Questioning “Compensation”: A Half Century of Ishimure Michiko’s Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow and “Minamata Disease”

Half a century has passed since the so-called “Minamata Disease”–one of postwar Japan’s worst environmental pollution cases–was publicly acknowledged. Prof. Kanai discusses Ishimure Michiko’s monumental documentary novel Paradise in the Sea of Sorrow–which was completed in April 2004, 44 years after the publication of its first installment–as a lens for exploring the “Minamata Disease Problem” and its relationship to the question of human rights in postwar Japan. In introducing the history of “Minamata Disease” and Ishimure’s novel, this lecture will examine the role that Ishimure’s literary work played in the process by which people afflicted with “Minamata Disease” and those around them have grappled with concepts of human rights.