Murakami hoped that through these interviews, he could capture a side of the attacks which the sensationalist Japanese media had ignored—the way it had affected average citizens.

Many of the interviewees expressed disillusionment with the materialism in Japanese society and the sensationalistic media, as well as the inefficiency of the emergency response system in dealing with the attack.

In this essay, he criticizes the failure of the Japanese to learn from the attacks, preferring to dismiss it as the extreme act by a group of lunatics rather than analyze the true causes and prevent similar events from occurring in the future.

In his introduction to the book, Murakami describes his motivations for writing it: The Japanese media had bombarded us with so many in-depth profiles of the Aum cult perpetrators—the 'attackers'—forming such a slick, seductive narrative that the average citizen—the 'victim'—was an afterthought ... which is why I wanted, if at all possible, to get away from any formula; to recognise that each person on the subway that morning had a face, a life, a family, hopes and fears, contradictions and dilemmas—and that all these factors had a place in the drama ...

Furthermore, I had a hunch that we needed to see a true picture of all the survivors, whether they were severely traumatized or not, in order to better grasp the whole incident.

Draft interviews were then sent to the interviewees before publication for fact-checking and to allow them to cut any parts they did not want published.

"[5] His interviews with victims have been seen as similar in style to those of Studs Terkel's Working,[6] an influence that Murakami acknowledges along with that of journalist Bob Greene.

By viewing the sarin attacks as "an extreme and exceptional crime committed by an isolated lunatic fringe,"[9] it was easy for Japanese citizens to avoid facing the darker realities (which Murakami also refers to as the "underground," adding a deeper layer of meaning to the book's title) of both Japanese society and their own selves.

In the course of conducting his interviews, Murakami observed that "most Japanese seem ready to pack up the whole incident in a trunk labeled THINGS OVER AND DONE WITH,"[9] but this mentality prevents them from learning from the event.

The original Underground (sans Aum interviews) was seen by some critics as being "one-sided," a view that Murakami himself shared, leading to his publishing The Place That Was Promised.

Despite the noticeable discomfort caused by the gas, most of the interviewees did not bother to ask other passengers what was going on, preferring to wait until the next stop to change trains and distance themselves from the situation.

"[20] Several interviewees also voiced criticism of the media, namely due to the way it misrepresented and sensationalized the sarin attacks.