ABSTRACT
Recent history has heightened our awareness of the dangerous nature of the current world situation resulting from the global war on terror. The tragic events of September 11, 2001, took more than 3,000 lives and caused roughly $100 billion in direct and indirect economic losses (Freedonia Group 2005). Perhaps more important, that day represented an awakening of the world to the potential for mass destruction by any means necessary at the hands of terrorists. Acts of terrorism, however, had occurred before by more conventional means. The September 11, 2001, tragedy was by no means the first act of terrorism in a major city, nor will it be the last. One incident in Japan sets itself apart because of the use of unconventional chemical threat agents during a terroristic act. In 1995, a religious cult calling itself Aum Shinrikyo released a chemical threat agent known as sarin within a portion of the subway system in Tokyo, Japan. The attack caused 12 deaths, injured thousands, and terrorized at least as many. While there was personal tragedy, the event exposed the underdeveloped management and response capabilities of the Japanese infrastructure to handle such events (Institute of Medicine 1999). This use of the chemical threat agent sarin is considered by many to be the first significant terrorist attack using biological and chemical threat agents in modern times (Institute of Medicine 1999).
