Tomoko and Mother in the Bath

The black-and-white photo depicts a mother cradling her severely deformed, naked daughter in a traditional Japanese bathroom.

Upon publication the photo became world-famous, significantly raising the international profile of Minamata disease and the struggle of the victims for recognition and compensation.

[3] Tomoko's parents allowed Smith to photograph their daughter's body, in the hope that it might draw attention to the plight of similar families in Minamata and other pollution victims all over the world.

Ryoko Kamimura was keen for the photograph to portray her daughter in a sympathetic manner and actively collaborated with Smith to stage the perfect shot.

Jim Hughes, (a biographer) said of Smith, "Although he wanted a photograph that would clearly show Tomoko's deformed body, Gene told me it was Ryoko Uemura, the mother, who suggested the bathing chamber".

[4] The photograph was finally taken on a chilly afternoon in December 1971, with Ryoko, Tomoko, Smith and his wife Aileen all cramped into the small bathing room.

Some local people (who relied on the polluting Chisso Corporation for their livelihoods) were fiercely opposed to the Minamata disease victims' struggle for compensation.

"I do not think," Yoshio Kamimura stated, "that anybody outside our family can begin to imagine how unbearable the persistent rumors made our daily lives...