Keiko-san’s Story: An Account of the Minamata Tragedy
Published by Eustacia Tan at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 Eustacia Tan
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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In 2008, I was 15 and on my first trip to Japan. As it was a school trip, we were brought around to all sort of places, including the Minamata Disease Municipal Museum. As we looked at the exhibits, our studied nonchalance quickly turned into outrage at what happened. One of the most touching events was the opportunity to listen to Keiko-san’s story. Here is the story as it was told, without any amendments by me:
Name: Keiko Ueno
Born 1927
Sufferer from Minamata disease, Husband - deceased, Child - deceased (congenital disease). When the disease broke out, she had twelve family members, all are deceased except her.
Her Story:
Fifty years ago, they did not call the disease the Minamata disease; they called it the “strange disease”.
On March 1985, her husband Tadashi and her brother went to catch fish as usual. Her brother’s arm became “unstable”; that is, his hand started trembling. Although fine before that, the family thought that he had caught the strange disease. At the same time, her husband became unstable and she suggested going to the hospital. Later that night, she was unable to understand what they were trying to say.
It was the start of a hard, difficult and miserable time.
When her husband when to the local hospital, the doctor could not pinpoint the source of the disease and suggested going to a bigger hospital. After that, her husband seemed to have become worse. At the second hospital, they waited a long time for the medical check up. It took several hours to conduct the medical check. At that time, only a few people had contracted the disease and it was not acknowledged publicly.
When others stared at her husband, and when his condition got so bad he couldn’t hold chopsticks, her heart was broken. At that time, she was nine months pregnant. A few days later, her husband couldn’t stand up and she had to lay old newspapers in the garden for him. He became angry at his own helplessness and she had to get help from her neighbours to calm him down. Even after he calmed down, he was crying. So was she.
Another hardship was the discrimination by her neighbours as they thought that the disease was an epidemic. Even when her father-in-law visited them, she was blamed. But in fact, she loved her husband so much that she gave all her food to him.
Her husband’s main business was fishing but after the birth of her child, he started working at one of Chisso’s subsidiaries. That time, their goal was to have their own house. After seven days, two city staff visited them and suggested that he be hospitalised in Kumamoto city. Her husband did not like the idea and said “I hate hospital, I like Minamata city and I like my home. When I die, I want to die here”. He told the city staff to go and never come back. Her father-in-law also asked him to go to the hospital but he refused and asked him to go home. That was their last encounter.
The next day, his symptoms became worse, he hit her and seemed to be mad. She thought the strange symptoms were due to heat and suggested he lie down. Finally, he went to the hospital as she had a baby. The next day, she went to Kumamoto hospital and found six or seven other sufferers. The doctor did a medical check but he was unconscious. Three days later, in the evening, her husband died. It was 3rd September 1985.
The next month, she had a child. She held a grudge against the disease as it separated husband, wife and child. After her husband’s funeral, she heard and saw nothing. Her only thought was of raising her child and of the future. She cried in the train. After six days, she had a baby girl named Ryoko. Keiko san was so happy she cried with joy.
Three months later, when her sister visited and called out to her daughter and clapped her hands. However, her daughter smiled in the opposite direction. Her sister thought Ryoko had contracted the same disease and she had a fight with her sister over this matter as she could not believe it. She became worried and too her to the infant hospital. Doctor said she had infant paralysis without even looking carefully. (At this point, I seem to retain the impression that Keiko san was crying, but I can’t recall the exact details) She arrived home in a daze, and held her daughter the whole night, not sleeping but crying.
The next day, she went to the city hospital and got the same diagnosis. Both of them had to go to the hospital every day. After two years, a doctor from Kumamoto visited. Many children were suffering, about fifteen. She went to the health centre. She observed the way they carelessly treated the children for three years. Sometimes, they tried to get liquid out of the children’s back, she was crying and hoping please stop.
The next day, her daughter was pale and could not move. She tried to protest and ask them to find the real cause. The doctor would say “I would know if one of them died” (I think right now every one was shocked and some friends were crying). The children couldn’t sit or open your eyes and her daughter’s height was the same as that of a four year old.
Other parents were lobbying in front of Chisso for compensation but she only wanted an apology. She was also lobbying with her daughter on her back. (It was December and very cold) She was sitting there the whole day with only milk and two or three diapers. People were yelling at them for taking away their bonus, income. From that day onwards, she understood that happiness comes from health, not from wealth.
1961, March. At night, her daughter started convulsing, her eyes black and white. She was very scared and ran to the hospital (it was 1 a.m.). “Please don’t die” she shouted at her daughter and tried to wake her up. The daughter kept having fits and she went to another hospital. The doctor said “It’s too late, we should let her be hospitalized in city hospital”. Her daughter died at 7.30 a.m. in the morning. She said to her daughter “please forgive me, forgive me” and cried for one or two nights.
She allowed the doctors to dissect her daughter though she was hesitant at first but approved so they could help the other fourteen children. In the dissection room, a monk came to pray. Everything was ready. They told her to see her daughter to the room. As she held her daughter, she almost ran away.
The room was like a kitchen, with a knife on the table that looked liked those used to cut meat.
“Please put her on the table”.
Four months after the dissection, she learnt the name of the disease from the newspapers – Minamata disease. She always wondered why they couldn’t find the disease earlier and why they kept insisting it was infant paralysis when she was thinking her daughter had the same disease as the father. She had tried to persuade them for three years.
When she was going to remarry, the doctor told her she couldn’t have anymore children. She decided to get rid of her hatred and went to Toumeisuien, a hospital for children born with the fatal affliction of the disease. In 1937, January, the institute opened. Soon after, she went to work there. For fifteen years, she worked there as a mother. She like to dance and continued dancing even if her hands and feet were pained to improve her health. She lost her husband, children and all family to the Minamata disease but is living a happy life with 2nd marriage.
She doesn’t have anyone to talk to about this but really appreciates us coming to listen. In the end, she wants to tell us not to let this tragedy continue in their countries and to:
Take care of your health.
Always have a warm heart.
Don’t look down on people.
It’s easy to be clean on the outside but hard to be clean on the inside.
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Appendix
Symptoms of the Minamata disease.
- Sensory disorders in hands and feet.
- Difficulty coordinating movement of hands and feet (ataxia)
- Concentric constriction of visual field, hearing impairment.
- Disequilibrium
- Speech impediments
- Tremors (hands and feet)
- Eye movement becomes erratic.
- Severe – madness, lose consciousness, may even die.
- Mild – cramps, headache, chronic fatigue, inability to distinguish taste and smell.
Congenital disease, the baby gets the disease from the mother while still in the womb.
Information on the Minamata Disease Municipal Museum
Address:53
Myojin-cho, Minamata Kumamoto
ZIP:867-0034
Tel: 0966-62-2621
Fax: 0966-62-2271
URL: http://www.minamata195651.jp/
Hours:
9:00 a.m. ~ 5:00 p.m. (admissions until 4:30 p.m.) Closed Mondays and
days following National Holidays, closed also between Dec. 29 and
Jan. 3.
Admission:
Free of charge
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Why this ebook exists:
Four years ago (in 2008), I came back from Japan full of ideas, especially about the Minamata trip. But due to inertian and oncoming exams, all the ideas became “shelved-until-further-notice”. The only thing that I managed to do was the type out Keiko-san’s story and circulate it amoung those who did go, and ask if anyone had an idea. No one did.
But now, four years later, with all major exams out of the way and a ‘holiday’ until university, I finally took advantage of the internet and got this story out. You’ve just finished reading it, and I sincerely hope that it’s touched you like it touched my friends and I. And who know, you may be the one to make a difference in their world.
For more backstory and thoughts, you can look at this blogpost written just after I first published this ebook: http://www.allsortsofbooks.blogspot.com/2012/01/four-years-eleven-pages.html
About the Author:
Eustacia is a reader and author of the little-known blog Inside the mind of a Bibliophile. She loves God and aims to study in Japan for her university. She is also, if you haven’t noticed, very random.
Connect with me online:
Twitter name: @PeiLing93
My Blog: http://www.allsortsofbooks.blogspot.com/
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/EustaciaTan
Even though this is an extremely short ebook, don’t hesitate to email me at eustacia_tan@yahoo.com.sg of you have anything you want to say (thoughts, grammar errors I made, ongoing projects for Minamata, etc)