Minamata : pollution and the struggle for democracy in postwar Japan 9781684173471

374 69 1MB

English Pages [418] Year 2001

Minamata : pollution and the struggle for democracy in postwar Japan
9781684173471

Author / Uploaded
Timothy S. George

Table of contents :
MINAMATA: Pollution and the Struggle for Democracy in Postwar Japan
Acknowledgments
Contents
Tables, Maps, and Figures
Note on Conventions
Introduction
Part I: Background, 1907–1955
1 Town, Factory, and Empire
The Setting
The Factory Comes to Minamata
The Growth of Nitchitsu
Nitchitsu, Minamata, and Imperial Japan
2 Minamata Before the Disease
Nitchitsu and Minamata Society
Defeat, Recovery, and Boom
Minamata Politics in the 1950s
Life in Minamata in the 1950s: Hamamoto Tsuginori
Part II: The First Round of Responses
3 Discovering the Disease and Its Cause
4 The First Solution, 1959
The Fisherfolk's Struggle for Compensation
The Victims' Struggle for Compensation
"As Clean as River Water": The Third Leg of the "Solution"
Part III: "Years of Silence"?
5 Maintaining the Solution
The Fishers
The Patients
6 Change Undermines the Solution
Changes in Minamata
Changes in Japan
Part IV: The Second Round of Responses, 1968-1973
7 Bringing the Issue to the Nation 1968
An End to Solidarity: Leave It up to Others, or Sue?
Kawamoto Teruo and the Uncertified Patients
New Forms of Action and a Broadening Base of Support
8 In and Out of Court: The Second Solution
The Leaflet War in Minamata
Direct Negotiations in Tokyo
Defections and Confrontations
The Mediation Group and the Forgery Incident
The Trial: Proving Negligence
After the Verdict: Negotiating from a Position of Strength
Part V: Since 1973
9 Minamata and the Tragedy of Japan's "Modernity"
Remembering: Tales and Lessons of Minamata
Events Since 1973: Toward a More Complete Solution
Painfully Slow Healing
Conclusion: Minamata and Postwar Democracy
Epilogue: Restless Spirits
Reference Matter
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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