Across Japan and throughout much of the world, the name Minamata is synonymous with corporate environmental pollution and mercury poisoning. This did not happen, though, simply because truth naturally comes to light. Rather, it has taken decades of effort by a few dedicated individuals to reveal the physical and emotional suffering of Minamata victims, from the first reported symptoms of the disease in the mid-1950s to the lawsuits that have dragged on into recent years.
For many outside Japan, the first glimpse of Minamata's unique horror came through the lens of one dedicated individual, W. Eugene Smith (1918-1978), a well-known American photographer who on his third trip to Japan in 1971 ended up staying in Minamata village for three years.
Some of Smith's images from this visit appeared in a Life Magazine photo essay entitled "Death-Flow from a Pipe." Of these stark, black-and-white photos, one in particular captured the world's attention: a shot taken in December 1972 of mercury victim Tomoko Uemura. Uemura, who was poisoned by mercury in the uterus and born deaf, blind and unable to use her legs, is seen being bathed by her mother, who sits in the bath cradling her child's rail-thin and contorted body.
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