The Sea of Meshima and the Death of My Father
Sasaki Kiyoto
I live about twenty kilometers north of Minamata in the village of Meshima, in the township of Ashikata. I represent the third generation in a fishing family. After the war, until 1955, we were able to catch a lot of fish.
Meshima is a small fishing village, and although we were poor, we villagers lived our lives interacting warmly like family members. It was a wonderful place to live.
Then a rumor began spreading. "A strange disease has broken out in Minamata. It seems that Chisso is the cause." But I chose to ignore this rumor and simply continued to devote all my attention to fishing. However, as the years went by Minamata disease steadily spread. Then something happened that made me really concerned. In 1959 Minamata disease claimed its first victim in Meshima. "This is the beginning of something really terrible," we all thought.
In 1977 my father collapsed with Minamata disease and was hospitalized.
That was the beginning of my fatherfs suffering, of my familyfs suffering -- and of course, of my own. For me, this was the worst possible thing that could happen in a personfs life. My father was in critical condition. "What is this disease that has attacked my father?" "Why did this happen?" I would ask myself. This was too cruel a way to die. My father was a victim of acute Minamata disease, with the most pronounced symptoms.
For the first twenty days or so after his collapse in November, my father somehow understood what I was saying. Then suddenly one evening he began twitching violently on his bed. "Whatfs happening?" I wondered as I held him down. Then he began foaming at the mouth and lost consciousness. His entire body became rigid. Both arms were thrust up in the air. Both legs were sticking straight up too. Then he began experiencing convulsions. If I didnft hold him down, he would fall off the bed. This went on and on.
Then, one evening forty or fifty days after his collapse, I awoke one morning from a brief sleep, and immediately looked over at my father as I always did after awakening. Half of his body was covered with blood oozing from his shoulder, and the bedding was dyed red. "Whatfs going on; why is this happening?" I wondered in shock as I rushed to his side. He had ripped the skin off his left shoulder, exposing the flesh and bone. Being unconscious, he was totally unaware that he had done this. Death finally released my father on March 4, 1978. He passed on in just a little over three months after he collapsed with the disease.
Until my fatherfs collapse, I had sworn within my heart that I would forget about Minamata disease without ever coming in contact with it. But after seeing my father through the course of his illness, from the day of his collapse until he died, my thinking changed. After that I joined the Minamata disease patient movement, and at present I am volunteering as a storyteller, trying to inform as many people as possible about Minamata disease.
(Translated by Karen R. Colligan-Taylor)
SASAKI Kiyoto
Resident of Ashikita Meshima, Kumamoto Prefecture
Born in Oita Prefecture in 1929, Kiyoto SASAKI moved into Ashikita Meshima.
In 1955 he married and began to show the symptoms of Minamata disease.
He participated in the so-called gfishermenfs riot" in 1959. In 1960 he and his family moved to Yawata, Kitakyushu city. In 1974 he applied for officially acknowledged victim of Minamata disease but was dismissed.
He returned Meshima and joined the unauthorized victims movement in 1979 when his father died of acute Minamata disease. In 1988 he participated in a sit-in protest against Chisso Corporation. In 1992, he was elected the president of Minamata disease Patients Federation. The reconciliation agreement was signed in 1969. Kiy.oto Sasaki himself is a subject of comprehensive medical project.
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