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 protesting in 1959. They demanded
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 Ralph S.
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 with
questions, comments, suggestions, or with any errors or omissios
found.
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In the early
1970s, William
Eugene Smith 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.
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