Tragedy at Minamata Bay

In 1956 in Minamata Bay, Japan the largest case of mercury poisoning occurred. This was due to the release of methylmercury into the bay by a chemical factory nearby. Methylmercury is the most severe form of the toxin and once it bioaccumulated in the fish of Minamata Bay, health problems to humans were soon inevitable. Over three thousand people have died from the mercury poisoning of fish and over twenty thousand people have suffered from health problems. The government of Japan and the factory that caused the outbreak have done little to ensure that an epidemic like this would not happen again.

Below is a photograph of Sumiko Kaneko with her son. Kaneko lost her husband and baby in the Minamata disaster and currently cares for her son who was left in a wheelchair from methylmercury poisoning.

Photo, Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath by W. Eugene Smith, Minamata, 1972, courtesy of Masters of Photography