Misplaced Pages

#298701

71-663: The Miike Coal Mine in northern Kyushu had long been one of Japan's largest and most productive coal mines, dating back to its earliest exploitation by the Tachibana samurai clan in the early 1700s during the Edo Period . The mine was nationalized by the Meiji government in 1873, and was privatized and sold to the Mitsui zaibatsu in 1889. Like all other industrialized nations, Japan and its wartime empire had been largely powered by coal. This made

142-556: A US Marines military helicopter, creating indelible imagery of the so-called Hagerty Incident ( ハガチー事件 , Hagachii jiken ) that was transmitted by newswires around the world. MacArthur had hoped that the image of the car surrounded by protesters would incentivize the Japanese government to crack down harder on the protests. However, his actions backfired by suggesting instead that Eisenhower's safety would be at risk if he continued with his plans to visit Japan. On June 15, as part of

213-461: A career diplomat. He also invited Ikeda to be the first foreign leader to visit the United States in his term in office, and at their 1961 summit, promised Ikeda he would henceforth treat Japan more like a close ally such as Great Britain. In Japan, the protests spurred a new wave of right-wing activism and violence, including the assassination of Socialist Party chairman Inejirō Asanuma during

284-417: 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

355-506: A daily basis, and large protests took place in other cities and towns all across Japan. On June 15, protestors smashed their way into the Diet compound itself, leading to a violent clash with police. During the confrontation, a female Tokyo University student, Michiko Kanba , was killed. In the aftermath of this incident, a planned visit to Japan by US president Dwight D. Eisenhower was cancelled, and conservative prime minister Nobusuke Kishi

426-511: A dangerous global conflict. The April 1960 revolution in Korea that forced US-backed strongman Syngman Rhee from power proved an inspiration to Japanese protesters, as it showed that autocratic governments could be defeated by popular protests, even if they had the backing of the United States. Then on May 1, the U-2 Incident shattered the amiable "Spirit of Camp David" that had prevailed between

497-483: A few minutes later, radical left-wing activists from the nationwide student federation Zengakuren smashed their way into the Diet compound itself, precipitating a long battle with police, who beat the unarmed students bloody with their batons in front of mass media reporters and television cameras. The police finally succeeded in clearing the Diet compound after 1 a.m., but in the struggle, a young female Tokyo University student and Zengakuren member named Michiko Kanba

568-535: A new plan by December 2021. Anpo Protests 1970 The Anpo protests , also known as the Anpo struggle ( 安保闘争 , Anpo tōsō ) in Japanese, were a series of massive protests throughout Japan from 1959 to 1960, and again in 1970, against the United States–Japan Security Treaty , which allows the United States to maintain military bases on Japanese soil. The name of the protests comes from

639-485: A reduction in demand for large numbers of manual laborers, including coal miners. In addition, the Income Doubling Plan , first formulated in 1959 and formally introduced in 1960, explicitly called for shifting government support away from "sunset" industries like coal mining in favor of "growth" industries such as oil refining and petrochemical manufacturing. Noticing these shifts and anticipating future threats to

710-456: A televised election debate in the fall of 1960. Asanuma's assassination weakened the JSP, which was further riven by conflicts over the conduct of the anti-Treaty protests, leading to the splitting off of the breakaway Democratic Socialist Party . The Anpo protests also influenced a series of transformations in Japanese art and literature, as disillusionment with the failure of the protests to stop

781-485: A whole. On November 9, 1963, 458 people were killed by an explosion and the resulting buildup of carbon monoxide . 438 of the deaths were due to carbon monoxide poisoning , 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

SECTION 10

#1732854802299

852-399: The Meiji government nationalised the mine. The Mitsui zaibatsu took control in 1899. Almost immediately, prison labor began to be employed both inside and outside the mine. In 1876, the Mitsui & Co., Ltd. was established to exclusively handle the transportation and sales of coal from the mine. In 188, when the mine was privatized, Mitsui won a fierce bidding competition against

923-744: The Mitsubishi zaibatsu for ownership. Dan Takuma , an official of the Mines Bureau of the Ministry of Industry who had studied mining and metallurgy in the United States, was assigned to oversee the Miike Coal Mine, and eventually rose to become Director-General of Mitsui. The mine operations were greatly expanded and gradually modernized. The use of convict labor was abolished in 1930, long after it had ceased to be used in other mines in Japan. During World War II

994-558: The National Diet and rammed through an unpopular revision to the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty (called "Anpo" in Japanese) with only members of his own party present. Kishi's actions led to outrage around the nation and a massive upsurge in the Anpo protests against the Treaty. Sympathy was extended to the striking miners, whom Kishi had opposed, and the Japanese labor movement became enamored of

1065-588: The Sunagawa Struggle of 1955-1957, whereby a US Air Force base expanded into a nearby village. Popular outrage in Japan escalated even further in the aftermath of the Girard Incident of 1957, in which US Army Soldier William S. Girard, for his own amusement, fired an empty grenade shell at a housewife salvaging scrap near the military base where he was stationed, and killed her. Girard was convicted of manslaughter along with being subsequently demoted, and

1136-477: The CLRC would have to grant them some concessions. However, when the CLRC issued its decision on August 10, it sided almost entirely with Mitsui, granting the miners the rather meaningless gesture of having the company formally "rescind" the layoffs while still insisting that those same miners "voluntarily retire." The first union was outraged and immediately announced a resumption of their strike, but after weeks of debate

1207-789: The Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Patients Family Association staged a sit-in at the bottom of the Mikawa mine from the 14th to the 20th of the same month to protest failure of the company to provide compensation. On January 18, 1984, an explosion at the mine claimed the lives of 83 workers. The mine closed on March 30, 1997. with devastating effects on the local economy. In the 1960s and 1970s, Japan's primary energy source switched from coal to oil, and demand for coal shifted from high-cost domestic coal to low-cost imported coal. Due to currency exchange rates, compensation claims for mining accidents, rising labor costs, etc., it

1278-432: The Japanese government, had a clause specifically authorizing US troops to put down domestic protests in Japan, and did not commit the United States to defend Japan if Japan were attacked by a third party. The Japanese government began pushing for a revision to the treaty as early as 1952. The Eisenhower administration, however, resisted calls for revision until a growing anti-US military base movement in Japan culminated in

1349-567: The Japanese term for "Security Treaty," which is Anzen Hoshō Jōyaku ( 安全保障条約 ) , or just Anpo ( 安保 ) for short. The protests in 1959 and 1960 were staged in opposition to a 1960 revision of the original 1952 Security Treaty , and eventually grew to become the largest popular protests in Japan's modern era. At the climax of the protests in June 1960, hundreds of thousands of protestors surrounded Japan's National Diet building in Tokyo on nearly

1420-513: The Miike Struggle allowed the company to replace the militant first union with the much more cooperative second union. This in turn allowed Mitsui to lay off more miners and significantly relax safety standards in the mine. By 1963, the number of miners working at Miike had fallen by one third, from around 15,000 in 1960 to just 10,000, yet in the same period, coal production was accelerated from 8,000 tons to 15,000 tons per day. On November 9, 1963,

1491-524: The Miike mine immensely profitable and one of the crown jewels of the Mitsui conglomerate's holdings. However, in the immediate postwar years, the discovery and exploitation of cheap and plentiful Middle Eastern oil led to an "energy revolution" as industries increasingly shifted to oil, reducing demand for coal. At the same time, the 1950s in Japan saw a great wave of mechanization and "workplace rationalization" that saw

SECTION 20

#1732854802299

1562-471: The Miike miners union not just from other Sōhyō-affiliated unions, but even from unions in more moderate labor federations, such as Zenrō , and from labor unions and federations in the United States and Europe. Likewise, the Japanese business world ( Zaikai ) made virtually unlimited financial resources available to Mitsui for the purpose of breaking the strike, including contributions from corporations and industries entirely unrelated to coal mining. Accordingly,

1633-777: The National Diet, the US Embassy, and the Prime Minister's Official Residence in Tokyo occurred on a near daily basis, and large-scale protests were staged in city centers all over Japan. In June, the Sōhyō labor federation carried out a series of nationwide general strikes. The June 15 strike involved 6.4 million workers across the country, making it the largest strike in Japan's history. On June 10, Eisenhower's Press Secretary James Hagerty arrived at Tokyo's Haneda Airport to make advance preparations for Eisenhower's impending arrival. Hagerty

1704-637: The Police Bill, and Kishi was forced to withdraw it. This victory emboldened the protestors, and rather than disbanding, the anti-Police Bill coalition remained active and recruited new member organizations to oppose the revised Security Treaty, which was in the final stages of negotiation. Rebranding itself the People's Council for Preventing Revision of the Security Treaty ( Anpo Jōyaku Kaitei Soshi Kokumin Kaigi ) in

1775-472: The Sōhyō labor federation announced that it was withdrawing its support for the strike. Completely isolated, the first union held on for a little longer but was ultimately forced to capitulate. On December 1, 1960, the first union-miners returned to work, ending an unprecedented 312-day lockout. The Miike Struggle is widely regarded as the high point of postwar labor militancy in Japan, when the Japanese labor movement

1846-513: The UNESCO World Industrial Heritage series " 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 Committee found that Japan had not fulfilled its pledge and they were asked to come up with

1917-519: The US Supreme Court case Wilson v. Girard . This made animosity towards the status quo even more apparent. The United States agreed to a revision, negotiations began in 1958, and the new treaty was signed by Eisenhower and Kishi at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on January 19, 1960. From a Japanese perspective, the new treaty was a significant improvement over the original treaty, committing

1988-669: The United States and the Soviet Union since Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev 's visit to the United States the previous September. In the aftermath of the incident, the Soviet Union disinvited Eisenhower from his planned visit to the USSR the coming summer and the brief thaw in the Cold War came to an end. It also came to light that some of the U-2 spy planes that were used to surveil the Soviet Union were based at US bases in Japan, further fueling fears that in

2059-569: The United States to defend Japan in an attack, requiring prior consultation with the Japanese government before dispatching US forces based in Japan overseas, removing the clause preauthorizing suppression of domestic disturbances, and specifying an initial 10-year term, after which the treaty could be abrogated by either party with one year's notice. Because the new treaty was better than the old one, Kishi expected it to be ratified in relatively short order. Accordingly, he invited Eisenhower to visit Japan beginning on June 19, 1960, in part to celebrate

2130-405: The anti-Treaty coalition's 24th united action, hundreds of thousands of protestors marched on the National Diet in Tokyo. In the late afternoon, the protestors were attacked by right-wing ultranationalist counter-protestors, who rammed them with trucks and attacked them with wooden staves spiked with nails, causing dozens of injuries from moderate to severe, including several hospitalizations. Just

2201-534: The case of a nuclear war, Japan might become a target. Meanwhile, in the National Diet the revised treaty faced an arduous path to ratification. Although the opposition Japan Socialist Party (JSP) controlled only about a third of the seats in the Diet, and thus lacked the votes to prevent ratification, the Socialists used a variety of parliamentary tactics to drag out debate, in hopes of preventing ratification before Eisenhower's planned arrival on June 19, and giving

Miike Struggle - Misplaced Pages Continue

2272-452: The company's boat while attacking it with water cannons, hurled rocks, and ramming, in the so-called "Battle of the Ariake Sea." By May, with desertions to the second union increasing, the first union's cause was looking increasingly hopeless and support from the other unions began to waver. However on May 19, Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi had police drag opposition lawmakers out of

2343-470: The conflict rapidly assumed the feeling of an apocalyptic “all-management vs. all-labor” battle ( sōshihon tai sōrōdō no tatakai ) from which neither side felt it could back down. Much of these funds were used to hire thousands of right-wing and yakuza thugs to beat up or otherwise intimidate and harass the locked-out miners. Bloody battles for control of the mine became an almost daily occurrence, especially after Mitsui finally succeeded in persuading some of

2414-418: The decade of the 1960s, left-wing activists looked forward to the end of the revised treaty's initial 10-year term in 1970 as an opportunity to try to persuade the Japanese government to abrogate the treaty. In 1970, in the wake of the 1968–69 Japanese university protests in Japan, a number of student groups, civic groups, and the anti-Vietnam War organization Beheiren held a series of protest marches against

2485-713: The extension was approved, when Kishi then called for immediate ratification of the treaty. With only members of Kishi's own party present, the revised Security Treaty was approved by the Lower House of the Diet with no debate and only a voice vote . According to Japanese law, if the Upper House failed to vote on the treaty, which seemed highly likely given the political chaos, the treaty would automatically take effect 30 days later on June 19, just in time for Eisenhower's arrival. Kishi's "anti-democratic" actions during this May 19th Incident ( 五・一九事件 , Go-ichi-kyū jiken ) stunned

2556-442: The extra-parliamentary protests more time to grow. With Eisenhower's visit approaching, Kishi became increasingly anxious to ratify the treaty in time. Moreover, the Diet session was scheduled to end almost a month earlier, on May 26. Late in the evening on May 19, Kishi took the desperate measure of suddenly and unexpectedly calling for a 50-day extension of the Diet session, in defiance of longstanding parliamentary norms and over

2627-561: The idea of possibly "linking up Anpo and Miike," leading to a new surge in support for the striking miners. Once the new treaty took effect on June 19, the Anpo protests came to an end, freeing up thousands of left-wing activists who had previously been busy protesting the treaty. Many of these activists then travelled down to Kyushu to support the miners at Miike. However, the end of the Anpo protests also freed up thousands of right-wing counter-protesters as well, who also traveled to Miike to fight for

2698-422: 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

2769-520: 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. In July 1967, 66 housewives from

2840-552: 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 Japanese Empire. 138 prisoners died, of disease, accidents, and abuse. In 1958 Nippon Steel Mining began development of the Ariake Coal Mine in neighboring Takada Town; however, development

2911-404: 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

Miike Struggle - Misplaced Pages Continue

2982-409: The miners to form a more pliable "second union" and resume production at the mine. Although Miike was a very large mine, and the Miike union was an important union within the Sōhyō federation, the Miike Struggle quickly escalated far out of proportion to the actual number of jobs at stake, as both sides decided that Miike would be the time and place to make a decisive stand. Donations began pouring into

3053-401: The miners to form a second union on March 17. On March 29, one of the first-union miners, Kiyoshi Kubo, was stabbed to death by a yakuza gangster. Because the striking first-union miners were blocking access to the mine by land, Mitsui attempted to land second-union miners and mining supplies by boat from the sea. The first union responded by chartering a boat of its own and constantly shadowing

3124-463: The nation and even much of his own party. Kishi received criticism from across the political spectrum, with even conservative newspapers calling for his resignation. In late May and into June, the anti-Treaty protests greatly increased in size, as many ordinary citizens took to the streets to express their outrage, and the aims of the protests expanded from protesting the Security Treaty to ousting Kishi and "protecting democracy." Large protests around

3195-467: The newly ratified treaty. If Eisenhower's visit had proceeded as planned, he would have become the first sitting US president to visit Japan. Many on the Japanese left, and some on the right, were united in hoping to chart a more neutral course in the Cold War , and thus hoped to get rid of the treaty and the U.S.–Japan Alliance entirely. Therefore, even though the revised treaty was manifestly superior to

3266-416: The opportunity to break the powerful and militant Miike union once and for all. The Union was associated with the powerful, left-leaning Sōhyō labor federation, and had long been a thorn in Miike's side, launching several workplace actions including undertaking a major strike in 1953. On January 25, 1960, Mitsui locked the miners out of the mine, and immediately launched a concerted effort to split off some of

3337-514: The opposition of many members of his own ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). When Socialist Diet members staged a sit-in in the halls of the Diet, Kishi took the unprecedented step of calling 500 police officers into the Diet chambers and having opposition lawmakers physically removed from the premises. Thereafter, with only members of his own party present, he passed the extension of the Diet Session. A final shock came after midnight, just after

3408-587: The original treaty, these groups decided to oppose ratification of the revised treaty. Kishi anticipated that such protests might arise, and in the fall of 1958 attempted to pass a "Police Duties Bill" which would have given police in Japan new powers of warrantless search and seizure in order to target protesters ahead of treaty ratification. However, this proved to be a miscalculation, as the law reminded many in Japan of pre-World War II authoritarianism and provoked widespread popular outrage. A nationwide coalition of political and civic organizations coalesced to oppose

3479-448: The other side, leading to a dramatic upsurge in violent clashes in late June and July. Big business was growing tired of funding the endless conflict, and pressure mounted on Kishi to bring the strike to an end, so he dispatched 10,000 riot police to quell the violence, and a decisive battle ( kessen ) between the police and the miners seemed imminent. However, Kishi was forced to resign on July 15 to take responsibility for his mishandling of

3550-560: The profitability of its coal mines, the Mitsui Corporation in 1959 announced that it would be laying off thousands of workers at its mines, including 1,462 layoffs at the Miike mine. With mechanization of mine functions proceeding at a rapid pace, this was seen to be the first in what might be many future rounds of layoffs. The Miike miners union was incredibly strong, and responded with massive protests and work stoppages by more than 30,000 miners and their families. Mitsui decided to take

3621-403: The protest movement. Nevertheless, the largest single day of protests in the entire movement took place on June 18, the day before the treaty would automatically take effect. Hundreds of thousands of protesters surrounded the National Diet, hoping to somehow stop the treaty at the last moment. The protestors remained in place until after midnight, when the treaty automatically took effect. With

SECTION 50

#1732854802299

3692-415: The protests and the humiliating cancellation of Eisenhower's visit brought US-Japan relations to their lowest ebb since the end of World War II. However, the incoming administration of President John F. Kennedy responded by taking a more gentle approach to US-Japan relations. Kennedy appointed sympathetic Japan expert and Harvard University professor Edwin O. Reischauer as ambassador to Japan, rather than

3763-423: The spring of 1959, the coalition coordinated a series of "united actions" in which thousands of local "joint struggle councils" around the nation would take part in coordinated protest activity on specified days. Over the rest of 1959 and into 1960, the protest movement continued to gradually grow larger, especially as heightening Cold War tensions inspired fear that the new treaty would lock Japan into one side of

3834-430: The student movement, as heated disagreements over who was to blame for the failure to stop the treaty led to infighting. In the immediate aftermath of the protests, the previously unified nationwide Zengakuren student federation disintegrated into numerous warring factions, paving the way for the rise of the radical New Left sects that would play a leading role in the 1968-69 Japanese university protests . Throughout

3905-507: The treaty in force and Kishi's resignation becoming official on July 15, the protest movement lost momentum. Although the anti-Treaty coalition held a few more "united actions," turnout was low, and the movement died away. The 1960 Anpo protests had ultimately failed to stop the revised US-Japan Security Treaty from taking effect, but they did force the resignation of the Kishi Cabinet and the cancellation of Eisenhower's planned visit. Kishi

3976-526: The treaty issue, leading to a pause in strikebreaking operations at Miike. New Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda , a former member of the Ministry of Finance and a close ally of the business world, made finding a peaceful resolution to the strike his first priority upon taking office. To accomplish this, he took the very unusual step of appointing a member of a rival faction within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party , Hirohide Ishida , as Labor Minister, because Ishida

4047-417: The treaty led more artists and writers to experiment with new types of artistic and literary forms. Japanese students who were in college or graduate school between 1960 and 1970 and protested against the Security Treaty are often remembered as the "Anpo Generation" (安保世代, Anpo sedai ), suggesting the defining role the anti-Treaty protests had in their lives. However, the protests had a splintering effect on

4118-490: The worst mining disaster in Japan's postwar era occurred at Miike when coal dust ignited and exploded 500 feet below the surface, collapsing tunnels and spreading deadly carbon monoxide throughout the mine. As a result, 458 miners were killed and 555 were injured. Miike Coal Mine Miike coal mine ( 三池炭鉱 , Miike Tankō ) , also known as the Mitsui Miike Coal Mine ( 三井三池炭鉱 , Mitsui Miike Tankō ) ,

4189-412: Was at the height of its power. After the labor movement was defeated at Miike, it gradually retreated from militancy, leading to a more cooperative culture with more open lines of communication between management and labor in Japan. Sōhyō in particular was weakened by the Miike Struggle, and thereafter increasingly lost ground to more moderate labor federations such as Zenrō. Mitsui's near-total victory in

4260-527: Was discovered in this area by a farmer in 1469; however, commercial scale exploitation did not begin until 1721, when the karō of Miike Domain received permission to open a mine. In pre-industrial Japan, the main market for coal was for use in salt production in the Seto Inland Sea ; however, in the Bakumatsu period , the importance of coal as a fuel for steam engines became increasing evident, and in 1872

4331-445: Was forced to resign. A second round of protests occurred in 1970 at the time of the 1960 Anpo treaty's automatic renewal. Although shorter in duration, these later protests also achieved significant size. The original US-Japan Security Treaty had been forced on Japan by the United States as a condition for ending the US military occupation of Japan following the end of World War II . It

SECTION 60

#1732854802299

4402-474: Was killed. After this violent June 15th Incident ( 六・一五事件 , Roku-ichi-go jiken ) , pressure mounted on Kishi to cancel Eisenhower's visit. Kishi hoped to secure the streets for Eisenhower's visit by calling out the Japan Self Defense Forces and tens of thousands of right-wing thugs that would be provided by his friend, the yakuza -affiliated right-wing "fixer" Yoshio Kodama . However, he

4473-692: Was no longer possible to compete without government subsidies, which were scheduled to be discontinued from 2001. Mitsui there decided to terminate operations. After the mine closed, the Miyahara Pit ruins and the Manda Pit were designated as National Important Cultural Properties in 1998 and as National Historic Sites in 2000. The chimney of the Miyaura Pit Ruins and the former Mikawa Electric Railway substation were registered as National Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 2000. The Miike mine

4544-515: Was picked up in a black car by US Ambassador to Japan Douglas MacArthur II (the nephew of the famous general ), who deliberately provoked an international incident by ordering that the car be driven into a large crowd of protesters. The protesters surrounded the car, cracking its windows, smashing its tail lights, and rocking it back and forth for more than an hour while standing on its roof, chanting anti-American slogans and singing protest songs. Ultimately, MacArthur and Hagerty had to be rescued by

4615-525: Was seen as more sympathetic to labor unions, and dispatched Ishida to negotiate a solution. With both the business world and the labor movement having become exhausted by the lengthy battle, Ishida was successful in getting both sides to submit to binding arbitration by the Central Labour Relations Commission (CLRC). The miners calculated that they had showed their determination, and that they could always go on strike again, and thus that

4686-528: Was signed on September 8, 1951, along with the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty , formally ending World War II in Asia. The Security Treaty went into effect on April 28, 1952, in tandem with the end of the occupation of Japan. The original Security Treaty had no specified end date or means of abrogation, allowed US forces stationed in Japan to be used for any purpose without prior consultation with

4757-466: Was succeeded as prime minister by Hayato Ikeda , who took a much more conciliatory stance toward the political opposition, indefinitely shelved Kishi's plans to revise the Japanese Constitution , and announced the Income Doubling Plan to redirect the nation's energies away from contentious political struggles and toward a nationwide drive for rapid economic growth. The anti-American aspect of

4828-531: Was suspended due to ingress of spring water. The mine was acquired by Mitsu in 1972, and coal production was resumed in 1976, with a shaft connecting the Ariake Mine with the Miike Mine completed in 1977. 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

4899-411: Was talked out of these extreme measures by his cabinet, and thereafter had no choice but to cancel Eisenhower's visit and take responsibility for the chaos by announcing his own resignation on June 16. On June 17, newspapers across the nation, which had previously supported the protestors in their struggle to oust Kishi, issued a joint editorial condemning violence on both sides and calling for an end to

4970-496: Was the largest coal mine in Japan, located in the area of the city of Ōmuta , Fukuoka and Arao , Kumamoto , Japan . In 1960, it was the setting for the " Miike Struggle ," which was the largest management-labor dispute in Japanese history. In 2015, it was registered as one of the assets of the UNESCO Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining World Heritage Site . Coal

5041-511: Was the subject of a Japanese documentary, Echoes from the Miike Mine (2006), directed by Hiroko Kumagai. In 2015, the Miike Coal Mine, Miike Coal Mine Railway (some sections of which are currently used as the Mitsui Chemicals Railway) and Miike Port (opened in 1908, lock facilities, Daikongo Maru, a steam-powered crane ship that was used during port construction, former Nagasaki Customs Miike Branch Office), were designated as part of

#298701