<figure id="attachment_420765" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-420765" style="width: 2951px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="fcf3f5c8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/04/7aa928e26a3d49ba2601366090fdc3c7.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-420765" class="wp-caption-text">Ten of the children taken into custody on April 14, &#8217;95, who were admitted to the hospital for malnutrition and fever, also recovered well and returned to the Central Child Guidance Center (May 5, &#8217;95 issue).</figcaption></figure>
<p> What was &#8220;FRIDAY&#8221; reporting 10, 20, or 30 years ago? Playback Friday&#8221; looks back at the topics that were hot at the time. In this issue, we introduce <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;Life in Aum,</span> &#8221; which appeared in the May 5, 1995 issue 30 years ago, in <span class="strongInContent">which 53 children who were taken into custody told their stories</span>.</p>
<p> On March 22, 1995, two days after the sarin gas attack on the subway, Aum Shinrikyo (Aum Shinrikyō) was forcibly searched in 25 locations, including its base of operations in Kamikyūichikōmura (now Fujikawaguchiko-machi, Minamitsuru-gun), Yamanashi Prefecture. On April 14, a series of raids were also conducted across the country, and 53 children were taken into custody at the &#8220;10th Satyan&#8221; in Kamikyuuichiki-Mura. (All ages and titles are those of the time).</p>
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<h3><span class="strongInContent"> Injection marks on arms, suspicion that they had been drugged</span></h3>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The children did not know how to flush a toilet, or how to use soap and towels,&#8221; said the caseworker. According to the caseworker, the children would look at a pendant and ask, &#8220;What&#8217;s this? and &#8220;their mouths are red&#8221; when they see lipstick on their lips.</span></p>
<p> Shiro Yazaki, director of the Yamanashi Prefecture Central Child Guidance Center, described the condition of the children in his care. According to Mr. Yazaki, on their first night at the center on April 14, the children were watching &#8220;Doraemon&#8221; videos with their eyes wide open and playing &#8220;The Game of Life. On the following night, the 15th, 10 children who had been hospitalized for pneumonia and malnutrition were discharged from the hospital and joined the others, and they were playing well. From the children&#8217;s stories, &#8220;Life in Aum&#8221; gradually became clear.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> They were not allowed to leave the &#8220;Tenth Satyan&#8221; because of the danger of poison gas outside, and they ate only two meals a day of a low nutritional value food called &#8220;parrot food. There are injection marks on his arms, and it is suspected that he was given drugs.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> On April 16, Aum held a press conference for the four children living in the facility, saying that there were no facts as reported in the media, but what came out of the children&#8217;s mouths were words such as, &#8220;We sleep four hours a day and practice for 15 hours,&#8221; and &#8220;We wear the same clothes when we sleep and don&#8217;t take a bath. Even the child who answered, &#8220;Every day is fun,&#8221; could not answer when asked, &#8220;What&#8217;s fun about it? he could not answer.</span></p>
<p> In a habeas corpus suit filed in 1990 against children living in the Aum Shinrikyo facility, the lives of the children at the facility were also revealed. According to the report, the children woke up at 6:30 a.m., attended a ritual at 7:00 a.m., studied the cult&#8217;s doctrine from 8:00 a.m., practiced for one hour from 9:00 a.m., and had breathing exercises from 10:00 a.m. The elementary school students would wake up at 11:00 p.m., and the junior high school students at 11:00 p.m. The elementary school students would continue their training until 11:00 p.m., and the junior high school students until 12:00 p.m. Of course, they were not allowed to attend school. Of course, they were not allowed to go to school, and they usually studied for three hours a day. There were no baths, and every four or five days they bathed in water drawn from a nearby river.</p>
<p> Mr. A, who was Aum&#8217;s legal counsel, filed a petition for habeas corpus with the Kofu District Court on January 17 to get his children back, saying, &#8220;I am considering filing a complaint against the director for abuse of authority or arrest and confinement.</p>
<p> What happened to the children who were finally rescued from Aum?</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The &quot;Aum children,&quot; now in their 40s, are..."></div>
<h3><span class="strongInContent">Life in Aum: &#8220;It remains as an imprint</span></h3>
<p> The police investigation into Aum became even more severe after that, and a month later, on May 16, &#8217;95, Aum virtually collapsed when Shoko Asahara was arrested at the &#8220;6th Satyan&#8221; in Kamikyuu Isshiki Village in a forced raid. The children were never brought back.</p>
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<p> The 53 children, ranging in age from 4 to 14, who were taken into custody were raised in an unusual environment, separated from outside society. Their faces were uniformly pale, and many of them showed hostility toward the Child Welfare Ministry staff. However, through daily contact with the staff, the children seemed to open up little by little.</p>
<p> After June, the children were sent to facilities all over Japan for reintegration, and the last child left the Yamanashi Prefecture Central Child Guidance Center on July 12, 1995. The Ministry of Health and Welfare had distributed questionnaires to Child Guidance Centers around the country to follow up on the status of the children, but the survey was completed after two years. What happened to the children after that is unknown.</p>
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<p> NHK&#8217;s &#8220;Close-Up Today&#8221; interviewed one of these children, a woman now in her 40s, in a broadcast on March 18 this year. The woman spoke of the gap between the teachings of the cult and society, and the difficulties she had experienced due to her lack of mastery of basic social rules, saying the following words.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8216;I don&#8217;t believe in the teachings of the cult, but it remains as an imprint.&#8217;</span></p>
<p> Aum had also produced children who were forced to face the problem of the &#8220;second generation of religion&#8221; 30 years ago.</p>
<figure id="attachment_420766" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-420766" style="width: 1903px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6fa5907e"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/04/ef82e1c0d2ed8f1e6929966a610bec98.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-420766" class="wp-caption-text"> One hundred parents and children of the cult, along with their legal advisors, visited a children&#8217;s center, but were denied visitation (May 5, &#8217;95 issue).</figcaption></figure>


 Takehiko Kohiyama

 In this issue of Playback, we look back at what we were reporting 10, 20, and 30 years ago. In April 1995, when the investigation into the Aum Shinrikyo cult was in its final stages, these children were taken into protective custody at the "10th Satyan" in Kamikyuu Isshiki Village.

Playback ’95] 53 “parrot children” who did not know how to use soap and towels… were taken into custody.

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