I’m glad to see this positive and important step toward resolution of this issue. It seems likely to bring healing to the victims and help the rest of us understand what they went through.
Actually, I’ve had the honor and pleasure of meeting some of the people involved in this struggle. I met Harumi Oku, the person standing in this picture, at a symposium held in 2015, at which I assisted with translation. Here’s a very brief summary of her experience as a family member, based on notes I received at the time:
Ms. Oku’s mother contracted Hansen’s disease (leprosy) and was forced to enter a sanatarium when she was 4 years old. Her father did not have leprosy but had a bad leg, which seems to have led to his forced internment as well. Young Harumi was put in Tatsuda Dormintory (Tatsuda Ryo), a special facility for the children of leprosy patients located in Kurokami, near Kumamoto University. At first, the children in this dormitory were not allowed to attend elementary school with other children. Later, the Kumamoto City Board of Education decided to allow them to attend the local school (Kurokami Shoggako) but this brought a vicious backlash from the local community. Local activists brought megaphones to yell hateful slogans (“Leper kids, stay away from our school!”) at the dormitory and its occupants.
Harumi’s father was able to arrange for her to go to Amami Oshima (an island in southern Kagoshima Prefecture, part of the Ryukyu Achipelago) in order to avoid the trouble in Kurokami. However, Harumi interpreted being sent away as abandonment. She had a hard time in Amami Oshima, being treated as either a burden or merely a source of labor by the family that took her in – not as a child to be cared for.
As you can see from even this brief account of Ms. Oku’s experience, family members of Hansen’s disease patients suffered terribly. Not only were they deprived of parents and loved ones – they themselves were, by association, treated as social pariahs. The government’s policies played a significant role in fostering such prejudice and discrimination, which is one reason that the government was found culpable in the latest court case.
– Kirk
