Tsuchimoto Noriaki and the organized left

[Mark Nornes]

I thought the question raised by Jonathan was very interesting. he  
wrote:

> Dear KineJapanners,
>
> Despite being in Tokyo this past summer, I did not make it to the  
> Tsuchimoto
> screenings.  As a kind of happy penance, however, I did go see *The  
> Shiranui
> Sea* which is screening on the West Coast.  It's really a wonderfully
> lyrical 2.5 hr film, dedicated to a broad look at communities on  
> opposite
> shores that share the same polluted sea.  Its oscillating movements  
> towards
> and away from its subjects really captivated me.  I took the  
> opportunity to
> read about it in Joan Mellen's *The Waves at Genji's Door*.  She  
> writes on
> page 442 Tsuchimoto "does not mention that the Chisso trade union  
> actually
> sided with the company against the victims, taking no part in the  
> struggle.
> This omission may be partly based upon Tsuchimoto's feeling that  
> introducing
> the issue of the neo-feudal role of so many trade unions in Japan would
> distract from the central issue of the Minamata victims."  Mellen  
> raises an
> interesting question.   How does the "organized left" figure--or not--  
> in
> the Minamata films?  In the Shiranui Sea --the film of his that I've  
> most
> recently seen--, that left really is striking in its absence.
>
> Just a thought for the day.  I wonder if others more familiar with
> Tsuchimoto's films have reactions.
>
> Jonathan
>

  I think this cuts to one of the most important and thoroughly  
perplexing problems of postwar documentary: the relationship of the  
filmmakers and filmmaking to the unions and parties. And I have no idea  
what the answer to his question would be. But I was interested, and  
it's always something I'm trying to figure out.

....so why not go to the Man? I asked Tsuchimoto about it. Here's his  
kind response. The Japanese is below, but I've tagged a very rough  
translation (more of a synopsis) above it.  I'm sure he'd be interested  
in your thoughts if you have any.

Markus

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Joan Mellon has somewhat misread the situation. Around 1959, there was  
quite a bit of violence and the union (which was under the umbrella of  
Sohyo, the Socialist Party coalition of unions) wasn't helpful [AMN:  
there's a slightly confusing sentence there; he seems to say that the  
union actually fought the fishermen/women]. However, a couple years  
later on the occassion of a strike there was a split into two factions.  
Eight years later, when the central government started recognizing  
victims officially, one of the factions publicly renounced their stand  
and expressed embarrassment about not joining the fight from the  
beginning. Around the same time, they joined the "First Struggle of the  
Minamata Disease Trials".

Minamata: The Victims and Their World was shot a year after this. In my  
films after that (at least up to around 1975), I tried to avoid  
touching on the post 1959 reality that they didn't help the victims.  
For example, at the beginning of Victims and Their World, in an  
interview with one of the fisherman leaders from the Shiranui Sea, he  
says, "In those days the union (the workers) was our enemy." In  
Shiranui Sea, a union member (from the first faction) compares the  
exploitation of Minamata to that of colonial Korea. And I received the  
testimony of workers from the mercury plant for the medical film.

In other words, it's true that in the films I didn't deal deeply with  
the lack of relationship between fishermen/women and workers, but I did  
portray workers that supported the struggle. It's important to  
recognize that we're talking about after the change of course by the  
first faction of the union. In this sense, Mellon's missing the mark  
when she says that "focussing on the unions would distract from the  
central issue of the MInamata victims."  However, the cooperation of  
the workers from Chisso did not happen through the unions, but by  
individual workers with a serious volunteer spirit.




[I cut off the greeting.]

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?????????????????????????????????2004/11/2
  
  
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