True Crime-Paranormal-Conspiracy Theories Stories Part V #Wattys2023

Pana-Wave Laboratory

The Pana-Wave Laboratory(Japanese: パナウェーブ研究所)is a Japanese new religious group or "Shinshūkyō".Estimates of membership range from several hundred to 1,200.

Origin

Pana-Wave is an offshoot of a religiousgroup called Chino-Shoho ("True Law of Chino") basedin Shibuya, Tokyo, founded by a woman called Yuko Chino in 1977 andcombining elements of Christianity, Buddhism and New Age doctrines.

In the mid-1980s, members callingthemselves the "scientific faction", and warning ofthe evils of electromagnetic waves (which the group claimed werecausing catastrophic environmental destruction and climate change)built the Pana-Wave Laboratory in Fukui Prefecture in an area theybelieved was less at risk from electromagnetic pollution. Membersstarted to dress only in white in the mid-1990s, in the belief thatthis would protect them from harmful "scalar electromagneticwaves", which they claimed were being used against them bycommunists to try to kill their leader.

In 1994 the group formed a convoy ofwhite vans which traveled around rural Japan searching for a placeleast at risk from harmful electromagnetic radiation and away frompower lines, and setting up camp in remote locations for months onend and covering everything in white. They also took their leaderChino when she was ill with cancer into the mountains of Japan tosearch for a safe place where waves couldn't harm her anymore. Theybelieved that if the waves got to their leader that all of mankindwould all at once be destroyed.

Incidents in 2003

They first attracted attention in March2003, when they attempted (and failed) to capture Tama-chan, anArctic seal which had become a national celebrity in Japan sinceshowing up in Tama River in Tokyo the previous year. The groupbelieved that the seal had been led astray by electromagnetic waves,and claimed that doomsday would somehow be averted if the seal wasreturned to Arctic waters. They had even built two swimming pools,lined in white, in a compound in Yamanashi Prefecture in which tohold the seal until it could be transferred to the Arctic.

The group made national headlines inApril when the convoy was ordered by police to move on from a road inGifu Prefecture and refused, resulting in a stand-off which wasreported in the national media. Pana-Wave alleged that a closeencounter with an undiscovered 10th planet, predicted for 15 May thatyear, would cause the Earth's poles to flip over and lead tocatastrophic earthquakes and tsunamis which would destroy most ofhumankind, and that they were looking for a safe location to ride outthe catastrophe. TV images showed members dressed completely inwhite, complete with white hoods, surgical masks and white boots.Their vehicles were decorated with swirl patterns which they believedneutralized the invisible waves, and even the steering wheel wascovered in white plaster. Nearby trees, bushes and crash barrierswere also covered in white fabric. TV crews were first shunned bymembers who feared that TV cameras were emitting harmful waves, butwere later allowed closer as long as they covered themselves andtheir equipment in white material.

This camp was eventually broken up bythree hundred police, some in riot gear, who threatened to arrestthem for obstructing traffic. The convoy moved on, setting up campintermittently, but many in Japan were unnerved by the group, whichevoked memories of Aum Shinrikyo, a religious terrorist group whichcarried out the deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995,and the convoy continued being turned away from village aftervillage. In the lead-up to the supposed doomsday, some one hundredriot police and TV crew followed the highly photogenic convoy aroundrural Japan for several weeks to keep tabs on their activities.

On 14 May, the day before the predicteddoomsday, police raided twelve locations associated with the group onthe pretext of minor vehicle registration offences. However, nothingwas found which suggested that they posed a danger to society.

When the May 15 doomsday passed withnothing more serious than a minor earthquake in Tokyo which injuredone boy who fell off his bed and broke an arm, a member thought to beChino's second-in-command made a statement that they believed thatthey had miscalculated the date, and a new date of May 22 was set.However, as this date again passed without incident, media attentionfaded and the group sank back into obscurity.

On 25 October 2006, Chino died aged 72.