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New Lives: Some Case Studies of Minamata
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
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Earlier in 2014, folklore scholar Ron Morse succeeded in publishing on-line The Adventure of Ideas: A Collection of papers on Patterns of Creativity and a Theory of Endogenous Development, a collection of English-language papers by Tsurumi Kazuko* (1918–2006), an innovative sociologist who was a professor at Sophia University for twenty years (1969–89).
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Notes
1 Harada Masazumi, “Minamata Disease: A Medical Report,” W. Eugene and Aileen M. Smith, Minamata, An Alskog-Sensorium Book, 1975, p.180.
2 Shukusatsu-ban Minamata (Minamata, the weekly paper published by the association to protest against and report on Minamata Disease), ed. by Minamata-byo o Kokuhatsu suru kai, Ashi-Shobo, December, 1986.
3 Symptoms differ from person to person, which posits problems for certification. But some salient features of the 34 cases of acute and sub-acute Minamata disease as early as in 1959 were indicated by Dr. Tokuomi Haruhiko as follows:
Symptoms %
Disturbance of sensation (superficial) 100
Disturbance of sensation (deep) 100
Constriction of the visual field 100
Dysarthria 88.2
Disturbances of coordination adiadochokinesis 93.5
finger to finger and finger to nose (dysmetria) 80.6
ataxic gait 82.4
Romberg's sign 42.9
Impairment of hearing 85.3
Tremor 75.8
Tendon reflex (exaggerated) 38.2
Tendon reflex (weak) 8.8
Pathological reflexes 11.8
Salivation 23.5
Mental disturbances 70.6
(Harada, op.cit., p. 181)
For a complete compilation of medical research and findings on Minamata disease, see Arima Sumio, ed. Minamata-byo: Nijunen no Kenkyu to Konnichi no Kadai (Minamata Disease: Twenty Years' Research and Problems Today), 1979, Seirin-sha.
4 Kawamoto's personal history is based upon my interviews supplemented by his affidavit during trials. Minamata-byo Jishu Kosho Kawamoto Saiban Shiryo Shu (Collection of Kawamoto Trial Documents on Self-Reliant Negotiations on Minamata Disease), Kawamoto Saiban Shiryo Shu Henshu Iinkai, 1981, pp.38-78.
5 Quoted in Ishimure Michiko, ed., Ten no Yama: Jitsuroku Minamata-byo Toso (Documentary Record of the Minamata Disease Struggle), 1974, Ashi Shobo, pp. 231-234.
6 Tsurumi, “Tahatsuburaku no Kozo Henka to Ningen Gunzo” (Structural Changes of the Villages Seriously Affected by Minamata Disease and the Group Portraits of their Inhabitants), Irokawa Daikichi, ed., Minamata no Keiji (Revelations of Minamata), Vol. I, Chikuma Shobo, 1983, pp.180-181.
7 Hieta Kentaro, Igaku Shiso no Hinkon: Ichi Byorigaku-sha no Kuto (The Poverty of Medical Thought: The Struggle of a Pathologist), Shakai Shiso Sha, 1971.
8 As for mercury pollution in Ontario and its effects on the First Nations People, see Troyer, Warner, No Safe Place, Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, Toronto/Vancouver, 1977.
9 Hamamoto Tsugunori, “Ningen to Ningen no Kokusai Koryu o” (Toward people to people international communication), Shiso no Kagaku (The Science of Thought), No. 78, June, 1986, pp.100-102.
10 Ibid., p.104.
11 Ibid., p.104.
12 Ibid., pp.105-107.
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