IJS Lecture: Aileen Smith, "My 50-Year Journey: Minamata Followed by Fukushima"

The Institute for Japanese Studies, College of Public Health, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, Department of History, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, School of Communication, School of Earth Sciences, and Japan America Society of Central Ohio present:

"My 50-Year Journey: Minamata Followed by Fukushima"

Aileen Smith
Executive Director, Green Action

Abstract: Aileen will speak about W. Eugene Smith’s commitment to photojournalism, how Gene and Aileen photographed in Minamata, and what she experienced and learned while working there between the ages of 21 and 24. The methylmercury pollution victims’ fight for justice in Minamata and the anti-nuclear movement in Japan, centered around the joint efforts of farmers, fisherfolk and other dedicated citizens, are examples of the struggle to achieve true democracy in Japan. She will discuss the 10 anti-progressive strategies used by government and industry common to Minamata and Fukushima, and how both of these historical issues are still ongoing. Japan’s nuclear fuel cycle program is intricately tied to the US Department of Energy’s initiatives to advance the use of plutonium for commercial use as an energy source. She will address how civil use of this weapons-capable material will abet nuclear proliferation and how ongoing utilization of nuclear energy is detrimental to the goal of preventing climate change. Download the PDF flyer here.

This event is being held in conjunction with an IJS screening of the film Minamata, to take place on Thursday, 10/26. 

Aileen Smith was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1950. She graduated from high school in St. Louis County, Missouri. She enrolled in Stanford in 1968, dropping out after meeting the photojournalist W. Eugene Smith in New York. Together they photographed Japan’s mercury pollution disaster in Minamata, Japan, publishing their book “MINAMATA” in 1975. (Now a Hollywood movie by the same name starring Johnny Depp as Gene.) Aileen has a masters degree in environmental science from Columbia University’s School of Public Health. She has been active in the anti-nuclear movement in Japan since the early 1980’s, after interviewing citizens around the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. Aileen is executive director of the NGO Green Action based in Kyoto, Japan. As president of Aileen Archive she is committed to disseminating Gene’s and Aileen’s photographic work on Minamata. She is a recipient of the Nuclear-Free Future Award (2014).