JAPAN: A PERSISTENT ODOR OF TERROR

By KEVIN FEDARKO.

THE PEOPLE OF JAPAN WELL KNOW THE SHOCK AND FEAR THAT AMERICANS are experiencing as a result of the bombing in Oklahoma City. The sarin-gas attack on the Tokyo subway in March killed 12 people and sickened thousands more, and ever since, a sense of unease has gripped the country. That anxiety deepened last week when terror struck again, this time in Yokohama.

Emi Sakamoto, 65, was walking along the first-floor concourse of Yokohama's central train station last Wednesday afternoon when she was assaulted by fumes that "smelled like thinner." They seemed to come from a bag carried by a man in front of her. Another commuter, Kyoko Amano, detected the same odor one floor below and began having trouble breathing. "Oh no," Amano recalls thinking to herself. "What if this is sarin?"

Turpentine, nail-polish remover, sulfuric acid-passengers reached for a host of comparisons, both sinister and mundane, to describe the mysterious substance that was released at three different points in the station beginning at 12:50 p.m. The gas, which police said was nonlethal but still have not been able to identify, sickened hundreds and provoked a headlong charge out of the station by people holding their noses and shouting "Kusai!"--"It smells!"

The injuries were not serious. Of the 310 people treated for stinging eyes and coughs the first day, 21 were hospitalized and all but six released the next day; everyone was expected to recover. In the meantime, the military's special chemical-warfare unit combed the area for clues and evidence. It found none. Then two days later, in a department store beside the station, 27 people began coughing after noticing a funny smell around the third-floor escalators. Again, no evidence was found.

The investigation into the sarin attack remains a frustrating endeavor. Police continue to focus on Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth), an apocalyptic religious cult, but so far they have had no success in firmly linking it to the crime. Police have arrested more than 100 Aum members on charges unrelated to the attack, and last Thursday they took into custody Kiyohide Hayakawa, reputedly the cult's No. 2 leader, for trespassing in a Tokyo apartment. Unlike Shoko Asahara, Aum's shaggy-haired leader who went into hiding immediately after the Tokyo killings, Hayakawa was not hard to find. Wearing a suit of lustrous pink (a shade his boss favors as well), he had just finished an appearance on national television before his arrest. On tv he had issued a by now familiar disclaimer: Aum has never manufactured nerve gas, studied biological warfare, amassed guns or engaged in any other illegal activities.

With each passing week that contention has looked more and more farfetched. In a series of highly publicized raids, the police have uncovered hidden laboratories, secret decontamination chambers and a trove of toxic chemicals on the sect's various properties. Police now say it is "almost certain" that the cult has spent the past couple of years assembling all the ingredients needed to produce sarin.

The authorities claim to be "approaching the climax" of their investigation, but even if those responsible for the attack are brought to justice, it will be a long time before Japan's sense of calm and security is restored. It's a feeling of uncertainty Americans may have to get used to as well.

--By Kevin Fedarko. Reported by Irene M. Kunii/Tokyo

With reporting by Irene M. Kunii/Tokyo