Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow: Our Minamata Disease (Michigan Classics in Japanese Studies) by Michiko Ishimure

by Michiko Ishimure

An account of Minamata disease, which struck a small Japanese fishing village due to methylmercury poisoning of the sea. Originally published in Japanese in 1972, with this translated edition published by Michigan University Classics in Japanese Studies in 2003 (notes by Livia Monnet).In the early 1950s, numerous cases of organic mercury poisoning were discovered in the fishing villages around Minamata, Japan. Yet for decades after, victims of what is now known as Minamata disease suffered neglect, discrimination, and ostracism by Minamata residents, local government, labor unions, Minamata disease certification committees, and fishers’ cooperatives. Fifty years later, renewed efforts began to conserve the environment and reconcile with victims of poisoning, including a flurry of museum-building, citizen waste recycling campaigns, and conferences, symposia, and exhibitions. But this rapprochement in the 1990s took place slowly and with difficulty, as the pain of previous decades was still alive and aching.Ishimure Michiko served as a key activist and spokesperson for the Minamata protest movement, producing over forty volumes of writings in various docufiction, historical novels, reportage, autobiography, poetry, children’s books, and a Nō drama. Beyond playing an outsized role in organizing the Minamata struggle, Ishimure influenced the movement’s cultural history and memory and articulated its symbolic legacy.Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow is a powerful record of victims’ suffering and the movement to support them. Its lyrical descriptions of fishing villages and fishers’ way of life, as well as of the scenic beauty of the Shiranui Sea area, are among the most effective in contemporary Japanese literature. Paradise is a work of testimonial resistance literature—a militant, hybrid autoethnography featuring both a local community as a plurality of speakers and an autobiographical voice through which Ishimure plays an unassuming participant observer who insists on the accuracy, truthfulness, and necessity of her testimony.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medicine, Environment, Japan, Historical, Medical

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Michiko Ishimure (石牟礼道子 Ishimure Michiko, born March 11, 1927) is a Japanese writer and activist.

In 1973 she won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for publicizing writings about the Minamata disease in Minamata.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Jacob Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michiko Ishimure writes:

What kind of personality should a historian have or acquire in order to record this crime for posterity? What sources could grant him the strength of character, and the integrity needed in order not to be crushed by the load of the task, and by his consciousness of complicity? It will not suffice to say what Chisso did to those fisherman was just another form of ruthless oppression of the working classes by monopolistic capitalism. As a native of Minanmata, I know that the language of the victims of Minimata Disease – both that of the spirits of the dead who are unable to die, and that of the survivors who are little more than living ghosts – represents the pristine form of poetry before our societies were divided into classes. In order to preserve for posterity this language in which the historic significance of the Mercury Poisoning Incident is crudely branded, I must drink an infusion of my animism and “pre-animism” and become a sorceress cursing modern times forever.

[Adhoc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book with several key themes on the severe costs of Japanese postwar capitalism on human lives, and the moral decay of modern development and progress, indicative in the environmental (human and non-human) destruction caused by industrialization.

Other key points:
-the spiritual resources of the rural poor
-labor unions' reconciliation with capital, at the expense of the most harmed
-colonial legacies of Minamata's Chisso corporation, lack of remorse or sufficient compensation for fifteen years since the onset of the disease, Minamata City's economic dependence on industrial capital
-the alliance between corporations and government bureaucracy, from local to national levels
-the absolute insufficiency of corporate apology and indemnities

[Melos Han-Tani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn't finish, but if you can get your hands on this it's a literary/poetic and scholarly coverage of a big chemical disaster in Japan during its big growth period in the 50s/60s. Great environmental activism. Likely inspiration for stuff like Miyazaki's Nausicaa, etc.

[Sydney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impressive not only for the information about mercury poisoning in Japan in the 1950s — a subject back in the mainstream since "The Cove" cam out — but also for the writing style. This is an early work of creative nonfiction or literary journalism comparable to works by Truman Capote or Gay Talese. Depressing subject matter, but amazing book.

[Brandon Hillier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ishimure exploration of the cause and effects of Minamata Disease is presented to the reader through a broad spectrum of perspectives, supported by both first hand accounts, direct quotes, and reference to primary documents like medical records, political speeches, and government reports. She jumps back and forth along the timeline and switches her focus without warning, but once you get your bearings it’s a very interesting read.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s value (historical importance) is 5-star.

[pella · Rating 4 out of 5]

the story is so good and you can tell it’s probably an amazing read in japanese but the translation is rocky and it feels excessive at times

[Norain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another book I abandoned. The issue is very interesting – mercury poisoning in Minamata in 1950s and the pursuit of compensation and lawsuit that dragged on for two decades – but they style of writing is hard for me to digest. Maybe I am new to Japanese style (but they said Ishimure Michiko used a different style from conservative writers so maybe I just cannot churn her style). The translator did quite a poor job too. I have seen this work by another translator and that translation, I believe, was better.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nobody browsing could possibly think to pick up this book without some sort of background knowledge. As readers, we are not commonly drawn to what we think to be another depressing ailment wafting from our toxic societies.

That is exactly why this book comes recommended - it is in fact what Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow is all about, and Minamata Disease's status as "another depressing ailment" is the piquantly disturbing reality that pollution does not manifest simply as a chip bag festering in the local pond but in madness and sorrow on immense and incalculable scales.

[Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazingly goes beyond describing the experiences of Minimata Disease patients by instilling emotion through the storytelling in a unique way. Transcends genre with the inclusion of many different types of writing from song to scientific reports.

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very sad - and scary - so far. Don't get methyl mercury poisoning, you guys.