The story of the

poisoning of a city
and of the
people who choose to
carry the burden of courage.

i i i

and AILEEN M SMIT

 ISBN: 0-03-013636-8

$20.00

MINAMATA isand farming

a fishing
town on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu.
Its people joined the industrial age when the

Chisso Corporation built a chemical factory

there. The disaster that then befell them, and the
ways in which some have managed to respond,
reach far beyond Japan. Their courage is a flag of
hope for all life — but it will have signaled no
victory unless it awakens other people to action
in every corner of this planet.
An uneasiness developed in the town in the
early 1950s. Many individuals fell ill with the
same symptoms: limbs and lips tingled and then
became numb; speech slurred; motor functions
went out of control. Some died. Was this strange
new disease contagious? Nobody knew.
If you have heard of Minamata before this, it

is because W. Eugene Smith, the photographer

whose essays have been regarded as classics

since he helped to invent the form over thirty
years ago, focused attention on what he calls
"the widening damnations of pollution'.'
Minamata's disease was recognized as methyl
mercury poisoning from industrial wastes. The
mercury reached people through contaminated
fish. Some doctors suggest that the number of
persons affected might reach 10,000. So far, 103
have died and some 700 others have been veri-
fied as seriously — and permanently — damaged.
As groups of victims pressed a turbulent, multi-
sided crusade to force industry and government
to take responsibility, Smith and his wife,
Aileen, moved to Minamata.
Smith, as always, is both observer and partici-
pant. During one demonstration, Chisso union
men smashed him to the pavement so hard,
crushing several vertebrae, that he feared he
would never be able to hold another camera.
Aileen Smith covered for both of them until he
could raise his arm again. From the beginning,
she has made study of Minamata possible;
this
speaking Japanese (born in Tokyo, she divided
her first twenty years equally between Japan and
the U.S.), she interprets for Smith, made the
notes from which much of the book is written,
and took about one-fourth of the photographs
published here. The Smiths eat fish in their Mina-
mata house, not from bravado but simply be-
cause that is what one eats there, just as an
American city dweller breathes the air during a
smoggy spell and eats three meals a day contain-
ing chemical preservatives.
The result of their collaboration is an endur-
ing document that crowns the work of one of the
world's great photographers. W. Eugene Smith
(continued on back flap)

Jackc 1'^sign by oarcle Thomas 0575

BOSTON
PUBLIC
LIBRARY
MINAMATA
MINAMATA

words and photographs by

W EUGENE SMITH
and AILEEN M. SMITH

An Alskog-Sensorium Book
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1975
 Rrt 1231

An Alskog-Sensorium Book

Text copyright© 1975 by W. Eugene Smith

and Aileen M. Smith.
Photographs copyright © 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975
by W. Eugene Smith and Aileen M. Smith.
Medical report text copyright © 1975
by Masazumi Harada and Aileen M. Smith.

Executive producer: Lawrence J. Schiller

Editorial consultant: John Poppy
Production manager: Ira Fast
Design consultant: Philip Kaplan
Design assistant: Julie Asher Palladino
Proofreading: Judith R. Holtzer
Production consultant: Arthur Gubernick

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book

or portions thereof in any form. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means,
including information storage and retrieval systems, without
permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer
who may quote brief passages in a review.

Smith, W. Eugene, 1918-

Minamata.
"An Alskog book'.'
1. Mercury— Toxicology — Pictorial works. 2. Water
— Pollution — Minamata, Japan — Pictorial works. I. Smith,
Aileen Mioko, joint author. II. Title.
RA1231.M5S65 362.1'9 74-15467
ISBN (Deluxe): 0-03-013641-5
ISBN (Hardcover): 0-03-013631-8
ISBN (Paperback): 0-03-013636-9

First edition.
Published simultaneously in Canada by
Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Limited.

Typography by Phototype House, Los Angeles

Printed by Rapoport Printing Corp., New York

Printed in the United States of America.

 In dedication
to those who do not
take the past as proof
against the future.

. and our deeply felt

. .

appreciation to John Poppy,

who contributed so much
to this book that it is also his book.
Prologue

This is not an objective book. The first word I would have been impossible if Aileen — daughter of
would remove from the folklore of journalism is a Japanese mother and an American father — did
the word objective. That would be a giant step not speak Japanese and know the ways of a
toward truth in the "free" press. And perhaps country in which she has spent half her life. After
"free" should be the second word removed. Freed our three years of living involvement, we began to
of these two distortions, the journalist and try to enclose our material between the covers of
photographer could get to his real responsibilities. this book in a way that would transmit the life-

I well remember a confrontation with an editor of forces we had felt. We have tried to be honest,
Life magazine in which he said I did not have the and and if our understanding is great enough
fair,

proper spirit, the proper respect for the needs of we may have approached the truth.
Life, a proper belief in what Life was trying to do.
The many levels of the true situation led us to
He said I was not being responsible.
reject a strict chronological order in telling the
In the following twenty-four years I have found story. Instead, we decided to set the place and the
no reason to change my answer. It was nearly mood, set the stage, then move back and forth
identical to this: "My belief is that my between the human stories and the happenings.
responsibilities within journalism are two. My first We even go to Canada for an interlude, as Aileen
responsibility is to my subjects. My second did in fact while I was in New York last year
responsibility is to my readers. I believe that if I seeking treatment for excruciating headaches and
fulfill those two responsibilities I will approaching blindness brought on by a beating I

automatically have fulfilled my responsibilities to had received from employees of the corporation
the magazine'.' responsible for Minamata's agony. We end with a
medical report for those who want strictly
And that is the way we have approached the story
technical details. This is a passionate book, and, I
of mercury poisoning in Minamata, Japan. Putting
hope, a passionate experience for those of you
aside the possibility of being "objective'' we set
our energies to the task of honestly understanding
who will live through it with us.

the complexities of the situation. Aileen and I Obviously there is no doubt in our minds that the
made Minamata our home more than three
for world has got itself into terrible trouble through
years. We photographed and learned in ways that pollution. Let me amend that; "the world" sounds
too remote, too abstract. Persons like us and our running far ahead of any anti-pollution
neighbors are right now being poisoned through conscience. But what we also found in Minamata
the air, the water, the food we must have. was the kind of courage and stubbornness that
can encourage other threatened people not only to
You might ask, why bother to be passionate about
everybody already aware of it?
that? Isn't
refuse to give in, but also to work at righting their

Apparently not. Just before we went to Minamata,

own situations.

a scientist at a conference on mercury in After reflecting on the rights and wrongs of the
Rochester, New York, asked us, "Why go there? situation in Minamata, we hope through this book
It's finished in Minamata. What are you going to to raise our small voices of words and
find to photograph?" photographs in a warning to the world.

Not only did we find that "it" was not finished, To cause awareness is our only strength.
but we became convinced that "it" — whether the
poison is mercury, or asbestos, or food additives,
or radiation, or something else — is closing more W. Eugene Smith
tightly upon us each day. Pollution growth is still January 7, 1975
Contents

The Strange Disease 10

Tradition and Transition 34
Circles of Life 46
Of Human Destruction 56
Flags of Vengeance 82
The Trial 116
Face to Face at Last 130
Canada: Half a World Away 140
Home Again 144
Shinobu: To Gather a Life
Acknowledgements and Appreciations 174
Chronology 178
Minamata Disease: A Medical Report 180
 .

Mr. and Mrs. Egoshita

were forced to
walk home from the
Minamata city hospital..

10
They had been denied all other
means of transportation. They
walked the railroad tracks, avoiding
the roadways— wanting no
recognition.

Mr. Egoshita walked a few steps

ahead. On his back he carried the
autopsied body of his daughter. She
had died three years after having
become ill. She had died of the
;;
"strange disease in Minamata that
could not be explained, a disease
which conjured such fears of
contagion that the victims and those
close tothem became outcasts,
stigmatized and degraded, frequently
even in their own eyes.
That was years ago.
11
BBBH ^i
"It is only the sea
I can trust.

When people tell me

that the sea is dirty
I curse them,
Iwant to strike them.
The sea 'dirty'?
How dare they say the sea
is dirty!
It is not the sea that wrongs.
The sea has done nothing wrong.
The sea is my life.
The sea is my religion.
The sea comforts me— it has
given me courage and sustenance,
and escape from the quarrels of
shore-bound men.
When I thought I was dying,
and my hands were numb
and wouldn't work—
and my father was dying too— when
the villagers turned against us—
it was to the sea
I would go to cry.

The sea protected my tears.

I talk crazy about the sea.
No one can understand
why I love the sea so much.
The sea
has never abandoned me.
The sea
is the blood of my veins'.'

13
 *«<

m
.V:.V

m&

»-...
Perhaps those who fished the lakes, the
rivers and the seas were the first to suffer
a vague awareness that industrial wastes
do not somehow just go away.

15
£ >;
CHISSO-MINAMATA DISEASE: The nervous system begins
to degenerate, to atrophy. First, a tingling and growing
numbness of limbs and lips. Motor functions may become
severely disturbed, the speech slurred, the field of vision
constricted. In early, extreme cases, victims lapsed into
unconsciousness, involuntary movements, and often
uncontrolled shouting. Autopsies show the brain becomes
spongelike as cells are eaten away. It is proven that mercury
can penetrate the placenta to reach the fetus, even in
apparently healthy mothers.
 aS2

%sY,
 1

20
22
 - -

Minamata: the edge of the factory, the dump-way, the bay,

and on to the sea.
The Strange Disease

Without question! indentations and curves of small natural harbors

The chemical company called Chisso poisoned protected by seawalls. Each cluster of homes has its
the fishing waters of Minamata, poisoned the own village name, such as Yudo, Tsukinoura, Modo,
aquatic food chain, and eventually poisoned a great Tsubotani, Detsuki.
number of the inhabitants. Chisso poured industrial To get there by train from Tokyo one travels
poisons through waste pipes until Minamata Bay through Hiroshima past Nagasaki and down the
was a sludge dump, the heritage of centuries west coast of the southern island of Kyushu. The
destroyed. town faces the Shiranui Sea, of which Minamata
It may be true that individual fishermen are Bay is a part. I have never seen the sea angry near
usually poor, but with the sea for livelihood they Minamata.
seldom starve. And always there is that mystic bond Minamata is also a factory town dominated by
with the sea. the Chisso Corporation, once a mere carbide and
As poisoning continued, fishing continued, and fertilizer company (in means
Japanese, "chisso"
the fishermen knew only that catches were getting nitrogen), now a petrochemical company and a
smaller. Still, most successful of the fishermen
the maker of plastics. The irony — devastating as a cliche
preserved pride in their skills, and bragged of know- of world pollution — is that the village leaders felt
ing the sea and the ways of fish. They ate much of the very winds of prosperity when in 1907 they con-
the fish they did not sell, or gave it to neighbors. If a vinced the founder of a company that would be-
family member became ill, that person received come the Chisso Corporation to build a factory in
more of the best fish available. "... A sick body must Minamata. It was perhaps only a small irritant that
have the best food we can provide!" the talented founder, Jun Noguchi, displayed a cold
Many of those dependent upon the fish and the arrogance that led to remarks such as: "Treat the
shellfish began to show symptoms of an unusual workers like cows and horses'.' And another aspect
sickness. Many became severely Some died. The
ill. of the Chisso-Minamata relationship has been at
sickness, its cause a mystery, became known as the least tolerable: managers and engineers do not come
"strange was also noted that cats showed
disease'.' It from Minamata, they are imported. Almost all have
the strange symptoms, went crazy and often fell into been drafted from among those who won high marks
the sea as "suicides'.' at Tokyo University, where the founder Noguchi
The first clear case was reported in 1953. Look- had studied.
ing back, becomes obvious that earlier
it deaths and By 1925 Chisso was paying Minamata fisher-
illness were connected with the "strange disease'.' men a very small indemnity for damage to their
One clue comes from the Japanese mother's custom fishing areas. Chisso didn't mind. The theory was to
— disappearing now — of preserving her baby's um- continue to dump and to buy off the complainers
bilical cord in a box. Examination of the cords of with the smallest possible payoff. Toss a few coins,
children who had the disease would, years later, re- it was cheaper to pay than to care. An accepted

veal traces of the cause. practice, therefore ethical. And the government
stood behind industry.
Minamata is a restful farming and fishing area The fishing continued to deteriorate.
sprawling out from its downtown center to clusters
of small homes on the gentle hillsides and along the In 1932 Chisso began the production of acetal-

26
27
dehyde (a substance used in making plastics, drugs, gious. The soon turned neighbor against neigh-
fear
perfumes and, ironically for me, photographic bor. People began to notice that the "suicidal" cats —
chemicals). The process for the production of acetal- in fact, almost all cats — had disappeared.
dehyde required the use of a mercury compound as This is the official recorded "discovery" of what
a catalyst. In the 1930's Chisso also expanded into is now called Minamata At first, unable to
Disease.
Korea. These days may have been Chisso's finest. connect the various symptoms to any single source,
With the collapse of Japan's empire, the company doctors offered a number of diagnoses: encephalitis
again had to depend upon Minamata. Japonica, alcoholism, syphilis, hereditary ataxia, in-
Whatever else, the products of Chisso were fantile paralysis, cerebral palsy. Few failed to come
good, and the company had long pursued the best up with some theory or other.
of new techniques. It was known as a pedigree com- On May 1, 1956, Dr. Hajime Hosokawa of
pany. The early 1950's saw a strong upward turn in the Chisso Company Hospital reported, "An un-
its production and sales of acetaldehyde, partially clarified disease of the central nervous system has
because the substance was used in the manufacture broken out'.' Since it had broken out endemically, he
of D.O.P., a plasticizer (dioctyl phthalate) that only too suspected it might be infectious. Both Hosokawa
Chisso could produce. Yet it was about this time that and the Public Health Department began by trying
methods
Chisso's managers began to see that the old to treat it as such. Hosokawa did his best to keep
of production would eventually be outmoded. They the situation calm. In the history of Minamata Dis-
realized they would need a new factory and new ease, he must bear the dual role, agony and agony,
techniques, and they raced to make the most possi- of medical hero and of employee bearing the burden
ble money from the old patchwork Minamata plant. of company loyalty. (In my opinion, the integrity of
The boom days of Minamata were 1952-1960, when the man and the ethics of medicine finally won out.)
population reached 50,000. The number is now Before that year of 1956 was over he had determined
about 36,000. that he was dealing with a disease that was not con-
was in early 1956 that the "strange disease"
It tagious. He also decided that the outbreaks and the
took on the proportions of an epidemic, and finally fish diets were directly related, and turned his atten-
became known as "Minamata Disease'.' In April of tion in this direction.
1956 a five-year-old girl entered the pediatrics de- Some investigators began claiming that nearly
partment of Chisso's Minamata factory hospital. sixty poisons were being poured into the sea by
She was suffering severe symptoms of brain damage. Chisso. Very quickly Chisso was pointed out as the
She could not walk. Her speech was incoherent. She most likely cause of the sickness, and Chisso man-
was in severe delirium. agement worked overtime trying to sidestep and to
Several days later, the girl's two-year-old counterpunch, always denying that the factory or
younger sister entered the hospital suffering its employees could be responsibleany way. The in

the same symptoms. Before these days of illness, the elements manganese, thalium and selenium were
neighbors say, "They were the brightest, most vi- each mentioned as possible causative factors. Each
brant, cutest kids you could imagine'.' was exonerated. Always a search for the cause of
From the mother of these two girls it was the sickness ended in neutralized confusion. There
learned that a child next door had the same symp- was even an unfounded theory that ammunition
toms. The hospital investigated and found a five- sunk at the end of the war was the cause.
year-old apparently suffering the same type of brain
damage. Then the mother of that child fell ill, as did In 1958 Chisso temporarily shifted their dump-
her eleven-year-old son. Within five weeks an eight- age to the Minamata River delta on the other side
year-old son fell ill. All with the same symptoms. of town, away from the bay, where the river flows
The number of patients steadily increased. past a district called Hachiman. There it empties
Among neighbors an uneasiness developed, into the Shiranui Sea. In a few months, people who

then a downright fear that the disease was conta- lived in this area began to develop symptoms of the

28
 Patients and relatives carrying photographs
of their "verified" dead.

tM2£?
t00T%. **"•

tVf

if
sickness. Also in 1958, Kumamoto Prefecture (state) By July group from Kumamoto
of 1959 a
imposed a ban upon the selling but not the catching University reported that organic mercury was the
of Minamata fish. By this device the prefecture es- cause. Many independent committees were formed.
caped responsibility for the loss of the fishermen's One met only four times, then mysteriously disap-
livelihood. peared. It had been sponsored by the Japanese
(History does repeat. In May of 1973 the Chemical Association, of which Chisso is a member.
governor of the prefecture, after fifteen years of rev- Another committee reported bluntly that the cause
elations about the origins of the disease, declared definitely was mercury poisoning, and was dis-
that all fish outside of Minamata Bay, which was banded the next day. Confusion still reigned; Chisso
then marked by buoys, were safe — overlooking the shadowboxed and, suspect, paid experts to refute
I

fact that fish can swim and might not notice every report and every derogatory theory.
the buoys.) In October 1959 a carefully concealed series of
The was a great subject for theories
sickness cat experiments by Chisso's own Dr. Hosokawa (an
and doctorates, and by 1959 many a thesis had been avid reader of Ibsen's Enemy of the People) proved
developed in a scramble for recognition, and occa- Chisso's guilt to Chisso's management. He simply
sionally for facts. This scrambling led to further fed some acetaldehyde effluent directly to the now-
confusion, to the advantage of Chisso and the dis- famous "cat number 400'.' He was forbidden more of
advantage of serious researchers. the effluent and was taken off the experiments.

30
31
Chisso hid Hosokawa's proof.
Then Chisso quickly began negotiations with
the patients. Taking advantage of its hidden knowl-
edge and counting on the scientific and legal
ignorance of the patients, the company negotiated
a viciously one-sided contract specifying that pay-
ments were to be regarded not as indemnity but
merely as mimai (consolation) for a victim's mis-
fortune—a misfortune for which Chisso accepted
no responsibility. This mimai contract even in-
cluded a clause stipulating that if Chisso were Uler
proven guilty, the company would not be liable for
further compensation.
same October of 1959 that Chisso's man-
In the
agers knew they were guilty of the poisoning,
members of the Fishermen's Union (angered by the
shrinkage of their livelihood) stormed the factory,
demanding further indemnity and a cleanup of the
bay. After a bitter flurry that produced many in-
juries, the fishermen gave up. They were intimidated
by the threats of the company and the bland pro-
nouncements of a cooperative government. The
government warned the fishermen that they might
get nothing if they didn't accept Chisso's offer
promptly. The fishermen settled for meager pay-
ments and no cleanup.
After 1959 the protests ceased, fishermen
returned more and more to fishing, patients became
quiet, and a still comfortable Chisso continued to
profit. Chisso did install a "Cyclator," designed to
treat waste water, that was eventually recognized as
a token gesture as far as mercury is concerned-
worth little except in public relations — and even the
Cyclator was frequently bypassed. In spite of its
many denials, Chisso finally found itself forced into
court in 1969 — and after a trial lasting nearly four
years, the court concluded that Chisso had contin-
ued to poison the waters until 1968, when Chisso
stopped the mercury method of production because
the system had become outmoded.
Without question!
Chisso raped the fishing waters of Minamata
Bay and caused great sickness — at first, perhaps,
from ignorance and carelessness, but afterwards
from arrogance, greed, and what could even
be called industrial genocide. The "strange disease"
is now irrevocably recognized by scientists, before
the law, on the autopsy table, and admitted by the
Japanese government to be caused by methyl-mer-
cury poisoning from industrial wastes. And the
number of recognized victims continues to grow.
Still (as I write this in 1974) only 798 are officially
recognized, with another 2,800 waiting for verifi-
cationby a board of physicians appointed by the
governor of Kumamoto Prefecture. These fig-
ures can be entirely misleading. They certainly min-
imize the damage. There no flawless system for
is
finding and verifying victims, so no one truly knows
The mayor Fuke, smiling in the ancient warrior dress he has
put on for a traditional Harbor Festival. He leads it each
July that he is in office; the festival lasts for hours, mixing
the beauty of modern majorettes with folk dancing and
comic floats. It is indeed one of the bright days of Minamata,
when patient and non-patient celebrate in unison.
Much of the rest of the year, the slogan "Make Minamata
Brighter" is heard repeatedly from a committee started by a
conservative town booster. Meetings are held and programs
devised for ways to brush away the dark clouds brought
down on the city name by the Minamata Disease patients.
The patients haunt every meeting.
how many there are.
At any rate, 100,000 people are eating fish from
the Shiranui Sea. Some Kumamoto University re-
search doctors suggest that the number of those
affected may reach 10,000. Some privately believe
that the more subtle forms of health dislocations
may reach a great many more actual victims than
will be officially verified. The more subtle forms are
almost impossible to detect, even though they steal
a portion of health from the victim, and do not show
up on an autopsy table.
That — medically — is Minamata's warning to
the world.
33
Tradition and Transition

34
"Minamata" would have become
the forgotten disease,
itsvictims sinking into a quagmire
of hopelessness. if.... .

The world at large forgot the victims of Minamata after Chisso signed
the meager indemnity contracts with patients and fishermen in 1959.

Then, a similar outbreak of mercury poisoning occurred in another part

of Japan, in the prefecture of Niigata. There, a few aroused individuals
provoked a trial that unchained a people's energies.

The pattern of crushed resistance had been erased.

Mercury victims of Niigata took their poisoner, the chemical company
Showa Denko, to court in 1967. The victims of Minamata, aroused
again, began their own trial in 1969; twenty-nine families sued Chisso
for compensation. But this group included only one-third of the 1959
signers. Others, too or too trusting to fight, managed to renegotiate
ill

quickly with Chisso, not directly but through government

intermediaries. To the trial group, those quick renegotiators became
known as the "leave it up to the other people" group.
While Minamata's trial ran its four-year course, more residents of the
city were verified as victims. Some of these "new" patients settled fast
on terms that Chisso set, thereby joining the "leave it up to the other
people" group. But others joined a vociferous "direct negotiations"
group, led by a remarkable man named Teruo Kawamoto, that
insisted on battling it out not through any government agency but with
Chisso management in person.

The group (composed of "old" pre-1959 patients) and the explosive

trial
"direct negotiations" group (composed of more recently verified "new"
patients) together shaped a magnificent, turbulent, tradition-breaking
struggle. In few countries would such a challenge have been possible.
In Japan, history alone should have made it unthinkable. Big business
working hand in hand with government had been able to smother
almost every other challenge. The press was usually uninterested, so as
far back as the 1890's every uprising against the depredations of
industry had faded into darkness.
35
 "*•*

/v

p*
 Two and a half years after the Minamata trial Chisso guards posturing in front of iron bars
installed at the entrance of its Tokyo headquarters to keep
started, the "direct negotiations" group went into
out patients and their supporters.
action. Following Teruo Kawamoto's deep-rooted,
almost spiritual belief that face-to-face confronta-
tion was the only way "to force Chisso into respon-
sibility," they repeatedly insisted that Chisso's and determination, the "direct
In frustration

managers sit down with them to talk. They were just negotiations" group pitched a tent in front of
as repeatedly rebuffed. Chisso's Tokyo office, and another in front of the
Minamata plant. Chisso barred its doors and put up
barbed wire to keep them out after early clashes.
"Direct negotiations" patientsand supporters at the gates For well over a year, they lived through a siege filled
of the Chisso factory at Goi. Before, the Chisso
with quick drama, boredom and action that seemed
management had ordered members of the anti-patient
union at the Goi factory to attack the protesters. They did. to go nowhere.

37
38
 In November of 1971 several Chisso officials, pathetic, he answered with warmth.
including president Kenichi Shimada, consented to The dialogue was sturdy and repetitive. The
visit for day with the patients who were
part of one patients persisted in detailing their handicaps and
suing the company. A stipulation of the visit was pain, and in demanding that Chisso publicly admit
thai absolutely no members of Kawamoto's "direct guilt and take full responsibility.

negotiations" group be present. It was scheduled for The session became stormy. After many
the home of the Watanabe family — a family with demands for the president's personal declaration of
seven members ill. the company's guilt, Shimada knelt on the floor,
The room was crowded with trial patients, wrote a declaration of moral responsibility, and
many equipped with small recorders on which they signed it. Almost immediately his legal staff, sitting
hoped by Chisso.
to tape a significant statement behind him, announced that legally his statement
Before the session began, the Chisso officials meant nothing.
prayed at a shrine honoring the Watanabes' dead Shimada was embarrassed when he
President
grandmother. Then they turned to the patients. was told his predecessor had procrastinated in the
Shimada sat on the floor, as did the others, in Japan- same way. A storm of emotion again rose, and then
ese style. He was very human. He was deeply sym- the meeting ended.

Chisso President Kenichi Shimada.

39
40
 President Shimada of Chisso continued his little The patients remained uncon-
persuasiveness.
one-day odyssey of warmth by visiting the hospital- vinced and aloof. The honeyed rose so stripped of
like Minamata Rehabilitation Center. Although the thorns offered none of the stark reality and practi-
center is occupied by many others who are not cality that the patients yearned for. Chisso's regrets
Minamata Disease patients, he spent his time with and apologies clarified nothing and changed nothing
the mercury-poisoned people. as long as the company still cowered behind the
Always he performed with kindness but with barricades of legal evasion.

41
 "New" patients could get nothing from Chisso
except a bland insistence that they take their prob-
lems to a third party. We have no yardstick for
measuring your sickness, the company told them,
and your illness might be entirely different from
that of the pre-1959 patients; let someone else decide

about indemnities. For that job, Chisso favored the

Central Pollution Board that the government had
set up in 1970.

The board's members were quite polite. They

promised to be fair. They would set up a scale of
indemnities, ranking patients by age, sex, previous
income and severity of illness. Their approach co-
incided with Chisso's thoughts on the subject.
There was little trouble with most patients. As
soon as a list of newly verified victims was made
public, Chisso representatives would immediately
visit them or their families, congratulating and apol-

ogizing, urging them to settle in an intelligent

manner and place their faith in the board. After all,
wouldn't they be in the best hands with the govern-
ment? The government would know how to survey
and judge. About a hundred and thirty of the newly
verified patients accepted these promises.
A few of the patients were wary; they felt the
board wore the suits and the attitudes of business,
and they felt the government's record in matters like
this deserved suspicion. These few asked to have
their names taken off the board's list.
For the most part, board members appeared to
do their work methodically. They conducted inter-
views and compiled dossiers. They were also later
to collect a few documents that turned out to have
been illegally obtained, but perhaps the main fault
for that was not theirs. Aileen once asked them
whether their decisions would be influenced by the
disclosures then emerging from the trial testimony.
A member of this governmental agency replied,
"Well, you are journalists, and you can obtain such
material, but it is not available to the board'.'

(Left) Members of the Central Pollution Board.

(Right) Severalmonths after dissatisfied patients
removed their names from the Board lists, the Ministry
of the Environment, another government agency, offered
to mediate the patients' dispute with Chisso. This
effort brought hope, but no progress.

43
44
Tomoko Uemura was taken to the Central Pollution Board
The patients demanded that the
for the benefit of others.
board members look, touch, hold this child, and remember
the experience as they evaluated human beings in dollars
and cents.

45
 Circles of Life

Behind its fence, a portion of the Chisso factory.

46
One of the things Aileen and I did when we began this project was
first

to ask the Chisso management for an interview. They were very cordial.
The chairman of the board, the managing director, and the
head of the International Division invited us to a private dining room
inTokyo where we talked over a pleasant dinner. Afterwards they
showed us charts and pamphlets and the managing director,
second only to the president in the Chisso hierarchy, told us,
"You have to understand what pollution is. You know about ppm.
You know it means parts per million —just several millionths of
something. When a very, very small proportion of poison enters the
environment and is concentrated in fish, but still in quantities as small
as several parts per million, and this ppm level crosses a certain
borderline, then an outbreak occurs. But we are talking about
such a very small quantity!

"Now, looking back, the pattern of this disaster is clear,

but during the period of 1956 to 1959, there were no methods
of analysis refined enough to detect such small quantities of mercury.
And nobody dreamed that inorganic mercury could become organic,
either. Even so, we took the ultimate precaution by installing
a Cyclator, the most advanced form of waste-water treatment and
the first of its kind in Japan'.'

Itseemed very convincing: they had been done in by history.

They were gentlemen. They answered every question. They were
clever but not evasive. At the end of the meeting they said very
clearly that if at any time we wanted more information, they would be
more than glad to provide it. They even gave us their home
telephone numbers.
47
 1

The Cyclator.

Even today, most Minamata citizens sym-

pathize with Chisso. Some fervently defend the
company, others feel that Chisso — even if guilty —
has taken too much of a beating. The majority
seem to suffer silently in a mixture of complicated
feelings. Yet the citizens know, despite recent cut-
backs Minamata has prospered
at the factory, that

because of Chisso. As the mayor said in 1973 just

before he won his second term in office, "What is
good for Chisso is good for Minamata'.'
But no matter how much talk there is about
Minamata, no matter how many citizens
a brighter
have never known any patients personally, the re-
minder of Minamata Disease squeezes the town
under an invisible film as subtle as a change in

barometric pressure.
One day, one of the people at the town gym-

Hachiman September of 1958 Chisso quietly

"pool'.' In
stopped dumping bay and turned their waste
in the
pipes into Hachiman. The seepage from this place poisoned
people near the mouth of the Minamata River.

48
Newsmen making the trek between the homes of victims. company union whose founding Chisso encouraged.
Just about the only thing Minamata is famous for
is its Disease. Minamata is constantly on television,

nasium, a pleasant, quiet man, turned to Aileen as but always as a place of terror.
they sat by the pool and said, "You know, Minamata To young people growing up, hoping to be
justhasn't been the same since the Minamata Disease married, it is certainly not helpful to have been
problem happened'.' born in Minamata. Hardly any mention is ever
Aileen was a little taken aback. She had avoid- made out loud about Minamata Disease, but it is

ed talking about Minamata Disease with the people always there in the conscience of the citizens, like
at the pool, knowing that few of them were pro- having a grotesquely ill member of the family locked
patient. Even so, she said, "Well, I wonder why." up in the attic.
He could not say why. He could only go on, In fact, Minamata and lovely
is a rather gentle
"The town — it's not lively any more. It isn't the place, and our relationships with the people in town
way it used to be. The schools, the stores, sports, have been gentle. Outsiders arriving for the first
everything has become . . . sort of drab'.' time often remark in surprise, "Why, it's a nice
Whether or not Minamata Disease alone did town! And Minamata Bay, why, it's beautiful. I

it, the factory is also worn out. Chisso's newer thought was a sludge dump'.'
it

factories are up north in towns such as Goi, Mori- "Yes!" some townspeople have said, "The name
yama and Noda. A year-long labor strike split the of Minamata Disease must be changed. Take Mina-
town between supporters of the "old" union, which mata out of it'.' Citizens have even taken name-
ended up being pro-patient, and the "new" pro- change petitions to the national government.

50
 was raining the night that Keiji Higashidaira,
It she had often heard from other patients: "Mr. Higa-
who had been a manager at the Minamata factory, shidairacomes around with fruit or cookies his wife
was leaving to take a more important job in Tokyo. made, grinning, being charming and trying to buy
The station was filled with well-wishers. Aileen us over to the 'leave it up to the other people' side.
happened to be visiting Noriyoshi Maeda, leader He tries to create the impression that the Chisso
of the "leave it up to the other people" group; he management are such humane, nice people, so why
and his wife wanted to see Higashidaira off, so fight them? But in their hearts they don't care about
Aileen went along. The train (as almost never hap- our condition. It makes you lose your faith
pens in Japan) was two and a half hours late. But in humanity."
when it finally came, a few loyal well-wishers were Mrs. Maeda's eyes looked so sincere that Aileen
still around Higashidaira arid his
clustered wife. had to believe that she does feel it is better to be
The Maedas and Aileen were among them. friendly than to be hostile. Most of the "leave it up
As and people
the train pulled off in the rain to the other people" group, whatever their inner
waved goodbye, Mrs. Maeda — who lost both feelings may be, are that way. At any rate, it was
parents to Minamata Disease and who is the mother so very much like Minamata that five of those last
of a girl with congenital Minamata Disease— turned
to Aileen and said, with deep sincerity, "You know,
everything I've known about Mrs. Higashidaira... Akio Managi, lawyer for the trial group, almost always
a
hill, from which he could explain the
led visitors to this
well, she is such a lady. So elegant and yet so human'.'
juxtapositions of factory, town, wastes, and patients in
Aileen could not help remembering the stories Minamata.

: ,

<m:
>-/*r
. .- -^i
^^
-

/ \

-
well-wishers standing in the rain were victims of A rightist surrounded by company officials and reporters
demands that Chisso take a firmer stand.
Minamata Disease.

"The bath is ready!" our landlady would call

don waitotto bail" which means,

out, saying, "Furo In the afternoons, friendly ladies from
"Ofuro ga waite imasu yol" The first is Minamata the neighborhood would stop by the Mizoguchis'

dialect, the second is standard Japanese such as on their way home from the local clinic, sit on the
would be heard in Tokyo. Aileen understood only tatami mats, and sort out their new ration of pills,

about a fourth of the words when we arrived in separating those they would take from those they
Minamata; after three years, she was even laugh- would discard. So many people around Detsuki,
ing in Minamata dialect. Believe me, there is a dif- our area, had liver trouble or abnormal blood
ference, even in the laughter. Because of me, Aileen pressure that nobody there could figure out why

learned one new word of Japanese, bonkura, the doctors hadn't connected the symptoms to

meaning I was a "blockhead" in learning Minamata Disease. They certainly fit within the
the language. structure of the pains and warps of methyl-mercury

The bath was at the end of the dirt-floored poisoning. The discussion of which pills were good

kitchen we shared with the Mizoguchis, our land- and which were not always led to gossip about
lords. It consisted of a bell-shaped iron tub (such home remedies — berry tea and more far-ranging
as cartoonists use for boiling missionaries in African medicines. think that one day they also suggested
I

jokes) set in concrete. Mr. Mizoguchi, being a car- a home remedy for Aileen, one that would cause
penter, had plenty of wood for the fire. The flue her to have a baby right away. I didn't understand

needed repairing and I had some fun making movies the words but I know they enjoyed their laughter

of smoke swirling out of open windows. At first

we could not figure out why there was an under-
sized round wooden "lid" for the tub, but after my
first experience with the tub's hot iron bottom we
got the point — the lid was a floor.
Members of the "new" labor union demonstrating against
non-Minamata fishermen seeking a 1973 indemnity
against Chisso, and asking the fishermen, "Please let
us live"

52
and their nudging. have had since I was a child in Kansas and would
Our relationships with some of the merchants sneak into my grandfather's smokehouse to cut
in downtown Minamata, a ten-minute drive away, wonderful thick slabs to cook on a wood stove.
worked almost on a double standard. In the privacy Only recently have I realized how close the im-
of a pharmacy, a restaurant, a store, we would often poverished lifestyle on rhy grandfather's farm in
have the friendliest of times with the owners — but Severy, Kansas, was to the way we lived in Mina-
when we met at "Make Minamata Brighter" mata. A portable, collapsible toilet seat was my
meetings where they were participants and we were main concession to Western habits. Going to a toilet
reporters, we might do no more than nod to our in Japan is mainly a matter of stretched ankle tendons;

friends,and they would barely nod back. It was baseball catchers are probably the Americans best
not quite hypocrisy, for we saw in them a kind of conditioned for this exercise.
underground of compassion for our other friends, In Detsuki and the other villages folded within
the patients. We wanted to build that mood; so why Minamata's city limits, normal life is quiet and in-
abrade the relationships in public? grown—a round of fishing, farming, gossip, all quite
Tokyo pitied our "primitive" life.
Friends in different from the experience of living downtown.
But we had sympathy for those living in Tokyo and We moved with village rhythms, yes, but we lived
found Minamata easier. For one thing, it had less where many of the patients were, so the lives we
air pollution. For another, it had the best bacon I knew the best belonged to people who were break-
 .

ing out of normal village life. These were people sit-in that very night. Not a trace of the "trouble"
who had decided to put up a battle, people in the remained the next day.
group or the "direct negotiations" group, who
trial At the festival, one outspoken fisherwoman in
had added to their old world a new one of meetings a colorful kimono remarked to us with a sarcastic
with lawyers, departures and returns from Tokyo smile as she danced in the parade, "See what good
and demonstrations and trial sessions, arrivals of brothers we are?"
out-of-town supporters, worry-filled strategy con- Both bitterness and love run deep. One fisher-
and occasional parties for relief. In their
ferences, man told us, "It's strange. Eighty percent of my feel-
new world they were trying to survive the pressures ing toward Chisso is hate, but the rest is, I guess. .

of Minamata "town" opinion. affection'.'

The Minamata Fishermen's Union negotiations Some citizens are not so quiet. When the "direct
with Chisso for indemnities also proceeded with negotiations" patients pitched their sit-in tent at
an eye on town opinion — but with a difference. Minamata, they started to get
the Chisso factory in
Indemnities for damage to the fishing areas anonymous threatening phone calls and letters. The
long ago became a regular affair, a routine. In one "Make Minamata Brighter" group expands when-
of these negotiating sessions, a fisherman turned ever a Minamata Disease upheaval hits the town.
to the mayor, who was mediating, and said, "We Emotions have run so high that there have been
fishermen and Chisso are like brothers. Mr. Mayor, marches and "leaflet wars" between patients and
you and settle
are like our father. Please step in anti-patient citizens.
this quarrel between brothers. Oh, but remember,

Mr. Mayor, we fishermen are the older brother." Amid the outward tensions, inner conflicts also

The mayor said, "Ah, I understand. But in a go on. Early in Minamata, we became
our stay in

quarrel sometimes the older brother, because he is acquainted with a high school student who came
to our house one day and introduced himself. He
older, must give in to the younger one'.'

Whatever the real feelings of the fishermen that was interested in photography, was an aspiring
journalist, and wanted to talk with me. After that,
night, they did not want the disapproval of the
town. The Harbor Festival was coming up the next he came back many times and we put him to work

day, midnight was approaching, and the mayor was

reading research papers for us on Minamata Disease.

saying that they should settle their indemnity and But he made it clear early in our acquaintance that

end their sit-in right away. And they did. They he had to visit us on the sly, only when he could
signed a contract and cleaned up the debris of the
make up an excuse for getting home late from school.
If found out he had been near us, he
his parents
would be thoroughly punished; his father was an
employee of Chisso who belonged to the "new"
labor union and was very much against the patients
and "this whole business of Minamata Disease'.'
One day we chatted a bit too long, and I drove
him into town so he would not be late in getting
home. As we approached the train station, which
was evidently near his house, we both got appre-
hensive. WhaMf someone spotted him with me?
When we got to the station told him to jump out.
I

He did so in a rush, and I looked around, a bit

worried, to see if anyone who might recognize our
car had seen him jump out. But by that time he
had moved away quickly and squared his shoulders

54
to make himself look like any other school- town still believe that the Cyclator removed all
boy sauntering home. the mercury from waste water, and that surely no
more Minamata Disease poison was emitted after
Myths run strong in Minamata: for example, 1959.
the myth about the Cyclator. The president of Chisso Chisso management wasn't fooled, of course.
drank water "directly" from this brand-new waste- One day when I drew a glass of water from the
water treatment system at its opening ceremony in Cyclator and raised it toward my lips, theman
December 1959, as government officials and other showing us around the factory nearly fell down in
important guests looked on. And
from then on,
so, his haste to stop me from drinking. They aren't
Chisso waste water was considered clean by most using mercury any more, but something must be
people. slipping through the system if they thought I was
"But was fooled" said Kumamoto Prefecture's
I about to poison myself.
former governor, Kosaku Teramoto, who had at- Even the patients were shocked when they
tended the ceremony. "I found out later that that found out that the Cyclator had not worked. But
particular batch of Cyclator water hadn't contained the myth of that Cyclator is so strong in Minamata
waste water from the acetaldehyde process'.' This that just being there makes one half believe in it.

the governor said under oath in court, but even

today, few know of the evidence exposed during
the patients' suit against Chisso. Most people in Preparations for a wedding photograph.

55
Of Human Destruction

From top: sections oj brain from

a seven-year-old boy who died after
four years of mercury eating away
an eight-year-old girl who died
cells;
years 9 months; a thirty-year-
attei 2
old man who did not have Minamata
Disease.
The walls of the crude isolation wards into which a frightened town
thrust the first sick and dying victims of Minamata Disease
are demolished, gone. The dead —
for those of us who came later are, —
as it were, forgotten. Shadows from what we have been told are our
only source of memory. We
never knew the flesh of their laughter,
or their angry shouts. And so we find nothing amiss in the silence.

Today, if you have the courage to reach out to the child poisoned
in the womb, across the barrier of a twisted body, across the
barrier of slurred or nonexistent speech, you find yourself groping
towards the being that does live, somehow, behind the barrier.
Envision as you may, though, you can not project the child normal and
whole, you can not project the child that might have been,
the child not struck by poison. The child itself, can that child ever
have recollections of a beginning? That child is an island, rising
out of unfathomable depths. We have no way to comprehend.

The urgent crisis of a bedridden man, his loving wife caring for him — it
becomes, with time, a boring drudgery, and when the man
and his wife look into each other's eyes the healthy days together
too often are forgotten.

All these memories slip into the dark so swiftly, so quietly, that
already they are lost, or will soon beBut we must wake up,
lost, forever.
We must miss something in what we see of the poisoned child, the
couple making a last long turn. Somewhere in our minds we
must feel an aching vacancy.
When Aileen and held in our hands the diminutive, exhumed skull of
I

an eight-year-old victim who would be twenty-five if she had lived,

we tried to remember as clearly as if it had been our own
experience how alive this child of eight once was.
57
 Toyoko Mizoguchi

The second day we were Minamata, we

in
rented a small, primitive house. It was in the area of
the largest outbreak of poisoning. This was to be our
home for the next three years. We didn't realize,
moving in, that it contained a shrine to the young
daughter of the owners. She had been one of the first

recognized victims of Minamata Disease. Our land-

lord reserved the right to pray in privacy at his
daughter's shrine. Separately I prayed too, although
I am not a religious man. One day the father dis-
covered me praying, and he could read the deep
sorrow in my face. With an embrace, he thanked me
for honoring his daughter with my feelings.

When indemnity money finally came — after

Chisso lost the lawsuit brought by families includ-
ing this one — it was for Toyoko. Her body was un-
earthed, cremated, and a vault was lovingly built to
treasure her.

58
59
 The Ikedas

60
 Not only did the poison corrode living cells, government environmentalists would move rapidly
it insinuated itself into relationships between neigh- from home to home among a select few patients,
bors. Yahei Ikeda was a tatami mat maker until bowing, listening, looking sad and moving on. All
1958, when he became too ill to work. For years, this was dutifully and "objectively" recorded by

while his health crumbled, he and especially his wife reporters and cameramen. One group that came
Natsue disparaged Minamata Disease patients, re- through included Environmental Minister Takeo
flecting the general attitude that there was some- Miki (above, at left), who became prime minister
thing loathsome about the victims of such a trouble. in 1974. At other times the press came, sometimes
Although they live in Detsuki and thus saw signs of by the busload, speaking many languages; a few
a major outbreak all around them, they pushed came to work, but most soon left. Perhaps these
away their neighbors, trying desperately to disas- people were sincere. It was difficult to tell. Some
sociate themselves from the poisoning. Some have spent two hours, some a day, some as long as two
not forgiven them. or three days, to become instant experts. Whatever
Both Ikedas were verified as Minamata Disease the length of their tour, they were satisfied that
victims in 1971. At about the same time, the press they had seen for themselves. They were prepared
and politicians began to take an interest in Mina- to inform the world.
mata, and the Ikedas found themselves on the regu- made
Since I the photograph at the left, Mr.
lar tour route of those heavily afflicted. Ikeda has become so weak that his tiny wife can
One after another, parades of politicians and no longer lift him to help him to the toilet.

61
 Bunzo Hayashida

For years, Bunzo Hayashida's wife kept vigil

at his sickbed. He died two weeks after these
photographs were made. An autopsy
proved he was a Minamata Disease victim.

62
Takako Isayama

the sea
A forty-five minute drive north along
more beaut, u
line ledus to a remarkably the
hills counterpoising
symphony of sharp-etched
sympnonyu y
driving
Minamata has to otter.
sea than
ii and dreams
AUacaWi anu
c Akasaki, u flickered m
to the village ot
mind of buying a home
there.
my
we entered the home
The illusion ended when from
Takako Isayama, who was born wrenched
of
to convulsions
and to help
normality, condemned
people and she
fessness. Her parents were lovely
the oo r
lying twisted on
lovely too, even
1

was parents
never occurred to the
For many years it
had prob-
that T kako had Minamata Disease. They
no one imagined that
never seen a victim, and
ably neve
amy away from
ij strike so far
the poisoning
would
fripnds
friends
When, after urging by concerned
ts source.
daughter verified
applied to have their
th ey finally

64
65
 were unsympathetically delayed —
as a patient, they less poisoned just "feel bad" and might never think
on the grounds that Takako had been born in 1961, of mercury.
a year after the poisoning was considered to have Although helpless, Takako can respond to her
"stopped'.' Never mind that she had every symptom. surroundings. At first she could not speak, but now,
It should not appear strange that the poison aftermassive injections of vitamins and other
had spread to Akasaki.The fishermen follow the therapy for ravaged nerve fibers, she can say,
fish they try to catch, and it was natural for them "Mama!' And when someone brings her favorite
to drift south into Minamata Bay. Or could the fruit, she says, "Strawberries! Wow!"
sea have moved the poisonous waters into the small
harbors of Akasaki?
Takako became the first of many "lost" patients The continual care and attention that Takako receives is not
overlooked by her younger sister, who ofteti hovers above
in Akasaki to be verified. Again, we have to say that
Takako and her mother, trying to get what she feels is her
the true number of victims remains unknown. The share of attention.

66
67
Isamu Nagai

Nagai! The irrepressible Nagai who crawls and

clings and grabs and has acquired a movie camera
and is determined to "blast Chisso out of this world"
with a movie about his confinement at the institute

for Minamata and about the company that

patients,
caused his confinement. The Nagai of tremulous
hands who insists upon making a movie to tell of
his destruction in the womb. Who uses friends as
tripods, his wheelchair as a dolly. no wheelchair, If

a backward drag along the ground for a pull-away

shot. Nagai demanding to be taken out in a fishing
boat to film the company and the bay. Nagai trying
to show the invasion of privacy at the institute.
Nagai showing his anger about displaying his in-

firmities for visitors. Nagai, telephoning us, insist-

ing upon talking to me, knowing neither will
understand the other.
Nagai, who came our darkroom to ask
to
questions to nourish his skills, who was not satisfied
in just watching us print — who was not satisfied

until he had followed our example, demanding that

we hold him in position so that he could insert the

paper, reach the light switch for exposure, then
develop the print, and place it in the fixer. A rather
good print. We mounted and signed it in testimony
that this was Nagai's first.

68
//
I will learn'.'

69
Masaaki on sports day at the school for the deaf and dumb he attends in Kumamoto City.

70
The Watanabe Family

Excerpted from Mrs. Matsu Watanabe's testimony band he said, 'Especially because we have two weak
on July 26, 1972: children, we should give birth to a healthy one.

"When you became pregnant with Masaaki, Later, who else would take care of our children? If

were you troubled?" we give birth to a healthy baby, that child will be a

"I really want

didn't to give birth to Masaaki. brother or sister to take care of them!

My two children had the 'strange disease — and if I

"And prayed, 'Oh, God, God, please save this
I

child! But when he was born, one ear was mal-

had another weak child wondered what in the I

world could do. When talked it over with my hus-

I I
formed. I couldn't take it, and I began to hemor-
rhage and almost died.
"Every day, every day, I thought really what
Eiichi is At every party his unabashed
a born entertainer. should I do, what should I do? In the future this
singing of old folk songs makes his friends giggle with child will live disgraced, and I thought maybe the
pleasure. Through rehabilitation he was able to regain enough
flexibility in his hands to teach himself to play the
two of us should die together.
accordion. That is his mother behind him. "But the midwife told me that medicine was

71
Tamotsu Watanabe.

now advanced. As long as he grew up healthy, there when he cried — but I'm glad I did'.' Mr. Watanabe is

could surely be an operation. recalling the years he took to teach Masaaki to walk.
"After two or three months, since he got sick "All this idealism about crusading 'for the
so often, I took him to the doctor, who said, 'This is world! and so on Hell, I took Chisso to court be-
weird, he's having convulsions. This looks similar cause this disease wrecked my family. I'm glad I'm
to the cerebral palsy that is so common now! I felt fighting against pollution. One has to do that in
the hope that I had finally recovered being taken Japan and the rest of the world. But to say I'm doing
away. And I was terribly depressed. At another hos- it 'for the world'? That's phony."
pital they also said, 'Yes, it does look like cerebral
palsy! After I was told that, I said to my husband, Watanabe had been the first one in the area to
'All of our children ended this way. Should we just get nylon fishing nets. As an expert on shrimp fish-
all die?' But when I looked at the faces of the chil- ing, he commanded a great deal of respect. In late
.

dren I could not kill them. .

'.'
1971 he sold his boats and gear, and quit. "The day
Masaaki was later found to be a congenital I was verified, it was like receiving a death sentence.
Minamata Disease victim. All five of the Watanabes But I'm going to try to enjoy what's left of my life'.'

are verified patients. To the workaday world, he has pretty much said
The Tamotsu Watanabe: "My wife and I
father, the hell with it. He has become infatuated with elec-
fought about it. God, did we fight. She said was I tric trains, video playbacks, and the fine house he
cruel to make Masaaki do it over and over even has built with his indemnity money.

72
 Iwazo Funaba

Iwazo Funaba's wife was standing right there not know him personally and also because there
telling us, "It's all right, you might as well photo- was no way for him to give us permission.
graph him)' but the doctor at the Rehabilitation
Center kept insisting that she was simply too nice But now, in 1971, he was almost gone. All the
to say no and that we could not go in. Mr. Funaba other patients whose hands became so terribly
had no say in the matter: he was dying. had We twisted had died years ago. Finally the doctor said,
known for some time that he came down with Mina- "Okay, three minutes. No pictures of his face, no
mata Disease in 1959, and that his son had died of pictures for TV'.' I took the only picture of Mr.
the poison, but we hadn't wanted to photograph Funaba that made sense to me, recording the fact of
him when we saw him at the Center because we did his hands, and we left. He died two days later.

73
 Jitsuko-chan: A vibrant child who has become a still-born adult.
A loved beautiful human being aborted from useful life by the waste
products of industrial progress. A breathing, haunting, beautiful
nineteen-year-old young lady who will never know a lover. A still complex
and remarkable human being unable to function in any of our accepted
normalities. She cannot walk. She cannot talk. It is said that if

she were to fall into a fire she would not realize her pain.

Jitsuko-chan: No involvement with a human being reacting to her world

ever has disturbed me do you. Trying to photograph you, Jitsuko-
as
chan, is to reach towards a mind that shades its passages so
rapidly, I am frightened I am making grievous mistakes of perception.
I do know that to me, every photograph I have made of you is a failure.

74
The Tanaka Family

It was Tanaka
the spring of 1956. Four of the six until Shizuko died.
children were in elementary school. The Tanakas At home, Ayako, a fifth grader, became the
lived, and still live, just yards from the seashore head of a family. Her mother was away nursing her
among a huddle of houses called Tsubotani ("jar- sisters, and her father was seldom home, piling shift

abyss'' for the sudden plunge of a hill to the little upon shift of work, trying to pay hospital bills. Sani-
harbor opening into Minamata Bay). Shizuko, the tation officials, pursuing a disease they believed to
fifth child, was to enter first grade the next year. be contagious, came to spray the house, the clothing
Jitsuko, the youngest, was three. and the children. When Ayako shopped, store-
The seashore was Shizuko's and Jitsuko's back keepers would accept her money only with chop-
yard, their playground, their land of adventure. sticks. Mr. Tanaka would find vacant seats around

They loved to follow the tide out, seeing what trea- him even in a crowded bus. Former friends ran by
sures it had left for them to discover. They were the house, holding their noses.
exuberant and devilish children, and they would Today, Ayako, now
and the other Tanaka
29,
shout in glee when they could gather some edible children wear soul-numbed masks that vanish only
shellfish that they knew would bring praise from when someone can ease them into smiling.
their parents. They just vibrated with life, and they Strangely, somehow, it is in Jitsuko — rocking
would often shout to others to come home with back and forth, slowly twisting finger against finger
them — have some tea, have some shellfish, "Come — that, for brief shadows of moments, we can see
home with us, it will be fun!" Mrs. Tanaka cherished the charm that this family once had. I love the
their energy with a friendly heart. family, but it is through many layers of scar tissue
Then on April 12, Shizuko fell ill. On the 28th it that they can be seen.
was Jitsuko. Mrs. Tanaka would spend the next seven
years nursing Shizuko and Jitsuko in hospitals.
Shizuko was in such convulsive agony that her
mother carried her, night after night, back and forth Neighbors, the curious and newspeople overflowed the
Tanaka home when the trial judge and his associates came to
in the corridors of the hospital, so that her screams Minamata to take direct testimony from the patients or
would not keep other patients awake. She did this their relatives.

75
"I would ask for nothing else
if only I could return to my former body'.

76
The Hamamoto Family

Tsuginori and his sister Fumiyo are the last of

the Hamamotos living in Minamata. There will be
no children to follow them. Their parents died of
Minamata Another brother and two sisters
Disease.
have moved away. Tsuginori is crippled and Fumiyo
sacrificed several chances for marriage while tak-
ing care of her mother, who lived on for nine bed-
ridden years after their father had died.
"In a word, I'd say my father was self-confident.
In fishing he was a professional, and he was not
about to be outdone by others. His personality was
outgoing. His body was sturdy, his voice was big,
and he was brusque and plain-spoken'.'
So spoke their older brother at the trial for com-
pensation for their father's death.
"He always believed in the power of his way of
life, that if he went out to sea he could always sus-

tain his family well. One might say he had the guts
to fit the sturdiness of his body. Anyway, he was a
father we could depend on.

"He would say of the day's catch that the fisher-

man must eat the biggest, finest fish. 'Hell, people
put out money to buy fish — but this kind of large,
good fish has got to be eaten by the fisherman. If he

17
lets others eat 'em he'll get jinxed!" Tottering to the boat, he had to be helped On,
mid-September of 1956 Sohachi Hamamoto
In and then he fell into the sea when the wake of an-
drank with house guests and then went to bed. When other boat passing by rocked theirs. Tsuginori pulled
he went to sleep he was his normal self — but the him out of the water and found himself shouting at

next morning when Tsuginori awakened him, he was his father, "I told you you shouldn't come fish-
that
"crazy." He swung slowly up, and then he stared all ing in your state. You just keep still!" They
the way around him. He could not hear very well. quarreled.
Even when Tsuginori told him the time, he could And so it happened, so suddenly, that within a
not understand. When he tried to get up and go to few days was reduced
his father's sturdy confidence
the toilet his feet did not work right. Also, he could to helplessness. Each day the family took him to the
not get his zon's on correctly. When Tsuginori told hospital in Minamata, and each day he got worse.
him he'd better not go fishing that day, he got angry: His wife could no longer hold him down by herself.
"What in the hell have you all ever been able to do On the fourth day, they finally hospitalized him at
without me?" And so he went. Kumamoto University.

(Below) (Right) Tsuginori moves his legs with difficulty, yet manages
Fumiyo Hamamoto, roasting tea leaves, is a tough, few
to cultivate a tangerine-like mikan trees. For a while his
blunt protester and negotiator. condition seemed to improve, but it is now growing worse.

78
Tsuginori moving insecticide spraying equipment into his developing in Mother.
small mikan groves. If unaided, he falls many times.
"I don't know how many times we asked the
doctors to please, please kill was unbearable
him. It

to see him like that. And Mother would say, over

He kept getting worse. They moved him to a and over from within her own increasing daze, that
separate room and tied his limbs down with ban- she wanted death to come to him quickly."
dages. Even so, he craze danced, he said words that Death did not come quickly, nor was it given.
did not come out as words, he salivated, he The convulsions became more frequent. Even un-
convulsed. conscious, he would tear at the walls and at his own
Three of his children took care of him. He did body — feet, head, hands — with his fingernails until
not sleep, and was given sleeping shots. When nurses the nails were torn and his body bled. Two or three
tried to tube-feed him, he would often vomit the days before he did die, his eyes no longer moved.
tube. His periods of convulsion, short at first, Seven weeks after the day he fell ill, he was dead.
lengthened as the days passed. "Mother would look Doctors at Kumamoto University made an
at Dad'' Tsuginori remembers, "and just stand there 8 mm film of Sohachi Hamamoto shortly before his
— tears
dropping from her eyes — looking dazed. death. Those who have seen it say the film is an
Then we realized that the same symptoms were agonizing study of human destruction.

80
 The children did riot tell their mother when the marriage in the year she was twenty-five.
father died. By that time she was already bedridden Nine years passed. The mother died. And
in .mother ward. "So we lied to her and tried to keep Fumiyo knew she had lost so many chances for her
the shock from her," Tsuginori says. "It was now we own life.

children who were the family."

For Fumiyo, taking care of her mother was a
crusade, thankless though it may have been. She
An eloquent speaker in spite of speech impediments,
believed utterly that somehow, if she loved enough, Tsuginori has gathered sympathy and money from many
gave care enough, trusted the doctors enough, that crowds support of the patients, rallied many a meeting of
in
patients back from discouragement. Here (center, with cane)
her mother would become well again. She believed
he walks out of the courthouse in Kumamoto City, flanked
this so strongly that she turned down ttvo offers of by a sympathizer at left and a Chisso lawyer at right.

81
 *

mM
r->.(.

82
Flags of Vengeance
 Er>£H after death, we will remember
what you have done to us'.'

84
 The rage of the patients had to be felt, not only smothered.
by patients but by the whole nation. They needed "Vengeance'' the closest translation of the
the notoriety that their supporters brought them, as Japanese character on these flags, does not mean
well as sympathy, to keep a spotlight on Chisso and revenge. It means something more intense, almost
keep their uprising alive. The snapping of flags in mystical: that we shall pursue you to justice, and
the wind, the chants of marching supporters, the even then we shall not forget.
sometimes outrageous demonstrations, these finally,
truly, crept into the conscience of a nation. This was The most courageous, the most rebellious, the
a cry from the wounded that was not to be most flamboyant of all was Teruo Kawamoto. have I

85
mentioned him before and mention him many
will
times again. He was in the "new" generation of
patients verified in 1971, from which eighteen rose
up and tried to negotiate directly with Chisso.
Kawamoto and his group said to the company, we
must look each other in the eye.
Kawamoto, his closest associate, Takeharu
Sato, and a few followers caused a storm that
changed the awareness of a nation. That awareness
influenced all decisions made about Minamata Dis-
ease from then on. The "direct negotiations" group,
more than any other single force, took the issue out
of a closed power system and put it into public
domain. This, even as desertions reduced the group
to aband of twelve.
The story of earlier failures to force Chisso to
negotiate were a part of Kawamoto, since many
"old" patients were his neighbors and friends. He
was determined that this time no patient, in or out
of his group, should be bullied or fooled. For the
first time, hundreds ofyoung sympathizers rallied
to the support of a Minamata Disease group. In
December 1971 months of fruitless effort to nego-
tiate with Chisso in Minamata drove Kawamoto and

his supporters to pitch a scraggly tent in front of the

dignified office building that contained Chisso's
Tokyo headquarters. It was comparable to a rag-tag
army pitching its headquarters in Rockefeller
Center. They placed huge photographs of patients
along the walls, displayed books, frequently had a
cooking or a warming fire smoking near the curb,
and hung their laundry and bedclothes between the
trees that separated the sidewalk from the street.
The camp was a terrible eyesore, as it was
meant and if patients did not often stay there,
to be,
supporters were always there to guard it. It seemed
always in jeopardy. Rightists or police seemed
always on the verge of tearing it down. But no mat-
ter how much the tent gnawed on the nerves of
Chisso's management, they did not want the addi-
tional exposure they would get by destroying this
symbol of defiance.
At one time, the mayor of Minamata came into
the tent to "reason" with Kawamoto, to persuade
him to return to Minamata and negotiate there. But
Kawamoto felt that in the hostility of that Chisso
86
87
 Patients of thetrial group and members of a Minamata
committee rally in support of the "direct
citizens'
negotiations" group on the steps of the Tokyo building that
housed Chisso. Fumiko Hiyoshi, the speaker, we
privately and affectionately called "Fireball"

88
domain, where so many people wanted the problem
ignored, the rights of the patients would also be
ignored. All who had tried in Minamata had been
smothered.
The "direct negotiations" group kept the pres-
sure on and the news media reported the noise and
showmanship, the walk-ins, sit-ins, hunger strikes
and sieges. Platoons of supporters gave weight and
sound with their presence; "name" backers began
coming to the tent to sit in for stretches of time.
Chisso was becoming jumpy, especially when its
managers locked the group out only to find they
were locked in by the mob outside. Finally manage-
ment came to Kawamoto, and said all right,, we'll
talk and try to get this straightened out — but only,
it turned out, to insist as usual that "new" patients

were not equivalent to "old" ones; they would have

to seek their satisfaction from the same third party
as always, the Central Pollution Board.
Tactics reverted, again, to guerilla war.

89
 Teruo Kawamoto's rise to infamy in minds like
those of Chisso's managers, and to a status not un-
like folk hero to many others, started in late 1971
when he launched the frontal attack of the "direct
negotiations" group. But for many years this slight,
ordinarily quiet, rather shuffling stranger had been
dedicated to a search and a crusade.
He lives, as he did in childhood, in the Detsuki
area of Minamata. His father, a fisherman, began to
suffer numbness in the fingertips, staggered gait, and
crazed ways about 1959. This convinced the son that
the father had the disease. The son also began to
feel the symptoms.

The indemnity contract of 1959 between Chisso

and the Fishermen's Union contained a clause that
any union members who quit fishing could join
Chisso as employees and their children could be
temporary workers. The young Kawamoto became
a probationer in the carbide plant. He was kicked
out of the company during the long strike in which
he sided with an embittered minority, the "old"
union.
He then went to a nursing school, and in 1962
took a job in a small mental hospital which also
served as a clinic for Detsuki. There Kawamoto ob-
served many people with physical troubles and he
Teruo Kawamoto.
became aware that many of them showed symptoms
of Minamata Disease. The implication was that the
sickness was affecting far more than just the criti- lage writing letters and getting no answers. He felt

cally ill. He also concluded that many who were deeply and angrily that much was still being hidden.
critically ill with Minamata Disease were not veri- He applied for his own verification in 1968, and be-
fied because of the pressures in Minamata to "hide" gan to encourage others to apply.
the disease; doctors, government, Chisso, and even During that time, he also began to ride his
victims themselves hid it. bicycle, after work, often without eating supper, to
He applied for the verification of his father, but destinations and for reasons that his wife did not
the father died before judgment was passed. It con- quite understand. He was gone for long hours, fre-
tinued to prey on the son's mind that his father quently returning after midnight even though he had
surely had Minamata Disease, until finally he dug to get up early for work. It became an almost nightly
up the body and carried it to Kumamoto University affair. He was bicycling to places half an hour to
to ask for an autopsy. The university never replied. two hours away.
Kawamoto began to write letters, demanding Kawamoto — this frail man in his light wind-
responses to his suspicions. He wrote to the univer- breaker, pedaling alone with his thoughts, pumping
sity, the mayor, the city hospital, the Minamata against the and the often poor roads in the dark
hills

Human Rights Protection Bureau. "What happened — was going from home to home, visiting those who
to my father, what happened to my father's human were sick, especially those who were chronically ill.
rights? I know he died of Minamata Disease, why He became more than ever convinced that he knew
do I not receive confirmation?" A little man in a vil- enough of the symptoms to determine those who
90
should be checked further, or who should apply for Verification Committee, along with applications he
verification. had urged many other suspected victims to file. They
He began to talk longand urgently to those were rejected again in 1970. Kawamoto searched out
who would listen to him, tugging on coatsleeves, a way to appeal to the national Ministry of Health
demanding of even such doctors as Masazumi and Welfare, charging- improper research and
Harada (see medical report) that they must pay heed neglect on the part of the Kumamoto committee.
to his findings. Minamata Disease, he told them, was With this appeal, he and the others won verification
much more widespread than they had thought. in 1971. So began the "direct negotiations" group.
Mostly they paid little attention; this layman was And so began the crusade. Kawamoto had no
perhaps a little crazed. Some, like Harada, finally job, no one in the group had money.
came around to his way of thinking when they saw
the undeniable evidence before them.
After jamming the iron gates of the Chisso offices with his
Meanwhile, Kawamoto's application was body for five hours, Kawamoto was helped to the tent
turned down by the Kumamoto Minamata Disease by supporters.

91
92
 Although Kawamoto and his co-leader Sato
kept the voice of their negotiating crusade at high
volume, few patients had the stamina to keep it up
day after day. As hard as these patients fought, the
company and government might have been able
the
to keep their flame from igniting public opinion — if
ithad not been for the oft-shrill, oft-vulgar chorus
of supporters, mostly young people, who formed a
disciplinedand fluid mob, giving weight to the sit-
ins, manning the tents, collecting money, publish-

ing handbills, crowding the negotiation rooms,

adding psychological tensions.
At times, it appeared to me that they could be
doing more harm than good, might be alienating the
public by behaving as "irresponsible radicals)' a
favorite line of Chisso's.
One day, embarrassed by the words being
shouted during a demonstration, I scribbled on a
card: "When you go young students,
to the gates,
shouting 'kill Chisso, kill Chisso) you are neither
practical nor wise — and it should come as no sur-
prise if you are repulsed with the same vigorous
physical indignation that you project. In grouping
together to force an issue, you should not pretend
innocence when you are answered in kind. Yet the
world needs such as you, young students, for it is
difficult for the few and the poor to keep such issues

alive'.'

Kawamoto, who must have been embarrassed

at times, was stuck with them, and he stuck by them,

and they stuck with Kawamoto even after the press

had left — and it apparently paid off.
The workhorse group of militants belonged to
an organization called Kokuhatsu (To Accuse) cre-
ated solely to aid Minamata victims. But the sup-
porters in general were students, dropouts and
various other people. When supporters were needed,
they would just materialize. Some came when they
could and left when they had to. Others stayed the
whole time.
Which reminds me of one supporter who often
appeared, a dungareed, harsh-voiced, militant pro-
tester. Frequently, that same night we could see him
at his job — as an immaculately dressed, melodiously
calm newscaster on national TV. The government's
own. Yet he never mixed his roles.

93
The Goi Incident

January 7, 1972, is a day that will long endure A runaround began. The union's Mr. Natsume was
in my mind. "in conference'.' The appointment had been with
It started with Kawamoto's group traveling an "one person, not a mob'.' Kawamoto: "I will go in
hour and a half to Chisso's plant at Goi to keep an alone'.' He said he would wait as long as necessary.

appointment. ended with patients being mauled

It The messenger walked away without answering.
and me being seriously injured. My equipment was A newsman demanding to use a telephone to
destroyed. meet a deadline suddenly vaulted the iron gate. The
Chisso had ordered union members from Goi to patients' supporters, triggered by this, rushed for-

serve strong-arm duty in front of their Tokyo offices. ward. The guards, I believe, suddenly opened the
Kawamoto considered this wrong and made an gate, and the heat cooled. I photographed Kawa-

appointment with the head of the labor union to moto through the open gate; he was hunched
discuss why a supposedly free union was providing slightly, as usual, talking to the guards, his hands
manpower for this company-ordered anti-patient
action.
Patients, supporters, and newsmen arrived at The last photograph I made of the Goi incident just as I was
the gates of the Goi factory at the appointed hour. being hit.

94
In his pockets, and I laughed at this "riot" scene.

He and a few followers took a leisurely walk into

the gatehouse. When I followed them, nothing was
happening but conversation. A guard invited me to
have a chair. I thanked him.
More waiting. More bad faith. Now it was
claimed the labor leader had by another en-
left

trance and was on hisway to Tokyo. Kawamoto

asked the guards to make a number of calls; finally
he got a promise that Natsume would telephone
upon his arrival in Tokyo, at 3 o'clock.

some of us
Shortly after 1:30, the guards asked
to leave, as they hadn't eaten and wanted room and
a moment of privacy. The supporters complied, ask-
ing only that Kawamoto be allowed to rest on a cot

in the back room. back with folded arms, laughing.

was relieved and pleased that a dangerous sit-
I Chisso had up — they, by damn, were
set us
uation seemed to be under control. A single phone going to intimidate the patients and take care of
call setting up another appointment would lead to that foreign journalist. I'll stake my life that no
a trouble-free departure. 3 o'clock call was intended.
had been aware of the black company cars
Yet I They had made a serious mistake. The beating
moving slowly by, surveying the scene, and of of a respected American journalist loosed an ava-
guards making frequent trips deeper into the fac- lanche of unfavorable publicity upon Chisso, and
tory for exchanges with men in work uniforms. it gave increased respectability to Kawamoto and

I was uneasy. the Minamata cause: if Chisso were really like this,
Suddenly, a mob
workers rounded a factory
of people said, maybe the patients were right. If I had
building to converge on the gatehouse. I made a to suffer the injury, I took consolation in the fact that
dash for the building, thinking of my wife, not of it increased nationwide sympathy for the patients.
news. The mob pinned us in. A man started barking Chisso issued a written statement immediately
orders. I guessed (correctly) that he had been a ser- after the incident: I had become hysterical and in-
geant in the Imperial Army. Three minutes to get jured myself. This made me more furious than did
out — every exit blocked. the actual beating. We demanded open meetings
Aileen screamed, "They aren't going to let with the assailants, and we demanded retractions.
Kawamoto get the 3 o'clock call!" We met several times; Chisso offered a statement of
They hit. They hit me hardest, among the first. "regret^' and offered pay medical fees without
to
After my cameras, perhaps. The last exposure, bad, admitting responsibility, if we would withdraw legal
blurred, shows the man on the left, his foot at that charges filed with police. I said I wanted their lies
moment finishing with my groin, reaching my cam- corrected publicly. They had vandalized private
eras. The man on the right was aiming for my property — my reputation. Chisso's legal represen-
stomach. Then four men raked me across an up- tative privately said if they were to tell the truth it

turned chair and thrust me into the hands of six who would be used against them. said, "Of course'.'
I

lifted me and slammed my head against the concrete They retracted nothing, they admitted nothing.
outside, the way you would kill a rattlesnake if you The company's behavior gave me an intimate look
had him by the tail. Then a toss outside the gate. at the frustration the patients had endured for years.
Dazed, I rolled to my feet, shaking with a fury I decided not to sue. I could not be both plaintiff
to kill. The gates rolled shut and the mob stood and journalist.

95
 In January, after the Goi incident, Chisso put up
made
4 the bars that
moto and the
Kawa-
a fortress of their office.
Kokuhatsu group invented ways of
rattling the gates, so to speak, such as bringing in a

J
makeshift altar and Buddhist priest to intone
a
prayers for the victims, or gathering victims and
supporters to bullhorn demands and pleas through
1
the corridors. Occasionally there would be a brief
dialogue with a Chisso manager on the other side of
the bars. Once, the patients sawed for hours, cut-
i
ting two or three small bars by hand. They knew,
of course, that it would get them nowhere. It was
strictly psychological, just to say, "Remember, we
K ;

* *s f are still here'.'

k "

96
 The protesters never seemed to win any con-
clusive battles, yet they remained a most powerful
force in shaping the battle for the patients' future.
Their tactics — Kawamoto's catalytic, spiritualistic
campaigns — changed Minamata history.
At the same time there were middle-class and
upper-class city business people who began to feel
that Chisso was being badgered by wild, irrespon-
sible radicals and perhaps even illiterates. Many
found themselves pitying the company.
To those who read headline stories only, tactics
can often obscure the issues; watching what was
happening, I found myself wondering how often the
impressions of issues become so obscured as to re-
verse identifications.
When victims sue, when victims protest, when
a desperate move causes public disruption of the
daily status quo, it becomes terribly easy to reverse
the roles of the protagonists. Too often, it is some-
how quite easy to believe that those who seek justice
after being injured are the attackers, and that those
who have caused the injury are the victims.

Frustrated patients circle behind Chisso's Keiji Higashidaira

as they leave another unsuccessful meeting.

98
99
 Patients holding down a Chisso official, demanding angrily
that he look them in the face.

100
101
 .

Sketches From the Days of Protest

A
couple of days after the Tokyo tent was Tokyo, back in Minamata the Fishermen's Union
pitched, the "direct negotiations" group met with was getting very upset about the two fishermen in
Chisso's president Shimada at the company's head- the "direct negotiations" group. The group was
quarters. By the thirteenth hour of the session, the drawing too much public attention to Minamata
president was slumping in his chair. Kawamoto was Disease. The union clearly indicated that it would
nestled close to him. The two seemed almost in a expel the fishermen if they did not come home and
trance. Kawamoto began to talk. It was hard give up insisting on direct negotiations. Being ex-
to determine if he was talking to himself or the presi- pelled from the union meant being destroyed pro-
dent. "My father. he had Minamata Disease too
. . . . fessionally; it meant losing your fishing license. One
and died — died all alone, his throat blocked up, in a of the fishermen left for home immediately. The
mental hospital ward. You're lucky. You're alive'.' other stuck it out until direct negotiations began to
Kawamoto was crying. On impulse, he reached for seem absolutely hopeless. Then he too dropped out.

Shimada hug him. The president bolted up in

to
surprise. That night Shimada was carried off on a One day a woman in came to the
her thirties
stretcher with high blood pressure. tent in Tokyo. She was dressed in a kimono and wore

The patients and supporters then settled down her hair in a bun. She had read about the Minamata
in an alcove extension of the president's office and patients' sit-in and had come to give a contribution.

continued to insist on talking to someone equivalent She became enthralled with what she saw, sold the
to the president. Managers not only left the area, sushi restaurant she owned and managed in Yoko-
they disappeared; the protesters took to calling on hama, cut her hair, changed to slacks — and between
the inter-office phones, trying to track down some sessions with the patients, went to a massage school.
executives, but were told by the employees that no Even while learning her new profession, she would
responsible person could be found. Soon the police tirelessly massage anyone who needed it during the

arrived and evicted the supporters, leaving Kawa- long days and the all night sit-ins. She now lives in
moto and a few other patients in the room. Minamata, helping the patients in any way she can,
Many people, hearing the news on television, often going from home to home giving massages.
came to offer encouragement. Food also appeared
from unknown places, and contributions and tele- There were occasional accusations of injuries.

grams of support arrived from all over town. One day Chisso claimed that Kawamoto had kicked
Two weeks passed. The patients occupying the their guards in the shins — with a splint he was wear-
Chisso offices felt that something was going to hap- broken toe he sustained when,
ing to protect a
pen soon. It did. Shoichi Kuga, head of Minamata Kawamoto claimed, Chisso guards had stomped on
Disease Relations, arrived with money. "Mr. Kawa- his zon'-clad feet.

moto, Mr. Kawamoto'' he said, coaxing nervously, On other days, after the routine failure to open
"let's go to a hotel and talk man to man'.' Kawamoto, negotiations, supporters and Chisso guards would
a little startled, refused. Kuga finally gave up and often clash. The battles took place on the fourth-
left, only to appear a little while later, serve an evic- floor stairwell in Chisso's building, or near the iron

tion notice on the and quickly leave again.

patients, bars, or at elevator entrances, or sometimes on the
Silence fell. Then the police arrived and removed all street in front of the tent. Chisso made numerous
the intruders. complaints to the police and Chisso employees even
pressed charges against Kawamoto personally for
While the sieges and sit-ins were going on in injuries they said he had inflicted on them.

102
 All these tactics offended Chisso's sense of got neuralgia, infantile paralysis or are alcoholics,
logic. The lawsuit filed against the company at least or what? I've sent a letter to that idiot Kawamoto'.'
followed sensible procedures, but the fighting and And, "Those patients just talk about themselves
the attempts at direct negotiation did not fit its idea and don't examine themselves in the least. There's
of order. absolutely no necessity to feel compassion towards
In the middle of the whole affair, Chisso put out them'.'

a pamphlet subtitled, "Can Violence Be Permitted And, "Besides, they ate weak fish and got sick
in the Name of the Pursuit of Responsibility?" In it because they felt like it'.'

they stated, "The direct negotiations patients refuse

toenumerate the damages they have sustained, and It was difficult to be a "direct negotiations"
instead they demand a blanket answer to their group member Minamata during this time.
living in
indemnity claims. And when we do not comply, The situation in Tokyo was dramatic, but in Mina-
they continuously press in on the main office with mata it was forlorn, and some began to have doubts
their violent student supporters assaulting our em- about the whole thing. One day a doubter came to
ployees, demolishing furniture, obstructing com- a firmly committed woman and suggested that they
pany business. One would have to say that trying to meet in Yunoko, a nearby hot-springs resort, to dis-
force agreement to their excessive demands by the cuss things. When the committed woman arrived
use of this type of violent conduct is lawless to an there, she was surprised to see not only some other
extreme degree In order to make progress in in- "direct negotiations" patients but Mr. Higashidaira
demnity negotiations, it will be necessary to research from Chisso. What surprised her even more was the
the facts of the matter, laying a base for a decision, comment, "This time there are nicer tea cookies
and have the aid of a public agency. Therefore,
to than there were the last time'.' How many times had
we have suggested to the patients that the question they met privately like this? She found it a rather
of indemnity be settled by the Central Pollu- unsettling affair, distastefully pleasant, but got the
tion Board'.' point that was a rendezvous for "friendly mind
it

changing'.' Rather uncomfortable, she left. The

A number of Minamata citizens were alarmed patient who had invited her soon left the "direct
by the behavior of the "direct negotiations" group. negotiations" group.
Their feelings led to leaflet wars; one day the pro-
patient side would insert a sheet of comments into
the daily newspaper, the next day the pro-Chisso
side would insert its sheet, and so on back and forth.
Supporters of Chisso said:
"Patients! What will remain in Minamata if you
crush the company? Who will guarantee our
livelihood?"
And, "Because you despise the company and
because of your greed for compensation money, you
make it sound as if Minamata Disease is still going
on right now."
And, "Why money
should or jobs have to be
given to such people when one can't tell if they've

103
 Teruo Kawamoto as he challenges the Central Pollution Board.

104
 Kawamoto: "I really feel
sorry for them. By the time they
find out what's happening,
it will be too late'.'

Then the patients had a close call — not just the On January 10, Kawamoto's people startled the
twelve still pushing for direct negotiations, but the board by making a rare appearance in the meeting
other hundred and thirty newly verified victims who room. One after another, they needled, harangued,
had decided to put themselves in the hands of the coaxed, rested, then started pushing again. "You
Central Pollution Board. mean to tell me" Kawamoto would demand, "that
The Board had been making some seductive you have a document here with this man's name on
promises: Decisions on indemnities would be fast, it" — pointing to one of the "leave it up to the other
fair, easy — no need to march like the "direct negotia- people" patients — "and
you won't let him see it?
tions" group, no need to scuffle in the streets — and Come on!" After hours of this, a board member put
best of all, not even binding. If you don't like what on the table the thing Kawamoto was after, a fasci-
you get, you can appeal or sue.
But, Kawamoto kept telling his closest sup-
porters, things can't have improved so suddenly. Be
suspicious. Stay away from the board. Yet there One of the illegal documents.

seemed nothing he could do about it; spirits were

low in the summer and fall of 1972; direct negotia-
tions were stalemated, public support was slipping,
and a cold, miserable winter lay ahead. Why
shouldn't a weary victim invest some hope in an
agency that looked so benign?
The hope
"direct negotiations" group's only
was the trial verdict, expected in March 1973. The
Central Pollution Board, however, was going to an-
nounce its own decisions before then. What if, as
rumored, it wouldgivedisappointingly small awards
to all but the most seriously ill of the newly verified
patients? Would that not hurt everybody's chances?
Could anyone possibly stall the board long enough
to make sure the trial verdict came first?

On the night of January 8, Kawamoto appeared

at our door Minamata, looking vibrant for the
in
first time in weeks. "We may have discovered some-

thing pretty awesome" he said. "If you want to see it,

be sure you're in Tokyo on the tenth. We're going to
the Central Pollution Board. If this goes well, it's

going to be explosive. If it doesn't, I could end up in

jail'.'

105
nating document signed by many patients who part of the group.
seemed to be turning over power of attorney — in- Other patients crowded around, exclaiming
cluding their right to accept or reject their own over unusual deletions — entire lines roughly crossed
indemnities — to a small
group of representatives. It out by a Magic Marker — and strange discrepancies.
would not make the decisions of the board binding, "Wait minute!" someone shouted, "That guy's
a
exactly, but it was a step in that direction. These dead! How could he have pressed his chop to this?"
representatives were patients themselves; one pa- (The chop, a personal stamp made of wood or rub-
tient, however, was amazed to see himself listed as a ber, is as binding in Japan as a signature in the U.S.)

Accusations.

106
1 1. mils grabbed for the document. "Look! Her ad- leading patients who might have wanted to settle
dress is wrong. She'd never have pressed her chop to problems harmoniously for other patients and for
that 1ley! That's my name, but it's not my chop. Minamata so much that they saw no harm in shading
What the hell!" thingsabit. Who knows? At any rate Kawamoto had
In the melee that followed, a number of sup- achieved his purpose. The-scandal over the forgeries
porters were dragged out by the police. Board mem- stalled the Central Pollution Board. Their decisions,
bers stoically denied charges that they had as Kawamoto had hoped, would not be announced
encouraged forgery. Suspicion turned to some of the until after the trial verdict.

Denials.

107
108
109
 Waiting for Government

Points gained did not mean victory. The government

bureaucracy was ponderous. Officials would usually
still let

the patients in, but then it sometimes took hours to

get ati answer to one question. Politely, tenaciously, the
patients sat it out.

no
Ill
 i

The patients have never signed away their spirit

of fun. At their parties, they turned free and easy and
natural. They found natural therapy without thought
of therapy oranyneed for labels. liked these parties.
I

Iliked them because of their sheer exuberance. I liked

them because no one cared how much I was drinking
— the glass was always full. liked them for the love
I

I have of folk dancing, folk singing.

I shall cherish always such moments as first see-

ing Mrs. Sugimoto dance, a dance so coquettish, so

flirtatious that I could feel only the smile of romance
and warmth. Her dance was very stylized and I as-

sumed it was traditional. Later, much

was to later, I

learn that the lovely dance was stylized somewhat by

tradition, but more by hands that were nearly inflex-
ible and by a body that she had to overcome. She had

improvised on her handicaps and she was

triumphant.

112
113
Waiting for Chisso

Patients penetrated as far as they could, then held their

ground— on many nights sleeping wherever they could.

114
v m
^ m
< :
The Trial

.4lawyer for the plaintiffs speaking in front of the Kumamoto

Courthouse.

116
 "It was not a trial we could win,
it was a trial we had to win"

days of 1959, after the Minamata pollution victims had

In the final
signed the mimai contract, both Chisso and the government thought
they had "solved" the problem. With this conclusion to the social issue,
Chisso's managers may have thought they could return their undivided
attention to industrial matters.

But less hundreds of miles away in the city of

than a decade later,
Niigata, Minamata happened all over again: mercury poisoning from
the effluent of an acetaldehyde process. After a slow, almost accidental
recognition, symptoms that appeared in 1966 became known as
Niigata-Minamata Disease. The supportive groups formed to aid these
new patients were first stunned and then outraged when they began to
realize that this outbreak need never have occurred, if only something
had been done in Minamata. Some Niigata victims swiftly took the
chemical company Showa Denko to court. Since Showa Denko's
factory was forty miles upstream, this action was not thwarted by the
local pressures and loyalties that had subdued the Minamata patients.

The Niigata victims journeyed to Minamata in January 1968 to gain

knowledge and obtain support. The fighting spirit of the Niigata group
inspired a rebirth of spirit among patients in Minamata, a feeling that
they must face up to their situation. After repeated disagreements
among themselves and evasions by Chisso, one group found itself
forced into a desperate move. Twenty-nine families representing
forty-five victims launched a lawsuit against the company.

That was June 14, 1969.

They were scared. To most country folk, a lawsuit represented

117
 walking back into the courtroom, being
Eiichi Nishida, thoughts he had at that time. "We had taken on an
badgered by propagandists.
awful responsibility. I and Hiyoshi-san (the head of
the committee) felt that if we lost the lawsuit, we
would have plunged the patients into quicksand. If

something fearsome. It was generally believed that that happened, the only way we could beg the pa-
"lawsuits take ten years, twenty years . . . people end tients' forgiveness was to tie our necks and hang
up with horrible debts and never win'.' And now they ourselves'.'

were in a lawsuit entered unwillingly. It was a last re- The Citizens' Committee was an oddly assorted
sort. They know what else to
didn't do. group of Minamata residents brought together by
A Citizens' Committee had recently been the realization that they had been deaf to the pa-
formed by non-victims, and some of its members felt tients' needs from 1959, and the wish to make up for

an overwhelming responsibility to the victims for that. They were only a handful — a school teacher or
the decisions that had led to the lawsuit. Tsutomu two, a city hall worker, a few laborers from Chisso.
Matsumoto of the group shudders at some of the But they totally joined the victims' cause and were

118
 .

vital in the upcoming struggle. Tsuginori Hamamoto testifying:

The Citizens' Committee and a group of young
Being born a human being,
supporters from Kokuhatsu promised the patients
that they would raise money for trial expenses. The
but not being able to
supporters began their campaign in the streets, try- live as a human being,
ing to stir up a nation's interest in the cause of Mina- is the most painful thing to me!'
mata. The issue naturally attracted political
attention, but there was
no time for partisan quarrels.
The patients grasped for the hands of all who sin-
cerely came to help. And most of those who came to
help became dedicated, not on ideological grounds Another Chisso lawyer had written textbooks which
but for what they found when they grew toknow the the presiding judge, Jiro Saito, had once studied.
patients. The radical student, the fisherman who still Only Chisso management knew what the plain-
felt allegiance to the old Imperial Army, the dropout tiffs needed to expose. Only Chisso management had

new-left student, the Chisso unionist, the old lady the information necessary to convict themselves.
bewildered by the goings-on but sure of her belief There was no choice. The plaintiffs had to gamble;
that her husband's lost life must be atoned for: dur- they called Eiichi Nishida, an engineer who had been
ing the trial, a cast of such performers created a head of the Minamata factory during the time of the
humanely magnificent alloy. outbreak. Unwillingly, Nishida was to become the
The trial was to be long and laborious. Never plaintiffs' star witness.

had anything quite like it been attempted in Japanese The trial sessions occupied two days of each
history. The Niigata uprising deserves every respect month, and on the first day of a session we would
— but this was a far more entangled situation, and had
far less chance to succeed.
Legally, the situation was very grim. There was
the 1959 mimai contract, with its clause that even if

Chisso were proven guilty it would not be liable for

more payments. And there was the matter of the
thirteen-year lapse since the outbreak of the poison-
ing. Perhaps if the plaintiffs' lawyers could convince
the court that Chisso had coerced the victims into
signing, that Chisso had used social and psychologi-
cal pressures to prevent them from reopening the

contract, that Chisso had continued its negligence

even after 1959 . .

How were the patients to go about proving and

winning their case? Desperate meetings were held
with the lawyers. No one on the plaintiffs' sideknew
the inside of the factory as a whole. No one knew
the inner workings of Chisso management. They had
managed to gather a considerable amount of frag-
mented information, clues rather than proofs — cer-
tainly not enough evidence to win a lawsuit.
The victims' legal group was spearheaded by a
rather inexperienced but idealistic young lawyer.
Chisso hired as their chief counsel Hajime Kaneko,
considered to be Japan's foremost expert on civil law.

119
gather with the patients to await the chartered bus university physicians were seriously alarmed, but
for the two-and-a-half-hour trip to the courthouse in they reasoned that announcement of an outbreak
Kumamoto. On the second day, after the session, the would cause public hysteria, so they kept their in-
trial group would return to Minamata. We dreaded vestigations quiet.
these return trips, for the patients insisted that almost Another group of physicians in a small local
everyone aboard contribute to the merriment of re- clinic, however, heard about the cases and decided
laxation after a trial session. I went through agony. I that silence might bring on a major disaster. To make
had to sing but I couldn't sing. On each occasion, I sure the silencewould be broken, they talked to a
did a kind of shout version of "St. James Infirmary" reporter for the Communist paper Red Flag, who
or my happy song, "My heart Belongs to Daddy'.' I then talked to the university physicians, indicating
was always applauded, aswas everyone, but the pa- that he was about to break the story. That did it. In a
tients thought my performance was some kind of hastily-called press conference, Tsubaki revealed that
special American singing. therehad been an outbreak of methyl-mercury poi-
soning on the outskirts of Niigata. The number of
victims eventually approached five hundred.
The search for causes Showa
led quickly to a
Denko factory some forty miles up the Agano River
from Niigata, and in 1967 to the Niigata lawsuit. Well
before that trial, the plaintiffs' lawyer and the clinic
The Niigata Discovery
doctors had made sure everyone knew of the poison-
ings as "Niigata-Minamata Disease"
"Why?" we asked them later. "Why drag Mina-
The methyl-mercury poisoningin Niigata might
mata into this, since everyone knew from the start
have passed unnoticed except for several freak
that it was a generic thing, methyl mercury?"
coincidences.
"Because , awkward as it sounds, we want every-
A medical student at Niigata University was
one who hears of this to realize that it isn't just Nii-
listening to a lecture on poisons one day inl966when
gata's problem" they said. "It's industrial
little local
the professor began reading a description of the
pollution, and there is no better way to remind peo-
strange cases Minamata. The student suddenly
in
and hideousness of it than to
ple of the needlessness
said, "Hey! There's a patient who has those symp-
fold the name of Minamata right into the middle of it"
toms right here in the university hospital'.'
"Really?" said the professor, and he went to see
for himself. He found a whose case had been
patient
baffling the hospital for weeks. The man certainly
seemed to display the symptoms described in the
textbook, but the professor had never seen a Mina-
mata Disease patient so he could not say outright Aileen, who understands Japanese, found the
that this was a case of methyl-mercury poisoning. trial sessions incredible. Nishida was in the witness

There it rested until a few months later, when a chair for over a year. Under tedious questioning,
professor transferring from Tokyo, Tadao Tsubaki, mumbling answers that were sometimes almost in-
arrived at Niigata University. It happened that Tsu- coherent, heleaked out truths that the plaintiffs
baki had seen some methyl-mercury poisoning cases slowly pieced together.

in which persons treatirig athlete's foot had over- Chisso, for instance, had widely and success-

dosed; he soon diagnosed the mysterious symptoms fully proclaimed that the installation of the Cyclator
as methyl-mercury poisoning. in December of 1959 had made the factory waste
Several more patients, all from thesame area of water "safe!' This excerpt from the trial testimony

the suburbs, arrived with similar symptoms. The suggests the quality of Nishida's testimony:

120
I
121
 .

Lawyer: ". . . in other words, did you think that of his torment emerge.
(the waste water) which went through Hosokawa's entire professional life had been
the Cyclator was safe?" with Chisso. The company had given him a job and
Nishida: "Well, that is..'.' thena career when he was young, impoverished, and
Lawyer: "That is?" struggling to get into practice. By the time he became
Nishida: "That is. ..At that point. ..I don't head of the factory hospital in Minamata, his chil-
know." dren's friends were the children of other Chisso man-
Lawyer: "I'm asking you whether you thought agers—the Nishidas in particular— who lived as
it was safe or not'.' neighbors, and Hosokawa was looking forward to
Nishida: "Well, ah, at that time, you see, I retirement.
thought that putting it through the The first victims of the "strange disease" came to
Cyclator — safe, well not
.

.
'.'
his hospitalfor help, and he was the first to report the
Lawyer: "Of course you didn't think it would outbreak of the apparent epidemic to the Public
be, is that correct?" Health Department. He plunged into research that
Nishida: "Ah, well, yes'.' ledhim to discover that it was poisoning, and then
Nishida's evasiveness and his self-contradictions all began to suspect his own factory as the source. As he
through the year made him appear either a humbler pressed on, he and his assistant shared a troublesome
or a liar. He no awareness that scien-
also displayed question: "What comes first, to bean employee or to
tists and engineers should feel a moral responsibility, be a physician?" But he would not share the responsi-
should show concern for the effects of technology on bility that he felt was truly his; sensing trouble ahead,

humanity. he made it clear to all that the experiments under way

Hajime Hosokawa, on the other hand, was
Dr. in his laboratory were his doing, not that of younger
inwardly quite torn by conflicting loyalties and re- doctors under him.
sponsibilities. The testimony he gave from his death- He had begun feeding cats all the poisons that
bed proved to be one of the heaviest blows the com- might produce the same symptoms as fish from
pany could possibly have sustained. As head of the Minamata Bay — manganese, selenium, thalium . .

Minamata factory hospital, he had told Chisso that None seemed right. Then mercury came under sus-
it was the poisoner, but had allowed himself to be picion. "I wanted toknow as soon as possible whether
silenced. things were white or black'.' Hosokawa found out that
the factory's acetaldehyde facility used mercury, and
something told him he was getting close. Perhaps too
close. Thinking of his company, "I was a bit hesitant
and found it difficult to begin that experiment" he
testified. "I did )iot talk about it'.' Finally, he had his

assistantdraw effluent from the acetaldehyde waste

pipe, and fed it to his four-hundredth cat.
The Enigmatic Dr. Hosokawa On October 7, 1959, Cat #400 fell ill. While
Hosokawa watched, it convulsed, salivated, and
then suddenly whirled at terrific speed, crashing into
We can merely guess at the feelings that Dr. Ha- the laboratory walls — exactly the behavior he had
jime Hosokawa locked up within himself during the feared he would see.

last ten years of his life. If this physician was sure as He reported the result to Chisso management.
early as 1959 that hiscompany's effluent was causing The next time his assistant went out to get acetalde-
Minamata Disease, and knew that Chisso was trying hyde waste water, he was stopped by a guard. In a
to conceal its guilt why had he remained silent? Only
, November meeting, Hosokawa was told that there
when lawyers for the patients asked him to testify on would be absolutely no more experiments connected
his deathbed, at the trial's beginning in 1969, did some with Minamata Disease.

122
 same mouths, fishermen and patients
/;/ those the real— the same waste water as before" When he
who knew nothing of all this had pushed Chisso into sent the bodies of cats to Tokyo University to be
negotiations, and the company was telling them, autopsied, they "disappeared" and Hosokawa — al-
"There proof that Minamata Disease
is no scientific ready into semi-retirement— retired. Even rebuffed
is caused by Chisso" as a prelude to offering token by his company, he did not speak. As the years went
payments — and as prelude to the clause specifying by, perhaps he felt Chisso's guilt was plain enough

that no signer of the agreement would make any fur- for all to see without his going around slinging more
ther claim iti the future, "eve)} if it becomes certain mud on the company's name.
that Minamata Disease resulted from industrial And yet, on the first anniversary of his death,

waste water discharged" by Chisso. the patients built a little shrine in front of the court-
Even while he was doing the cat experiments, house, with his photograph and candles and incense,
patients would call Hosokawa a "company dog'.' He and prayed in front of it. We were surprised. They
did not speak up. At first, perhaps, this quiet, con- have good reason to hate him for keeping silent. And
servative man could not bring himself to pronounce yet, who in Chisso ever took their side? He testified,

his company guilty on the strength of one experiment, and it was really the last thing he did.
one cat. "I asked them to please let me continue the We visited his wife on his home island of Shi-
experiments" he testified, "but it was no good after koku. Having heard reports of what Eiichi Nishida
all . . answer was not affirmative" Surprisingly,
. the was saying on the witness stand, she said, "I wonder
in mid-1960, Chisso relented and let him start again, what my husband is thinking in heaven'.' And she
but only with waste water the new factory manager continued, "As they say"— it's a Japanese saying—
sent to him. "I don't know whether it was or was not "the dead have no mouths to speak'.'

123
124
 Chisso's defense is summarized in this quote The intensitywas almost too much to take. Wit-
from a Chisso publication: ness after witness tore down the dams of privacy, they
brought forth their shames, their sorrows, their

Needless to say, lawsuit a critical point

hatreds, their sufferings, their fears — they laid bare
in a it is
their hearts and minds and their years of desperation.
whether we are legally responsible for the disease or
At times became so intimate that all but the court
it
not. VJe, of course, could not foresee that the effluent
officials had to leave. And still it was clear that even
from our plant might cause Minamata Disease; fur-
this flood of words could not recreate the tragedies.
thermore, we exerted our utmost effort to take the
But how much weight would it carry legally?
best measures for the treatment of the effluent from
How much would the court take into account?
time to time as suitable. Therefore, we believe that
March 20, 1973. Verdict day. Crowds. Many
we committed no fault or omission so far as the legal
people had camped out all night. A jungle of print
responsibilities are concerned. Moreover, a recon-
and television reporters that the plaintiffs had to
ciliation agreement was concluded in 1959 and still
penetrate to get to the courtroom. Every one of them
remains in force. In this connection, we believe it
was there. They pressed solemnly through the ex-
reasonable to insist that we are not legally respon-
cited crowd outside the Kumamoto District Court-
sible for the disease.
house, finally reaching the calm hush inside. For the
Chisso side, only lawyers came; there were no cor-
The patients, who had been so shy and with- porate executives to be seen.
drawn in the beginning, gradually turned into know- Somehow, and the hope that the trial
the spirit
ing fighters with strong and vocal convictions. symbolized had seemed to grow thin since the end of
Murmurs, strong remarks, derisive laughter, and the trial sessions. No one doubted it would end in
angry shouts of contradiction or shock would often "victory," but there were few smiles on the faces of
punctuate the testimony, accompanying each new the patients. True, it would be a humbling of Chisso,
disclosure or challenging the testimony. Rage and vindication for the patients' stand, but today
mountedagainst the ways in which the company had would be "cash" day, the spirituality of the crusade
operated in disregard of all restraints. was very un-
It held in abeyance. At home Minamata, we have
in
spartan as courtrooms go, and the judge was rather heard, the streets were virtually empty; the event was
lenient about these outbursts, although he allowed being televised, and the citizens, both pro- and anti-
them only brief expression. patient, were waiting for the news bulletins that
The plaintiffs had sued for compensation — and would unalterably affect the whole town, no matter
to gain atonement for their dead. They wanted to what the verdict was. The "leave it up to the other
gain something more for a life than judgments based people" group was also listening carefully to learn if
upon the worth of individuals as lumps of labor and they could get more money if the court awarded the
potential earnings. plaintiffs far more than they had received.
During July 1972, the court came to Minamata After photographers were herded through three
for a grueling week-long session. The judge, his asso- minutes of picture-taking, the judge's voice broke the
ciates, and his staff truly earned my respect during stillness in the courtroom. was indeed victory for
It

this time. It was a time for the patients to testify in the plaintiffs. Their demands were met in full: a maxi-
their own setting. In suffocating heat, the judge, the mum of $68,000 for deceased or severe cases, a mini-
lawyers, the supporters, and plaintiffs crowded the mum of $60,000 for less severe cases.
small homes. They heard years of suffering summed Itwas an historic occasion, setting a monumen-
up in questions and answers. tal precedent. Chisso management, so glaringly ab-

sent from court, held a press conference at a nearby

hotel. "The decision was more severe than we ex-
Kumamoto Courthouse on the eve of verdict day. pected" they said. "No appeal will be made'.'

125
 Verdict Day:
March 20, 1973

126
127
128 Judge Jiro Saito.
 The Verdict
An Excerpt

". . .must be said that a chemical plant, in discharging

It

the waste water out of the plant, incurs an obligation to

be highly diligent; to confirm safety through researches
and studies regarding the presence of dangerous substances
mixed in the waste water as well as their possible effects
upon the animal, the plant, and the human body, always
availing itself of the highest skill and knowledge; to pro-
vide necessary and maximum preventive measures such
as immediate suspension of operation if a case should arise
where there be some doubts as to safety. in the final anal-
. .

ysis ... no plant can be permitted to infringe on and run at

the sacrifice of the lives and health of the regional
residents
'The defendant's plant discharged acetaldehyde waste
water with negligence at all times, and even though the
quality and content of the waste water of the defendant's
plant satisfied statutory limitations and administrative
standards, and even if the treatment methods it employed
were superior to those taken at the work yards of other
companies in the same industry, these are not enough to
upset the said assumption . the defendant cannot escape
. .

from the liability of negligence'.'

Kumamoto Court
District
March 20, 1973

129
Face to Face at Last

The patients themselves moved quickly after the verdict. One group
immediately left Kumamoto City for Minamata. They entered the
Chisso plant, ready to enforce their legal right to secure property in lieu
of payment until the payment was made. But Chisso had the
money on hand, and checks totaling $3.2 million were turned over
that very night.

Another group of patients, including members of both the trial group

and the "direct negotiations" group, took the night train straight
to Tokyo. They were headed for the Chisso offices. For the first time,
they were going to negotiate as equals, "with our heads up, unashamed!'

The trial verdict had set damages for the injuries that Chisso's
mercury had caused. Now
the patients were hoping to negotiate for the
continuation of life: medical fees, medicines, therapeutic massages
and hot baths, nursing for the bedridden, transportation to
and from treatment, and an allowance to live on. If the court victory
was a grim satisfaction, the upcoming negotiations were to be a delicate
130
tightrope walk. The trial verdict applied only to the 1959 patients
who had actually filed as plaintiffs, and indirectly to other "old"
patients; in every mind now was the status of the newly verified patients.
Kawamoto's group had kept the issue alive, but the problem
of indemnity for all newly verified patients remained unsolved.
For the "direct negotiations" group, the dreaded Central Pollution
Board decision would be coming up, probably all too soon.
They hoped that the surge created by the court verdict would break the
long stalemate in direct negotiations.

On March 22 they stood by the sit-in tent in front of Chisso's Tokyo

headquarters. Before they entered, there was a moment when the
patients looked apprehensively up to the offices on the third and fourth
floors, and people from Chisso looked down equally apprehensively
at what was to them an ominous crowd. It was the tense beginning of a
new relationship. Each side would have to seek out decency,
reasonableness, even mercy in the other so they themselves
could survive.

The two sides came together in a third-floor conference room made

smaller by the crowd of supporters that had come with the patients and
the reporters covering this most intimate of exchanges. To the
patients, the great question would be, how do we continue to live?
To the company it would be, how do we survive financially?
Itwas a moment of terrible summation. And there was silence. At last
they were all, truly, face to face.
131
 .

President Shimada, pale and resigned, entered

the room followed by his advisors. The scramble of

cameramen, the noise of their equipment, did not

break the intensity of the moment. The president
bowed. In a few words he soberly expressed his apol-
ogies and the legal responsibility of Chisso.
Hesitation . .

"Mr. President..'.' There were no lawyers, no

expert spokesmen.
Yoshiharu Tanoue fumbled a slip of paper and
began to read from it. "Well ah . . . . . . Chisso will ac-
cept all responsibilities concerning Minamata Dis-

FujieSakamoto, mother of a congenital Minamata

Disease patient, holding a microphone to the face of
President Shimada.

132
case. .according to the court decision.
. . .and will day of negotiations accomplished the signing of this
pay with sincerity alldamages arising from Mina- paper, with no modifying clause attached.
mata Disease'.' Tanoue's speech impediment stretched On the second day, the iron bars that had
his words and his nerves and the nerves of the blocked the main offices upstairs were removed. The
patients anxiously leaning forward in their chairs. negotiators moved to the fourth floor. Finally the
Chisso argued logically that since it looked as patients were negotiating within Chisso proper.
if there might be thousands of claims, itwould be Now the concrete demands.
only fair to add, "to the best of Chisso's ability." The The company might not be able to meet
said it

patients replied that sincerity had to come from faith all of them. The patients staked their debate on
and not from hesitation and added clauses. The first death, on crippled life, and on ways to live their

H ,'

^. I
ruptured tomorrows: emotions against business so hard to negotiate with your company, but you
logic. would not be sincere about it'.'

"I have come to you, Mr. President, to negotiate Kawamoto had been seated on the table now
for my future. A few days ago the price for my par- for what seemed to be hours. There was a long
ents' lives was... We come to ask not for luxuries silence. Kawamoto seemed almost lost in thought,

but for medicine to ease our pain, and for peace to in a world where he saw just the president's face, no
die, knowing our poisoned children will be cared one else, no newsmen in the background: he was
.

for. .
'.'
(Miss Hamamoto, her strong voice quaver- alone with the president. It was silent. Shimada and
ing): "Every penny spent will be spent with tears. Kawamoto stared at each other.

My parents gave me life as a woman, but I have had Kawamoto (quietly): President, do you have a
to become like a man. "I am Fujie .
.
'.'
Sakamoto. Do religion?
you know who I am? No. I see. I was a plaintiff Shimada (transparently, to Kawamoto alone):
against your company. One of my daughters — she Yes. I am a Zen Buddhist.

fell ill, she suffered, she died. My other daughter is Sarcastic snickers came from supporters in the
in this courtroom, you can see her. What more can background, but it seemed that neither had heard.
I you? Surely you are human, surely you must
tell Kawamoto: Ah. And your wife, too?
understand. "I know you do not know who I am.
.
.'.'
Shimada: My wife is Christian
But you ought to, because my wife and I, we tried Kawamoto: Ah, yes. Do you pray?

134
 —

Shimada: Yes. I have a small room with just a Suddenly, after more than a week, Kimito Iwa-
shrine in it. I have all the patients' names written moto, a newly verified patient, got up, shaking vio-
there, and I pray lently. "I can't stand this any more! You can see for
Silence. yourself. If I don't get the indemnity money, I can't
The patients continued to insist that neither live!" He leaned over, grabbed a glass ashtray,
chemistry nor modern medicine men could repair smashed it on the negotiations table, and slashed his
what chemistry had taken away. What was left for wrist. At the spurt of blood, supporters near him
the patients was money that might ease the strain of rushed forward. The president, nearly in shock,
survival, and vindication of their stand against the could be heard above the bedlam, saying, "Yes, yes,
company. yes — we will pay."
Creeping progress. The drudgery "of literally His legal advisers were shocked, too, for the
hundreds of hours of negotiations, the arguments president had set a precedent of basic payments to
repeating themselves far into the night. At times it all newly verified patients. In a few weeks, the Cen-
seemed like being anchored in prime concrete. tral Pollution Board followed: $68,000 maximum,
Chisso: "We have added up the cost of your $60,000 minimum, and a monthly allowance for all

demands. We justArguments chang-

cannot pay it'.' patients.
ing imperceptibly. Observers numbed from the By early 1975, Chisso would pay out indemni-
repetition. ties of more than eighty million dollars.

135
To Chisso: "You don't have
the freedom or the right to go bankrupt.
The question is not whether you
can or cannot pay; you are responsible
for paying. You must take care
of what you have done, to the end'.'

* c
President Shimada

137
On the day of the patients'
victory at court, someone
wrote a headline: "The Day
that Tomoko Smiled'.' She
couldn't have cared less.
She couldn't possibly have
known. Tomoko Uemura,
born in 1956, was attacked
by mercury in the womb of
her outwardly healthy
mother. No one knows if
she is aware of her
surroundings or not.
Tomoko is always cared for,
never neglected. Her family
knows that those who live
must live on.
BMMUMHBHMi

139
 Canada:
Half a World Away

c
CarlK.n

140
 In December of '1973, Gene got
from a letter tients; test a few of the people over there'.'

two private citizens in Ontario, Canada, who were I did. I cannot quite express the feeling I got.
fighting a lonely battle against mercury and destroy- One man, who had already tested high for mer-
ing their main source of income in the process. cury in the blood, described a tingling sensation of
They were owners of a large tourist camp on the the fingertips, a heaviness in the back of the head.
English-Wabigoon River, which had developed I checked was constricted. And
his visual field. It

some extremely high levels of methyl-mercury then he asked me, "What are the symptoms of Mina-
contamination. mata Disease?" It was difficult to tell him that he
When Gene went back to New York to be had just named three in a row.
treated for the injury inflicted on him at Goi, took I The messages from Japan became more urgent.
the opportunity to go to Canada and see for my- Doctors experienced in Minamata Disease offered
self. Soon I was writing to friends in Japan, "It is to analyze brain tissue from suspected victims in
just unbelievable how this situation parallels Mina- Canada, if any were made available.
mata— the same same cover-ups'.'
stupidity, the I interviewed Canadian government officials.

In May 1970, the provincial government an- Dr. G.J. Stopps, senior medical consultant for
nounced that fish in the river contained some mer- Environmental Health in Ontario's Ministry of
cury, but that it would "go away" in several months. Health, told me, "No clinical symptoms have been
They banned commercial fishing while allow- found as yet'.' (I later learned that only five people
ing sport fishing to continue. Officials put up "Fish had been tested thoroughly.) Also, "Our experience
For Fun" signs along the river: fish for the fun of it hasnot been like the Japanese experience. Something
but do not eat your catch, the government warned. — eating habits, the environment — something must
Not very practical for the Indians in the area who have been different over there to cause such a
have always fed their families with fish. The "Fish massive outbreak'.'
For Fun" signs mysteriously disappeared. The attitude among government people seemed
After private citizens found mercury levels to be one of extreme caution — to disturb nothing,
ranging from a low of 0.1 ppm to a high of 27.8 do nothing until there was absolute proof that
ppm in the river's fish — with many ppm measure- symptoms were occurring. And they seemed reluc-
ments in the teens — the
government admitted that tant to accept the proof — the existing symptoms —
some mercury levels in local fish were thirty times that was staring them in the face.
what was "acceptable" at the time. The average was Experiments conducted by the federal govern-
about the same as Niigata's in 1965. ment, feeding cats and mink with English-Wabigoon
The mercury came from the chlor-alkali plant fish, seemed to provide too little proof to make the

of the Dryden Paper Company, but the govern- government move. Cats, I am told, fell ill between
ment had made no move to prosecute. Dryden had six and eight weeks. Even now, at the beginning of
cut its dumping of mercury down to a level well 1975, the Canadian government is debating whether
below the "safe" point. But it was later disclosed to make the results of these tests public.
that mercury in the fish would not come down to For several years now, the provincial govern-
"safe" levels for seventy years. ment has tested mercury levels in the hair and blood
As I learned fact after fact about the mercury of the people of the region. But it happens that tests
levels in the fish and in the people of the region, I have always been conducted in the spring, after the
made telephonecalls to both Niigata and Kumamoto river has been frozen all winter and mercury levels
to ask the professional opinion of doctors
and law- in the blood are way down because the Indians
yers. They expressed shock and dismay: "No, no, have eaten fewer fish than they do in summer. Still,

this is serious. They must not continue to eat the even in spring, some have shown extremely high
fish. If the level of mercury is as high as you say, levels. An
employee of the Canadian Broadcasting
they will have the symptoms sooner or later. Aileen, Company stated to me that the government "threw
you've seen enough clinical tests on Minamata pa- away" test results showing the ten highest blood
levels ofmercury among the Indians of the area.
asked a responsible Canadian official why
I

they did not test at the end of summer, and he said

there was no way they could get to the region with-
out landing their airplanes on ice. This is just not
true. The English-Wabigoon's biggest tourist busi-

ness is in the summer; tourists land in airplanes

equipped with floats.

It is not as though the health officials are igno-

rant about methyl-mercury poisoning. From what I

observed, they had abundant information, includ-

ing a great deal of published data from Minamata
and Niigata.
Then why all this inaction? One answer is tour-
were sixteen tourist camps on
ism. Last year, there c
Carl Rav-

the English-Wabigoon River. They were all fly-in

camps and they were all doing business. Wealthy
people from the United States, especially from the
Chicago area, come to fish. Some Indian guides have
told me their orders are to prepare meals of freshly
caught fish for the tourists them as and eat with in Canada?" I tell them yes. Yes, but they do not
they have always done. The guides say they have seem to want to put it to good use. Are we who
been told never to mention mercury. A tourist who know about Minamata Disease not explaining it
happened to know about it and asked received a well enough to them? What more do they have to
letter from one camp owner saying, "The rumors know? We have already had our Niigata and
regarding the so-called pollution have been highly Minamata. Must we have more? When will people
overrated, and reports have been blown way out of realize that the world is not made of compartments,
proportion ...'.' that what happened in Japan can also happen to
In Kenora, a town that thrives as the takeoff the Chicago businessman who carries an airplane
spot for these tourist camps, Frank Newstead, man- load of frozen fish back home? He might not think
ager of the Tourist Association office, told me, he is susceptible, but he is as human as the Indians
"Why, that problem they had over in Japan, that and the Minamata people. Perhaps — let us hope-
was marine fish. This is river fish, so it's not the poisoning in Canada will not reach epidemic levels,

same problem at all'.' I told him that there is little but it will be too late to do anything for the victims
difference between marine and river if the mercury if it does.
levels are comparable. He said, "Science is so ad- As talk to my friends in Minamata about
I

vanced that they detect almost anything. I bet you what have seen and heard in Canada, they shake
I

they could detect mercury in your shoe there'.' Tour- their heads. "Won't we ever learn?" they say. I wish
ists who drop in are never told about mercury un- the Canadians could hear Minamata patients speak
less they ask specifically about it. But how would of Canada as though it were just as close to them
they know to ask? The attitude in Kenora seems to as any other part Minamata area.
of the wish I

be, "What you don't know won't hurt you'.' somehow that could make those people in Canada
I

Apart from a few frustrated crusaders in Can- feel the anguish in the eyes of the Minamata patients

ada, the gravest concern seems to be expressed by for the patients-to-be.

the doctors, lawyers, and people of Minamata and
Niigata. They asked me after my return to Japan,
"Do they have the most recent medical information Rapid* of the English-Wabigoon Riser in Ontario Canada.

142
143
 Home Again

144
Money has invaded the villages of Minamata. Over at the Watanabes'
the summer after the verdict, Tamotsu Watanabe said, "Do
you want to see something?" And he showed us a stack of calling cards.
There must have been over a hundred. He separated them into
two stacks: "These are cards from the mass media people who came in
March right before the verdict. You should have seen them,
they were sometimes outside in line waiting their turn for an interview.
And these here are from the crowd that started coming on
the day the media people stopped, verdict day'.' He flipped the cards.
"From the bank, from another bank, from the labor bank, from
the post office— you know they have a banking service, too — from a
furniture chain store, home builders — and on and on. You
know, this plastic leanback chair, those blankets over there, lighter,
fountain pens — all from the bankers who came to this shabby
old place asking us to invest our indemnity money. One place even
offered us a free trip to Hokkaido if we would put our money
in their bank'.'

Some had been so scarredby the ostracism attached to their illness that
they dared not use their money openly. One man, more neurotically
145
146
affected than most, secretly bought some mikan
groves, and was so fearful that other villagers might
find out that even in his own house he whispered
the news into his son's ear. Others have used their
money to defy the years of ostracism. Houses are
now going up which are openly called, depending
on their price, "One person's share'' or "one and a
.

half person's share .

'.'
Families that had been broken
up by the hardships of the disease are reunited, but
with an edge cut off the family feeling. Everyone is
aware that it is money that brought home
partly
children who had strayed away during the hard
times.
The sound of $60,000 reverberates in every
village. Many who staunchly denied having the
symptoms are finally bending to the promise of
that much money. We are a little embarrassed that
it saddens us less to see a stubborn fisherman vigor-
ously denying that he has symptoms of Minamata
Disease because he is worried about the image of
Minamata fish, than to see him give in and get
his rights.
At the same time, the sickness is not going
away. The people set out every morning to this
hospital or that clinic. They commute conscien-
tiously to hospitals, hot springs, masseurs, and then
some throw up their hands in frustration and go to
a bar or just stay home and watch TV. Feelings
cannot remain intense forever. Life goes on, and
one tries to cope day by day.
Amid all this, the people try to search out a
future.
In the fishing village of Modo, a truck now
comes to sell fish to the former fishermen and
women. Eiko Sugimoto — fisherwoman to her roots
— still goes on teaching her children about the sea

147
in spite of the fact that the Sugimotos have decided with these hands, when they help me with a heavy
they will not fish until the Minamata area is safe bucket or when my body gets stiff and numb and
beyond all doubt. whichever son is around the house has to help me
"Mama, mama'' says Eiko's youngest son, "are at the toilet, I want them to know that being
those ripples out there made by the wind or by together means a lot to me. This house is the symbol
sardines?" of my body. Even after I'm dead, these walls will
"They're sardines, my dear'.' She passes on the shelter them. They understand.
lore: how to tell between ripples made
the difference "I built this house in two stories so that they

by a school of sardines and waves made by the could always look out at the sea, to have Modo
wind. cove right below them and to remember Minamata
"You know, Ipondered a long time about how Bay just beyond.
to use my $60,000 — especially because we cannot want them to remember the sea. We will
"I

fishnow. We'd taught our five boys ever since they surely get it back some day. Maybe not in my genera-
were old enough to understand that the sea was tion and maybe not even in theirs, but if they can
our purse — that no matter how tough things were, remember the sea and teach their children about it,
we'd all go out there together and each would do someday, I swear, surely, we will get it back'.'

what made our family a real family

his share. That's The government has decided that for safety
and I was so proud of them. That's why I spent the it is necessary to fill in or dredge all the Minamata
$60,000 and put it all into one thing: this house. Bay area where the bottom mud contains twenty-
Thank God, none of our five boys was born with five ppm or more of mercury. Minamata Bay will
Minamata Disease. become an enclosed harbor and will be lost as a
"When my children see me washing dishes fishing area.

Health surveys reveal that nearly one-third of the children

born in Tsukinoura, Yudo and Modo during the peak
of the Minamata outbreaks show some mental deficiency. In
such cases, the effects of the mercury are subtle; none of the
children will ever be verified as a congenital Minamata
Disease patient. Parents who would never admit that a child
is affected are haunted by the possibility.

148
149
Shinobu: To Gather a Life

In the Yudo section of Minamata,

a young woman goes on living with her family.

The years in the courtrooms, the negotiations, is held erect by a tripod and pulleys. Thirty or more
the public battles have splintered the people of of us surround it, each ready to haul on ropes that
Minamata's villages into factions. Now, a semi- and drop it, over and over.
will raise the pole
normalcy begins to return as those not completely The wooden log-rod donging heavily on the
disabled by the mercury settle back to the business earth, THUDD. THUDD. . . .drives the heart into
of daily living. an unstoppable rhythm. With each thud the pole
thrusts into the ground. The singing begins, timed
The Sakamotos are a big, strong clan of farmers with the pull . . THUDD, pull THUDD. A big sake
. .

and fishermen around Yudo, a village built on a little bottle is passed around and around. All in unison
harbor. Aunts, uncles, cousins — all the relatives stick pulling, singing, throbbing.
together. All of them are very strong, hardworking, "ONE... TWO... ONE TWO THREE! OHO
hard playing, rugged people. When Gene and I think YES OHO YES OHO YES, YEYS, YEYS!" THUD
of Shinobu's mother, we see a woman with big pull THUD!
clouds behind her, standing open-stanced, looking and exuberance weld the
Exertion, intensity
straight at us; such unornamented strength can scare group together, along with sake and the porno-
a city person. graphic limericks that traditionally leap from the
Shinobu's family recently built an extension to dotsuki rhythm. These limericks are concocted in a
their house. These days, some people bring contrac- free-for-all, each inspiring another embarrassingly
tors in to do the Sakamotos did it the
job, but the more vivid one . . . then an old lady comes up with an
way they always have. A date was set and family ancient limerick that tops them all, to the shock of
members came from all over the countryside. Other everyone. And everyone joins in the chorus of "ONE
villagers came too, so the family and the neighbors ...TWO... ONE TWO THREE! OHO YES OHO
together tore down an old shed and leveled the YES OHO YES, YEYS, YEYS!"
ground. All the factions were there. The Yudo have been set up.
Inside the house, long tables
branch of the Sakamotos were staunch members of Some of the women are in the kitchen, and Mrs.
the trial group; even so, "leave it up to the other Sakamoto is guiding the whole enterprise of getting
people" people helped out. Two years ago that all the cooking done for the evening feast that fol-

would have been unthinkable. lows a dotsuki. Each woman has a certain area she
By afternoon everyone was getting a bit tired. knows about, and they're all bustling about, full of
It was time for the dotsuki to begin. purpose. Wandering silently among them, her shoul-
Pound the womb of Mother Earth! ders swaying with her uneven walk, retreating from
Harden the foundation! time to time to an alcove on the dark side of the
For a dotsuki, a huge log, like a telephone pole, house, is Shinobu.

150
There is both resigned patience and
unresigned courage in Shinobu.
151
 Three weeks before Shinobu was born, her borne her. and we had a healthy baby in our arms'.'
. .

sister Mayumi — almost three years old then — sud- But within a few months they found that Shinobu
denly began to waver while walking. also had the sickness. Now they know that she had

Shinobu was born on July 20, 1956. And on been poisoned by the mercury while in her mother's
July 21, Mayumi entered the hospital at Kumamoto. womb.
By then she was blind, pale, salivating, unable to When met Shinobu she was fifteen. She moved
I

walk or swallow well, and suffering from convul- with difficulty and could not even add four plus five,

sions. Mayumi home alive.

never came but she is so beautifully lyrical, with an intuitive
To Mrs. Sakamoto, Mayumi had been "a child humor. Strangely, I feel a soft comfort when she is

given to us after eight years of a childless marriage — present.

and taken away from us before she was three. There Somehow, I do not want to write too lucidly
was no grace. And yet I consoled myself that it had about all of Shinobu's struggles — either the ones that
been an exchange of life. God had taken Mayumi she must painfully realize everyone can see she is

away from us but had given life to Shinobu. had I having, or the more intimate ones — because she is a

152
 .

young woman, a girl so delicately approach- bell rang, she was taken to the office, where all the
ing womanhood, struggling and tender. And yet teachers had a quick conference. They couldn't
something compels me. Perhaps it is Shinobu's own locate the principal, they didn'tknow how to locate
desire to have her feelings expressed. her parents. They finally found out who she was and
When we speak to each other, Shinobu must brought in Tamotsu. "Is this your older sister?"
repeat her words many times. The words do not "Yes;' Her stay in
he sighed. Well, that did it.

come out smoothly; her tongue often gets tangled. normal school was brief. A teacher drove her home,
At the beginning did not realize that her word that
I where she got a scolding from her embarrassed
sounds like "daidin" is actually my name, Aileen. parents.
Now have learned to understand her better.
I "I think I was naive" Shinobu says. "I knew
they wouldn't let me stay for good, but I wanted to
Every day, Shinobu would take the bus north try even if it were just for two days. I really thought
across town which was actually
to "special school'' that if I asked the teacher, 'Could I come here for
a public school with one special class for handicapped three days?' that they would let me stay one day in
children. The normal children could walk south to normal school'/
the local school. When she was twelve, her younger
brother Tamotsu entered first grade of the local From the time she was little, Shinobu knew she
school. Then even he walked south every morning had Minamata Disease.
with his schoolmates. "But I couldn't understand why. I had not eaten
One day Shinobu decided to ignore the north- any of the bad fish.Why was sick Idid not eat if I

bound bus and walked south. She walked as fast as the bad fish? I asked my parents but they would not
she could with the other children but finally they all tell me the answer. I did not want to ask too often . .

passed her by. She arrived in the courtyard of the I did not want to be a nuisance, but when I did, it was
local school a bit late but managed to sit down in the as if . they seemed ... to flee from me.
. .

back row of a class in session. When it ended and the "One time my mother and I were alone in the

153
154
 . .

"Takendon! . .

Takendon! " the echo .

from the misty outdoors

is heard inside the house.

The villagers are calling

her father's nickname as
they all come back from
fishing. Shinobu is inside,
and her voice is
sometimes like soft
murmurings from
another world.

house and I asked her, 'What kind of disease is Mina- "I remember I thought, 'Why do we special class
mata Disease?' Mother was quiet and then left the kids have to back of the bus? After all, we
sit in the
room. I think she felt it would not be good for me to are all the same human beings'. That is the trip when
see her cry. I felt warmth and hate too. Mother had I found out how I got sick. I overheard my teachers

gone out to the harbor where the sea was. I ran and talking. One of them said about me, 'Oh, she's a
followed her. We stood far apart and watched the congenital patient, one of the children who were
sun set. It was half an hour. The sea. It was so... born sick because their mothers ate the poisoned
somehow beautiful. I was thinking, 'My sick- fish'. I got a big shock. I got my answer. I knew for
ness... it will not heal. Why did such a bad thing the first time.
happen when the sea is as beautiful as this?' "All the bus trip I thought. And it is terrible the
"That night I wanted to say in front of my things I thought. I hated my mother. She had poi-
mother, 'I think I will become well someday! I soned me. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible, what I

thought I shouldn't look gloomy in front of my thought: I decided to kill her with a butcher knife-
mother and father. Zap— and then kill myself. Terrible ... terrible ... I

"And I thought., .why. .have . I become this never did it because I felt sorry for my brother, sorry
ways for my
mother too. But I think until sixth grade I

sometimes thought about it . . . also sometimes

In the third grade Shinobu's school went on a thought about just killing myself. I tried that once
bus trip. but I was only scolded by the doctor."
155
 . .

'When Father and Mother aren't

going to be around any more. .

when they I'm worried

die. . .
—
I'm afraid. When I think I will
have to do everything by myself—
but cannot do it by myself. Really
really I want everyone to stay . .

Sports Day— and Shinobu tries to force her body against

its limitations. Every day is a struggle, but sports day
becomes the most embarrassing.

156
157
Shinobu used to
clean her tray with
the other students
after lunch at school.

158
 . .

"IfChisso could understand me, I want to say

to them ...To die to die to die no, to come . . .

alive again ... no no to die again again. . . . . . . .

To give me back my feet, mouth I want it given . . .

back. .. to be given back. to be like you, . .

Aileen, like a human being. . . like everyone else. .

."

In the past, the congenital patients and the other asked, "Can you stay?" At that, I did begin to weep.
younger patients had all felt pretty much isolated. "Oh, Shinobu, I'm sorry, sorry I will have to

Some of them got to know each other at the Rehabil- leave Minamata someday. I cannot stay forever."
itation Center or at special school, but they never Shinobu began to cry with me. But suddenly
really had a chance to gather on their own to have she got the giggles. She often does, but this time I

fun or to talk about their problems. In the fall of was a little startled.

1971 one of the young activists who had been help- "But why are you laughing?" I moaned.
ing out asked some of them over to his home, and "U fu fu fu fu!" (That's the way she laughs.)
after several meetings they all decided to set up a "I think it is so funny. You were so sad, saying you
Young People's House. For the first time they began could not stay forever, it made me sad, too. And so
to speak up about their loneliness, to sing the songs we were both crying. But it is so funny because all I

they knew and have birthday parties for each other. asked is if you could stay here for tonight's meeting
They were the only group in Minamata that with the others. U Hah! We both are sad
fu fu fu!
managed not to split into factions over the mercury from a mistake! I know you cannot stay here for
poisoning. Despite all the political differences be- good. That is sad, but this is funny!"
tween their parents, the young patients had the
intuitive wisdom to stick together. During the period when Japanese newspapers
and television newscasters reported the Minamata
One day Shinobu and were I talking somberly pollution issue nearly every day, Shinobu became
at the Young People's House. I asked if she was wor- a mass-media symbol of the maimed-but-struggling
ried about the possibility that the young supporters congenital Minamata Disease patient. Every time
of the patientswould someday leave Minamata — events would tumble, she would be filmed, photo-
and when that happened, would all the young graphed and written about all over again. The con-
patients go back to being as lonely as they had been fusion and pressure shoved her out of her shell with
before? The thought was so sad that felt like crying, I much more was comfortable.
force than
and Shinobu looked as if she might, too. Then she Therewerebigdiscussionsat the Young People's

159
 a

House about all the exposure. Everyone hated to be something now? If not, can we start into town now
famous for being maimed. And yet the silence that instead of at three?"
followed the fanfare was almost worse. The public "Okay."
did have a short memory. When it turned to other So we went. And
was glad we had started a
I

affairs, the problems of Minamata's young patients bit early. As with anything — and especially with

were wiped off the screen. The turmoil reported on Shinobu — things take more time than expect. She I

TV — contorted as it was — expressed the same tur- walks surprisingly fast, with a sort of tum-
bulent feelings that they had. Village life might be bling gear-like one-foot-in-front-of-the-next
mending, but the young patients have diffi- stumble. So what is it up taking all that
that ends
culty functioning as a part of it. The mass media time? It is the all too many hitches. Even the closing
had been their lifeline to the turbulent world — and reclosing of the car door. I can never figure out
world in which they too belonged. what stand I should take on the matter. After the
first try, should just lean over and close the damn
I

Itwas afternoon and with the odds and ends thing, or show her how and make her do it over and
of unexpected little chores and phone calls, I hadn't over again until it gets shut? Either way I feel insult-

got anything done. There was still a bit of time until ing and impatient.
three o'clock but not enough to settle down to work. We went to the department store. She knew
I was annoyed. what she wanted to buy, a fancy chocolate bar for
I gave Shinobu a call. "Shinobu, are you doing a friend (Valentine's Day was approaching), and

160
161
 then went to the costume jewelry section. There
went to Stockholm because I
'I
was not much of a selection but the attendants
wanted everyone to know. Many were very patient. It was clear she was selecting
people have never seen someone something . . .well . . . not for a girl. We were all
aware
like me. Really. . . really at first of her condition and of an embarrassingly benevo-
lent feeling on our parts. probably always
I didn't want to go .. . I didn't It is

apparent to her.
want to show
myself. but I . .
some fumbling she found it — two heart-
After
thought I will go for everyone. I'm shaped pendants on independent chains, one cut
glad I went. Many people stared out of the other. Together they formed one large
heart, but apart they formed a small heart and an-
at me too, but I think the people
other heart-shaped encirclement. She grinned at the
understood a little bit. My mother and fun of it. Putting them together
ingenuity, irony
said so too. She told me so crying'.' so they made one heart, she turned to me and said,
"It's not like that at all, but-ha ha!" Wow! "And
which one for him?"
"I suppose the larger encirclement" suggested. I

It was like a play — a crippled girl and an imaginary

gentleman friend. Except that the young man

was real.

Shinobu overrode whatever feelings she might

have about anyone thinking, "Ah— sweet
thing, poor thing'.' She willed. These were the little

nooks in her life she had some control over. She

made it clear that she loved this two-hearts-in-one
idea and went ahead and bought it, asking them to
wrap it together in paper — not just an envelope-
yes, in a box. The idea was to present it and then
receive back the small heart for herself to wear.

In June of 1972 Mrs. Sakamoto, Shinobu, and several other

Japanese pollution patient* went to the United Nation*
Environmental Conference in Stockholm. Money for their
journey came from the contributions of Japanese citizen* and
anti-pollution group*. They were not allowed to participate
iti the official conference, but they took part in the People'*

Forum held near the conference hall.

162
 • *

t
1

#?

V&*
ISCcwK
Of,

:SS&

rn«'
-j»*
 Both she and knew he'd be embarrassed.
I I Shinobu does not fool herself with hope for her
was a bit worried he would think it seemed corny, love. Not being crippled myself, I imagined, "Ob-
too sentimental. After all, he was an adult. And he viously she must entertain some little corner of ex-
was afraid of Shinobu's flowing, fearless, slightly pectation'' but I now feel I was wrong. It is a futile
obstinate womanhood. He wouldn't know how to but unstoppable effort on her part. Since she exists
handle it. He was perfectly willing to be a confid- as a young woman, her soul makes her try. Her un-
ing, friendly brother type, but these other feelings dulating eyes flow in the pain they express when she
had baffled him. Surely he thought it would blow tells me — not for the first time — that "it's all too
over. But it hadn't now for two years. Shinobu was hopeless'.'
patient — too dreadfully patient. Her resignation to Anyway, we'd bought the Valentine's Day pres-
the fact that her hopes and dreams concerning him ents. rushed to get the red Magic Marker to draw
I

would never work out made her strangely even in the bows on the wrapped gift. Now my schedule
more patient. The whole business had to blow over was getting to me — I had to get on.
— I'm sure he told himself that. She understood. But she pleaded to talk to me,
I didn't want to be there when she gave him perhaps at a coffee shop. I didn't have the time. I
the pendants, because I'd be embarrassed for both really did not. "Next time, okay? Sorry'.' And she
of them and most of all for myself — as though I was off on the bus back to Yudo to give him
were a cooperator in this hopeless effort. the present.

165
 i * a

166
^^^ii
 Shinobu has graduated from "special school" help her, but they all have their own lives to lead.

now. Her days are filled with time. She finds her-
self each day visiting the Young People's House, or Shinobu tells me, "We young people will be the
where
the student organizers' house, or Meisuien last Minamata patients left in Minamata. When I

some of her friends live, or a number of other Tomoko or Takako it really

visited made me think
places. But everyone has work to do. Everyone how much luckier am than they are.
I I can walk.
healthy is busy. They go anywhere or do anything.
can't When I

She has tried many projects, and each time an think that someday we will have no one else left

enthusiastic helper devotes a lot of time to teach but ourselves, I think we have to learn to help each
her. She has tried to learn to cook, has had drawing other. I would be wonderful if my friends
think it

lessons, reading lessons. It is a repeat of try, hit an and I who can walk could go around to these young
impasse, then try again, another impasse. After a patients who must always stay in bed, and be
certain point there seems to be no more progress. helpers — to visit them and take care of them. think I

Also, again as always, everyone is busy. People that would be wonderful'.'

167
168
/ feel in her a woman —
older—
who has learned to endure.

169
170
The morality
that pollution
is criminal
only after
legal conviction
is the morality

that causes
pollution.
 When we are living in our Minamata home, cussions throughout the world. Japan itself, in a

when we exist side by side with our neighbors, when painful effort at reevaluation, endeavoring
is

we are working quietly or relaxing in a way that to change its attitude toward the environment and
could never happen, say, in Tokyo, it is difficult not its people.
to fall into a very simple and decent way of life. It The tragedy of Chisso-Minamata "Disease" will
is difficult not to forget the struggles at the gates, remain. There can be no true victory for any of the
the legalities at court, the nights we have slept factions involved in the legal and moral confronta-
on the floor during a patient sit-in at Chisso or tions. At most, for the victims and for those who
government offices. It is difficult to keep mind
in care for them, a measure of financial relief may have
that we injected ourselves as participants and com- been achieved.
mentators into an immediately human and finally Historians might find in Minamata the health-
historic event. iest roots of a new industrial revolution. Looking
Minamata is historic, in that it is probably the back, they might find that from this arena emerged
first classicexample of the dreadful consequences the strongest realization that industry has no divine
of water pollution by industrial wastes. (There is right to pollute in the name of gross national prod-
evidence to suggest that it may simply have been one uct. They might find — if humankind ever decides
of the first recognized outbreaks worldwide in a to assume true responsibility for its stewardship of
epidemic.) The victims, those who were left with this planet — that they are looking back into a kind
enough of their lives and their senses and enough of soul-force of courage, a force that might save
courage to take a stand and fight back, do not our children from the plunders that began with the
necessarily regard themselves in an historical con- first industrial revolution.
text. Nor should they. Yet they have set precedents
and conditioned minds in ways that will have reper- That would be a victory.

172
mv-f^
Acknowledgements and
Appreciations:

First of all, with all our hearts, to those who were patients. And of the same committee, Fumiko
friendly in Minamata, and especially the patients. Hiyoshi, the former schoolteacher (the person we
And to all others throughout Japan who affectionately call "Fireball") who would
encouraged us: admonish a hostile Minamata crowd by saying,
Kazuhiko Motomura, who first suggested "Now, I taught your children; remember little
I

Minamata. Takeshi Ishikawa, our closest assistant Minoru when he was only this high — he knew
and friend. Takeshi Shiota, a fine photographer enough to listen to me, and you parents had
living in Minamata before us, a thoughtful, better do the same'.'
dedicated person. Harufumi Nakamura, a Chisso The Tanaka family, parents of Jitsuko-chan, with
official who seemed an honest friend. all their troubles — my deep, humble appreciation

Dr. Takeo Takeuchi and Dr. Masazumi Harada of for how much they were concerned about me
Kumamoto University, two dedicated human beings in my injuries.

very much involved in researching Minamata, who The Sugimoto family, who gave such an uplift to
gave us unselfishly of their knowledge. Aileen, and practical wisdom, and the beautiful
Dr. Saito and Mr. Kobayashi of the Nuttari clinic poem of love to the sea, which is with the fishing
in Niigata who crammed so much knowledge of photograph at the beginning of the book.
that outbreak into our heads in one short week, Yoshida, the handsome young founder-force of
and the lawyer Katsuhiko Bando, who made the the Young People's House, who — in spite of my
events behind the scenes in both Niigata and jealousy — helped Aileen through readings of many
Minamata come alive in flesh and blood — heavy and complicated books.
with wisdom. Oh, so many people we wish to thank for
Akio Managi, a plaintiff lawyer in Minamata, becoming a part of our life, allowing us to become
young, idealistic, who briefed us in fact and part of theirs.
philosophy. Mr. Okamoto of the "old" labor union, Among we must mention Michiko Ishimure,
these
who so willingly gave us such heartfelt help, and a poet so shy that she may hide for months,
Mr. Yamamura of the "new" union, who mistrusted emerging only when she has words trembling on a
us all the way but helped us anyway. page that must be the speaking of other souls.
The Mizoguchi family, from whom we rented our Minamata souls.

home in Minamata and still do, and all their We must thank Jun Ui, a social scientist and
closest relatives. Their smiles, their spirit, their engineer who acknowledges that he will never
caring for us made good days wonderful and receive a full professorship because of his
bad days better. controversial disclosures of pollution, who has
Tsutomu Matsumoto, a leader of the Citizens' written a mammoth book on Minamata that he

Committee, so kind, so quiet, soul brother to the expects only the cockroaches to read, two

174
thousand years from now. Camera 35, the only editor in the history of
A loving word for two of my most personal general camera magazines who had the guts to run
friends; they were assistants during my first visit a full fledged serious photographic essay. He also
to Japan in 1961. Ican't speak my heart, the combined with Larry Schiller and Paul Fusco to
emotion is too much. But in all the world I cherish get me back to the States to save my eyes. And to
no friendships more than I do those two of these Dr. Lalli, the miracle worker who actually
"illegitimate" sons of mine. Masato Nishiyama did the work.
was always there at the moment of crisis. Jun A last appreciation: one night alone, I collapsed in
Morinaga was not, but he was no less a friend, a strange city and into a hospital. Within an hour,
and did not want his help, for he was producing
I strangers began to arrive, lay strangers who did
a book that must be one of the greatest of their best to comfort me until Aileen could get
photographic books. Please pay heed to that name there. This compassion and care was a rare and
— he is one of the few great photographers. cherished moment in my life.

In the Japanese publishing world, our appreciation My injury took thirty seconds and got thousands
to staunch supporter Yuzo Fujita of the Asahi of pages of publicity, but I want to close off my
publishing empire, who was one of the first to acknowledgements and appreciations with a
ignore the warning that I was impossible mention of three years of warmth and kindness
to work with. from nearly every Japanese met, and from the
I

To the publisher Susumu Takeuchi — barely stranger on the street who stopped me to apologize
surviving his own publishing of idealistic works — for that one bad action by a company.
who ways of keeping us going.
tried to conjure
To Kazuo Tashima, whose Minolta Company P.S. Less personal, but no less appreciated, is the
reflects his own love of life and humanity. And to help we have Mark Rothko
received from the
Shin Tanaka, a Minolta official, who carried out Foundation, the William Woodward III Foundation,
the help that sometimes was our last thread and the National Endowment for the Arts.
to continuing. And, more personal again, the democratic
Freelance journalists usually fare badly when foundation of individuals. Just private contributions
they try to invade the news areas that Japanese from one to a thousand dollars to help us keep
press associations hold as exclusive property. this project going.
Our deepest thanks to those of the Japanese press
who went against their own establishments to Appreciations and acknowledgements: the list is

fight for our "rights" of free access to situation endless, and those whose names have not mentioned
I

and information. should understand that have not forgotten. And

I

Our deepest thanks also to Jim Hughes, editor of that I shall always be homesick for Japan.

175
 * . \
•* v
« 1

-
**

PW^-
IT^J '

•"
^ .
Chronology and
Medical Report

177
 1958 Kumamoto Prefecture im- "Leave it up to the other peo-
Chronology poses a ban on selling (but ple" group decides to ask the
not catching) Minamata fish. government to handle deci-
sions on indemnity.
Sept. Chisso diverts its acetalde-
1907 Jun Noguchi, founder of a
company becomes
that later 1958 hyde waste water to the July 14 Twenty-nine families (the

the Chisso Corporation, Minamata River, ignoring 1969 "trial" group) file a lawsuit

builds a factory in Minamata. Dr. Hosokawa's warning not against Chisso.

to do so.
1925 Chisso's first indemnity pay- A few months later sickness 1970 Kawamoto widenshis search
ments to fishermen. appears in the river area. for patients.

1932 Chisso begins production of July Some Kumamoto University May Ontario government an-
1959 researchers report that mer- 1970 nouncesthatfish in Canada's
acetaldehyde.
cury is the cause. English-Wabigoon River con-
tain mercury. "Fish for Fun"
1950 Fish begin to float in Mina-
mata Bay. Oct. 7 Dr. Hosokawa's cat #400 signs appear.
1959 falls ill with symptoms of

1952 Boom days of Minamata Minamata Disease. May 25 "Leave it up to the other peo-

begin. Population climbs to-

1970 ple" group signs its settlement.

ward 50,000. Cat "suicides" Oct. 17 Fishermen demonstrate; in-

begin. Acetaldehyde produc- 1959 vade Chisso factory. July 4 Dr. Hosokawa testifies from
upward. 1970 his deathbed.
tion begins turning
Nov. Dr. Hosokawa told by Chisso
1959 to discontinue experiments. Nov. Central Pollution Board is
April Firstrecognized case of
1956 Minamata Disease enters 1970 established by Japanese
Dec. Cyclator installed. government.
Chisso's factory hospital.
1959
Feb. 19 Eiichi Nishida, former head
May Dr. Hosokawa reports the
Dec. 30 Mimai contract signed be-
1956 outbreak to the Minamata 1971 of the Minamata Factory, be-
1959 tween "old" Minamata gins a year on the witness
Public Health Department.
patients and Chisso. stand.

Summer Outbreak reaches "epidemic"

1962 Methyl-mercury chloride ex-
1956 proportions.
April Verifications of "new" Mina-
tracted from Chisso's acetal-
Fear of contagious disease
1971 mata patients begin.
dehyde sludge. Cause and
spreads. Discovery that some
source proven beyond doubt. Sept. 29 Niigata verdict: plaintiffs
persons had been ill since
People begin to eat the fish
1971 win.
1953.
of Minamata Bay again.
Minamata Disease considered Oct. 6 More "new" verifications.
August Kumamoto University
"over." Verifications stop. 1971 Eighteen patients form the
1956 Research Group established
121 victims now verified, of
"direct negotiations" group.
to investigate the cause of the
whom forty-six have died.
All others decide to settle
sickness.
through the Central Pollu-
1965 Niigata-Minamata Disease tion Board and become part
Oct. 4 Research Group reports that
outbreak. up to the other
of the "leave it
1956 the sickness is a heavy-metal
people" group.
poisoning caused by eating June 12 Niigata-Minamata Disease
the fish and shellfish of Mina- 1967 patients sue Showa Denko.
mata Bay. Nov. 13 President Kenichi Shimada
Warning issued that eating Sept. 26 Government announces its 1971 of Chisso comes to Minama-
fish is dangerous. 1968 official stand that Chisso is ta paper accept-
and signs a

the cause of Minamata ing moral (but not legal)

1957 Search for the specific poi- Disease. responsibility.

son continues. Many theories

developed. April 5 "Old" patients split into two Dec. "Direct negotiations" group
At this point fifty-two patients 1969 groups soon to be known as 1971 begins sit-in outside Tokyo
have been discovered, of "leave it up to the other peo- offices of Chisso. Lockouts
whom twenty-one havedied. ple" group and "trial" group. and sieges result.

178
[an. 7 The Goi incident. March 20 Minamata Disease trial ver- July 9 After-trial negotiations con-

1072 1973 dict: plaintiffs win. Chisso 1973 cluded. Settlement signed
pays $3.2 million immediately. with Chisso.
fan. 11 Iron bars installed at entrance
1972 of Chisso's Tokyo offices. March 22 After-trial negotiations begin.
1974 Number of verifications
1973
increases. Discovery of a
June Shinobu Sakamoto and Tsu-
April 1 Newly verified patient Kimi- patient who had fallen ill in
1972 ginori Hamamoto attend the
1973 to Iwamoto slashes at wrist. 1943.
U.N. Environmental Confer-
President Shimada says
ence in Stockholm, Sweden.
Chisso will pay $60,000 in- Jan. 798 patients verified to date;
demnity to Iwamoto, there- 1975 2800 applicants are still
July Trial testimony taken in
by setting a precedent for all waiting.
1972 Minamata. *
other newly verified patients. Chisso is paying all medical
expenses, plus monthly al-
Oct. 14 Last trial session. Verdict
April 27 Central Pollution Board an- lowances of $60.00 to $180.00
1972 scheduled for early 1973.
1973 nounces its decision: $68,000 per patient depending upon
for heavy cases, $60,000 for degree of illness.
Jan. Chisso has paid a million lighter cases. Chisso has now paid indem-
1973 dollars so far in indemnities nities totaling more than
related to Minamata Disease. May Kumamoto governor de- eighty million dollars.
1973 clares that all fish outside of Project to dredge and fill in
Jan. 10 Central Pollution Board Minamata Bay, now marked parts of Minamata Bay
1973 "forgery" issue. by buoys, are safe. scheduled to begin.

MAP OF MINAMATA

179
MINAMATA DISEASE: A Medical Report
by Masazumi Harada, M.D., assistant professor of constitutional neuropsychiatry,
Kumamoto University, Japan, with Aileen M. Smith

Minamata Disease is the first occur-
rence of widespread methyl-mercury
poisoning caused by man-made environ-
mental pollution that the world has
experienced.
Minamata Disease was discovered in
its cause proved by 1959. Never-
1956 and
theless, the present situation of the
100,000 persons who live within reach of
the originalmercury contamination of
the environment is still basically unclear.
As we shall see, the term "disease"
veering off without direction, often col-
lapsing. So many cats died in this way
that by 1957-58 there were virtually no
cats to be found in the Minamata
Tsukinoura, Detsuki, Yudo and Modo?
Nevertheless, fish continued to live in
Minamata Bay, fishermen continued to
go out to catch them, and the people con-
tinued to eat them.
In April of 1956 a five-year, eleven-
month-old girl entered the pediatrics
is
department of the Chisso Corporation's
Minamata factory hospital with brain-
damage symptoms such as disturbance of
areas of gait, disturbance of speech and delirium.
Within five weeks, her younger sister and
four members of a neighbor family were
found to be suffering from the same
symptoms.
On May 1, 1956, Dr. Hajime Hosoka-
wa, the head of the Chisso factory
hospital, reported to the Minamata Public

not an accurate description of a condition FIGURE 1 MAP OF THE SHIRANUI SEA AREA
that is actually a poisoning, but the term
quite naturally entered popular usage be-
fore scientists were able to determine the
origins of the condition. Use of the term
has persisted.
The Shiranui Sea is a quiet inland sea
located in the western part of Japan's
southern island, Kyushu. The sea is
bounded by the Uto Peninsula to the
north, the Amakusa Islands to the west,
and Nagashima Island to the south. On Yatsushiro City
some maps it is also called the Yatsushiro
Sea.
Minamata Bay is located on the eastern
shore of the Shiranui Sea. It is bounded
on the northwest by the Myojin promon-
tory, and on the southwest by Koiji Island
and the Modo promontory. At its south
end is Fukuro Bay ("pouch" bay, so called
forits shape). Leading into the northeast

depth of Minamata Bay is the drainage

channel of the Chisso Corporation's
Minamata factory. (See map on page 179.)
Unusual changes were detected in these
waters as long ago as 1950. Fish floated on
the surface of the sea, shellfish frequently
perished, and some of the seaweed died.
In 1952 some birds such as the crow and
the amedori— a type of sea bird— began
to drop into the sea while flying. The area
of the sea where dead fish could be seen
floating spread throughout the bay and
out into the Shiranui Sea. Sometimes oc-
topus and cuttlefish floated so weakened
Minamata River
that children could catch them with their
bare hands.
By 1953 not only cats but even some
pigs and dogs went mad and died. The
cats' "dancing disease"— called so by the
local inhabitants — was particularly strik-
ing.Cats would stagger about as though
drunk, salivating; convulsions would
suddenly strike them or they would im- A Where Minamata Disease cats A Where fish were found floating

pulsively whirl in violent circles, often were discovered

180
FIGURE 2 MAP OF JAPAN group made public its interim report on
October 4, 1956. It had discovered that
the "disease" was not infectious, and that
it was a type of heavy-metal poisoning
caused by eating the fish and shellfish of
Minamata Bay.
.At this point countermeasures should
selenium. Then thalium? Although large
amounts of these poisons were detected
in the environment and in autopsied
patients, experiments with cats showed
that none of these substances produced
the same symptoms as the "strange dis-
ease'.' The manganese theory was main-

Pacific
Health Department: "An unclarified dis-
ease of the central nervous system has
broken out'.' This is the official "discovery"
date of what is now called Minamata
Disease.
Since the symptoms of those humans
taken ill were similar to the symptoms of
the cats, and since their cause was un-
known, the local people immediately
labeled the outbreak the "cats' dancing
disease" or the "strange disease'.'
An immediate investigation by the
Chisso factory hospital, the Public Health
Department, the Minamata City Hospital,
have been taken, since the causal mech- tained for some time by part of the group,
anism—the fish and shellfish of Mina- but was finally rejected along with the
mata Bay— was made clear. The others. Experiments were begun on the
government should have officially possibility that the causal element was a
banned fishing and Chisso — the only pos- combination of several poisons. Results,
sible source of such a large quantity of however, were negative.
poison — should have temporarily stopped Even though the research group had not
its production until the cause was found. found the causal element, their experi-
Neither measure was taken. ments in 1957 began to prove the severity
The number of patients continued to of contamination. Fish brought from out-
Ocean
increase rapidly. By late 1956 there were side the area rapidly accumulated poisons
52 known victims. when nurtured in Minamata Bay, and
At the time, the Chisso waste water when fed to cats, produced Minamata Dis-
included various poisons, among them ease symptoms in them. In one experiment,
manganese, thalium, arsenic, mercury, a group of cats was fed three times a day,
selenium, copper and lead.The Kuma- and each meal of each cat was sup-
moto University Research Group found plemented by about 40 tiny fish caught
it necessary to conduct clinical, patho- in Minamata Bay, weighing a total of 10
logical, and experimental research grams per meal. Within an average of 51
on each poison? days, all the cats showed the symptoms.
At first manganese was suspected. Then Other groups of cats brought in from
TABLE CLINICAL SYMPTOMS
1 IN 34 CASES OF ACUTE AND SUB-ACUTE MINAMATA DISEASE
(H.TOKUOMI, 1959)
SYMPTOMS %
superficial 100
Disturbance of sensation
[

j
and the local medical association revealed ( deep 100
that both children and adults were af-
Constriction of the visual field 100
fected. This investigation quickly uncov-
ered 30 cases. The investigators found Dysarthria 882
that many of these people had been ill
adiadochokinesis 935
since about 1953, and that most lived in
Disturbances
the fishing villages of' Minamata. They finger to finger and finger! to nose (dysmetria) 80.6
of coordination
had been diagnosed variously as having ataxic gait 82.4
,

encephalitis Japonica (an inflammation

of the brain caused by a virus), alcohol- Romberg's sign 42.9

ism, syphilis, hereditary ataxia, and 853

Impairment of hearing
a number of other suspected diseases. Be-
cause the outbreak was endemic, it was Tremor 75.8

immediately linked to an infectious dis- 38.2

(exaggerated
ease and treated as such. For physicians Tendon reflex \

not familiar with methyl-mercury poison- (weak 88

ing, these erroneous diagnoses were 118
Pathological reflexes
unavoidable.
In August, 1956, the Minamata Disease Salivation 23.5

Research Group of the Kumamoto Uni- Mental disturbances 70.6

versity Medical School was created to
investigate the cause of the outbreak. This

181
FIGURE 3 PATHOLOGY OF MINAMATA DISEASE of the extremities, difficulty in hand FIGURE 4 MERCURY CONTENTS IN THE MUD OF
TAKEUCHI. 1960) MINAMATA BAY
movements and in grasping things — such
(T

as buttoning buttons, holding chopsticks,

Comparison of the distribution of lesions among the
and congenital
adult, infant, infant victims of writing— also lack of coordination, sen-
Minamata Disease sory disturbance, weakness and tremor,
dysarthria (a speech disturbance due to
damage of the cerebellum), ataxic gait,
then disturbances of sight and impaired
hearing. These symptoms gradually in-
creased and finally caused general paraly-
sis, deformity, difficulty' in swallowing,

convulsions and even death. Of the first

52 patients discovered, 21 died within one
year of the onset of the disease. Among
them 16 died within three months and
four died within six months? (see table 1)
Pathological findings were as follows:
Adult Minamata Disease Lesions in the cerebral cortex: Neurons
of the cerebral cortex were generally dam-
aged. The calcarine regions of the occipital
lobe, the precentral cortex of the frontal
lobe and the postcentral cortex of the pari-
etal lobe were especially severely damaged.
In acute cases, the cerebral cortex becomes
spongy.
Cortical damage of the cerebellum:
Granular cell-type atrophy in the depth
of the cortical sulci was observed. While
the Purkinje cells were more resistant to
the intoxicant, they commonly disinte-
grated if heavily affected.
Non-congenital infantile Damage of the peripheral nerves: The
Minamata Disease peripheral nerve fibers of the extremities,
posterior root, and the column were selec-
tively affected. Peripheral nerve fibers
were the most severely affected.
The cerebral stem and
nuclei, brain
spinal cord revealed no remarkable
lesions except for demyelination and gli-
osis of the pyramidal tracts?
Then in September of 1958 Professor
high tide
ducted an environmental survey of mer-
cury for the first time. Findings showed
in 1959 that there was an extraordinarily
high level of mercury contamination in
Minamata Bay: 2,010 parts per million
(ppm) in the mud near the drainage chan-
nels of Chisso, the content gradually de-
clining with the distance from the
channel?
Fish and shellfish collected "in Mina-
mata Bay showed high mercury contents.
11.4-39.0ppm 10 in Hormomya mutabilis,
5.61 ppm in an oyster, 35.7 ppm in a crab,
14.9 ppm in a Scioena schlegelii. Near
the estuary of the Minamata River where
the waste water was diverted in the fall
of 1958 mercury levels were found to be
20.0 ppm in a short-necked clam (Venus
japonica), 24.1 ppm in a fish called a

T. Takeuchi of Kumamoto University Chinu, 10.6 ppm in a gray mullet (Mugil

found that clinical and pathological find- japonicus), etc? 1
ings in cases of Minamata Disease coin- The cats in the area spontaneously af-
cided with certain cases of methyl-mercury fected by Minamata Disease and those
poisoning reported in England in 1940 by cats experimentally affected by feeding
Congenital Minamata Disease fish and shellfish from Minamata Bay
D. Hunter and D.S. Russell? The English
cases involved the poisoning of workers showed the following mercury levels:
in a factory producing methyl mercury? 37.0-145.5 ppm in the liver as compared

other areas fell ill within a span of 32 to The Kumamoto University researchers with 0.9-3.66 ppm in the cats in a control
65 days when fed fish and shellfish from began experiments with methyl mercury. group, 12.2-36.1 ppm (controls: 0.09-0.82)
Minamata Bay? Cats who were fed methyl mercury di- in the kidneys, 8.05-18.6 ppm (controls:

rectly showed the same symptoms 0.05-0.13) in the brain, and 21.5-70.0 ppm
As a result of detailed clinical examina-
tions of patients, characteristic symptoms as those cats affected with Minamata Dis- (controls: 0.51-2.12 ppm) in the hair! 2

were found to be as follows: There were ease after eating the fish and shellfish of A high concentration of mercury was
Minamata Bay. found in the internal organs of 23 persons
no prodromal (warning) symptoms, or
fever. Symptoms began with a numbness The university researchers also con- who died of Minamata Disease (see table

182
2). The greatest amount was detected in (CH HgSCH):)
in crystalline form from FIGURE 5 ANNUAL ONSET OF MINAMATA DISEASE
the liver and kidney. Although the shellfish, Hormomya mutabilis, which
Those officially verified up through 1962
amount in the brain was less than in the had caused Minamata Disease? 6 121 patients

liver and kidney, deposits were sufficient The causal element, methyl mercury,
to cause severe brain damage; a charac- was now clear.

teristic of methyl-mercury intoxication is (46)

that the organic methyl mercury passes Now, however, Chisso counterargued
the blood-brain barrier more easily than that they used only inorganic mercury
does inorganic mercury, so the amount and not organic (methyl) mercury in their
of deposit in the brain is larger than it production process, and therefore they 40
would be in a case of inorganic mercury could not be the source of the contamina-
intoxication.13 tion. In spite of Chisso's non-cooperation,
A
1960 survey found a high mercury the Research Group managed to find out
content in patients' hair, especially within at what point and in what way the in-
one year after the onset of the disease: organic mercury changed into organic
96.8-705 ppm.14 When fish was no longer mercury, followed the food chain to enter 30
consumed, levels gradually decreased the fish, and then entered the human
with time. It is notable, however, that being.
100-191ppm of mercury was detected in Chisso at that time was using a large
persons who were thought to be amount of inorganic mercury in their
healthy 15 The 'mercury content in the acetaldehyde and vinyl chloride manu-
hair was equally high in the affected as facturing process. (According to one esti-
20
well as some unaffected people at that mate made later, the total mercury
particular time. This fact shows that the dumped by Chisso could be 200 to 600
inhabitants in this area, even those in tons.) However, after the presentation of
whom no symptoms had yet appeared, the mercury theory, Chisso became obsti-
were all exposed to heavy mercury nate, and factory waste water became
contamination (see table 3). impossible to obtain for experimental
-10
Later, in September of 1960, Professor purposes.
M. Uchida of Kumamoto University ex- Finally in the fall of 1962, Dr. K.
tracted a methyl-mercury compound Irukayama of Kumamoto University

TABLE 2 MERCURY CONTENT IN ORGANS OF HUMAN AUTOPSY CASES OF MINAMATA DISEASE (T TAKEUCHI)

Numbe r of Sex Age Clinical Liver Kidney Brain Brain Brain

Autop sy course (ppm) (ppm) (ppm) Liver * 1 00 Kidney x 10 °
(days) (%) (%) year

1 3159 o" 35 19 705 144 9.6 136 6.7 - = Minamata Disease

2 2774 5 26 38 2 47 5 154 40.3 32 4 - = Congenital Minamata Disease

3 3350 o" 48 45 388 682 24 8 63.9 36 7 )

= Number of patients
4 2791 <f 56 48 346 990 7.8 22.5 79
5 2776 29 53 39 5 40 5 90 22.7 22.1
6 3201 58 60 42 .1 1060 21.3 50.6 20.1
found in a laboratory, left over from the
7 3349 o" 62 70 34 7 64.2 78 22.5 12.1 time when Chisso had been more
8 2775 o" 49 86 / / 9.5 / / cooperative, a bottle of sludge from the
9 3209 50 90 362 21.2 4.9 134 229 acetaldehyde process? 7 In their sludge he
10 3388 o- 59 90 32.6 49.8 64 19.5 12 8
detected methyl-mercury chloride
11 3355 o* 34 96 300 22 6 4.6 15.3 204
12 3290 o* 52 100 22.0 42 2.6 11 8 62 (CH 3 HgCl), therefore proving that the
13 3497 o" 57 480 21 3 36.5 2.8 202 14 factory process itself had methylated the
14 3018 4.5 553 260 37.4 53 inorganic mercury.
15 3216 9 8 993 64 128 1.3
These findings proved beyond a doubt
16 3139 ; 28 1000 2 1 3 1 1

54 that the inorganic mercury used as cata-

17 3298 o" 7 1467 5.9 22
18 3567 2.6
•
03 94 04 lyst in the acetaldehyde process had
19 3764 64 "(years) 5.7 11 3 0.7 methylated inside the factory and had
20 3732 cT 60 20 83 196 1.0 entered Minamata Bay. The waste of the
21 4292 d" 79 4.3 20 176 20
4473 o
- acetaldehyde process continued to pour
22 78 9.9 35 126 3.0
23 4312 o" 66 10.2 23 21 6
into the bay until 1968?" It was later
Control (15 cases) 0-2 0-3 0-0.5 learned that by the end of 1959 Dr. H.
Hosokawa of Chisso's factory hospital
183
TABLE 3 MERCURY CONTENT IN HUMAN HAIRS. 1959-60 (S KITAMURA) children consisted of serious mental re-
tardation, primitive reflexes such as oral
Healthy su bjects in
Patients of FV inamata Disease Minamata district
reflexand grasping reflex, cerebellar
symptoms of asynergy such as distur-
Onset of Date of Content ppm
Age. sex disease hospitalization in ppm Age. sex Content in bance of coordination, ataxia, adiado-
chokinesis, dysmetria, intention tremor,
127 dysarthria, nystagmus. They also mani-
61. male Oct., 1959 Nov. 1959 436 0.0
fested disturbance of growth, akinesia,
Nov, 1959 705 1.82
46. male Oct.. 1959
31 0(11 9) hypokinesia, hyperkinesia (chorea, athe-
56. male July, 1959 Dec, 1959 350 191.0 tosis, etc.), salivation, character disorder
male 1959 - 411 Adult female 4.46
44. Sept., (unfriendly, indifferent, shy, nervous and
6.56
33. male Sept., 1959 Sept 1959 281 restless, excited and obstinate), psycho-
,

72.9

431
65.4 motor seizure, loss of consciousness,
61, male Nov., 1959 Jan, 1960 101.0(60.0)
myoclonic grand mal epilepsy, and
jerk,
38. female Aug., 1959 Sept 1959 165 39.1
also deformity of limbs, strabismus, and
,

16.0
63. male July, 1959 July, 1959 170
17.1 pathological reflex?
49. male Mar., 1959 Mar.. 1959 968 24.3
The clinical picture of these patients
male 1956 Oct 1959 21 6 Boy 61.0
43. Oct.. ,

48.4 was similar to certain symptoms in cases

1956 Sept 132 13.0 of exogenous idiocy, serious feeble-
50, male Sept., . 1956
G rl 11.5 minded physically handicapped infants,
35. female Sept., 1956 May. 1957 3.60
4.16
and cerebral palsy. But when a compari-
18, male July. 1956 39.2 He althy subjects outside of
Minamata district
son was made between the symptoms of
29, male July, 1956 Aug 1956 158
the Minamata cases with those having
,

Age. sex Content in ppm

female June, 1956 July, 1956 29.4
17,
Adult male 348 similar diseases in other parts of Japan,

June, 1956 - 2.46

0.75 the Minamata cases stood out as unique.
9, female
4.42 It was found that in instances of exo-
49, female May, 1956 - 30.0 1.39
Adult female 1.61
genous idiocy caused by other factors,
20, female May, 1956 July, 1956 18.0
1.25 cerebellar symptoms and strabismus were
45, female May. 1956 Aug , 1956 3.01 2.07 rarely observed but pathological reflex
Apr. 1956 - 164 0.14
22, female
1.63
(pyramidal signs) was remarkable. In
Apr. 1956 - 18.0 2 13 general among cerebral palsy patients,
6. female
2.86 as compared to these Minamata patients,
10. female Apr. 1956 - 165
2 15 intelligence disturbance was slight, cere-
56. male Apr 1956 July, 1956 16.1 Girl 7.49
0.64
bellal symptoms were rarely observed,
18, female Aug , 1954 - 4.25
230
23. male Aug . 1954 - 127 231 FIGURE 6 DISTRIBUTION OF CONGENITAL
MINAMATA DISEASE. 1974 (M HARADA)

Note: Number in parenthesis denotes the content in nails.

Tanoura

had proven that the acetaldehyde sludge Disease. From the beginning it was sus- mt Ashikita

itself fed directly to cats caused the same pected that these children might be cases
symptoms as Minamata Disease. This fact of Minamata Disease? 9 Since none • Yunoura

was never made public by Chisso. of them had eaten the fish and shellfish
The number of patients continued to of Minamata Bay these children affected
increase. from birth were generally diagnosed as
At this point — the end of 1962 — there having cerebral palsy. In none of these
were 121 officially verified Minamata cases, however, could there be found ab- * •Tsunagt

Disease patients, of whom 46 had died. normal factors during the mother's preg-
nancy, at delivery, or in the postnatal
Congenital Minamata Disease period that might have caused cerebral
A major question still remained unan- palsy; theonecommon and notable factor
swered by the researchers. Many cases of was that the mothers of these children
congenital idiocy accompanied by vari- had all eaten a great deal of the fish and
ous neurological symptoms had broken shellfish of Minamata Bay during their

out on the coast of Minamata during the pregnancy.

same period as the outbreak of Minamata Theclinical characteristics of these

184
but hyperkinesia (particularly chorea TABLE4 COMPARISON OF CLINICAL SYMPTOMS AND SIGNS IN CONGENITAL MINAMATA DISEASE.
EXOGENOUS IDIOCY, AND INFANTILE CEREBRAL PALSY, 1962 (M HARADA)
and athetosis) was remarkable.
Of the 220 births between 1955 and
No. of Congenital Exogenous Infantile
1958 in the Tsukinoura, Detsuki, Yudo Cases Minamata idiocy cerebral
Disease (%) palsy
and Modo districts (the Minamata areas (%) (%)
most affected by Minamata Disease), 13
such cases were found by 1962 — a rate Intelligence disturbance 17 100 100 25

of 5.9%. This is much higher than the Primitive reflex 17 100 61 31

0.2-0.3% rate of cerebral palsy cases in
other areas of Japan. Cerebellar abnormalities 17 100 33 18

A check was made on their families. Extrapyramidal abnormalities such as chorea, athetosis 16 94 72 100
In 1962, 64% had some
of these children
member of their family who had typical Hypursnhvation 16 94 32 68

acute Minamata Disease. All the mothers

Paroxysmal disorders 14 82 66
of these patients were thought to be
healthy at the time. However, when care- Strabismus 13 76 11 37
fully observed certain neurological symp-
Pyramidal abnormalities (spastic paralysis) 12 71 100 43
toms were present in 73% of the mothers:
for example, ataxia, adiadochokinesis, Asymmetry of symptoms and signs 72 18
nystagmus, dysarthria, sensory distur-
Causative factor present 50 62
bance. Ten years later, these symptoms
were observed to have increased. Causative factors in the cases of exogenous idiocy and infantile cerebral palsy: abnormal pregnancy, fever,
trauma, etc
The mercury content in the hair of
these children who were born between
1955 and 1958 was still high in 1961. For showed that methyl mercury passed Treatment
example, one child's hair registered 100 through the placenta and caused damage Cells of the central nervous system that
ppm. The mercury content in the hair to the central nervous system in the have once been damaged do not recover.
of the mothers who had given birth to
embryos? 4 During the initial acute stage of the
these children was also as high as 191.0
The methyl-mercury content in the disease, various medicines (BAL, D-
ppm and 172.9 ppm in some cases? 1 The milk of mothers who have been contam- Penicillamine, EDTA-Ca and Alpha-
preserved umbilical cords of these inated by methyl mercury has been proven Mercaptopropionyl glycine) were used
children had higher methyl mercury con-
to be high? 5 Since the ingestion of milk to excrete the mercury from the body.
tents lhan those of other children? 2
containing methyl mercury causes poi- Later, vitamin B-complex in large dos-
Then in 1961 and 1962 two of these soning,26 it cannot be denied that congen- ages was used to activate the metabolism
children died. The autopsies gave signi-
ital cases may also have been affected by of the nerves that remained relatively
ficant findings. Typical pathological
their mothers' milk after birth. undamaged.
findings found in methyl-mercury poi-
soning cases (such as granular cellular
TABLE 5 FREQUENCY OF SYMPTOMS IN CONGENITAL MINAMATA DISEASE CASES, 1971 (M HARADA)
atrophy in the cerebellum) were observed.
Also microcephalia, general hypoplasia Number of Cases %
of the medullary substance (subcortex),
Intelligence disturbance 25 100
hypoplasia of tne corpus callosum and
hypoplasia of the pyramidal tract were Dysarthria 24 96
found, thereby showing that damage oc- Extrapyramidal hyperkinesia & hypokinesia 23 92
curred in the early fetal stages? 3
Cerebellar symptom 19 76
The clinical, epidemiological, and
pathological findings indicated that Deformation of limbs 21 84

methyl mercury had passed through the Primitive reflex 18 72

placenta from the mother to the fetus,
Strabismus 18 72
thereby causing methyl-mercury poi-
Hypersalivation 18 72
soning. This was diagnosed as congenital
(fetal) Minamata Disease in 1962. At Paroxysmal symptom 9 36
present (1974), 40 such congenital cases Pathological reflex 12 48
have been found.
Inhibited bodily growth 17 68
Furthermore, autoradiographical ex-
periments on pregnant animals and his- Note: 3 cases out of 29 have died. 25 of the 29 cases were examined

tological study of their embryos later

185
FIGURE 7 METHYL MERCURY FOUND IN UMBILICAL CORDS IN THE MINAMATA AREA the back part, a blurry dimness of the
eyes, difficulty in seeing surroundings
ppm dry weight •= healthy individuals (due to vision constriction), difficulty in
®
®= congenital Minamata Disease patients hearing, ringing in the ears, difficulty in
tasting, difficulty in smelling, easily
-3.0
stumbling, falling, difficulty in putting
slippers on, the fingers not moving well,
•
easily dropping things, difficulty in
buttoning one's clothes, words becoming
® entangled and knotted, difficulty in mouth-
ing words, lack of strength, cramps, mus-
-2.0 • cle twitch, tremor, sleeplessness, tiring
• • easily, not wanting to do anything, for-
getfulness, lack of ability to concentrate,
®
swooning, fainting.
• Even though many are able to move
about and do some work, the patients
• ® ®
-1.0 • experience a great deal of handicap in
® their daily lives.
• • •
• • • Since the methods
of treatment
• • ® • • are very limited,and there is no way of
•
• • • • • healing the symptoms, there is need for
• • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • psychological support as well as rehabili-
• •• • • • • tative, physical and allopathic treatment.
i i i i i iii
• •
i i i i
®
i
••
i i Till
. .• • ••
II ••
i i •A~ I

1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970

Chronic cases of Minamata Disease
The main typical symptoms of Mina-
The above methods of treatment complaints are as follows: numbness (of mata Disease found originally are still
showed only limited success. By the time feet, hands and around the mouth), a kind present in 1974 in high degree among very
of the occurrence of symptoms, much of of tingling numbness, a smarting, languid- many patients, indicating that these main
the damage had already occurred. ly, heaviness, dullness, pain (of head, symptoms are difficult to improve. How-
The forms of treatment in the chronic shoulders, hands, feet, the small of the ever, there are differences among individ-
stage — the predominant stage at present back), heaviness of the head, especially uals. When each symptom is examined
— are and allo-
rehabilitative, physical,
pathic treatment. To be of any help at TABLE 6 MERCURY CONTENT IN HAIR OF HEALTHY FISHERMEN 1960
all, rehabilitative treatment must be done

on a case-by-case basis. This form of treat- ppm -1 1 10 10 50 50 100 100 150 150 200 200 300 300 Total

ment has had some good results on young 199

Minamata 7 31 100 49 11 1

and light cases, but is limited in its effec-

Tsunagi 12 61 23 4 2 102
tiveness. The younger the patient, the
Yunoura 24
better the chances for improvement in 14 9 1

symptoms of ataxia, dysarthria, and Ashikita 1 19 19 1 40

tremor. In the congenital cases (except Tanoura 6 15 11 33

for the most severe) there is some im- 87
Ryugatake 2 22 57 5 1

provement of ataxia, primitive reflex and /357\

Goshonoura 6 53 334 75 11 1 2 482
disturbance of intelligence. Physical ^\920/

treatment involves massage, hot spring ppm 20 20 50 50 100 100 200 200 300 300 Total

baths, acupuncture and moxibustion, all 445

Komenotsu 185 117 105 37 5 1 (624)
with limited success; effectiveness is often
Akune 26 4 1 3 1 (338) 33
temporary and varies significantly among
individuals? 7 When
hypertension, dys- Takaono 2 3 5 10

Higashi
function of the liver and kidneys and 18 32 23 2( 142) 75
Town
other symptoms exist, treatment of these
Kumamoto
symptoms is obviously necessary. City 4 18 9 31

The complaints of the patients vary, (control)

and are numerous. Therefore allopathic Note ( )

= ppm
treatment is also very important. Their

186
closely, improvement can be seen in some TABLE 7 NEUROLOGICAL SYMPTOMS OBSERVED AMONG FAMILY MEMBERS OF OFFICIALLY VERIFIED
PATIENTS, 1971 (M HARADA)
individuals, and worsening in others.
Family Mothers of congenital
This also varies, however, from symptom members Minamata Disease patients
to symptom.
Sensory disturbance (Total) 115 (79% 21 (100%)
Generally among adults there has
been improvement in ataxia, dysarthria, (extremities 109(75% 21 (100%)

tremor and hyper-salivation, and a wors- [perioral 44 (30% 4( 19%)

ening in pyramidal symptoms, muscular Incoordination (Total) 94 (65% 16( 76%)
atrophy, and mental disturbance. 47 (32% 10( 48%)
Ataxic gait
Generally among infantile and con-
Finger-Nose test 69 (48% 11 ( 52%)
genital cases, there has been improvement
Adiadochokinesia 90 (62% 16( 76%)
or even a disappearance of ataxia, hyper-
salivation, primitive reflex and paroxys- Romberg's sign 20(14% 6( 29%)

mal symptoms, but mental disturbance Dysarthria 65 (45% 9( 43%)

remains and becomes predominant. Constriction of the visual field 53 (37% 10( 48%)
Therefore, with the passing of years,
Auditory disturbance 80 (55% 16( 76%)
there is a tendency of these formerly
Tremor 51 (35% 6( 29%)
typical cases to become incomplete or
atypical cases of Minamata Disease? 8 Chorea and athetosis 2 ( 1%
In the chronic cases of Minamata Dis- Muscular weakness 37 (26% 7( 33%)

ease that have recently been discovered, Muscular rigidity or spasticity 43 (30% 7( 33%)
symptoms are vision constric-
the basic Hyperreflexia 42 (30% 7( 33%)
tion and sensory disturbance, but Pathologic reflexes 11 ( 8% 2( 10%)
dysarthria and ataxia are relatively slight
Muscular atrophy 16 (11%
or nonexistent. Pyramidal symptoms and
Hypersalivation 8( 6%
muscular atrophy and mental disturbance,
however, are predominant? 9 Vegetative symptoms 43 (30% 12( 57%)

These facts coincide with the recent
pathological findings of chronic cases
conducted by Dr. T
Takeuchi: Brain dam-
age is more diffused throughout the en-
tire was in
organ than it earlier patients.
Brain damage and nerve cell atrophy, as
well as degeneration of the pyramidal
tract of the spinal cord, have also been
found?
Awakening to the "Non-Conclusion"
of Minamata Disease
During the years 1962 to 1970 it was
generally believed that Minamata Dis-
ease had been "concluded'.' It was believed
that the number of patients was 121, that
they had fallen ill between the years 1953-
1960, and that the outbreak had occurred
in the 50-kilometer area north and south
along the coast of Minamata? 1
Chisso continued, however, to emit
waste water containing mercury until
May of 1968. Also, when Chisso had di-
verted its waste water to the Minamata
River for a period in September of 1958,
the mercury contamination had spread
out to a part of the Shiranui Sea north
of Minamata. According to data gathered
from healthy fishermen in 1960, mercury
contamination had spread to even Gosh-
Deformities of the extremities 27 (19% 1 ( 5%)
Pain 52 (36% 8( 38%)
Intelligence disturbance 67 (46% 14( 67%)
Total examined 145(100%) 21 (100%)
onoura and Shishi Island? 2 Cats had symptoms appeared for the first time —
fallen ill with Minamata Disease, and or that there was a widening of the area
themercury content of the inhabitants' inwhich patients appeared.
hairwas high. The full extent of Minamata Disease
Moreover, it began to be believed that had remained hidden between 1962 and
the installation of a Cyclator by Chisso 1971 for the following reasons:
in December of 1959 meant no more poi- Only the prefecturally appointed com-
son was entering the sea, although it was mittee members of the Minamata Disease
found out later that the system did not Verification Committee could officially
prove effective in taking out the mercury. diagnose patients as having Minamata
From around 1962, the inhabitants be- Disease. The inhabitants, however, did
gan to eat the fish again. Although it not know how to apply for official
seems unbelievable, the government did verification.
nothing. The stigma which Minamata Disease
At present there are plans for dredging carried was so great that no one wanted
and for filling in part of the contaminated to be verified as a patient.
area. The sludge at the bottom of the bay The fishermen, fearing that their fish
still has a mercury content of 25-200 ppm. might not sell, kept quiet.
Also, some of the fish and shellfish of Many, believing that Minamata Dis-
Minamata Bay still have mercury con- ease was a thing of the past, thought
tents above the official safety level. their illness was from other causes.
Therefore, it is not surprising that even The government did not pursue any
after 1960 there were people whose symp- research whatever.
toms worsened, and people in whom As a result, the fact of continued con-
187
TABLE 8 FREQUENCY OF NEUROLOGICAL SYMPTOMS IN INHABITANTS OF MINAMATA, GOSHONOURA AND influence of methyl mercury on the pop-
XE AREA. 1973 (SECOND MINAMATA DISEASE RESEARCH GROUP) ulation in general was much greater than
was assumed before.
Minamata Goshonoura Ariake Since family members of the patients
(Tsukinoura, Yudo, Modo) (control)
with typical Minamata Disease had been
Sensory disturbance 260 280) 132 ( 7.6) 94 10.3) eating the same contaminated fish, they
Incoordination (Total) 228 24 7) 193 11.2) 122 134) were examined first. It was found that
Ataxic gait 84 9.0) 50 2.9) 20 2.2) 84% of these individuals had some symp-
Adiadochokinesia 171 184) 101 5.8) 50 55) tom connected- with Minamata Disease,
Finger-nose test 106 28 11
11.4) 1.6) 1.2)
and 55% had some neuropsychiatric dis-
Dysarthria 114 12 2) 63 3.6) 18 1.9)
turbance in their daily life 35
Auditory disturbance 272 29.2) 156 9.0) 135 14.9)
It was found that the mothers of
also
Constriction of the visual field 127 13.7) 47 2.7) 9 0.9)
the congenital patients all suffered symp-
Tremor 94 10.1) 87 5.0) 27 2.9)
toms, but that their symptoms were gen-
Pathologic reflexes 56 6.0) 34 19) 21 23)
erally lighter than those of other family
Hemiplegia 17 9 10
1.8) 0.5) 1.1)
members 36 Also, women who had had
Pain (limbs) 128 137) 92 5.3) 74 8.1)
miscarriages and stillbirths were found
Epileptic seizure 26 2.8) 19 1.1) 8 0.8)
to have relatively lighter symptoms than
Muscular atrophy 55 5.9) 13 0.7) 7 0.8)
other members it was
of their families;
Parkinsonismus 23 25) 13 07) 7 0.8)
suggested that methyl mercury was dis-
Deformities of limbs 81 8.7) 104 60) 73 7.8)
charged from their bodies through the
Intelligence disturbance 211 22.7) 178 10.3) 98 [ 10.8)
placenta and into the fetus.
Hypertension 218 23.4) 237 27.5) 180 191)
By March 1971, social awareness of
928 100.0) 1723 1000) 904 100 0)
Total the potentials of pollutionhad grown
Note: Minamata percentages exclude the 3.9% of patients already verified in the Tsukinoura. Yudo, and
and the Second Minamata
significantly,
Modo areas of Minamata. Disease Research Group was established
at Kumamoto University by Kumamoto
Prefecture.
tamination did not come to the surface In 1970, surveys were begun again by Health surveys conducted by the Sec-
until 1971. individual medical researchers.34 As a re- ond Research Group in the most severely
Medically, up to then, the only cases sult, it gradually became clear that the contaminated Minamata areas of
diagnosed as Minamata Disease were
acute, severe cases and cases which FIGURE 8 COMPARATIVE CHART OF ACETALDEHYDE PRODUCTION RATE. ONSET OF MINAMATA DISEASE.
AND MERCURY CONTENT IN THE SHELLFISH OF MINAMATA BAY
showed the typical methyl-mercury
symptoms reported by Hunter and Rus-
total mercury in
sell? 3 and those with in-
Slight cases shellfish

complete sets of symptoms were excluded. acute or sub-acute

Also, since it was believed that Minamata patients (1962)

Disease was over, even those who slowly additional patients

discovered by the
began to manifest the full set of symp- Second Minamata Disease
Research Group
toms of typical methyl-mercury poison-
ing after 1960— no matter how typical
and severe their case— were not thought
to be affected by Minamata Disease.
However, since "Minamata Disease"
is really the methyl-mercury poisoning

of the people of this whole area through

environmental contamination, it should
have been theorized that the typical
chosen cases were probably only the tip
of the iceberg, and that there could be
still many undiscovered patients. In a

case such as this, where the inhabitants

of an entire area are subjected to methyl-
year
mercury contamination, one cannot
clarify the effect this contamination has Acute or sub-acute patients (discovered through 1962) 1 3 6 3 2 37 1 3 Number
of
had upon them by picking up only those Additional patients discovered by the patients
Second Minamata Disease Research Group. 1972 3 3 13 12 10 6 6 12 14 4 12 5 12 23 8 14 11 11 6
who display a clear set of typical 1

to the Tsukinoura. Detsuki and Yudo areas Shellfish are Venus Japonica off Koiii Island (Fu/iki)
symptoms. Wore 77iese patients are those limited

188
Tsukinoura, Detsuki, and Yudo showed
sensory disturbance among 28% of the
inhabitants, disturbance of coordination
among 24%, dysarthria in 12%, auditory
disturbance in 29%, constriction of the
visual field in 13%, tremor in 10%, and
other neuropsychiatric symptoms as de-
tailed in Table 8. These figures do not
include the 37 cases already officially des-
ignated in this area? 7
The above figures indicate that
neurological symptoms among the in-
habitants of this area are clearly more
common than they are in a control group
from Ariake, an area of Kyushu assumed
not to be contaminated by methyl
mercury? 8
Moreover, the survey showed that the
appearance of symptoms was not limited
to the 1953-1960 period as was thought
before.
Since the rate of appearance of typical
Minamata Disease neurological symp-
toms runs parallel to the rate of contami-
nation—the greater the level of contami-
nation in the area, the higher the
frequency of symptoms — the survey con-
cluded that the symptoms must stem
from the effects of mercury. In addition,
A Schematic View of Minamata Disease 39 FIGURE 9 1562: 121 OFFICIALLY VERIFIED PATIENTS
The effects of methyl mercury on the
human body vary according to the degree
of contamination.
When methyl mercury enters the body
rapidly in large doses, death follows the
appearance of acute brain-damage symp-
toms such as disturbance of conscious-
ness, convulsion and paralysis. When
methyl mercury intake is less, it causes
the sub-acute typical symptoms such as those
reported by Hunter and Russell. When
the dose is even less, symptoms appear
light or atypical or incomplete, as in the
chronic type of Minamata Disease. When
intake is even less, symptoms may appear
as a non-specific disease, for example
hypertension or hepatitis. When even
less, the symptoms may remain latent.
Previously it was thought that the FIGURE 10 DECEMBER 1974 798 OFFICIALLY
VERIFIED PATIENTS
effect of methyl mercury was predom-
inantly upon the nervous system. This is
definitely so. It has become evident, how-
ever, that the effect of methyl mercury on
other human organs must be considered.
For example, disturbance of liver func-
tion, diabetes, and hypertension are
greater in the contaminated area than the
control area. The survey results showed Tanoura (26)

some neurological symptoms such as that among all the inhabitants surveyed
=y_ Ashikita (80)
were seen at a high rate among those in the Minamata area of Tsukinoura, Det-
Tsuriagi (86)
muscular atrophy, epileptic seizure and suki and Yudo, liver function tests such as
pain of the limbs, which were not pre- urobilinogen registered positive among Minamata (492)

viously attributed to Minamata Disease, 6.5%, GOTamong 20.7%, GPT among

surveyed in the Minamata area. These 17.6%. Hypertension (systolic pressure
symptoms could be considered the
chronic forms of methyl-mercury
over 150) was found in 47% of those over
40?° Indeed, autopsies of acute or sub-
"V ^T^aono (5f
:
Komenofsu
Izumi (85)
poisoning. acute cases have shown damage by methyl Akune-(3)

Even in the Goshonoura area, where mercury to the liver, kidneys, pancreas
no patients had been discovered until and bone marrow.41 mercury dosage is even less, there is
1972, the effect of methyl-mercury con- Since the neurological symptoms of a chance that the child — even with no re-
tamination on humans was found. Since Minamata Disease are so predominant, markable neurological symptoms — may
1973, 12 Minamata Disease patients have the focus had been on these symptoms; be mentally deficient. In such cases the
been officially identified in this area. metabolic and functional examinations mother may have almost no neurological
Therefore, even in such limited surveys still remain insufficient. symptoms. It would be difficult to differ-
as have been described above, methyl- In the schematic view of congenital entiate the symptoms of these children
mercury contamination was found and Minamata Disease, if the mother's methyl from mental deficiency due to a different
cases of Minamata Disease — hidden up mercury intake is so great that she falls cause 42
to then — were revealed. acutely with Minamata Disease, she
ill As a matter of fact, in the most heavily
There are approximately 100,000 inhab- does not become pregnant. If the dosage contaminated Minamata area of Tsuki-
itants living on or near the shores of the is somewhat less, the woman becomes noura, Yudo and Modo, mental deficiency
Shiranui Sea. One can only speculate on pregnant but the child is spontaneously among children born between 1955-1959
how many have been affected by this aborted or is born dead. If the dosage is was 29% (1962). This figure excludes the
mercury contamination. even less, a child with congenital Mina- already recognized congenital cases. It is
By December 1974, there were 798 offi- mata Disease, accompanied by severe astonishingly higher than in the control
cially verified patients, of whom 107 had neurological symptoms, is born. Even in area 4:)
died. Some 2,800 more are applying for such cases, the mother's own symptoms Moreover, in 1970 an examination of
verification. may be relatively light. If the mother's junior high school students in this con-

189
taminated area was made, and 223 may go undetected as methyl-mercury
children born between April of 1955 and poisoning. The world-wide implications
March of 1958 were examined. These chil- of the possible effects of long-term, low-
dren are attending regular public school level poisoning become self-evident. We
classes and do not include the already must examine the present concept of a
recognized congenital cases. The follow- "safe" level of methyl mercury
ing observations were made. Mental consumption.
deficiency was found among 18%, sensory
disturbance among 21%, clumsy speech Safety Level
among 12%, and clumsy movements The present "safety" level of total mer-
among 9%. These examinations were cury in fish is 0.4 ppm in the
conducted by qualified neuropsychiatrists Japan 45
When considering incomplete cases and
it can be calculated that an
light cases,
accumulation of over 25 mg is dangerous.
On the basis of this calculation the oral
intake and the rate of output are signifi-
cant factors in measuring the total
accumulation of mercury at a certain
point.
Experimentally, the biological half-life
of methyl mercury is calculated to be 70
USA and days 47 Since an accumulation in the brain
is directly connected to the possibility of

directly examining the children. These Among Minamata Disease patients the appearance of symptoms, the half-life
rates are higher than in any other part of studied in the prefecture of Niigata, it has of methyl mercury in the brain is more
Japan examined? 4 been calculated that an accumulation of significant. It has been found that methyl
The schematic views of Minamata Dis- 30 mg of methyl mercury in a 155-pound mercury can easily enter the brain, and
ease and congenital Minamata Disease adult causes sensory disturbance, and that it remains in the brain much longer
indicate that there are types and levels of that a 100 mg accumulation causes all the than in other organs. Takeuchi has calcu-
methyl-mercury poisoning that are as yet typical Minamata Disease symptoms lated from autopsy results that the bio-
undefinable, undetectable, or unknown found in the Hunter-Russell syndrome. logical half-life of methyl mercury in the
in our present medical practice. In Mina- In Iraq, a 112-pound adult developed brain is 230 days 48 Despite his finding,
mata were so great
the levels of poisoning sensory disturbance after an accumula- the present "safety" level is calculated on
that the heavier dosages of contamina- tion of 25 mg of methyl mercury, disturb- the 70-day biological half-life.
tion could be readily detected. It is quite ance of gait with 55 mg, dysarthria with The Minamata Disease patients used as
possible, however, that in other areas with 90 mg, auditory disturbance with 170 mg. the basis for the calculation of the safety
lower levels of contamination, symptoms A 200 mg accumulation caused death 46 standard were acute typical cases. The
calculation ignored the chronic and atyp-
ical cases which have now been discov-
FIGURE 11 RELATIONSHIP OF METHYL MERCURY INTAKE AND SYMPTOMS
ered in Minamata. The calculation also
ignores the fetus' great susceptibility to
typical, sub-acute, mercury poisoning. It also does not fully
inability to or chronic
acute (paralysis, consider the greater influence such poi-
become pregnant progressive type
convulsion disturbance of
consciousness), death soning may have on individuals with
amount of other complications.
mercury intake Characteristic clinical
picture of methyl When considering the safety level one
mercury poisoning
must consider not the average but the
/ ^-A-Tk
exception. The safety level should be cal-
culated to definitely avoid even the light-
A- est of symptoms. It should be calculated
l)JE£ 7k consuming more than
to be safe for those
the average amount
of fish and shellfish.
n For example, in Japan the Food Sanitation
congenital Research Division has estimated that the
Minamata Disease £E$£§I ) m average consumption of fish among Jap-
anese fishermen is less than 200 grams per
day. In Minamata the average consump-
#4$n&£& ( if mm. ifeifoffft: a )
tion per day is 286 grams in winter and
410 grams during the summer.49 Also, the
»££*#, ^m-±* sensory disturbance, visual calculation should consider the young and
constriction, ataxia,
mental retardation auditory disturbance, the weak as well as the healthy adult.
(non-specific type) dysarthria etc
(Hunter-Russell syndrome) It must also be noted that there are no

experiments as yet to prove how safe the

incomplete, atypical, presently calculated safety level is when
latent poisoning
(sub-clinical type)
or slight type
amounts just on the so-called safe side are
non-specific
disorder type consumed continuously over a period of
damage, high
(liver
blood pressure, etc ]
many years.
And finally, in this age of multiple
pollutants in the environment, this safety

190
standard has not considered the possibili- might be causing damage. 11 Kitamura, S., Minamata Disease, Minamata Dis-
ties of multiple contamination: mercury At this point it is impossible to state ease Study Group, Kumamoto University, Japan,
1968, pp. 257-266. The present safety level is 0.4 ppm
from other sources and also the cumula- which of these three factors is most re-
in the USA and Japan.
tive effects of other poisons in the sponsible for the present appearance of
environment. symptoms. Further investigation of the 12 Ibid.

Therefore, when these various factors toxicity of methyl mercury should

becomes clear that it is certainly pursue this issue. 13 Takeuchi, J., Minamata Disease, Minamata Dis-
are considered, it
ease Study Group, Kumamoto University, Japan,
necessary to seriously re-examine the
1968, pp. 141-228.
present approach in figuring a safety Summary
level. looking back at the history of medical
In 14 Kitamura.S., Minamata Disease, Minamata Dis-
research of Minamata Disease, one is ease Study Group, Kumamoto University, Japan,
1968, pp. 257-266.
No "Threshold Point" astounded by the areas of research as yet
Theaccepted concept of the safety level untapped. 15 Ibid.
is based upon the idea that symptoms do What we must do is to put to use the
not appear unless a certain amount of lesson of Minamata for the rest of human- 16 Uchida, M., Biochemistry, 35, p. 430 (1963), in

methyl mercury accumulates in the body. kind. There is no other way but tomake Japanese.

But it is misleading to think that therefore the results of this massive human experi-
17 hukayama,K.,eta\.,Japan Journ. Public Health,
methyl mercury causes no cell damage ment completely clear. 11, p. 645 (1964), in Japanese.
until reaches a certain level. Although
it Medically, that is the only way to com-
outward symptoms may not appear until pensate those already victimized. 18 Fujiki, M., presented at the 6th International

reached, can be Water Pollution Research Conference, section 6, p.

a certain level is it
12 (1972).
assumed that damage is proportionate, We are grateful to Dr. Sanford Rothen-
to some extent, to the amount of mercury berg for his generous assistance in prepar- 19 Kitamura, S.,etal., Journ. Kumamoto Med. Soc.
that is consumed and that passes through ing the English version of this report. p. 477 (1960). Nagano, S., et al., Journ.
34 (suppl. 3)
the body, whether or not the body's mer- Kumamoto Med. Soc. 31 (suppl. 3) p. 511 (1960), 34
(suppl. 3) p. 511 (1960), in Japanese.
cury content reaches a "dangerous" level
at any given moment. Footnotes 20 Harada, M., Psychiat. Neurol. Japan, 66, 429
p.
If so, thereno actual "safety level!'
is (1964); Harada, M., Constitutional Medicine, 38, p.
1 Kitamura, S., et al., Journ. Kumamoto Med. Soc.
The greater the methyl mercury intake, 31 (Suppl. 2) p. 238 (1957), in Japanese.
29 (1974).

the greater the cell damage. The lower the

21 Harada, Y., Minamata Disease, Minamata Dis-
intake, the less damage to cells. On the 2 Minamata Disease, Minamata Disease Study
ease Study Group, Kumamoto University, Japan,
cellular level there is no "threshold point'.' Group, Kumamoto University, Japan, 1968.
1968, pp. 93-117.
Minamata and the surround-
In fact, in
3 McAlpine, D., et al.. Lancet, Sept. 20, 1958, p. 629
ing area, symptoms are becoming evident 22 Fujiki, M., op. cit.; Harada, M., Advances in
(1958).
Neurol. Sci., 16, p. 870 (1972), in Japanese. It is an old
forthe first time in some individuals, even
custom in Japan to keep the dried umbilical cords of
though at present most of the
and fish 4 Sera, K., et al., Journ. Kumamoto Med. Soc. 31 newborn infants.
(Suppl. 2) p. 307(1957), in Japanese. It is now known
shellfish in this area show a relatively low
that experimentally, lmg/kg per day of methyl-
mercury content-50 and persons showing 23 Takeuchi,T, Minamata Disease, Minamata Dis-
mercury compound will produce symptoms in cats
symptoms have low levels of mercury in ease Study Group, Kumamoto University, Japan,
in one month.
1968, pp. 141-228; Matsumoto, H., et al., Journ. Neu-
their hair? 1 This phenomenon cannot be ropath. Experiment. Neurol., 24, p. 563 (1965); Take-
explained by the mercury "accumulation 5 Tokuomi,H.,et a\., Psychiatric Neurology Japan,
uchi, T, International Congress on Environmental
Tokuomi, H., Mina-
62, p. 1816 (1960), in Japanese;
theory" based on the concept of biologi- Mercury Contamination (1970), pp. 247-301, Ann
mata Disease, Minamata Disease Study Group, Ku-
cal half-life. Arbor Sci. Publ. Inc. (1972).
mamoto University, Japan, 1968, pp. 37-72.
There are three plausible explanations
24 Morikawa, N., Kumamoto Medical Journal, 14,
for the fact that the symptoms are show- 6 Takeuchi,T. and Morikawa,N., Psych iaf. Neurol.
p. 87 (1961); Fujita, E., Journ. Kumamoto Med. Soc,
ing up now: Japan, 62, p. 1850 (1960), in Japanese; Takeuchi, T.,
43, p. 47 (1969) in Japanese; Shiraki, H., Journal of
Minamata Disease, MinamataDiseaseStudy Group,
1. The high level of mercury intake dur- Kyogyo Chem., 17, p. 93 (1972).
Kumamoto University, Japan, 1968, pp. 229-252.
ing the period before and after 1956
25 Harada, Y., op.
might now be causing the symptoms. 7 Hunter, D. and Russell, D.S., Journ. Neurol. Neu-
cit.

2. The brain damage already caused by rosurg. Psychiat., 17, p. 235 (1954).
26 Deshimaru, M., Psychiat. Neurol. Japan, 71,
methyl mercury during the period p. 506 (1969), in Japanese.
8 Hunter, D., et al., Quart. Journ. Med. 9, p. 193
of greatest contaminationmight now
(1940). 27 Minamata Disease, Minamata Disease Study
be coming to the surface with aging
Group, Kumamoto University, Japan, 1968.
or other factors. 9 Kitamura, S., et al., Journ. Kumamoto Med. Soc.
3. In Minamata the inhabitants contin- 34 (suppl. 3), p. 477 (1960), in Japanese; Kitamura, S.,
28 Harada, M., Psychiat. Neurol., 74, p. 668 (1972),
Minamata Disease, Minamata DiseaseStudy Group,
ued to eat fish which contained a rel- in Japanese.
Kumamoto University, Japan, 1968, pp. 257-266.
atively smaller amount of mercury:
29 Harada, M., Constitutional Med., 38, p. 20
Long-term low-level consumption 10 Wet weight. Total mercury. (1974).

191
 30 Takeuchi, T., International Congress on Envi- Studies on Minamata Disease Ten Years After Out-
imental Mercury Contamination (1970), pp. 247- break, op. cit.
301, Ann Arbor Sci. Publ. Inc. (1972); Takeuchi, T.,
et al., Journ. Kumamoto Med. Soc, 46, p. 666 (1972), 41 Takeuchi, T, Minamata Disease, Minamata Dis-
in Japanese. ease Study Group, Kumamoto University, Japan,
1968, pp. 141-228; Takeuchi, T, International Con-
31 Minamata Disease, Minamata Disease Study gress on Environmental Mercury Contamination
Group, Kumamoto University, Japan, 1968. (1970), pp. 247-301, Ann Arbor Sci. Publ. Inc. (1972).

32 Harada, M., Constitutional Med., 38, p. 20 42 Harada, M., Constitutional Med., 38, p. 29
(1974); Tokuomi, H., Advances in Neurol. Sci., 7, p. (1974); Harada, M., Journ. of Public Health, 37, p. 171
276 (1963), in Japanese. (1973), in Japanese.

33 Hunter, D., et al., Quart. Journ. Med., 9, p. 193 43 Harada, M., Psychiat. Neurol. Japan, bb, p 429
(1940). (1964).

34 Harada, M., Science, 41, p. 250 (1972), in 44 Mental deficiency among junior high school
Japanese. children is considered to be 9.7% in Japan.

35 Harada, M., Advances in Neurol. Sci., 16, p. 870 45 Ekmann, Nord. Med.,
L., 79, p. 450 (1968).
(1972),in Japanese; Harada, M., Constitutional
Med., 38, p. 20 (1974). 46 Bakir, F„ et al.. Science, 181, p. 230 (1973).

36 Harada, M., Constitutional Med., 38, p 2° 47 Ekmann, L., et al„ op. cit., 79, p. 450 (1968).
(1974).

48 Takeuchi, T, Epidemiological, Clinical and

37 Epidemiological, Clinical and Pathological Pathological Studies on Minamata Disease Ten Years
Studies on Minamata Disease Ten Years After Out- After Outbreak, op. cit.
break, a report of the Second Medical Study Group,
Kumamoto University, Japan (1973), in Japanese. 49 Epidemiological, Clinical and Pathological
Studies on Minamata Disease Ten Years After Out-
38 Ariake was later found not to be completely free break, op. cit.
of mercury contamination.
50 (1973) Minamata Bay shellfish: maximum 3.5
39 Harada, M., Journ. of Public Health, 37, p. 171 ppm, minimum 0.01 ppm, average 0.47 ppm.
(1973), in Japanese.

51 (1973) Maximum 14.8 ppm, minimum 2.14 ppm,

40 Epidemiological, Clinical and Pathological average 6.16 ppm.

PHOTO CREDITS:

W. Eugene Smith
pages: 2, 6, 12, 14, 15, 18-19, 20-21, 24-25, 27, 29, 30, 31
bottom, 32, 33, 37, 38, 39, 42, 43, 44-45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51,
52, 54, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64-65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71,
72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 81, 84, 85, 86-87, 88, 90, 91, 92-93!
94, 95, 96 bottom, 98, 99, 101, 104, 106 bottom, 107, 10&
109, 110, 112, 113, 114, 116, 118, 121, 123, 124, 126, 127, 128,'
138-139, 148, 149, 151, 152, 153, 156, 158, 162, 163, 169, 170-
171, 173.

Aileen M. Smith
pages: 16-17, 22, 23, 31 top, 34, 36, 40, 41, 53, 67, 79, 89,
96 top, 97, 100, 103, 105, 106 top, 111, 112 bottom, 113 top,
115, 119, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137 140, 142, 143,144,146-
147, 154, 155, 157, 160, 161, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168.

192
 ouaiun ruBllL LIbNANY

3 9999 01824 299 8

MLlify+i~T!.Kt -WAvrKWaS

Boston Public Library

BRIGHTON
BRANCH LIBRARY
KA1231
!*5S65

TheDatcl 2Stl5it376 vindi-

cates the date on or before which this
book should be returned to the Library.
Please do not remove cards from this
pocket.
 Eugene and Aileen in Minamata. Photo: Ellchi Watanabe

is perhaps the most rigorous photojournalist

who ever practiced the trade. His insistence on
sharing the risks of World War II infantrymen
while on assignment in the Pacific for Life maga-
zine led to severe shrapnel wounds on Okinawa.
The first picture on the first roll of film he ex-
posed after two years of painful convalescence,
a study of two children called "The Walk to
Paradise Garden'' became famous as the con-
clusion of the Family of Man exhibit at the Mu-
seum of Modern Art.
Returning to Life, Smith created a series of
monumental photo essays including studies of a
country doctor, a Spanish village, a North Caro-
lina nurse-midwife, and Albert Schweitzer. Be-
fore the publication of the Schweitzer essay, his
fierce individualism clashed with the manipula-
who, he felt,
tions of editors could not have seen
what he saw, and he resigned from Life in 1954.
He continued to work on essays in Pittsburgh,
New York, and Haiti before concentrating on
Japan.
Although Smith's photographs hang in the
permanent collections of the Museum of Mod-
ern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the
George Eastman house, he feels most rewarded
by the essays that have led members of his audi-
ence to clean up a concentration camp, to build a
nursing clinic, to change a prejudice, or to save a
life. He has received the rare honor of three Gug-

genheim Fellowships, and was recently awarded

a grant from the National Endowment for the
Arts to finish work on the Minamata essay.
There are few achievements like those of the
heroes of Minamata. There are few statements
as eloquent as this book of words and photo-
graphs. Minamata speaks not just of a few poor
persons with ruined bodies struggling against
the power of a great industrial state, but of their
insistence — as harsh, sometimes, as it is beauti-
ful—that life cannot be treated carelessly.

An Alskog-Sensorium Book
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
383 Madison Avenue
New York, New York 10017
Printed in U.S.A.
 Hv

times— one photograph or a group of them can hire our senses

vc* into awareness. Much depends upon the viewer; in some, photo-
graphs can summon enough emotion to be a catalyst to thought.
Someone — or perhaps many— among us may he influenced to
heed reason, to find a way to right that which is wrong, and may
even he inspired to the- dedication needed to search for the cure
to an illness. Tm
rest of us may perhaps feel a greater sense of

understanding and compassion for those whose lives are alien

to^our own. Photography is a small voice. It is an important
voide in my life, but not the only one. I believe in it. If it is well-
conceived, sometimes works.. That
it is why I— and also Aileen
—photograph in Minamata. /L y .