Nagashima Aisei-en in Okayama is one of the 13 Hansen’s disease sanatoriums still in operation in Japan. Established in 1930 on an island as the first national institution, it became an isolation site as the disease was found to be contagious – although it was malnutrition and poor immune system that triggered the illness as the infectivity was quite low. Patients suffered horrendous discrimination and abuse as the illness attacked nerve system and loss of senses resulting in infection, blindness, mobility loss or deformity. Discrimination continued even after the cure was found in 1943 and the disease was eradicated in Japan. The (isolation) law issued in 1931 was finally removed as recently as 1996. Many lost family contacts and change their names, as the disease was misunderstood to be hereditary – even today half of the 159 Aisei-en residents do not use their real name for the fear of revealing their family origin.
Today the broken pier symbolizes heart-wrenching moments of the last farewell. Young children brought by their parents never saw their family again – the youngest on the record was 6 – a girl brought by her mother for the ‘summer holiday’ realised in a few days her mother was gone. The bridge built in 1988 connecting the main land was controvertial
Today nearly 20,000 people visit Aisei-en, and site tours can be organized with interpretation. In the museum residents’ voices are now being archived, as they become elderly and frail (average age 83). An 86 yo man says ‘I can say my life was not a waste if my story can help stop discrimination’. Memories of the place, atrocious, cruel and haunting they really are, must be kept alive to do justice for those whose life and dignity was taken away. The 2008 law promoting education and awareness is a start, and yesterday (16 Nov, 2018), a proposal at the national level was formalized to nominate the site as a significant cultural property, which will be a powerful step forward into such direction.
