Minimata disease was largely exposed by photographer W. Eugene Smith. The Chisso Corporation did not like being made famous for their business practice. Several employees attacked Smith in 1972. Smith survived, but never really recovered. He left Japan in 1974 to teach journalism at the University of Arizona. He died a in 1978, aged 59.

His most famous image of the environmental disaster was Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath.

You can see the rest of his images of Minimata at Magnum Photos.