Supplements to a history of Hansen's disease in Kumamoto

Abstract

Hansenites in Kumamoto could be traced to 1871, when a number of patients were found lining the road to Honmyoji temple. Earlier records have not been found. After the establishment of two private hospitals, first by an English missionary and then by a French Catholic, a public hospital, Kyushu Leprosarium, was started in 1909. In spite of the segregation policy for the management of HD patients, they lived near the Honmyoji temple until the arrest of 157 patients on July 9, 1940. Why they lived there for a long period of time is discussed in this paper. Factors might include the absence of prejudice around the Honmyoji temple where patients and healthy people lived together, economically favorable situations of patients living there, and bitterness of life in the Kyushu Leprosarium. The abolishment of the settlements as well as that of Kaishun Hospital for HD patients, run by an English missionary, might be in preparation for the coming war, but details have not been known.