A visitor to Minamata today would be captivated by its natural beauty, a picturesque slice of Japan sandwiched between a blue sea and graceful green mountains.
On the surface there is nothing to indicate that this region in Japan`s southern island of Kyushu, 850 miles south of Tokyo, is the namesake of one of the first major environmental disasters: Minamata disease.
But behind the closed doors of the modest houses of the quiet farming and fishing villages along the southern coast, its victims fight unbearable pain. Some wait for death.
”Minamata disease is a crime against humanity,” said Teruo Kawamoto, 58, leader of the Chisso Minamata Disease Patients Committee, who himself is affected. ”Nothing can justify the tragedy.”
Technically, Minamata disease is not a disease at all. Rather, its victims suffered severe and permanent damage to the central nervous system-including the brain-after eating methyl-mercury-tainted fish and shellfish caught in Minamata Bay. The sea life in the bay was contaminated by the discharge of waste water from the Chisso Corp. plant at Minamata.
Methyl-mercury, the most toxic of all organic mercury compounds, is a waste byproduct in the manufacture of acetaldehyde, a component of plastics. Since 1932, according to Chisso Corp. records, the company has dumped an estimated 27 tons of chemical contaminants including methyl-mercury into Minamata Bay (enough to kill 135 million people).
The impact of the chemical poisoning has been especially hard for the women of the region. They have had to bear the burden not only of their own illnesses and the loss of family members, but of knowing that they have passed the legacy on to their children. Many women suffered miscarriages and stillbirths. Some gave birth to children with congenital deformities.
”Every day means agony,” said Kiyoko Kosaki. She was 19 when she married fisherman Teruo Kosaki in 1958. But their simple, happy life ended in 1959 when Minamata disease struck a double blow to the family. On the same day that her son Tatsuzumi, now 31, was born, her father, Fukumatsu Ogata, was hospitalized with the disease.
The little finger of her father`s left hand had become stiff a month earlier, and the stiffness quickly spread throughout his body. Soon Ogata could not walk or eat. He became blind and his hearing suffered. He died, two months after his symptoms appeared, at the age of 61.
”He was not a human any more. It was so frightening. I can never forget,” Kosaki said. ”My father was robust and very healthy. Nobody could believe it.”
The autopsy showed methyl-mercury poisoning. Ogata became the first official victim discovered in Meshima, a fishing village 13 miles north of Minamata.
From the day Tatsuzumi was born, Kosaki`s son cried furiously. His neck remained weak and he was unable to hold up his head. Kosaki sought medical help, but her son`s condition grew worse. By the time he was of school-age, Tatsuzumi could not walk or speak like other children.
Kosaki suspected Minamata disease, but she dismissed the idea because her son had not eaten ”bad” fish.
The diagnosis of Minamata disease was confirmed when Tatsuzumi was 9. ”I have lived in hell since then,” Kosaki said.
”I could never have imagined that I would have managed to survive till now,” Kosaki said. ”I ask myself every day: Why did this happen? Is it due to my karma? If I could pour out all my grief, I couldn`t finish even in 10 days. I used to hate Chisso, but I`m tired out.”
Kosaki, who had a miscarriage before Tatsuzumi was born and whose second son died two weeks after his birth, blames herself for her son`s condition. The Ogatas ate sardines, which they caught near Chisso Corp.`s waste water overflow.
”I poisoned him from the fish I ate,” Kiyoko Kosaki said. ”I know I shouldn`t, but I sometimes wish he would die before me. I know that I have more painful days ahead.”
Tatsuzumi, now bedridden, is in great pain. His speech is slurred and he can no longer sit upright.
”I know what he`s saying, although (other) people don`t understand,”
said Kosaki. She thinks her son probably knows that he will not live long, but they never talk about it. At times when other families celebrate the rites of their children`s life passages, such as entering school, graduation, adulthood day and marriage, Kosaki becomes particularly depressed.
”He cares about me, knowing how much I have suffered for him,” she said. ”I don`t care about myself. I`m not afraid of aging or death. I only care about my son. I can`t die leaving him behind. He can`t drink a glass of water by himself.”
The Kosakis also have a daughter, born in 1966, who has not yet shown symptoms of the disease.
Of her own brothers and sisters (apart from the oldest brother who died during World War II), seven are Minamata disease victims, two have died of possible Minamata disease and four show symptoms.
Kiyoko Kosaki suffers from severe headaches. She cannot concentrate, tires easily, is easily irritated and has stress-related ulcers. Her husband suffers from weakness and numbness of limbs, which forced him to stop fishing. They earn their living by growing oranges.
Early warnings
Ominous signs of a problem appeared in the early `50s. Fish began to float on the surface of the sea. Crows in flight would drop from the sky. Cats succumbed to ”dancing disease,” as the locals called it, whirling in circles, jumping into the sea or into fires. By 1958, all the cats in the surrounding fishing villages-Tsukinoura , Yudo and Modo-had died.
The catch from Minamata Bay declined steadily from the early 1950s. The water itself had turned dark green and was sticky and malodorous. When water taken from the area surrounding Hyakken, where Chisso Corp.`s waste water poured out from underground pipes, was poured into fish ponds, the fish died. The first official report on Minamata disease came in 1956 when children in the fishing village of Tsukinoura were hospitalized with sudden and severe symptoms-numbness of limbs and lips, severe speech impediments, blindness, tremors and paralysis, convulsions and death. Some suffered from mental disorders.
Within three months, doctors discovered 30 more cases and learned that 11 already had died. Rumors of an epidemic quickly spread, terrifying people.
In 1963 a Kumamoto University research team proved that Minamata disease was caused by eating fish and shellfish contaminated with methyl-mercury.
Minamata Bay is a pouched-shaped bay on the inland Shiranui Sea, a rich fishery with more than 20 kinds of fish and shellfish, including sardines, cuttlefish and oysters. Most of its victims-fishermen and their families-had eaten fish and shellfish taken from the bay almost three times a day over the decades.
In 1958, Chisso Corp. moved its waste water discharge from Hyakken-in a cove-like area of the bay-to the mouth of the Minamata River-which opened directly into the Shiranui Sea. Marine biologists say that move spread the chemicals out into the inland sea, affecting greater numbers of people.
It came to light during a 1982 trial in a lawsuit brought by Minamata victims that the company was aware of the waste water connection as early as 1959. That year, the Chisso company doctor successfully reproduced Minamata symptoms in experiments with cats, which had been fed food mixed with the waste water. But the plant never suspended operations.
The president of Chisso and the Minamata plant general manager were found guilty of professional negligence resulting in death. Kiichi Yoshioka, president, and Eiichi Nishida, Minamata plant general manager, were each sentenced to two-year prison terms, but neither was imprisoned. Both have since died.
The Kumamoto University medical research team estimates at least 100,000 of the 200,000 people in the area had eaten contaminated fish and shellfish. Dr. Masazumi Harada, neuropsychiatrist at Kumamoto University, thinks some 10,000 victims are alive today. The death toll is unknown, although some have estimated that at least 3,000 have died.
A family`s ordeal
The Sakamoto family became ill in 1957. Yoshitake Sakamoto suffered trembling limbs and numbness so severe that he frequently fell, injuring himself. Tsugie Sakamoto, now 65, and their daughter Yuko, now 40, became ill about the same time.
The family, facing major medical expenses, applied for official certification as Minamata victims in 1973. Only Yoshitake Sakamoto received certification (in 1979). He died nine years later at the age of 70.
In 1973, Chisso Corp. agreed to a court-ordered settlement to pay victims $107,000 to $120,000 (for those with medium to severe symptoms). Medical expenses and life-long pensions were added later. But to qualify, a committee must verify that the patient is suffering Minamata disease. Applicants must be examined at a designated medical center, of which there is only one in Minamata.
As of April 1990 there were 1,760 verified patients; 8,185 have been turned down; and 2,794 who claims remain unsettled in the state of Kumamoto in which Minamata lies. Of those with unsettled claims, 412 have died.
”The doctors seemed suspicious from the beginning,” said Sakamoto.
”Some (patients) were accused of coming just because they wanted money.”
Tsugie Sakamoto suffers from numbness in her legs, hearing loss and chronic fatigue. She had to give up vegetable growing, her cherished hobby. She goes to an acupuncturist five times a week. She usually stays in bed and can cook only dinner. Despite their symptoms, neither Sakamoto nor her daughter have been recognized as victims.
Applicants have said that the medical examinations are unpleasant, if not inhuman. Sakamoto said her daughter was pricked deep with needles-since it was believed that Minamata disease patients feel no pain-until her arms became bloody.
Sakamoto regards health as a treasure: ”There is no greater happiness I can think of than being able to work in good shape. But I feel weaker every year. I don`t know how long I can live.”
Reiko Kinoshita, 56, sister-in-law of Kiyoko Kosaki, suffers from severe headaches, a sleeping disorder and hearing difficulty. Of her six brothers and sisters, all verified victims, two have died.
Kinoshita`s husband, Hideto, 57, a construction worker who suffered numbness in his legs, has been in the hospital with a fractured leg since he fell while working. He applied for verification as a Minamata disease victim more than 20 years ago, but has not been approved.
When Kinoshita cannot sleep, she goes outside to look at the sea just in front of her house. ”I was brought up by the sea,” she said. ”It always encourages me.”
Haunting reminders
A ”Safety First” sign is displayed at the main gate to the Chisso Corp.`s Minamata plant, which is across from the railway station.
Today, the Minamata plant employs 730 workers, a fifth of the force it employed in the `50s and `60s when 60 percent of the population of 50,000 worked there. The company ceased production of acetaldehyde in 1968 when a different technology was developed. It produces chemicals, floppy disks and fertilizer.
The company is $761 million in debt and has been declining since the early `70s due in part to the energy crisis as well as to the cost of the 1973 court settlement. As of mid-1989, Chisso Corp. had paid $611 million in medical benefits and pensions to certified Minamata victims.
The city`s economic vitality has suffered as well. Unemployment is high and the population has dropped to less than 35,000. The main street looks empty today. The last movie house closed two years ago. Young people leave the city as soon as they graduate from either of the two high schools. The area near the Hyakken overflow site has been filled in with sludge and the city plans to plant gardens there.
Its citizens are reluctant to talk about the disease.
”We just want to forget,” said Yoko Kanzaki, a coffeeshop owner.
”I don`t want the same thing to happen again anywhere,” said Kinoshita. ”If our struggle is of some value for others . . . I want people to remember Minamata and us-how we try to overcome our grief.”
While reminders remain, the lesson of Minamata may be fading. Some experts believe the methyl-mercury along with other toxic chemicals discharged by the plant will remain in the sludge at the bottom of the bay and the sea indefinitely. But the Kumamoto government recently announced a plan to loosen the fishing ban in Minamata Bay.
In March, Kawamoto and other patients filed suit in Kumamoto District Court against the proposal.
”We are responsible to protect our sea, as we care most,” Kawamoto said. ”We still love the sea, though we know its danger.”
