Week 3: アンダーグラウンド

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Week 3

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Start Date: Jun 08
Previous Part: Week 2
Next Part: Week 4

Reading:

Week Start Date Chapter Start Page Page Count
Week 3 Jun 08 千代田線 Interviews 3-5 56 37

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
  • Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
  • To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun! :durtle:

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宮田実

This is the driver of the TV van that carried two people to the hospital. He paints a bit of a different picture of the previous interviewee, pointing out how he desperately tried to get his colleagues admitted to the hospital. But the image of the passive hospital staff that did not properly act on his request remains the same and is utterly disturbing to me. Also, the driver thought that a different hospital would have been better but nonetheless followed the first interviewee’s instructions regarding which hospital to go to. I am never sure what to make of this…

Regarding the order of the interviews, I think they are put in a very interesting sequence so far, allowing us to learn more and more about the attack and also contrasting the different testimonies. Looking forward to seeing the next viewpoints.

豊田利明

I think he was exposed the most of all the interviewees we heard so far. He was the one who put the Sarin bags into a plastic bag and then walked around with them, putting them into the workers‘ break room (because he was afraid they might explode? What’s wrong with this dude? :thinking:) and thus getting a lot of exposure. Also it seems that he initially had more severe symptoms than the second worker who later died… I guess he just had a pretty good constitution, or else he would have died just like the two others.

高月智子

This lady was not on the train that was attacked but got off her own train on the same platform, on the opposite side. She seems to have been exposed for only a few minutes, still she developed pretty strong symptoms, with aching eyes, runny nose, and even fever. Compared to the first lady, who was exposed much more intensely as far as I can tell, her (description of) the symptoms sounded much stronger. Maybe she is actually very sensitive, just as she herself suspected.

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I might not read the book this week, because of the movie festival :grin: will catch up afterwards!

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Catching up slowly!

宮田実

Was a bit surprised with how short this interview was compared to some others, considering how much the person was personally involved, transporting a dying man in his car.
Very sad with the hospital not taking in the patient right away.

I could be wrong but I think that it was in hindsight only? Not sure that he knew that at the time.

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豊田利明

Interesting when he described what kind of things can happen on the job (bomb alerts but also drunk / crazy / aggressive people) and how they are not always sure that they will get to go back home safely. Dangerous job!
(I don’t have other comments, the rest is just very sad all around :frowning: )

Also he did wash his face and took off his clothes, probably helped a lot!

野崎晃子

Oh, too bad her interview is not in the book, but I’m happy that they wrote that it was this one (and I guess another one later). After the explaination in the introduction, I was wondering who it could have been and reflecting that we would never know, I’m glad that it’s not the case!

What a long book! Progress is very slow but feels good to have passed 10% now :slight_smile:

Edit since I already posted 3 times in a row: :grimacing:

高月智子

Well that commute was fun to draw :slight_smile:

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I’m impressed by such a long commute, especially so many changes, musn’t be easy to use your time doing anything when you have to switch every 10 minutes.

I thought it was also interesting that the other people so far have said that they don’t feel hatred towards the perpetrator, even though I feel that they have seen worse things that this lady. Maybe they are just happy to be alive now, while this lady has mostly “just” gotten the annoying physical symptoms, so she is mad!

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