Жапониядағы бұрынғы Ашио мыс кеніші

Former mine in Japan

The Ashio Copper Mine (足尾銅山) was a copper mine located in the town of Ashio, Tochigi (now part of the city of Nikkō, Tochigi), in the northern Kantō region of Japan. It was the site of Japan's first major pollution disaster in the 1880s and the scene of the 1907 miners' riots. The pollution disaster led to the birth of the Japanese environmental movement and the 1897 Third Mine Pollution Prevention Order. During World War II the mine was worked by POW forced labour.

Copper deposits are recorded as having been discovered in the area around the year 1550, but exploitation did not begin until two local households received an official permit in 1610 to establish a mine. In 1611, copper from the site was presented to officials of the shogunate; and shortly thereafter, Ashio was officially listed as a copper mine belonging to the Tokugawa shogunate. Copper, including that produced at the Ashio mine, played an important role in the solidification of Tokugawa rule in the early part of the 1600s and later became Japan's chief metal export after 1685. In 1877, however, it became the property of Furukawa Ichibei, who then used the financial backing of Shibusawa Eiichi and the finding of new veins of copper to modernize and expand the mine with modern technology and foreign mining engineering expertise. By the 1880s production had increased dramatically, reaching 2286 tons by 1884, which accounted for 26 percent of Japan's copper production. A year later, the mine was producing over nine million tons, and by the end of the century, it accounted for 40 percent of Japan's copper production.

The 足尾暴動事件 is the name given to the environmental disaster that occurred as a result of the Ashio mining operations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Residents of the surrounding area also suffered multiple health issues, including sores where they came into contact with contaminated water or soil, chronic arsenic exposure, higher premature death rates, lower birth rates, and in the case of many women, trouble producing milk.

The 1907 Ashio Riot occurred February 4–6, 1907, involved pit miners who had been demanding higher wages, and targeted mostly infrastructure and low level mining officials. The riot resulted in higher wages and also triggered other strikes and riots in similar industries.

The department with direct supervision over the pit miners was the Pits Department. The Pits Department was divided into four sections, three for the pits at Honzan, Tsūdō, and Kodaki, and one for a survey office responsible for gathering statistics on the other three sections. Each mine pit was divided into three sections: extraction, dressing, and general affairs, each with its own supervisor. Within the pits themselves, they were divided into 7 or 8 districts, with one guardpost for every one or two districts.

The riot began within the mine itself early on February 4, when a group of miners destroyed the foreman's cabin for sections 3 and 4 in the Tsūdō mine pits. From there, more miners joined in and destroyed infrastructure in sections 1 and 2. The miners then began to leave the mine pits in groups and assembled in front of cabin at the entrance. Other miners who were still underground began to come aboveground later in the afternoon, when they gathered in front of the Tsūdō office and threw rocks at the windows through the evening, at which point the rioting ended for the day. Meanwhile, the local police asked the prefect level police for help with the riot and ordered the miners' bosses to control their men. The police resorted to negotiating with the miners at a distance, and the bosses only watched the goings on out of fear they would be attacked too.

Early the next day, miners attacked the cabins at the Sunokobashi mine pits, threatened the staff there, and cut telephone lines. Meanwhile, a large group of miners also gathered at the Honzan Ariki mine pits, where the electric trucks in the mine were stopped and some officials in one of the underground section cabins were injured. The extent of the damage from the first two days of the riot included several cabins and barns, eight trucks, a few drills, and the injured officials.

At the Honzan Ariki mine pits, miners destroyed the underground foremen's cabins early in the morning before moving aboveground in two groups. They targeted the offices at the mine pits, and then moved to the company store and two departments at the center of the Ashio Copper Mine, where they looted the store and broke windows and doors at the departments. When Mine Director Minami Teizō arrived later that morning, the miners attacked him. He managed to escape and hide while rioting miners attacked his house, but was attacked again when he tried to flee. He was then taken to the hospital and the miners left. At the same time, miners began to target company officials. The riot also spread to include bystanders who were more interested in the looting than the officials. By the late afternoon, the fuel warehouse was set on fire. Meanwhile, the local and prefecture level police were unable to come up with a plan to respond to the riot, more police had been ordered to the area, and the prefecture's governor had requested military assistance in responding to the riot. The troops left for Ashio late on the 6th, and arrived in the afternoon the next day.

Three companies of troops arrived at Ashio after the riot had ended. Once they arrived, the local police began conducting searches through the miners' shacks in Hozan, which had been the center of the riots. From February 7 through February 9, authorities arrested 628 individuals, 182 of whom were prosecuted.

On the afternoon of February 10, the pit managers at Hozan and Tsūdō informed the miners' representatives that the company would be firing all miners at both pits and requiring them to submit requests for rehiring by the next day. After debate, the majority of the miners accepted the company's demand and submitted the requests. On the afternoon of February 12, the company announced who they were and were not rehiring. The majority of the miners were rehired.

In the days after the mine resumed operations on February 13, miners at Kodaki, the only pits where rioting did not occur, became increasingly uneasy. They wanted to know why they were being affected by the riot's consequences if they had not participated. On February 26 the new mine director, Kondō Rikusaburō, informed the miners at Kodaki that they would be receiving bonuses for their non involvement in the riot. On February 27 and 28, Kondō Rikusaburō visited the Hozan and Tsūdō mine pits to inform the miners that wage increases were coming and bonuses would be paid to the miners who were not involved in the riot. The wage increases were officially announced on March 1 and involved an average raise of 19.4 percent and improved financial provisions for absences related to injury or illness.

The riot at the Ashio Copper Mine triggered a series of riots and strikes at other mines, including at the Horonai mine in May 1907, the Besshi mine in June 1907, and at others through July.