photo-essay showing the caustic injuries and birth defects Chisso had caused the Minamata population. The centerpiece of the work, titled "Tomoko and Mother in the Bath", depicted the severe deformation of a child in her mother's arms after the child was exposed to the effects of Chisso's contamination of the water supply. In response to Chisso's beating of W. Eugene Smith for dissemination of the photographs, Smith was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal in 1974 for "best published photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise". The company's "historical overview" in its current website makes no mention of their role in the mass contamination of Minamata and the dreadful aftermath, although a separate section of the website, accessed from the same list as the overview, is devoted to the subject. This section, however, is absent from the English version of the website. Additionally, their 2004 Annual Report reports an equivalent of about US$50 million (5,820 million yen) in "Minamata Disease Compensation Liabilities". From 2000 to 2003, the company also reported total compensation liabilities of over US$170 million. Their 2000 accounts also show that the Japanese and Kumamoto prefectural governments waived an enormous US$560 million in related liabilities. Their FY2004 and FY2005 reports refer to Minamata disease as "Mad Hatter's Disease", a term coined from the mercury poisoning experienced by hat-makers of the last few centuries (cf Mad Hatter). See also LCD Liquid crystal Minamata disease Four big pollution diseases of Japan Minamata, Kumamoto Industrial waste Chemical waste Zaibatsu References External links Chisso Corporation JNC Corporation Masters of Photography W. Eugene Smith: Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath, Minamata, 1972 Chemical companies of Japan Minamata disease