minamata : the victims and their world
minamatathe victims and their world (minamatakanja - san to sono sekai,  dir. tsuchimoto noriaki )
minamata: the victims and their world, dvd, b & w, 120 min. , 1971. more information at urltoken .
one of the monuments of japanese documentary, minamata: the victims and their world played at many international festivals, winning an award at locarno .
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celebrated as a masterpiece of documentary, minamata follows the victims of minamata disease, japan’s most notorious case of environmental pollution, in their struggle for recognition and compensation .
in the afternoon, delegates visited the grounds and the minamata disease archive and municipal museum, and had the opportunity to hear minamata disease victims share their story and met with local civil society, government and industry groups .
“but governments around the world cannot be asked to implement the lessons from minamata if those same lessons remain unresolved in minamata, ” digangi cautioned. digangi urged the following actions in minamata :
minamata: the victims and their world is the first in a series of documentaries that tsuchimoto made documenting the plight of the victims of minamata disease, their families, and their fight for redress. minamata disease takes its name from the city in kumamoto prefecture where the disease was identified in 1956. the disease is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. the local chemical factory run by the chisso corporation polluted minamata bay and the shiranui sea with industrial waste water containing the highly poisonous chemical compound methylmercury between 1932 and 1968 .
in august this year, a ceremony was held in europe to commemorate the centennial of the start of world war i. i was moved to see the heads of states of countries which had fought one another as enemies in two world wars, world war i and world war ii, coming together in one place and sharing their hopes of building a peaceful world in the future .
noriaki tsuchimoto, the director of “minamata, ” who is a stranger to this observer, and a fairly large complement of associates shot their black‐and‐white footage in minamata, its environs and osaka in 1971, largely in question‐and‐answer sessions with victims or their survivors .
trailer for noriaki tsuchimoto' s award - winning documentary, minamata: the victims and their world, a work follows the victims in their struggle for recognition and compensation for suffering from minamata disease, japan' s most notorious case of environmental pollution. this is one of the monuments of japanese documentary. part of the documentaries of noriaki tsuchimoto series from zakka films .
the following is a report of the situation of victims and their families in 1978, 15 years after the miike explosion .
ishimure’s own sustained fight for the rights of minamata patients and their families has also inspired environmental activisim .
the day’s program started with a remembrance to the victims of minamata disease at the minamata eco - park. this park is built on fill, some of which is confined mercury - contaminated sludge removed from minamata bay. participants laid a floral tribute at the cenotaph for minamata disease victims and the ministerial delegates took part in a tree planting ceremony .
minamata revolta peoples quest for life (minamata ikkiisho o tou hitobito,  dir. tsuchimoto noriaki )
in the small town of minamata in kyushu, far from the metropolitan center, the fertilizer company chisso built a factory to take advantage of cheap labor and commenced dumping mercury - filled wastewater into the nearby sea. soon residents began exhibiting symptoms of a mysterious illness, a happening that would eventually develop into the worst case of environmental pollution in postwar japan. noriaki tsuchimoto visits the patients and their families who sued chisso and listens to their voices. his camera gently lifts the veil that had obscured them and reveals their reality. minamata: the victims and their world is impressive in how it stands on the side of the patients, not only providing a collage of individual portraits, but also an understanding of the their everyday lives. one of the monuments of japanese documentary, minamata: the victims and their world played at many international festivals, winning an award at locarno .
with the exception of a few resistance movements that had their roots in the turbulent times before the second world war, pollution victims have only been able to organize in the last 20 years or so. however, there are still many disaster victims who have not yet been able to understand the cause of their problems nor take any corrective action, and in such instances the related destruction simply continues, claiming more and more victims .
“the mercury treaty is particularly connected to minamata because it specifically calls on governments around the world to learn and apply the lessons from the minamata tragedy to prevent mercury poisoning in the future. unfortunately, the original tragedy is still not resolved. ”
the extent of the damage done to the victims of polluted environments will have greatly differing results for individual people, as secondary problems related to their living situation and personality bring their varying forces to bear .
the introduction to the german translation speaks of minamata as a household name not only in japan but “all over the world” [ hijiya - kirschnereit, 7 ] .
this is a list of ideological utopias, against conservatism, that victory of the current regressive world. especially those that failed because the world is below possibilities and beyond the material. material world and of film too, ie, movies that combines the political matter with the matter that films are built of .
minamata’s people continue in the midst of this waiting. in contrast to minamata: the victim and their world ’s steady accumulation of revelations building towards catharsis, the shiranui sea works structurally through restoration, with the sense that humanity itself is self - healing. a visit to an institution organized for rehabilitating minamata disease youth shows teenagers practicing basic arithmetic and learning to walk with crutches, while images from minamata: the victims and their world appear of the same young people as near - catatonic just a few years prior. a nurse laughs while recalling being surprised at a young male patient pinching her bottom and discovering his show of desire to be a sign of progress .
the body of work tsuchimoto devoted to the victims, their families and their surroundings encompassed 17 films, of which minamata: the victims and their world is the most widely known. tsuchimoto isn’t afraid to let his camera roll for extended shots of afflicted patients, with results that are alternately harrowing, tender and deeply sad. he also commits himself to the texture and details of the everyday lives of the people of minamata: a striking sequence shows an octopus fisherman trudging through shallow water, the many - tentacled bundle of his catch dangling behind him on a rope. in such scenes, the film suggests life continuing and the possibility of renewal .
as potential victims become victims in reality, the situation gives rise to an ever - widening circle where people are given neither relief from the problem nor monetary compensation for their suffering. these people simply give up .
in the small town of minamata in kyushu, far from the metropolitan center, the fertilizer company chisso built a factory to take advantage of cheap labor and commenced dumping mercury - filled wastewater into the nearby sea. soon residents began exhibiting symptoms of a mysterious illness, a happening that would eventually develop into the worst case of environmental pollution in postwar japan. noriaki tsuchimoto visits the patients and their families who sued chisso and listens to their voices. his camera gently lifts the veil and reveals their reality. minamata: the victims and their world is impressive in how it stands on the side of the patients, not only providing a collage of individual portraits, but also an understanding of their everyday lives .
these changes were also caused by the manner in which victims were treated by the offending industry, by governmental organs, by medical doctors, and by the mass media, and they became more obvious as the negotiating process between the company and the victims progressed. the offending companies would usually use negotiations methods that aggravated the patients and increased their nervous tension. the government and the medical profession were only interested in maintaining corporate profitability and in protecting their professional status. the mass media treated the victims as objects of curiosity, showing an absolute minimum of sensitivity for their plight .
their imperial highnesses the crown prince and princess, prince and princess akishino, mr. and mrs. kuroda
minamata: the victims and their world opens with title cards contextualizing the situation. minamata disease—whose symptoms include restricted vision, damaged motor skills, and frequently death—was first diagnosed in 1953, and then declared a fifty - three - victim epidemic in 1956. medical research soon showed that minamata residents were growing sick (sometimes even in the womb) from wastewater and poisoned seafood. the chemical plant of the prosperous chisso corporation, minamata’s economic lifeblood, had been responsible for dumping untreated mercury into the water, and in 1959 the victims and their families reached a reparations agreement with the corporation, part of which stipulated that no further legal or fiscal damages could be sought. meanwhile, human damage continued: by 1970, 121 victims (46 of them dead) had been officially diagnosed, with many more sick unofficially .
with the compounding of all these environmental problems, local communities become the victims. in the ashio copper - mine incident, after a long history of protest. the results were the destruction of vast areas of farmland, the debilitation of countless victims and their families, and finally the creation of villages without inhabitants. in the areas around minamata city where some of the victims have been restructuring their lives with the help of support groups, human relationships have been so badly ruptured that there is no hope of repair .
“years since its first appearance, noriaki tsuchimoto’s seminal minamata: the victims and their world has lost no measure of its power to shock, enrage, and inspire. a landmark of socially - engaged documentary, minamata continues to sound a global alarm about the human and environmental consequences of industrial pollution, searingly evoked through tsuchimoto’s patient, compassionate lenz. ” ——john gianvito, filmmaker, associate professor / emerson college
on friday morning, the conference of plenipotentiaries continued to hear country statements about the adoption and signing of the minamata convention on mercury. many countries paid tribute to the victims of minamata disease, underscoring the significance of the minamata convention for contributing to the sound management of mercury. countries also conveyed their gratitude to the government of japan for hosting the conference, and to inc chair fernando lugris for steering the negotiations to a successful completion .
“with the minamata name comes a special responsibility – and an opportunity to take actions so that the name minamata is not only associated with a tragedy, but becomes a positive model in the resolution of the world’s worst case of mass mercury poisoning, ” digangi continued .
katsuaki miyamoto, mayor of minamata, said that because economics took precedence over life and the environment, humans and many other creatures lost their lives. he declared the minamata convention a major step for humankind and urged its swift entry into force .
disclaimer: as i wrote few days back on twitter, i’ll kick off 2015 with a little experiment. i’ve translated (and partly rewritten) in english my post on minamata: the victims and their world. as english is my second language, inevitably some subtleties and nuances of the original italian piece are probably lost. feedback and / or suggestions are welcome .
in the situations surrounding the infant deaths from the morinaga arsenic milk incident, the mentally destabilizing impact on the families involved was very great indeed. the mothers felt guilty about having fed their babies the poisoned formula, and suffered both because of this and as victims in their own right .
until this great film, the french stuck to the official second world war myth in which plucky resistance to the nazis and vichy was the rule and collaboration the exception .
minamata incident terrified not even us but also whole world. we started awareness campaign in 1983 in sri lanka. several effected persons visited sri lanka and they explained how they suffer from the minamata disease. mercury pollution has given harmful lesson for mankind .
participants were treated to a lunch prepared by minamata community members and had the opportunity to learn about the many activities that have made minamata the first eco - capital of japan .
masami ogata, minamata disease municipal museum storyteller, shared his and his family’s suffering, including his struggle to be certified as a minamata disease victim .
tsuchimoto believed he could honor minamata’s victims by recognizing their struggles as belonging to the larger problem of worldwide pollution poisoning many people like them. for the filmmaker, it was necessary not only to know what was happening, but also to understand why. he followed minamata: the victims and their world with three ninety - minute - long medical films, collectively called minamata disease: a trilogy (1974, and currently unavailable for home viewing). in each film, doctors explained different aspects of the disease’s symptoms and development; in each case, tsuchimoto requested that the doctors explain themselves in terms that he could understand, believing that this would enable viewers to understand as well .
during the past year, their majesties continued to strengthen the ties with the diplomatic corps serving in tokyo. they invited to tea the newly appointed ambassadors and their spouses, representing 15 countries, and to luncheon the ambassadors and their spouses who had been in japan for three years or longer, representing 16 countries, and granted farewell audiences to ambassadors and their spouses from 13 countries upon completion of their assignments. her majesty joined his majesty in meeting japanese ambassadors and their spouses departing for overseas posts in 45 countries. they also invited to tea ambassadors and their spouses returning to japan from 51 countries, and heard accounts of their experiences in the countries to which they had been assigned .
damrosch, david. what is world literature? princeton: princeton university press, 2003. print .
in general, texts labeled “world literature” have been translated into more than just one or two languages .
the opportunities to see japanese documentaries outside of the archipelago are really few, and usually restricted to film festivals, especially when these works were shot in 16mm or 35mm. it is thus noteworthy that minamata: the victims and their world, together with the shiranui sea and other tsuchimoto’s works, is available on dvd with english subtitles through the dedicated work of independent label zakka films. (special thanks to ono seiko and tsuchimoto motoko )
some of these groups support members who have become victims of environmental disaster, providing back - up support to compensation demands made by the victims themselves. if these support groups are effective, there is a possibility of reducing the extent of the damage done, regardless of the victims' social group .
minamata: the story of the poisoning of a city, and of the people who chose to carry the burden of courage .
a documentary about the plight of the victims of minamata disease, which was caused by the ingestion of fish containing abnormal amounts of mercury released into the sea by a fertilizer factory owned by the chisso company .
when one family member is sick, all the members suffer. in the case of the minamata disease, there were instances where many members of a single family became victims and suffered some degree of debility. husbands would eat the fish caught from the bay, the wives would be involved in fishing and would eat the same tainted fish, and then the children, while still in their mother' s womb, would also become poison victims .
the heroic qualities of characters make synchronization of the folk tale and the films. first of all, there is a leader of heroes in both films. a leader, however, is not the main focus, but fulfills the important role of decision - maker. although there are no mythical hero like momotaro in the folk tale, senior male in minamata: the victims and their world and momotaro in momotaro sea eagle ignite the beginning of the journey of the heroes. there are several heroic aspects which can be found through the groups of heroes in the films. a notion that heroes do not act for sake of their merit, but to help innocent people. both films present this notion of heroic quality before the journey begins. in minamata: the victims and their world, the villagers proclaim that they are rising for sake of people who suffers and will be suffering if the problem does not resolve. another heroic characteristic that both films highlight is the supportive attitude of common people. a hero cannot be defined as “good” without acknowledgement and support of people. though the heroes help powerless common people, without support of people they cannot exist. once again, both films present the relationship between the heroes and supporters. the heroes in momotaro sea eagle are supported by the group of mechanics which can be identified as non - military personnel, the commoners. in fact, the film focuses on the bond between soldiers and mechanics more than a leader. in minamata: the victims and their world, the other village inviting villages of minamata to reception, the farewell of villagers at the train station before the heroes depart to the journey, and even the donation of people in the city represent the strong recognition and support towards heroes of minamata
the polluting industry would often ignore the victims and their families, at the same time contributing to the further injury to the already compromised social milieu. the situation was often aggravated by the activities of governmental bodies, medical practitioners, and the community of scholars. the mass media was completely uncaring in its attitude to the victims, and the wider community looked down on them, wounding the sensibilities involved and acting to violate further the integrity of the violated families .
staff from the unep secretariat, un offices - nairobi and office for legal affairs posed with the minamata convention .
jean omer beriziky, prime minister of madagascar, signed the minamata convention on mercury .
after they worked in the darkroom together for many months, the book “minamata” was published in 1975, and an exhibition of the photographs was held in the minamata town hall. mr. smith died in 1978 .
“i want to show about gene smith and minamata and i want to show minamata continues, and is not finished, ” he said. “no one is shooting there. the story continues. i must work. ”
the following article, “ishimure michiko and global ecocriticism, ” by karen thornber, is one of the chapters from this collection. thornber’s piece positions ishimure’s work within the larger context of world literature, while at the same time challenging us to consider broadening our conception of the meaning of “world literature. ”
from 1932, the chisso chemical company' s plant in minamata, japan, pumped highly toxic methyl mercury into minamata bay, which then accumulated in fish and shellfish eaten by locals .
cf. ishimure’s story of the sea of camellias, which describes the 1931 drought that devastated minamata .
the minamata disease was regarded as taboo within the affected community for a full 12 years after the first victims were discovered; but at that point support organizations were established, for example those related to certain political parties, those supported by volunteer organizations, or those organized under traditional leadership orientations. these were victims' organizations which confronted the polluting industry instead of being exploited by it, and in so doing were able to increase national understanding of the minamata disease. the organizations sought to define and isolate the polluter by calling the activities of the polluter socially sanctioned murder. the health of the various victims compromised by the disaster will never return to normal, but, through their activities and organizations, they have been able to avoid the total destruction of their own personalities. they have also managed to get a certain amount of compensation, which has gone a long way toward sustaining a decent life - style. however, many of the disease victims refused to belong to any of these groups and rejected the minamata disease victim label. these people remain in very dire straits economically, and regard the group - oriented victims with mixed feelings of envy and hatred .
often industrial circles, governmental administrative agencies, and medical professionals have made use of a technique designed to question the veracity of the victim' s claim to patient status. in the instance of the minamata disease, government agencies, medical professionals and representatives of the polluting industry would without hesitation spread rumours that most of the damage victims seeking certification were only doing so in order to receive monetary compensation. these methods have not changed, although their effects have been resisted by the victims and their support groups. in reference to the miike coal - mine explosion victims, the supporters of the mining industry and industry - paid medical professionals would call the victim' s medical problems the
union disease .
the labour union requested that this designation no longer be used, but this label continued to shape the understandings of the local community. the victims were further compromised by these tactics, and the government, along with the medical community and the advocates of industry, combined into a biaxial power dedicated to further striking down the various victims of industrial wastage .
fumio kishida, minister of foreign affairs, japan, signed the minamata convention on mercury .
wylbur simuusa, minister of foreign affairs, zambia, signed the minamata convention on mercury .
while many of the conflicts around the world have been repeated in the name of retaliation of one form or another, i feel great respect for the japan war - bereaved families association, which has consistently engaged in activities aimed towards a peaceful world, free of war. we must realize their ardent wish for peace, born of their own painful experiences. to that end, i believe it is important for all of us today who are enjoying the benefits of peace to continue to make every effort to nip the buds of conflict and suffering both in japan and abroad, and to always aspire strongly towards peace in the world .
during the past year, their majesties made official and private regional visits to twenty - five cities, four towns, and one village in twelve prefectures in all, excluding their visits to the imperial villas for rest and recuperation .
, the international ngo ipen said today. speaking in minamata on the eve of a diplomatic conference in kumamoto that will adopt the “minamata convention, ” senior science and technical advisor for ipen, joe digangi, said :
the adverse effects of pollution - related diseases are different when the victims are breadwinners, as opposed to infants, as in the morinaga arsenic milk poisoning case, or the entire spectrum from infants to old people, as in the minamata disease .
in the years following, tsuchimoto presented his minamata work as educational films on travels throughout the world, including a mid - 1970s visit to first nation communities in canada who had suffered an outbreak similar to minamata disease. he would also periodically return to making films about minamata, completing fifteen in total by the time of his death. (a sixteenth was subsequently made from some of his unused footage by motoko tsuchimoto, his wife and frequent editor .) his goal in doing so, he claimed, was to leave records of the area’s suffering and development. “the history of the minamata disease is not yet over, ” he said in 2006, at a time when chisso was still paying reparations to victims and their families (as it has continued to do until at least as recently as 2010, the same year in which the united nations formed the minamata convention on mercury in order to lower worldwide emissions), and as minamata itself was turning from a fishing city into an industrial one. “nobody prevented the new lives to be born in fear of the minamata disease. ”
w. eugene smith and his wife, aileen miyoko smith, in their home. 1972 .
at the laputa animation festival in 2003, 140 animators from around the world were asked to make a list of what they considered the 20 b ...
minamata: the victims and their world is one of four documentaries by noriaki tsuchimoto (土本典昭, 1928 - 2008) released by zakka films on dvd this year. it has optional english language subtitles and is accompanied by an essay by abé mark nornes (u of michigan) and film commentaries by sachiko mizuno (kanazawa u). individuals can purchase this dvd for a reasonable price from independent film distributor film baby. institutions should contact zakka films directly for purchasing information
noriaki tshuchimoto’s documentary opens with a series of title cards that quietly lay out the bare facts of how the people of minamata came to be poisoned by mercury. the documentary then shifts its focus from the facts and figures to the stories of the victims and their families. fishermen talk of how they knew something was wrong when fish began behaving strangely in the sea and local cats that ate the fish started going insane. family members share the agonies endured by their loved ones before they died of the disease. doctors, teachers, and physiotherapists compare and contrast the illness to other known conditions such as cerebral palsy. the most chilling legacy is the stories of the children with congenital minamata disease, who were poisoned while in the womb. their physical and mental challenges are so great that there is little hope for rehabilitation .
music of the visual world: japanese indie animated shorts sunday, june 3, 18: 15 naxoshalle kino learn more when ...
the most troubling disavowals of minamata disease come from residents of the minamata area who fear that acknowledging both the severity of water pollution and chisso’s culpability in instigating it will further destabilize the region’s already precarious economy. although a number of local government bodies take the disease seriously, many individuals chastise minamata patients and other activists for threatening the welfare of their town. the narrator includes an article from the october 19, 1968 kumamoto edition of the mainichi shinbun (mainichi newspaper) describing the development of minamata city citizens’ conference. the conference prospectus chastens those residents who have been intent on having chisso admit its wrongdoing and modify its behavior; conference participants support those afflicted by minamata disease but insist on continued cooperation with chisso .
a title taken from a british jazz revival’s classic, a song from a band called working week, which had two versions, the first in a record with the participation of tracey thorn, claudia figueroa and robert wyatt (7
bossa version). this is a list of ideological utopias, against conservatism, that victory of the current regressive world. especially those that failed because the world is below possibilities and beyond the material. material world and of film too, ie, movies that combines the political matter with the matter that films are built of. to better explain, some lyrics of that song: “a new world in the making, / it’s there for the… read more
crusading australian journalist pilger doesn' t do balance or objectivity, but he shows ferocious persistence as he investigates the way things work in the globalised world .
loss of life and damage to health are the worst problems faced by pollution victims, though other problems related to these are also very serious .
damrosch continues, “ [ world literature helps us ] appreciate the ways in which a literary work reaches out and away from its point of origin” (300) .
please support the artists and filmmakers featured here by buying their work. to order from japan, i recommend using urltoken
the “and” in minamata: the victims and their world serves as a bridge connecting elements, which is how tsuchimoto essentially saw his own role. whether through glimpses of a microphone or simply the direction of a minamata resident’s gaze, the viewer is always aware of the filmmakers in the scene. unlike his peer documentarian shinsuke ogawa, who often filmed himself in radical sympathy with the rural people among whose ranks he lived, tsuchimoto gives the sense of himself as always being a visitor from tokyo, absorbing another’s circumstances without directly sharing them. the ethical distance he sought allows the film’s viewer to stand back and survey the scene in a position of empathy rather than sympathy, learning the context for a person’s situation along with him .
while the victims and their support groups were involved in efforts at self - recovery, external factors generated by the polluting industry, governmental administrators, medical professionals, scholars, pro - industry citizens' groups, and the mass media more often than not had a negative impact .
“all around the world there are beautiful places like minamata where serious toxic pollution problems are being ignored because their effects happen quietly, over time, to one person at a time. in the future, when people learn about minamata, my hope is that they will not only learn about the terrible tragedy here, but they will hear about how a government and a people turned a terrible tragedy into something that made them proud instead of ashamed and sad, ” digangi concluded .
by quiet sequences that give the spectator a moment to pause and reflect. these quiet moments are often montages that capture the natural beauty of the landscape and the sea of the region. with each new story of pain and loss, the tension slowly builds until the film’s dramatic climax in which the victims and their families go to the chisso biannual shareholders meeting to confront the company president and demand that he publicly take responsibility for his company’s crimes against humanity and the environment .
personality changes constitute the third level of environmental pollution - related damage, and as such are inextricably bound up with the second level of damage, the destruction of health. some of the victims of environmental problems who suffered physiological disorders also suffered from changes in personality. but it is not clear whether these changes were a response to the sickness or were inherent in the pathology of the sickness. such cases are found among victims who suffered nerve damage, for example minamata disease (mercury - poisoning) patients, the carbon monoxide poisoning victims, and the victims of smon (a medicine - induced iatrogenic disease). the symptom common to all of these patients is that they are easily angered, and this fundamental change in personality is endemic to the disease process .
even in the case of severe damage to health, victims' suffering will depend on the impact of the disease on their life as a whole. this differing degree of response depends on differentials in social status and economic class. the serious symptoms displayed by the victims of environmental pollution are a great shock to the families involved, but whether or not the burden to the particular family is lightened or not will depend greatly on economic level and access to sources of information .
it was at this point that tsuchimoto and his crew entered minamata, with the goal of getting the victims to relate their struggles. the film (originally 167 minutes long, and which zakka offers in the 120 - minute - long version that tsuchimoto made for international release) consists largely of scenes in which the camera sits patiently facing a minamata villager, observing his or her health and sickness while listening to the person talk. an older woman tells how she repeatedly filed legal complaints after her husband’s minamata disease - related death with the hope of the state placing blame for it; an older man describes how his wife has been driven so mad by the disease that their grandchildren call her “animal”; a series of parents present their children, unable to talk or walk, with even the teenagers still mentally infantile. the overriding demand that the film’s minamata residents make is for recognition. the film leads up to an indelible climax in which a minamata activist group storms a public chisso shareholder’s meeting, and a woman who has lost both her parents to md screams to the company president, “you can’t buy lives with money! ”
one would like to read more details in the literal english subtitles such as the specifics of the infection or the newspaper accounts of last july, which listed 428 victims, 69, of whom died. an epilogue points out that the chisso company paid about £1. 5‐million to 138 victims last year .
there are many types of damage to human health. in the case of the miike coal - mine explosion, carbon monoxide victims were reduced to human vegetables, a condition that is tantamount to being dead. the health of many other victims was also compromised to various degrees .
on wednesday, the government of japan hosted a field trip for delegates to minamata as part of the ceremonial opening of the diplomatic conference .
after japan' s loss in the war, the wealthy, cultured, liberal anjo family have to give up their mansion and their way of life. they hold one last ball at the house before leaving. the... see full summary »
eventually this all led into a study group called the ao no kai. we started this group at iwanami, and in the midst of everyone going off in their own directions, two people who stuck their heads in were ogawa shinsuke and higashi yoichi. by that time kuroki kazuo and tsuchimoto noriaki were already established directors so their status was a little different .
lakeith stanfield and his sorry to bother you crew reveal their most soul - crushing jobs in our freewheeling interview .
manipulative? yes, if it' s manipulative to choose beautiful children to look into the camera, their faces alive with grief and confusion. these deeply felt images found their way to make a vital human connection .
in the post - second world war period the labour union movement, as the vanguard of the many mass movements seen in that difficult period, were very much this type of organization, and in 1955 when the morinaga arsenic milk poisoning case surfaced, or when the minamata disease appeared in 1956, the general public did not think of these problems as violations of basic human rights. the victims and their families did not know what they could or should do when faced with the contamination of baby milk by arsenic or the poisoning of whole households by the mercury - tainted fish caught in minimata bay, after centuries of fishing in the same area with no sign of an environmental problem .
the film is particularly interesting for its use of sound. the lack of synch between the image and the soundtrack is initially distracting. sound was a big problem for low budget documentary filmmakers of the day as it was recorded separately from the image. the asynchronous sound provided tsuchimoto with the opportunity to play with the soundtrack in innovative ways. as his subjects tell us their stories, we are treated to montages of images of the dead, their families, and their homes. the a
the citation for ishimure reads in part, “in electing michiko ishimure to receive the 1973 ramon magsaysay award for journalism, literature and creative communication arts, the board of trustees recognizes her as the ‘voice of her people’ in their struggle against the industrial pollution that has been distorting and destroying their lives. ” urltoken
the shiranui sea—minamata series part ii, dvd, color, 150 min. , 1975. more information at urltoken .
with nobuteru ishihara, minister of environment, japan, achim steiner, executive director of unep, presented the
pez - peste
statue to katsuaki miyamoto, mayor of minamata, for permanent display at the minamata disease municipal museum .
in these ways the social roles of the victims and the positions held by them in the families involved also determine to a great extent the degree of damage done to the family infrastructure. it cannot be said that when the breadwinner of the family becomes the victim of pollution, the strains on the family are greater than when a baby or child is the victim. it is generally understood that the differing familial roles held by the victims of pollution or industrial disaster result in differing levels and types of stress within the family .
yet rather than cooperate in subsequent investigations, for many years chisso did everything it could to deny its role in propagating this disease, including pumping wastewater under cover of night and prohibiting scientists from taking samples from the bay for examination. the narrator describes some chisso employees as sympathetic to the plight of minamata patients, even alerting residents of minamata to chisso’s plans to divert their wastewater channel to another location; similarly, researchers from the chisso company hospital contribute to efforts to understand the disease better. and at its august 1967 meeting the chisso first union issued a declaration condemning its own failure to fight minamata disease and affirming its commitment to do so in the future. but for the most part, sea of suffering paints chisso as an absolute villain; one that denies any connection between factory wastewater and minamata disease yet prohibits scientists from studying the wastewater; one that does everything it can to avoid paying indemnities and instead continues to discharge poisonous effluent, thus expanding the number of people who may demand compensation; and one that delays dispatching employees to visit hospitalized minamata patients until 1965, more than a decade after the outbreak of the illness. the narrator comments: “looked at from today’s perspective, the noble and strong personality and the superior investigative research of dr. hosokawa [ one of the premier researchers of minamata disease ] into the outbreak and spread of minamata disease provides a fantastic contrast with all the attitudes [ and behaviors ] exhibited by the chisso corporation” (69). throughout sea of suffering the narrator alternates references to chisso’s heartlessness with those to the dedication of medical researchers. it often is difficult for minamata doctors to understand their patients, since minamata disease makes speech a challenge, but the novel portrays physicians as doing whatever they can to assist those suffering from this disease. the narrator calls attention to the bonds that form between doctors and their patients and the trust the latter have in their physicians, except when they believe they are being used solely to further a doctor’s career .
tributes have been pouring in around the world for kaneto shindō (新藤 兼人, 2012 - 2012), who passed away last week at the age of 100... .
sea of suffering underscores how national politicians and other government employees downplay if not disavow minamata disease. to be sure, the central government is depicted as initially being concerned about the illness. the narrator notes that in 1957 the ministry of education established the minamata disease comprehensive research group, a unit composed primarily not of chisso officials but instead of presumably impartial doctors from kumamoto university medical school. the group’s report identified organic mercury as the most likely cause of the disease and pointed to chisso’s practice of pouring untreated wastewater into minamata bay. despite these findings, the japanese government for many years did not prohibit chisso from continuing to discharge outflow, nor did it enact measures to clean polluted waters or to help those stricken with minamata disease. these disavowals of the significance of this illness marked the beginning of decades of frustrating struggles by minamata patients and their families, with both the central government and chisso .
on the basis of the bleak record poignantly and pointedly presented in “minamata, ” that statistic doesn' t seem to be the answer to the terrible, perhaps portentous, problem of pollution .
this year saw much to celebrate, but we also experienced many heartbreaking events, such as torrential rainstorms and volcanic eruption. i offer my prayers for the souls of the victims and give my thoughts to the deep sadness of those who have lost family members and the pain of those whose family members have not yet been found. and to those who have faced endless difficulties on the volcano while helping and searching for the victims, prefectural officials, members of the self - defense forces, firefighters, police officers, medical personnel, and the health workers who have been constantly at the side of the families awaiting news of their loved ones, i also express my gratitude and deepest respect .
mr. smith had encouraged mr. ishikawa to take his own photographs, even while helping him with the grueling minamata project. mr. ishikawa became friends with many young people in minamata and kept in touch with several of mr. smith’s subjects in the following decades as he pursued his own career. although he traveled constantly, he decided in 2008 that he should document what had become of the surviving victims .
forces us to listen more closely to the words and to study the face of the speaker more carefully. although each family has their own individual tale of suffering and loss to tell, taken together one gets the sense of a community of simple, hardworking people who have been unjustly made into outcasts in the town where their families have lived and fished for generations. the story of their fight for justice is not only of historical import, but their determination against all odds is also inspiring for the many people who are today suffering at the hands of an unfeeling bureaucracy in the southernmost prefecture of tohoku .
on june 8 this year, his imperial highness prince yoshihito of katsura passed away. in deep sorrow, their majesties went into mourning for five days, sharing in the grief of the bereaved family. in the period immediately after his passing, their majesties visited his home and the akasaka east residence four times. after the funeral rites and the ceremony to mark the 100th day of his passing, they paid official visits to the toshimagaoka cemetery to pay their respects .
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most important, these conflicts exist—albeit often surreptitiously—within individuals. in the epilogue to rowing the eternal sea, the english adaptation of rowing the boat of the eternal world, ōiwa notes that for ogata the “solution” is “a return to a spiritual world on earth, in which everyone and everything has a place. it is a world in which life is respected, worshipped, and celebrated” (185). yet despite ogata’s and his colleagues’ deep attachments to the nonhuman, despite ogata’s claim at the conclusion of rowing the eternal sea that “embraced by the mountains and sea / ego dissolves; self and landscape are one, ” behaviors of local peoples do not conflict as drastically as might be supposed with the behaviors of outsiders that ogata and ōiwa criticize so harshly (175). to be sure, the actions of local fishers rarely have as concentrated an impact on human and nonhuman health as those of large polluters; the fishers do not exhibit anywhere near the same desire for wealth, technology, prestige, or power as do the chisso corporation, the japanese government, and many of their neighbors (individuals particularly concerned with their financial futures). but even though they pride themselves on their humility, the fishers too are not without culpability .
if these touching scenes in a major portion of the film are subdued, “minamata, ” nevertheless, strongly implies and occasionally illustrates what appears to be big industry and governmental apathy before it builds to a literally riotous climax as the diseased and their sympathizers descend on a meeting in osaka of the impassive president and board of directors of the chisso company, , operators of the plant, to demand reparations and justice .
yet to date, although ishimure has been called the “japanese rachel carson, ” the impact of her work—unlike that of the american ecologist rachel carson (1907 - 1964) —has been confined primarily to japan. 7 sea of suffering generally is credited as one of the driving forces behind japan’s social activism surrounding minamata and other pollution diseases. to be sure, the novel has been criticized for being “fiction” and for not always adhering perfectly to the “truth. ” but it is through this novel that the voices of those suffering from minamata disease have been most powerfully heard—as the japanese literature scholar keiko kanai has discussed, many minamata activists have “cited [ sea of suffering ] as seminal in motivating them to fight. ” and some activists have stated explicitly that “the characters in [ sea of suffering ] are more real to them than the actual victims” (making up for minamata). this latter statement might seem peculiar—characters more real than actual victims? but in turning actual victims into characters, writers often make painful human experiences more accessible and in so doing promote and sustain engagement, most directly at home but also across linguistic and national borders. 8
in both rowing the boat of the eternal world and rowing the eternal sea ogata comments, “for me, [ the reclaimed land in minamata bay ] is in a word a place to apologize. it is a place to apologize not for others but for myself. it is a time to think of my own crimes” (rowing the boat 156). rowing the eternal sea elaborates on questions of individual and collective guilt. ogata asserts that even though he completely opposes chisso and its practices, he bears some responsibility for what happened in minamata:
minamata : the victims and their world ( 水俣 患者さんとその世界 , minamata : kanja-san to sono sekai ) is a japanese documentary made in 1971 by noriaki tsuchimoto . it is the first in a series of independent documentaries that tsuchimoto made of the mercury poisoning incident in minamata , japan . 
minamata: the victims and their world (水俣 患者さんとその世界, minamata: kanja-san to sono sekai) is a japanese documentary made in 1971 by noriaki tsuchimoto. it is the first in a series of independent documentaries that tsuchimoto made of the mercury poisoning incident in minamata, japan.
minamata: the victims and their world (水俣 患者さんとその世界, minamata: kanja-san to sono sekai) is a japanese documentary made in 1971 by noriaki tsuchimoto. it is the first in a series of independent documentaries that tsuchimoto made of the mercury poisoning incident in minamata, japan.