: “I could feel my heart
  pounding in my chest—though where else would my heart be?”
  
  
  
  
  
  Boarding the front car of the southwestbound 7:48 A.M. Chiyoda Line, running
  from the northeast Tokyo suburb of Kita-