Table of Contents

Tables, Maps, and Figures

Note on Conventions

Introduction

PART I: BACKGROUND, 1907-1955

Town, Factory, and Empire

The Setting

The Factory Comes to Minamata

The Growth of Nitchitsu

Nitchitsu, Minamata, and Imperial Japan

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

Discovering the Disease and Its Cause

The First Solution, 1959

The Fisherfolk's Struggle for Compensation

The Victim's Struggle for Compensation

"As Clean as River Water": The Third Leg of the "Solution"

PART III: "YEARS OF SILENCE"?

Maintaining the Solution

The Fishers

The Patients

Change Undermines the Solution

Changes in Minamata

Changes in Japan

PART IV: THE SECOND ROUND OF RESPONSES, 1968-1973

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

In and Out of Court: The Second Solution

The Leaflet War in Minamata

Direct Negotiations in Tokyo

Defections and Confrontations

The mediation Groups and the Forgery Incident

The Trial: Proving Negligence

After the Verdict: Negiotating from a Position of Strength

PART V: SINCE 1973

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