To think

To think 
it was another day
going to the bay
catching fish
being at the dinner table
with the grandmother, 
the fisherman,
the farmer,
the child,
eating to our hearts' content.

To think
it was another day
in 1908,
when we welcomed Chisso Corp
with open arms.

In fact,
we invited
your workers
over for fish,
but they insisted
at the dinner table,
“Oh no! Do not burden us like this!”
But they knew that the fish
were not the same.

It was because they 
produced fertilizers
with toxic chemicals 
released
into our majestic Minamata.

Because of you
the Minamata Disease was born, 
a neurological syndrome 
by mercury
causing the brain to be torn.

We soon realized
our fish,
our animals,
our bay,
our people,
were not 
the same.

The grandmother, 
who was already weak,
became paralysed
and could no longer
serve food,
carry on with house chores,
nor care for her sons.

The fisherman,
whose favorite food was fish,
could no longer work,
nor eat,
feed his family,
because the fisheries
collapsed.

The farmer,
who used the water from the bay,
watered his crops
and all his hard work,
gone to waste.

The child,
who was once beautiful,  
was murdered
with birth defects
and became crippled
forever.

Even as the deaths soared,
for more than 30 years
you and the government 
did little to prevent the pollution
and ignored us.

So we fight for what we have lost,
protest after protest,
riot after riot,
lawsuit after lawsuit;
it seems we may achieve victory
yet it seems so far.

To think 
it was another day
going to the bay
catching fish
being at the dinner table
with the grandmother,
the fisherman,
the farmer,
the child,
eating to our hearts' content.