A project I would love to see in this timeline is basically a Shogun Warriors revival, which was the original version of the Super Robot Wars games.
Trying to Please Everyone: Or Converting multiple Pop Culture Utopias into a Timeline.
- Thread starter Marco Incognito
- Start date
I don’t want to bombard you with questions Marco, as you’re still doing research and work and all of that stuff, and I will await any updates patiently, but I’m also curious about anything you have planned for actors like Charlie Chaplin, Lon Chaney, Conrad Veidt, Javier Bardem, and Heath Ledger.
Marco, I think that this might be a cool old silent movie that I have recently discovered to save from destruction and obscurity.
en.m.wikipedia.org
www.kqed.org
The Curse of Quon Gwon - Wikipedia
Made in Oakland in 1916, First Asian American Film Still Inspires | KQED
This Saturday, the Bay Area will be treated to showing of 'The Curse of Quon Gwon,' the first film made by an Asian American, which was shot in Oakland back in 1916.
Hey Narco, it’s been a while since this thread has been active, are you doing okay?
Well that’s good to know then. I hope I didn’t overwhelm you with too many questions last time talking about film directors. I do have some more but I wish to hold them off for a later date until you can finish working on what you’re working on.
History of Aum Shinrikyo(1987-1994)
A bit of a darker chapter as it covers a real life terrorist group, but I thought I would cover this since the terrorist attacks of Aum Shinrikyo had an impact on the development of Neon Genesis Evangelion OTL (which was released the same year as the 1995 Sarin Train Attacks and resulted in the ending changing because Anno thought it was "Too Close" to real life). As such I did some research on the group with the intent of butterflying away the Train Attacks specifically, just as I plan to do with 9/11 and Columbine and other American Tragedies. I figured why not do the same to Japan, thing is of course, that attack was one of many.
History of Aum Shinrikyo(1987-1994)
Aum Shinrikyo was founded by Chizuo Matsumoto in his apartment in Shibuya in 1987. Matsumoto was born partially blind and attended a school for the blind. Being able to see, he used this to extort his fellow children, such as being offered money to buy them candy. This resulted in a power complex and he began to dream of becoming Prime Minister of Japan. A perfect storm of events threatened to make this dream a reality.
Matsumoto studied traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture as an adult, a common job for the blind and began to develop religious beliefs of his own, taking the name Shoko Asahara. He claimed to have met the Dalai Llama and been granted a mission. The Dalai Llama insisted they met only briefly and he was a “Strange Japanese Man” among a crowd. Regardless, Matsumoto used this claim to grow his religious movement and it gained its status as a recognized Religion in 1989. The religion was popular among the elite class. It wasn’t considered dangerous at first until Matsumoto began making biblical prophecies. The Cult released propaganda works including Anime and Manga. Matsumoto also praised Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series for showing a group of elites hiding underground from an apocalypse and preparing to return to the surface and rebuild society, which his Cult believed in, though Asimov himself condemned Aum Shinrikyo.
The religious group had grown in power with the fear of Japan becoming involved in the war in China. The Cult believed that in their prophesied year of 1997, Japan would be a casualty of a nuclear war between the US and China, a fear that seemed very real at the time with the Chinese Civil War beginning in 1989.
Tsutsumi Sakamoto had made a reputation as a lawyer for taking down Cults, often in lawsuits orchestrated by victims, and he was quick to identify something off with Aum Shinrikyo. Members of the group were blackmailed or threatened into joining it. Sakamoto formed the Aum Shinrikyo Higai Taisaku Bengodan ("Coalition of Help for those affected by Aum Shinrikyo"). Sakamoto gave an interview to Tokyo Broadcasting System(TBS). His face was blurred as he spoke of his anti-Aum activities, unfortunately Aum members had infiltrated the station and viewed uncensored footage of Sakamoto, identifying him. Members of Aum Shinrikyo set out to kidnap Sakamoto.
Among the men were Kazuaki Okazaki. Okazaki had been moved by seeing Matsumoto give a sermon and had used his job as a salesman to spread the word. In 1988 he was tasked with disposing of bodies of members of Aum Shinrikyo who had tried to quit as Matsumoto was running for Governor of Tokyo, at the time. Okazaki was originally to abduct Sakamoto with the aid of Hideo Murai, who was Aum Shinrikyo’s chief Scientist but with the push for Japan’s space program, Murai was tasked with infiltrating these efforts and allowing Aum Shinrikyo’s elite members to travel to space and avoid Earth’s foretold destruction. Okazaki and another member, Ikuo Hayashi, waited for Sakamoto at the Yokohama Shinkansen Train Station with a bag of hypodermic needles. Sakamoto was with his family, his wife Satoko and infant son Tatsuhiko(It was a Holiday known as Culture Day) when Okazaki knocked him out and moved to abduct him. Several bystanders realized this was an abduction and jumped in to subdue Okazaki while fighting with Hayashi. Hayashi was accidentally knocked onto the tracks just as the train was leaving and was killed. Okazaki was arrested by security[1]. Asahara was said to be so anger by how spectacularly this move had failed that he swore off Attacks on Trains[2]
Okazaki proved to be a problem, he later would confess to wanting to use the promise of handing over Sakamoto as a way to blackmail Aum Shinrikyo. It was the testimony of Sakamoto and the revelation of the TBS infiltration in a police investigation(leading TBS to be shut down), that is alleged by some to have cost Matsumoto the election for Prime Minister in 1990, though alternate history writers tend to exaggerate just how close Matsumoto’s chances of winning actually were. After this failure, Matsumoto made plans with his followers to take Japan by force. One of their members, Kiyohide Hayakawa, was sent to Russia and began supplying weapons to Aum from the country.
In 1993, the region ironically sharing a name with Aum Shinrikyo’s founder, Matsumoto, became a target as most of the area protested against Aum Shinrikyo construction projects in the area. This was bolstered by Okazaki’s trial being held at the Matsumoto Courthouse with Sakamoto as the prosecutor. The Cult spread large amounts of anthrax into the courthouse[3], Sakamoto and many survived. The Anthrax had a fatal flaw to it that led to its failure. It did however contain an unknown element which Okazaki was deathly allergic to, resulting in his death. Things only got worse for Aum as a result of this as the high security meant the members were quickly arrested. The Police were looking for a way to prove the crimes of Aum Shinrikyo and saw their chance now to perform raids on their suspected locations. The Police moved to arrest those responsible, resulting in mass arrests of Aum members and crackdowns on known locations. Aum Shinrikyo was warned of this by members within the Japanese Self Defense Force, who were later uncovered.
As Aum Shinrikyo faced crackdowns, they carried out several assassinations of rival groups such as Daisaku Ikeda of the Buddhsit Sokka Gakkai, Ryuho Okawa of the rival Happy Science Cult and Right Wing Political cartoonist Yoshinori Kobayashi. Most members went underground. Ikeda’s assassination was carried out by a spraying device which leaked and the assassin, Tomomitsu Niimi, was exposed, dying soon after[4]
By 1994, the Aum Shinrikyo Cult had retreated to Australia and were experimenting with Sarin in rural Australia with immense success, killing many sheep, and searching for Uranium for potential nuclear attacks, intending to frame China for an attack and trigger the prophecized apocalypse. They made a failed attempt to rob a Mitsubishi factory of tanks and artillery back in Japan. The Australian government began to suspect Aum was using a chemical factory, leading to a mass arrest at the facility in a raid. This resulted in an explosion at the plant that killed many and threatened the countryside with a giant poisonous gas cloud for some time, until it eventually dissipated. The remaining members including Asahara fled to China. The Soviet Union cut off all ties to Aum Shinrikyo and helped expose several of their facilities in the Union.
Asahara and several members including Hideo Murai, stole a Space Shuttle and smuggled a nuclear weapon onboard. Their intent was to flee to Mars and launch the nuke to trigger the end. This failed as the Space Shuttle burned in the atmosphere and fell to China. The Nuke fell out of the Shuttle as it was torn apart in orbit and floated in the atmosphere before falling down with the rest of the crash. This resulted in a slight delay in impact. Asahara and Murai emerged from the pod and witnessed the nuclear explosion go off. According to survivors of the bomb, Asahara raised his arms and declared that the end had finally come as he was vaporized by the bomb, believing the foretold apocalypse had finally transpired.
By Coincidence, the Chinese Civil War ended shortly afterwards, leading some of the more religious persuasion to believe that Asahara was the Antichrist or was somehow the cause of the War mystically and that his death genuinely did prevent the apocalypse he himself foretold.
Through the coordination of the Nations of Japan, The Soviet Union, China and Australia, many members of Aum Shinrikyo were arrested and the organization effectively dismantled with minor members serving their time and being kept on close watch by the government upon release.
Arrested(later executed):
Yoshihiro Inoue, Head of Intelligence,Coordinated Matsumoto Court House attack
Kiyohide Hayakawa,Worked in Russia and was arrested when they turned on Aum.
Masami Tsuchiya
Yasuo Hayasha
Tory Toyoda
Deceased:
Shoko Asahara, Leader of Aum Shinrikyo-Killed in 1994, in a nuclear explosion.
Tomomitsu Niimi, assassin of Daisaku Ikeda-killed by Sarin after assassination
Seiichi Endo, “Head Scientist”- Killed in Australia Attack by his own gas.
Kazuaki Okazaki-Target of Matsumoto Courthouse Attack
Involvement butterflied
Ikuo Hayashi-Like OTL was arrested for an earlier accidental murder, but ITTL never released. Investigation revealed he later Aum related crimes and this was added to his sentence
Kenichi Hirose-Apparently read books by Shoko Asahara by accident, which is butterflied ITTL
Notes
[1] OTL Sakamoto stayed with his family, the Cult members instead broke into his home and murdered the family. ITTL Sakamoto survives. Ikuo Hayashi was OTL one of the perpretators of the Sarin Train Attack.
[2] Butterflying the infamous Sarin Train Attack
[3] OTL Aum actually planned this attack but the Court House was closed. They instead released Sarin Aerosol onto Matsumoto. Notably OTL an innocent man who's wife was a victim of the attack, Yoshiyuki Kano, was wrongly accused until the 1995 attack linked both events to Aum Shinrikyo.
[4] OTL these assassinations all failed, Niimi nearly die from his own poison but was saved by an ally with the antidote OTL, here he wasn't so lucky.
From my research Aum was really bad at chemical attacks until they altered the Sarin. While they had some success they insisted on using Chemical weapons including releasing an Antidote version of Anthrax and one version which only irritated a few people.
In case you're wondering Aum Shinrikyo technically still exists as Aleph and the above names listed were all executed in 2018 OTL, though Aleph is still controversial and almost always has a protest line in front of its main building, understandable given their ties to a terrorist cult.
History of Aum Shinrikyo(1987-1994)
Aum Shinrikyo was founded by Chizuo Matsumoto in his apartment in Shibuya in 1987. Matsumoto was born partially blind and attended a school for the blind. Being able to see, he used this to extort his fellow children, such as being offered money to buy them candy. This resulted in a power complex and he began to dream of becoming Prime Minister of Japan. A perfect storm of events threatened to make this dream a reality.
Matsumoto studied traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture as an adult, a common job for the blind and began to develop religious beliefs of his own, taking the name Shoko Asahara. He claimed to have met the Dalai Llama and been granted a mission. The Dalai Llama insisted they met only briefly and he was a “Strange Japanese Man” among a crowd. Regardless, Matsumoto used this claim to grow his religious movement and it gained its status as a recognized Religion in 1989. The religion was popular among the elite class. It wasn’t considered dangerous at first until Matsumoto began making biblical prophecies. The Cult released propaganda works including Anime and Manga. Matsumoto also praised Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series for showing a group of elites hiding underground from an apocalypse and preparing to return to the surface and rebuild society, which his Cult believed in, though Asimov himself condemned Aum Shinrikyo.
The religious group had grown in power with the fear of Japan becoming involved in the war in China. The Cult believed that in their prophesied year of 1997, Japan would be a casualty of a nuclear war between the US and China, a fear that seemed very real at the time with the Chinese Civil War beginning in 1989.
Tsutsumi Sakamoto had made a reputation as a lawyer for taking down Cults, often in lawsuits orchestrated by victims, and he was quick to identify something off with Aum Shinrikyo. Members of the group were blackmailed or threatened into joining it. Sakamoto formed the Aum Shinrikyo Higai Taisaku Bengodan ("Coalition of Help for those affected by Aum Shinrikyo"). Sakamoto gave an interview to Tokyo Broadcasting System(TBS). His face was blurred as he spoke of his anti-Aum activities, unfortunately Aum members had infiltrated the station and viewed uncensored footage of Sakamoto, identifying him. Members of Aum Shinrikyo set out to kidnap Sakamoto.
Among the men were Kazuaki Okazaki. Okazaki had been moved by seeing Matsumoto give a sermon and had used his job as a salesman to spread the word. In 1988 he was tasked with disposing of bodies of members of Aum Shinrikyo who had tried to quit as Matsumoto was running for Governor of Tokyo, at the time. Okazaki was originally to abduct Sakamoto with the aid of Hideo Murai, who was Aum Shinrikyo’s chief Scientist but with the push for Japan’s space program, Murai was tasked with infiltrating these efforts and allowing Aum Shinrikyo’s elite members to travel to space and avoid Earth’s foretold destruction. Okazaki and another member, Ikuo Hayashi, waited for Sakamoto at the Yokohama Shinkansen Train Station with a bag of hypodermic needles. Sakamoto was with his family, his wife Satoko and infant son Tatsuhiko(It was a Holiday known as Culture Day) when Okazaki knocked him out and moved to abduct him. Several bystanders realized this was an abduction and jumped in to subdue Okazaki while fighting with Hayashi. Hayashi was accidentally knocked onto the tracks just as the train was leaving and was killed. Okazaki was arrested by security[1]. Asahara was said to be so anger by how spectacularly this move had failed that he swore off Attacks on Trains[2]
Okazaki proved to be a problem, he later would confess to wanting to use the promise of handing over Sakamoto as a way to blackmail Aum Shinrikyo. It was the testimony of Sakamoto and the revelation of the TBS infiltration in a police investigation(leading TBS to be shut down), that is alleged by some to have cost Matsumoto the election for Prime Minister in 1990, though alternate history writers tend to exaggerate just how close Matsumoto’s chances of winning actually were. After this failure, Matsumoto made plans with his followers to take Japan by force. One of their members, Kiyohide Hayakawa, was sent to Russia and began supplying weapons to Aum from the country.
In 1993, the region ironically sharing a name with Aum Shinrikyo’s founder, Matsumoto, became a target as most of the area protested against Aum Shinrikyo construction projects in the area. This was bolstered by Okazaki’s trial being held at the Matsumoto Courthouse with Sakamoto as the prosecutor. The Cult spread large amounts of anthrax into the courthouse[3], Sakamoto and many survived. The Anthrax had a fatal flaw to it that led to its failure. It did however contain an unknown element which Okazaki was deathly allergic to, resulting in his death. Things only got worse for Aum as a result of this as the high security meant the members were quickly arrested. The Police were looking for a way to prove the crimes of Aum Shinrikyo and saw their chance now to perform raids on their suspected locations. The Police moved to arrest those responsible, resulting in mass arrests of Aum members and crackdowns on known locations. Aum Shinrikyo was warned of this by members within the Japanese Self Defense Force, who were later uncovered.
As Aum Shinrikyo faced crackdowns, they carried out several assassinations of rival groups such as Daisaku Ikeda of the Buddhsit Sokka Gakkai, Ryuho Okawa of the rival Happy Science Cult and Right Wing Political cartoonist Yoshinori Kobayashi. Most members went underground. Ikeda’s assassination was carried out by a spraying device which leaked and the assassin, Tomomitsu Niimi, was exposed, dying soon after[4]
By 1994, the Aum Shinrikyo Cult had retreated to Australia and were experimenting with Sarin in rural Australia with immense success, killing many sheep, and searching for Uranium for potential nuclear attacks, intending to frame China for an attack and trigger the prophecized apocalypse. They made a failed attempt to rob a Mitsubishi factory of tanks and artillery back in Japan. The Australian government began to suspect Aum was using a chemical factory, leading to a mass arrest at the facility in a raid. This resulted in an explosion at the plant that killed many and threatened the countryside with a giant poisonous gas cloud for some time, until it eventually dissipated. The remaining members including Asahara fled to China. The Soviet Union cut off all ties to Aum Shinrikyo and helped expose several of their facilities in the Union.
Asahara and several members including Hideo Murai, stole a Space Shuttle and smuggled a nuclear weapon onboard. Their intent was to flee to Mars and launch the nuke to trigger the end. This failed as the Space Shuttle burned in the atmosphere and fell to China. The Nuke fell out of the Shuttle as it was torn apart in orbit and floated in the atmosphere before falling down with the rest of the crash. This resulted in a slight delay in impact. Asahara and Murai emerged from the pod and witnessed the nuclear explosion go off. According to survivors of the bomb, Asahara raised his arms and declared that the end had finally come as he was vaporized by the bomb, believing the foretold apocalypse had finally transpired.
By Coincidence, the Chinese Civil War ended shortly afterwards, leading some of the more religious persuasion to believe that Asahara was the Antichrist or was somehow the cause of the War mystically and that his death genuinely did prevent the apocalypse he himself foretold.
Through the coordination of the Nations of Japan, The Soviet Union, China and Australia, many members of Aum Shinrikyo were arrested and the organization effectively dismantled with minor members serving their time and being kept on close watch by the government upon release.
Arrested(later executed):
Yoshihiro Inoue, Head of Intelligence,Coordinated Matsumoto Court House attack
Kiyohide Hayakawa,Worked in Russia and was arrested when they turned on Aum.
Masami Tsuchiya
Yasuo Hayasha
Tory Toyoda
Deceased:
Shoko Asahara, Leader of Aum Shinrikyo-Killed in 1994, in a nuclear explosion.
Tomomitsu Niimi, assassin of Daisaku Ikeda-killed by Sarin after assassination
Seiichi Endo, “Head Scientist”- Killed in Australia Attack by his own gas.
Kazuaki Okazaki-Target of Matsumoto Courthouse Attack
Involvement butterflied
Ikuo Hayashi-Like OTL was arrested for an earlier accidental murder, but ITTL never released. Investigation revealed he later Aum related crimes and this was added to his sentence
Kenichi Hirose-Apparently read books by Shoko Asahara by accident, which is butterflied ITTL
Notes
[1] OTL Sakamoto stayed with his family, the Cult members instead broke into his home and murdered the family. ITTL Sakamoto survives. Ikuo Hayashi was OTL one of the perpretators of the Sarin Train Attack.
[2] Butterflying the infamous Sarin Train Attack
[3] OTL Aum actually planned this attack but the Court House was closed. They instead released Sarin Aerosol onto Matsumoto. Notably OTL an innocent man who's wife was a victim of the attack, Yoshiyuki Kano, was wrongly accused until the 1995 attack linked both events to Aum Shinrikyo.
[4] OTL these assassinations all failed, Niimi nearly die from his own poison but was saved by an ally with the antidote OTL, here he wasn't so lucky.
From my research Aum was really bad at chemical attacks until they altered the Sarin. While they had some success they insisted on using Chemical weapons including releasing an Antidote version of Anthrax and one version which only irritated a few people.
In case you're wondering Aum Shinrikyo technically still exists as Aleph and the above names listed were all executed in 2018 OTL, though Aleph is still controversial and almost always has a protest line in front of its main building, understandable given their ties to a terrorist cult.
Well where you at now, somewhere in the mid to late 90s right?
This was a great chapter! A question though, due to the inevitable butterflies caused by pop culture divergences, are there any plans for Japanese politics to be affected? Anybody who wins or loses?
Not going to drop names since it’s largely out of my wheelhouse but I will mention it if it comes up.
Good stuff then.
But to move back into Japanese popular culture, unless if I already asked about him, what are you plans for Junji Ito and his work?
Also what about Mamoru Hosoda? He’s known IOTL for his anime films The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006), Summer Wars (2009), Wolf Children (2012), The Boy and the Beast (2015), and Mirai (2018).
A new network from the ashes planned to bear the initials CBS as a reference to Japan already having an ABC(Asahari Broadcasting Corporation) and an NBC(Nagasaki Broadcasting Co) in real life and here.