BEE Japan

“After cycling everyday for over 6 weeks, what part of the body hurts the most?”
This is a question we put on a recent BEE pub trivia game that we used to raise money while in Hiroshima. Most people made good guesses: legs, knees, lungs. All have certainly ached at one time or another (sorry, the answer we were looking for is hands), but the response that stood out the most to me was heart.

At that time, I thought it was a little silly, but I have to admit there have been many times when my heart screams with pain–when I see streams of plastic garbage floating down streams, when I see a gorgeous mountain view obscured by electric wires and pylons, or the many times I’ve witnessed farmers spraying liters of pesticides and other chemicals on their fields, knowing that it’s all just going to wind up in someone’s drinking water.

Visiting Minamata was one of these times when my heart cried more than my hands. In Minamata between the 1930s~1960s, local fertilizer company Chiso dumped organic mercury into the bay, affecting thousands of people living in the surrounding fishing communities. During that time people who ate contaminated fish contracted mercury poisoning, which enfeebles the brain and irreversibly damages the nervous system. Even when it was discovered that Chiso was to blame, the Japanese government decided not to punish the company, believing that the benefit Japan reaped from chemical companies (who were an integral part to Japan’s post-War financial rebound) outweighed the cost of human life.

Many people died as a result, and many more who were infected while in their mothers’ wombs at the time still suffer today. These patients of congenital Minamata Disease (aka mercury poisoning) still suffer today. We visited one non-profit center, Hot House, where these patients live and work today. At the Hot House, founded by Takeko Kato, patients of congenital Minamata Disease and related congenital diseases have a place where they are respected and can contribute positively to society. The center was designed at patients’ request to provide them with a place to work, socialize, and inform people about what happened in Minamata, without being discriminated against because of their condition.

While it was extremely difficult to swallow the truth about the outbreak of Minamata Disease, the decisions made by people within Chiso and the Japanese government–how can we so easily neglect the lives of other humans?–seeing everyone at the Hot House in good spirits was uplifting. When spending time with patients it was impossible to be upset or angry; their smiles were contagious, and their mission to teach others to respect human life and protect the environment motivating.

After leaving Minamata, even though we only have a short time left on this 2009 tour, I feel reaffirmed in my belief that the world does not have to be full of the murder & destruction we see on the news everyday. The handful of patients, workers, and volunteers at Hot House prove that. If these people, who were deprived of “normal” physical and mental development from birth, can build a community based on sharing, giving, stewardship to humankind and the environment, what are the rest of us doing? There’s no reason we can’t all learn from them and do the same, and I encourage people to find more ways to start making the world a place you are proud and happy to inhabit, one where you are helping and giving at least twice what you’re taking.

That’s something worth smiling about