Table Of ContentM I N A M A T A
Pollution and .the Struggle for Democracy
in Postwar Japan
Harvard East Asian Monographs 194
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MINAMATA
Pollution and the Struggle for Democracy
in Postwar Japan
Timothy S. George
Published by the Harvard University Asia Center and
Distributed by Harvard University Press
Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London 2001
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© 2001 by the President and Fellows ofHarvard College
Printed in the United States ofA merica
The Harvard University Asia Center publishes a monograph series and, in coordination with
the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, the Korea Institute, the Reischauer Institute of
Japanese Studies, and other faculties and institutes, administers research projects designed to
further scholarly understanding of China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, and other Asian countries.
The Center also sponsors projects addressing multidisciplinary and regional issues in Asia.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
George, Timothy S.
Minamata : pollution and the struggle for democracy in postwar Japan I Timothy S.
George.
p. em.--(Harvard East Asian monographs; 194)
Includes bibliographic references and index.
ISBN o-674-00364-0 ( cl : alk. paper) --ISBN o-674·00785-9 (paper : alk. paper)
1. Mercury--Toxicology--Japan--Minamata-shi--History--2oth century. 2. Public
health--Japan--Minamata-shi--History··2oth century. 3· Environmental
health--Japan--Minamata-shi--History··2oth century. I. Tide. II. Series.
RAI23I.M5 G46 2001
6I5.9'25663'095225·-dc2I 00•053944
Index by the author
~ Printed on acid-free paper
First paperback edition 2002
Last figure below indicates year of this printing
n 10 09 o8 07 o6 05 04 03 02
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Acknowledgments
One cannot study Minamata only by teasing truths out of musty documents
in archives, nor can the scholar pretend to be a detached observer when he
cries along with his subjects as they tell their stories. I could not have re
searched and written this book without a great deal of help. The people of
the Minamata area, especially the victims of Minamata disease, welcomed an
American researcher and his family into their tragically beautiful home.
Hamamoto T suginori, the late Kawamoto T eruo, Ogata Masato, the late
Onitsuka Iwao, Ishimure Michiko, and Hiyoshi Fumiko were especially
generous, patient, and confident that I could understand.
At the Minamata Disease Center Soshisha, Y oshinaga T oshio provided
most of my introductions, Mochizuki T oshikazu supplied documents and
help in reading names, and Ori Arisa helped in every way possible. The
members of GAIA Minamata, especially T akakura Shiro and Yanagida
Koichi, shared their food, their homemade beer, and their experience.
Mayor Y oshii Masazumi and Yoshimoto T etsur6 of the city government
broadened my understanding of Minamata's history and environment, and
Yamanaka T oshiharu opened the collection of the city's Minamatabyo
shiryokan to me.
Maruyama Sadami of Kumamoto University provided most of my
documents by giving me full access to the Minamatabyo kenkyukai Collec
tion stored in his office. Two other Kumamoto University professors (both
now retired) and members of the Minamatabyo kenkyukai, T ogashi Sadao
and Harada Masazumi, improved my work with their confidence and in
sights. Matsuura T oyotoshi, proprietor of Karigari in Kumamoto and a
member of the Minamatabyo o kokuhatsu suru kai, provided food, drink,
conversation, and a congenial place to meet many helpful people.
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Acknowledgments
Vl
Irokawa Daikichi of Tokyo keizai daigaku (now retired) provided inspi
ration, encouragement, and suggestions from start to finish. Ui Jun of the
University of Okinawa, Yahagi Tadashi ofUrawaJunior College, Nakanishi
Junko of Yokohama National University, Horikawa Saburo of Hosei Uni
versity, Got6 T akanori, and Jitsukawa Yu ta provided essential guidance and
materials. Aileen Smith helped me see Minamata as it was when she and
W. Eugene Smith lived there. Members of the audience at my presentations
at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Social Science, the Ph.D. Kenkyu
kai at the International House of Japan, the Association for Asian Studies,
the Edwin 0. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard Univer
sity, the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Is
land, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Health and
Environmental Effects Research Laboratory in Narragansett, Rhode Island,
gave me very helpful suggestions.
This book is an outgrowth of my 1996 Harvard Ph.D. thesis in history.
Research was assisted by a Takahashi Zaidan grant from the Fulbright
Foundation in Japan, a Dissertation Write-up Fellowship from the Joint
Committee on Japanese Studies of the Social Science Research Council and
the American Council of Learned Societies, and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship
and two other grants from the Edwin 0. Reischauer Institute of Japanese
Studies. Research in Japan was also facilitated by an appointment as a Vis
iting Research Scholar at the Institute of Social Science at the University of
Tokyo, for which I thank Banno Junji. Funding for photographs was pro
vided by the Department of History and the College of Arts and Sciences of
the University of Rhode Island. Robert Gutchen drew the maps.
John Dower of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology first suggested
the topic of Minamata and helped me frame the issue in the context of mod
ern Japanese history. Carol Gluck of Columbia University helped with
grants, introductions, and interpretive context. Michael Reich of Harvard's
School of Public Health, Margaret McKean of Duke University, and Frank
Upham of the New York University School of Law were supportive from
the early stages. Herbert Bix encouraged me to use the terminology-post
war democracy-most used in Japan. At Harvard, my advisers Albert Craig
and Andrew Gordon improved this work immeasurably. My colleagues at
the University of Rhode Island were encouraging as I did further research
and rewriting.
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Acknowledgments Vll
This book is dedicated to my wife, Jane, and daughters, Emily and Sarah.
They believed in me and in this project, tolerated long absences, late nights
of work, and six moves in seven years, and taught me a great deal by making
us part of the communities in which we lived in Japan.
T.S.G.
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Contents
T abies, Maps, and Figures xi
Note on Conventions
XV
Introduction
Part I: Background, 1907-1955
Town, Factory, and Empire 13
The Setting 13/ The Factory Comes to Minamata 16/
The Growth ofNitchitsu 18/ Nitchitsu, Minamata, and
ImperialJapan 21
2 Minamata Before the Disease 26
Nitchitsu and Minamata Society 26/ Defeat, Recovery,
and Boom 30/ Minamata Politics in the 1950s 35/ Life
in Minamata in the 1950s: Hamamoto T suginori 38
Part II: The First Round of Responses
3 Discovering the Disease and Its Cause 45
4 The First Solution, 1959 71
The Fisherfolk's Struggle for Compensation 71/ The
Victims' Struggle for Compensation 102/ "As Clean
as River Water": The Third Leg of the "Solution" II4
Part III: "Years of Silence"?
5 Maintaining the Solution 125
The Fishers 125/ The Patients 144
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Contents
X
6 Change Undermines the Solution 154
Changes in Minamata 154/ Changes in Japan 171
Part IV: The Second Round of Responses, 1968-1973
7 Bringing the Issue to the Nation 179
1968 179/ An End to Solidarity: Leave It up to Others,
or Sue? 191/ Kawamoto Teruo and the Uncertified
Patients 203/ New Forms of Action and a Broadening
Base of Support 210
8 In and Out of Court: The Second Solution 222
The Leaflet War in Minamata 222/ Direct Negotiations
in Tokyo 228/ Defections and Confrontations 235/ The
Mediation Group and the Forgery Incident 238/ The Trial:
Proving Negligence 241/ After the Verdict: Negotiating from
a Position of Strength 249
Part V: Since 1973
9 Minamata and the Tragedy ofJ apan's "Modernity" 261
Remembering: Tales and Lessons of Minamata 261/
Events Since 1973: Toward a More Complete Solution 263/
Painfully Slow Healing 271
Conclusion: Minamata and Postwar Democracy 280
Epilogue: Restless Spirits
Reference Matter
Notes
295
Bibliography
339
Index
365
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