History
Described as a work of "journalistic literature," Underground was originally published as a series of separate interviews Murakami conducted with 60 victims of the attacks and descriptions of how the attacks were carried out, along with his essay, "Blind Nightmare: Where Are We Japanese Going?" In 2000, an English translation was published which included interviews with 8 members of Aum.
Underground was originally published in Japan without the interviews of Aum members – they were published in the magazine Bungei Shunju before being collected in a separate volume, The Place That Was Promised. The English translation combines both books into a single volume, but has been abridged. Underground was translated by Alfred Birnbaum and The Place That Was Promised by Philip Gabriel.
Read more about this topic: Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack And The Japanese Psyche
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