The story of mercury poisoning suffered by residents near the port of Minamata in Kyushu is a well-known tale of knavery on a grand scale. A telling example of the dark side of Japan's economic "miracle" and the price that people were made to pay in support of industrialization, the haunting pictures of the victims remain seared in our collective conscience.
Unfortunately, a recent symposium held in Minamata on mercury as a global pollutant suggests that the lessons of this environmental tragedy have not been learned and that people around the globe are still subject to the same nexus of forces that doomed the town a half century ago.
Timothy George has written an excellent and powerful book on this important story, elucidating how the struggle for justice by ordinary citizens against the powers that be makes democracy work.