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The big break came after the arrest on April 26 of Masami Tsuchiya, 30, a doctoral student in organic chemistry who police said led the effort to make sarin. Charged initially with the minor crime of helping other Aum members evade arrest, he was extensively questioned about the sarin attack. In consultation with a psychologist, police found they were able to break Tsuchiya quickly, despite his reputation as a hard-core Aum member. Shoko Egawa, an expert on the cult, offered an explanation: "The best-educated members were really prized by Asahara and did not go through the same indoctrination that the others did. Once someone as honest and serious as Tsuchiya was out from under Asahara's control, it was easy to get him to confess."
According to press reports based on police leaks, Tsuchiya admitted he had concocted sarin just before the subway attack. He added that while only 10 liters were used in the Tokyo attack, he had made "several tens of liters" of sarin in a secret laboratory behind Satian No. 7, the huge Aum-owned factory compound also near Mount Fuji that had been the object of police searches in March. He destroyed the rest of the sarin, he claims, to remove evidence.
It was Dr. Ikuo Hayashi, 48, Aum's chief medical official, who implicated Asahara. Hayashi, who was arrested for illegally confining an Aum member at one of the rural compounds, reportedly confessed he was among the 10 Aum operatives who had placed sarin on the trains. The order, he said, came specifically from Asahara. The third big catch was Yoshihiro Inoue, 25, who is suspected of organizing the attack. Police caught him in western Tokyo last week and discovered bombmaking explosives in his car, and maps and timetables for the city's subway system at his hideout.
The Aum investigation is far from closed, and many questions remain unanswered. Foremost is why Asahara allegedly ordered the attack. Police are also eager to know if Aum was behind last month's attempted assassination of Tokyo police chief Takaji Kunimatsu and the disappearance in 1989 of a lawyer who was investigating Aum, along with his wife and infant son. Asahara continues to insist he is innocent. Makoto Endo, a lawyer who has visited him in jail and who represents another arrested cult member, says Asahara is distraught because no attorney wants to take his case. When Endo refused because he didn't feel Asahara was "150% innocent," the man who claims to be a living Buddha asked, "What am I going to do without a lawyer?"
--With reporting by Irene M. Kunii and Satsuki Oba/Tokyo