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Masazumi Harada

はらだ まさずみ

Harada Masazumi

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1934-09-14 （Satsuma (Satsuma Town), Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan）
Died
2012-06-11 （Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan） age 77
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese

Career

Occupations
physician, professor, author, researcher
Active Years
1959-2012
Affiliations
Kumamoto University, Kumamoto Gakuen University
Influenced By
Jun Ui, , Fujie Sakamoto, Shinobu Sakamoto
Influenced
Subsequent generations of Minamata disease researchers and environmental activists

Education

Kumamoto University
Faculty of Medicine / Department of Medicine
Degree: 医学士
Period: 1955-1959
Year of Graduation: 1959
Country: Japan
Kumamoto University
Graduate School of Medical Sciences / Neuropsychiatry
Degree: 医学博士
Period: 1959-1964
Year of Graduation: 1964
Country: Japan
Awarded doctorate in 1964 for work on congenital Minamata disease

Awards

Osaragi Jiro Prize
1989
Work: The World Reflected by Minamata
Organization: Osaragi Jiro Prize Committee
Result: 受賞
Yoshikawa Eiji Cultural Award
2001
Organization: Yoshikawa Eiji Cultural Award Committee
Result: 受賞
Asahi Prize
2010
Organization: Asahi Shimbun
Result: 受賞
KYOTO Global Environmental Hall of Fame
2011
Organization: KYOTO Global Environmental Hall of Fame Committee
Result: 殿堂入り

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Minamata Disease

1972 non-fiction / medicine

An overview of the clinical and epidemiological aspects of Minamata disease, explaining the pathology and the realities of the victims in a manner accessible to both specialists and general readers.

Minamata diseasemethylmercury poisoningclinical epidemiology

Learning from the Journey to Minamata: Before Minamata Disease

1985 non-fiction / reportage

A documentary-style examination of the history and field circumstances of Minamata disease, portraying the background of the damage and its social impacts.

pollutionhistorical recordvoices of victims

The World Reflected by Minamata

1989 essay / non-fiction

An essay collection that broadly discusses the relationship between environment and society through the case of Minamata disease. Published in 1989, it is one of his representative works and won the Osaragi Jiro Prize.

environmental issuessocial critiqueethics

Money and Mercury: My Notes on Minamata Studies

2002 essays / memoir

A personal set of notes compiling observations and reflections from Minamata research, discussing the socio-economic factors related to environmental contamination.

environmental contaminationsocio-economicsresearchers' perspective

Prosperity and the Abandoned: Beginnings of Minamata Studies

2007 social commentary

Discusses the sacrifices and abandoned people that arise behind prosperity, using Minamata as a case study.

economy and damagesocial exclusionpollution and policy

The Takara Children: Fifty Years Learning from Congenital Minamata Disease

2009 non-fiction / retrospective

A retrospective that follows congenital Minamata disease patients and summarizes lessons learned from the victims' perspective.

congenital Minamata diseasevictim historyhuman rights and medicine

Bibliography

  • Minamata Disease
  • Learning from the Journey to Minamata: Before Minamata Disease
  • The World Reflected by Minamata
  • Minamata: Another Medical Record
  • Views of Minamata: Environmental Sociology for the Vulnerable
  • Coal Dust Explosion: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning at the Miike Mikawa Mine
  • Chronic Minamata Disease: What Is Nosology?
  • This Road
  • Minamata Disease and Global Mercury Pollution
  • Who Will Be Judged?
  • Messages from the Fetus: From Minamata, Hiroshima and Vietnam
  • Even If the Mine Lights Go Out: 33 Years Since the CO Poisoning from the Miike Mine Coal-Dust Explosion
  • Money and Mercury: My Notes on Minamata Studies
  • Environment and the Human Body: Pollution Studies
  • Journey of Life: The Path to Minamata Studies
  • Learning from a Negative Legacy
  • Prosperity and the Abandoned: Beginnings of Minamata Studies
  • Return to Minamata
  • The Takara Children: Fifty Years Learning from Congenital Minamata Disease
  • Oil Disease Is a Department Store of Illnesses: Seeking Relief for Kanemi Yusho Patients

Adaptations

  • NHK ETV Special "Masazumi Harada: Legacy for Minamata's Future"

Style & Themes

Literary Style
scholarly and logical yet written in an accessible style for the general publicemphasis on fieldwork and victims' perspectives
Recurring Motifs
testimonies and clinical cases of victimsinterplay between environment and societypollution responsibility and ethics

Health

  • acute myelogenous leukemia (AML)
    2012年（末期、入院と治療ののち退院後自宅で死去）
    Treated for the condition but after discharge in June 2012 he died at home; this ended his activities.

Legacy

Masazumi Harada, a leading authority on Minamata disease, bridged clinical observation and social activism, working to elucidate and raise awareness of environmental pollution from the victims' perspective. Through his writings and international advocacy he brought attention to the issue both domestically and internationally, influencing subsequent researchers and activists.

Archives

  • Kumamoto Gakuen University Minamata Studies Research Center

In Popular Culture

  • Manga 'Physician Masazumi Harada Story — Looking at the Relationship Between Nature and Humans from Minamata Disease' (2024, published by Satsuma Town, Kagoshima Prefecture)

Trivia

  • Attended the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm and brought international attention to Minamata disease.
  • Retired from Kumamoto University in 1999 and became a professor at Kumamoto Gakuen University.
  • Won the Osaragi Jiro Prize in 1989 for the book 'The World Reflected by Minamata'.