In repeated germ attacks in the early 1990's, an obscure Japanese cult tried to kill millions of people throughout Tokyo and, a cultist has now testified, at nearby American bases where thousands of service people and their families live.

The biological strikes were not detected at the time, and their significance has only recently become clear to Japanese officials still investigating the cult's activities.

As far as is known, there were no deaths. But a New York Times examination of court testimony and confessions of the cult's members, as well as interviews with Japanese and American officials, show that its germ attacks were far more numerous than previously known.

Hoping to ignite an apocalyptic war, the group sprayed pestilential microbes and germ toxins from rooftops and convoys of trucks. Its members have said that the targets included the Diet, or legislature; the Imperial Palace; the surrounding city, and the American base at Yokosuka, which is headquarters of the Navy's Seventh Fleet.