Minamata Bay
Disaster
The Story of
Minamata- Japan
From 1932 to
1968, Chisso Corporation, a company located in
Kumamoto
Japan, dumped an estimated 27 tons of mercury compounds
into
Minamata Bay. Kumamoto is a small town about 570 miles
southwest of
Tokyo. The town consisted of mostly farmers and
fisherman.
When Chisso Corporation dumped this massive amount of
mercury into
the bay, thousands of people whose normal diet
included
fish from the bay, unexpectedly developed symptoms of
methyl
mercury poisoning.
In Japanese,
"Chisso" means nitrogen. The
Chisso
Corporation had it's beginnings as a fertilizer producing
company, and
gradually advanced to a petrochemical and plastic-maker
company. In
1907 the villagers of Minamata convinced the founder of Chisso
Corporation
to build a factory in their town, hoping to benefit
from the
wealth of industrialization.
The owner,
Jun Noguchi agreed to the development at a cost to the
villagers,
Noguchi only hired them as factory workers with the higher up
positions in
the company going to "elites" educated at some of the
finest
Universities in Japan.
By 1925, the
Chisso Corporation was dumping waste from the production
and
development of chemicals into Minamata Bay
and
destroying the fishing areas. The theory behind Noguchi's
industry was
to pay off the Minamata fisherman in exchange for
damaging
their fishing environment. According to interviews of the
people who
lived in Minamata, the company believed that it was much
cheaper to
pay off the few people who were opposed to the dumping,
rather than
implement an environmentally safe technique of waste
removal.
Therefore, since the villagers accepted this practice through
compensation
of money, and the government was behind the industry, the
entire
process appeared ethical.
Chisso
Corporation started developing plastics, drugs, and perfumes
through the
use of a chemical called acetaldehyde in 1932.
Acetaldehyde
is produced using mercury as a compound, and was key
component in
the production of their products. The company was
considered
an economic success in Japan, particularly because it
was one
industry that maintained development despite Japan's
suffering
throughout and right after W.W.II.
Having a
monopoly
on the
chemical enabled Chisso to expand rapidly. Since Chisso
Corporation
was the main industry in the small Minamata town, the
town's
growth period from 1952 to 1960 paralleled Chisso's
progress.
Not until
the mid-1950's did the people of Minamata begin to see the
effects of
the as yet unknown mercury pollution. People were alarmed
when the
cats who hung around the fishing docks waiting for the catch of
the day,
began to dance. No feline dance of anticipation, these dances
were
seizures. The cats had uncontrolled body movements, seizures, and
then would
drop dead on the docks and in the streets.
In 1956
people began to notice the "strange
disease"
in their own kind. Dr. Hajime Hosokawa from the Chisso
Corporation
Hospital, reported that, "an unclarified disease of the
central
nervous system has broken out". Dr. Hosokawa linked the fish
diets to the
disease, and soon investigators were promulgating that the
sea was
being
polluted by poisons from the Chisso Corporation. The Chisso
Corporation
denied the accusations and maintained their production.
However, by
1958, Chisso Corporation transferred their dumping from
the Minamata
Bay to the Minamata River hoping to diminish
accusations
toward the company. A Minamata doctor finally diagnosed the
disease as
Mercury Poisoning. Victims were diagnosed as having a
degeneration
of their nervous systems. Numbness occurred in their limbs
and lips.
Their speech became slurred, and their vision constricted.
Some people
had serious brain damage, while others lapsed into
unconsciousness
or suffered from involuntary movements.
In July of
1959, researchers from Kumamoto University
concluded
that organic mercury was the cause of the "Minamata
Disease".
A number of committees, of which Chisso Corporation
employees
were members, formed to research the problem. The
committees
denied this information and refuted the direct link of
mercury to
the strange disease. Finally, Dr. Hosokawa performed
concealed
cat experiments in front of the Chisso Corporation
management,
and illustrated the affects of mercury poisoning by
feeding the
cats acetaldehyde. Dr. Hosokawa was the first person
who made a
valiant effort in proving to Chisso Corporation that
they were
the ones accountable for the mercury poisoning. After
the meeting
with Chisso officials, Dr. Hosokawa was restricted from
conducting
any further research or experiments, and his findings
were
concealed by the corporation.
Chisso
Corporation began to make deals with the victims of the
"
Minamata Disease". People who were desperate and legally ignorant
signed
contracts which stated that Chisso Corporation would pay
them for
their misfortunes, but would accept no responsibility. In
fact, there
was even a clause which read, "if Chisso Corporation
were later
proven guilty, the company would not be liable for
further
compensation".
The
fishermen began p
compensation,
but soon became intimidated by the threats of Chisso
management.
The victims feared that if they did not settle, they
would never
receive any kind of compensation. Chisso paid off some
of the
people while continuing to profit from increased sales.
Chisso
installed a "Cyclator" which was designed to treat waste
water. The
management however, often ignored this crucial step in
their
production process. Not until 1968, did Chisso Corporation
quit
poisoning the waters in Minamata. The company was forced into
court in
1969, and the only reason why the polluting stopped was
simply
because the method of mercury production became outdated.
Over 3,000
victims have been recognized as having "Minamata
Disease"
as it came to be known. It has taken some of these people over
thirty years
to receive compensation for this inconceivable event. In
1993, nearly
forty years later, the Japanese courts were still resolving
suitable
compensation for the victims. Many people have lost their
lives,
suffered from physical deformities, or have had to live with
the physical
and emotional pain of "Minamata Disease". This
suffering is
all a result of the very wrongful and negligent acts
of the
Chisso Corporation who dumped mercury into the sea and
poisoned the
people of the Minamata Bay area.
It was later
determined in court that Chisso Corporation
consistently
polluted the waster of Minamata Bay from 1932-1968.
On March 20,
1973, Japan's Kumamoto District Court ruled:
"It
must be said that a chemical plant, in discharging
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 plan, and the human
body, always
availing itself of the highest skill and
knowledge;
to provide 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 analysis...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 plan discharged acetaldehyde waste water
with
negligence at all times, and even though the quality
and content
of the waste water of the defendant's plan
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".
The waters
and marine life were affected by the waste dumping of
Chisso
Corporation. Minamata Bay is a rich fishing and farming
village.
Therefore, when the water was polluted, it had a dramatic
effect on
the main resource of Minamata.
The mercury
affected both the marine life and the people of
Minamata.
Because the water was contaminated, eating the fish
caused
mercury poisoning in people, cats, and birds.
Chisso
Corporation no longer uses the chemicals which caused
"
Minamata's Disease", or dump any kind of waste into the bay.
However, the
victims have not received full retribution. Some
people of
Minamata are still trying to sue for monetary
compensation
from Chisso Corporation.
Chisso
Corporation has now implemented environmentally safe technology
in their
production process.
*Relevant
Sources:*
"Japan
to Provide $100 Million for Firm that Polluted Bay", Chicago
Tribune,
September 3, 1993.
"Japan:
New Approaches to the Environment". Greenwatch. UNESCO
Courier,
July, 1994.
"Japan:
Court Orders Firm to Pay $3 Million to Minamata's Victims".
Worldview,
July 12, 1994.
"Mercurial
Risks from Acid's Reign" by Janet Raloff. New
Scientist.
Vol. 139, March 9, 1991
"Minamata
and the Search for Justice" by Michael Cross. New
Scientist.
February 16, 1991.
"Minamata's
Heroes: Industry Poisoned Their Lives, but not Their
Spirits"
by Chieko Kuriki, Chicago Tribune. April 26, 1990.
"Pills,
Pollution, and Power; Japan's Soiled Past" by
Yourtee.
World Paper, February, 1994.
Smith,
Eugene. Minamata. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston,
1975.
This page
assembled by Elizabeth A. Barker for
Professor
Tony Murphy's Introduction to Environmental Studies Course -
Spring of
2003.
Please
e-mail <mailto:ebarker01@gw.hamline.edu> with questions,
comments,
suggestions, or with any errors or omissios found.
In the early
1970s, William Eugene Smith
<http://www.focalpress.com/companions/0240804155/smithqa/smithqa.htm>
one of the
world's most accomplished photographers, lived with Aileen
Mioko
Sprauge Smith, his wife, in Minamata, Japan. He took the following
photographs
during his time in Minamata while the legal battle was
waging in
Japanese courts. Many photos were taken of the effects of long
term
environmental industrial mercury poisoning on the local population.
Here we see
an image of an outwardly healthy mother bathing her
fetal-poisoned
16 year old daughter, Tomoko Uemura, physically crippled
since birth
due to environmental industrial mercury poisoning in the
local
Minamata, Japan, water supply. This may well be the first
environmental
pollution photojournalism.
Here,
fishing on the Bay of Minamata. This scene has changed very little
over the
centuries. However, the pollution has changed the relationship
that the
people of Minamata have with the sea and their mainstay of fish.
Already lame
with Minamata disease, Yae Sato carries fresh fish home for
her family's
evening meal.
Pouring its
wastes into the air as well as the waters, the Chisso
chemical
complex dominates the city of Minamata.
.
Waste
chemicals, dumped into the bay, worked their way up the food chain
to the
people of the city and caused what has come to be known as
Minamata
Disease.
Plaintiffs
demonstrate with photos of their dead on the last day of the
trial in
October of 1972.
An aid mops
the brow of Chisso's - then President - Shimada, after he
performed
the Japanese ritual of shame and apology: touching his
forehead to
the ground, at the close of a grueling day in court.
Images and
captions taken from: Minolta Photography - William Eugene
Smith
1918-1978 with Aileen Mioko Sprauge Smith and Ishikawa Takeshi
<http://www.geocities.com/minoltaphotographyw/williameugenesmith.html>
*More on
Minamata*
*For more
information about the Minamata Bay tragedy and what has
happened
since, please examine the following links:*
/*Timetable
& History of Minamata Tragedy:*/
http://www.minamatacity.jp/english/me_3c1f2.htm
/*National
Institute for Minamata Disease:*/
_http://www.nimd.go.jp/english/_
*/
/*/*The
Corporate Century and the Environment:*/
_http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/1999/000000.html_
/*Environmental
News Network - Mercury Proliferates:*/
_http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/11/11142002/ap_48951.asp_
*/*Minamata/Mercury
Poisoning Power Point:*/
*_http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/aw/air/reg/__mercury/knobeloch/knobeloch.ppt_*
*
*/Japan
International /**/Cooperation Agency: "Minamata on the
Mend":/*_http://www.jica.go.jp/english/news/2002/02_01.html_
*/Regeneration
of Minamata Bay:/*
_http://www.minamatacity.jp/english/mi_2e.htm_
*/Minamata
Bay Lawsuit still not resolved:/*
_http://www1.odn.ne.jp/~aah07310/english/politicsp.html_