M I N A M A T A Pollution and .the Struggle for Democracy in Postwar Japan Harvard East Asian Monographs 194 Timothy S. George - 978-1-68417-347-1 Downloaded from Brill.com11/05/2020 11:19:03PM via McGill University Timothy S. George - 978-1-68417-347-1 Downloaded from Brill.com11/05/2020 11:19:03PM via McGill University 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 Timothy S. George - 978-1-68417-347-1 Downloaded from Brill.com11/05/2020 11:19:03PM via McGill University © 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 Timothy S. George - 978-1-68417-347-1 Downloaded from Brill.com11/05/2020 11:19:03PM via McGill University 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. Timothy S. George - 978-1-68417-347-1 Downloaded from Brill.com11/05/2020 11:19:03PM via McGill University 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. Timothy S. George - 978-1-68417-347-1 Downloaded from Brill.com11/05/2020 11:19:03PM via McGill University 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. Timothy S. George - 978-1-68417-347-1 Downloaded from Brill.com11/05/2020 11:19:03PM via McGill University Timothy S. George - 978-1-68417-347-1 Downloaded from Brill.com11/05/2020 11:19:03PM via McGill University 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 Timothy S. George - 978-1-68417-347-1 Downloaded from Brill.com11/05/2020 11:19:03PM via McGill University 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 Timothy S. George - 978-1-68417-347-1 Downloaded from Brill.com11/05/2020 11:19:03PM via McGill University