, also known as the , was the largest

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

in Japan,Karan, P.P. & Stapleton, K.E. (1997) ''The Japanese city'
p.181
University Press of Kentucky Retrieved January 2012. located in the area of Ōmuta,

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

and Arao,

Kumamoto is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a population of 1,461,000, ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. In 1960, it was the setting for the "

Miike Struggle The was a year-long struggle in Japan in 1960 between the organized labor movement, backed by a variety of left wing groups, and big business organization, backed by the Japanese right, centering around a lengthy labor dispute at the Mitsui ...

," which was the largest management-labor dispute in Japanese history.

History

Mining began in the region during the Kyoho era, with the Miike mine under the control of the Tachibana clan. The mine was

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

in 1872Industrial pollution in Japan
Chapter - 5 The Miike coal-mine explosion by the

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji o ...

. The

Mitsui is one of the largest '' keiretsu'' in Japan and one of the largest corporate groups in the world. The major companies of the group include Mitsui & Co. ( general trading company), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Nippon Paper Industri ...

zaibatsu is a Japanese language, Japanese term referring to industrial and financial vertical integration, vertically integrated business conglomerate (company), conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over signi ...

took control in 1899. The mine closed in 1997, with devastating effects on the local economy.

POW camp

During World War II the mine was used as a prisoner of war camp, referred to as Fukuoka#17 - Omuta. Approximately 1,735 American and Allied prisoners were used as slave labor to mine coal and work in a Mitsui zinc foundry. It was the largest POW camp in the Empire. 138 prisoners died, of disease, accidents, and abuse.

Labor dispute

In 1960, the mine became the center of a protracted labor dispute that evolved into the largest management-labor dispute in Japan's history. When the Mitsui corporation attempted to lay off nearly 1,500 workers at the mine, the powerful miners union responded with massive protests and work stoppages that led to Mitsui locking out the miners for 312 days. The resultant clashes between miners, police, and right-wing gangsters escalated into violence. Ultimately, the protesting miners were defeated, and returned to work without achieving their demands, dealing a significant blow to the Japanese labor movement as a whole.

Incidents

On November 9, 1963, 458 people were killed by an explosion and the resulting buildup of

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simple ...

. 438 of the deaths were due to

carbon monoxide poisoning Carbon monoxide poisoning typically occurs from breathing in carbon monoxide (CO) at excessive levels. Symptoms are often described as "flu-like" and commonly include headache, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Large e ...

, and 839 others suffered from the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning, which can cause brain damage. In total, 1,197 of the 1,403 workers died or were injured as a result of the incident. Workers were told by the Mitsui Coal Mining company that a coal-dust explosion in the mine was impossible and were not educated on the potential for gas poisoning. The company had no provisions in place for isolating poisonous gas, in fact, at the time of the explosion, ventilation fans worked to actively spread the gas throughout the mine, leading to more deaths. Only around 200 of the workers knew of the explosion, mostly by hearing it firsthand. Despite making it to the lift, they were told by their officers not to leave and died due to carbon monoxide poisoning. The majority of the workers knew nothing of the explosion. Electricity and telephone communication were lost after the explosion, and initially, no attempts to rescue the workers were made by the company, which stated that it was too risky due to unclear conditions within the mine. As a result, workers remained trapped in the mine for three hours after the company was notified. The inexperienced, ill-advised rescue crews exacerbated the severity of the event by not following the protocols for rescuing victims of carbon monoxide poisoning. Over 200 of the workers who were already suffering from poisoning were sent back into the mines to attempt to rescue others. Of the 939 workers that survived, 839 suffered from serious carbon monoxide poisoning, which resulted in severe, permanent brain damage. On January 18, 1984, an explosion at the mine claimed the lives of 83 workers.

Legacy

The Miike mine was the subject of a Japanese documentary, ''Echoes from the Miike Mine'' (2006), directed by Hiroko Kumagai. In 2015, the Miike Coal Mine, railway and port were designated as one of the UNESCO World Industrial Heritage sites of "Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining." The award was dependent upon Japan's promise to tell the "full history" of these sites that included a history of its forced labor for Koreans, Chinese, convicts, and POWs. On July 22, 2021, UNESCO's World Heritage Committeehttp://whc.unesco.org/archive/2021/whc21-44com-7B.Add2-en.pdf found that Japan had not fulfilled its pledge and they were asked to come up with a new plan by December 2021.

References

External links

Former Miike Coal Mine Miyahara Pit
from Kyushu Tourism Information

an

(access August 2, 2021)

official Japanese government site.

from Japan Focus, July 1, 2021 {{Authority control Coal mines in Japan 1997 disestablishments in Japan Ōmuta, Fukuoka Buildings and structures in Kumamoto Prefecture Former mines in Japan Buildings and structures in Fukuoka Prefecture Former coal mines