Tokyo increases security as rumors
of possible subway attack spread
By Joseph Giordono,
Stars and Stripes
TOKYO — Rumors of a terrorist attack on Tokyo’s subway
system sent already frayed nerves into overdrive Monday, prompting at least one
international school to send children home for the day.
Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said they did not have
information about a new terrorist threat.
“Our latest guidance is the (Oct. 7) update to the worldwide
caution released by the State Department,” said embassy spokesman Patrick Linehan,
referring to the warning issued when the U.S. military began retaliatory strikes against
sites in Afghanistan.
“We have no additional information and no Japan specific
information,” Linehan said.
U.S. military officials also said they did not receive any new
information about possible terrorist strikes in Japan. Including servicemembers, about
120,000 Americans live in Japan.
While the Tokyo Metropolitan Police said it did not have any
information about threats or possible attacks, officials from the Toei Subway line said
police informed them of an anonymous threat early Monday.
As a precaution, extra police patrols were added to stations from the
first train through 10 a.m. Also, the Toei spokeswoman said, the Ministry of
Transportation on Oct. 8 asked Toei to heighten patrols on trains and stations. Those
precautions are ongoing.
A spokeswoman for the Teito Rapid Transit Authority, another of
Tokyo’s major subway lines, said they are aware of the rumors and have been at a
higher level of security since the terrorist attacks in the United States.
Teito received several calls from journalists and subway riders about
the rumors, but could not confirm anything other than the increased security levels, the
spokeswoman said.
U.S. officials in Tokyo said that only one school sent children home,
likely in reaction to an urban legend that has been circulating worldwide. According to
the tale, an Arab man tells a fellow passenger on an airliner or train that he has enjoyed
their conversation and that the passenger should keep his children out of school and away
from subways on a specific date.
The threat, though widespread, was brushed aside by many travelers on
Tokyo’s subways Monday afternoon.
“It’s just a rumor. I really don’t believe it. It
wouldn’t stop me from using the subway. Just like always, you have to be
cautious,” said U.S. Navy Hospitalman Tavis Jones while walking toward the Hiroo
subway station. Jones, normally stationed in Hawaii, is in Japan on a temporary
assignment.
The rumor is spreading through the cellular phone e-mail network,
said a 19-year-old Japanese student of Seishin Women’s University in Tokyo.
“A friend of mine received the e-mail from her friend. I think
it is just a bad rumor, but there are many embassies where our university is located. When
I see them, I have a concern that the embassies would be a potential target of
terrorism.”
“What can you do? It’s the matter of being at the wrong
place at the wrong time,” said Knut Barstad, a 57-year-old Norwegian on a two-week
trip in Tokyo. “We traveled here for a vacation. We know what’s going on. You
can’t just sit in a chair and look up at the sky and wait.”
“If I gotta go to work, I gotta go to work, you know?” said
a 34-year-old New Sanno Hotel worker who referred to himself only as John as he hurried
away from the subway station.
Erika Hoenig, a college student on vacation to visit her fiancé in
Tokyo, said she doesn’t believe in the scuttlebutt. “I don’t see an attack
here to benefit the terrorists’ cause.”
Just four days prior to the Sept. 11 attacks in the States, U.S.
officials issued a statement warning that a “credible” threat had been made
against Americans in Japan and South Korea.
Though no further information has been released about that threat,
later speculation suggested it as a possible ruse to draw attention away from real targets
within the United States.
Rumor or not, the Japanese government has been taking serious
measures to prevent another attack like the 1995 sarin gas attack by Aum Shinrikyo
cultists. That attack, on five subway cars in Tokyo, left 10 dead and sickened thousands.
In recent days, the Japanese government has introduced guidelines for
dealing with nuclear, biological or chemicals weapons attacks. Government agencies last
week adopted an emergency seven-point antiterrorism plan with new responsibilities for
almost every national agency.
The National Police Agency, for example, will set up special
antiterrorism units in each prefecture with a major city.
Similar units exist only in the Tokyo metropolitan police department
and the Osaka prefectural police headquarters.
Government officials have asked various agencies to increase security
at sites handling nuclear substances or chemicals that could be used as weapons.
Transportation officials have asked pilots not to fly over the U.S. Embassy and other U.S.
political and military facilities in Japan.
Staff writers Naoko Sekioka and Doug Huddy contributed to
this report.
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