A Japanese Doomsday Cult’s Secret Search for Laser Weapons

The Aum Shinrikyo sect behind the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack also undertook a years-long global quest to acquire laser technology.

Japanese police officers on their way to enforce a raid on Aum Shinrikyo facilities following the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack on March 20, 1995. (US Public Health Service)

Just days before the March 20, 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, an agent for Aum Shinrikyo — the Japanese apocalyptic cult that would go on to kill fourteen people a…