By TORU AMEMIYA/ Staff Writer
February 13, 2023 at 07:10 JST
A prison cell at National Sanitarium Nagashima Aiseien had a barred window, a low and narrow doorway and a horizontal loophole through which meals were likely inserted. (Photo taken by Cho Kun Je, provided by the National Hansen’s Disease Museum)
OKAYAMA—Newly found photographs of scribbles on prison cell walls at a sanitarium could shed light on the plight of leprosy patients who were locked up for attempting to escape or causing disturbances.
About 300 photos also show the exterior of the cells, barred windows, low and narrow doorways, toilets and horizontal loopholes through which meals were likely inserted.
They were taken by photographer Cho Kun Je (1933-1997) at National Sanitarium Nagashima Aiseien, likely in the 1970s. He visited leprosy sanitariums across the country from the 1960s to early 1980s to document the lives of segregated patients.
“(The photos are) first-class materials that provide an opportunity to learn about the structure of the facility and the feelings of the detained patients,” said Tomohisa Tamura, a curator at the Nagashima Aiseien historical museum. “We need to find the best way to preserve and restore the remains of the prison.
The prison was constructed when the sanitarium, the first of its kind in Japan, opened on Nagashima island in the Seto Inland Sea in 1930.
The prison had eight solitary cells, each measuring four-and-a-half “tatami” mats, or about 7.4 square meters.
At the time, the sanitarium director could detain patients in the cells without formal trials.
Records show that 158 people were locked in the cells between 1946 and 1950.
The patients were held in harsh conditions, restricted from bathing, eating and drinking and even denied medical treatment, according to accounts by patients.
The prison was shut down in 1953 before work began in the 1960s to cover the facility with earth and sand.
In the photos, many of the patients’ scribbles on the walls are fragmentary and incomprehensible.
But the family names of Kensuke Mitsuda (1876-1964), the first director of Nagashima Aiseien, and other senior sanitarium officials at the time were seen on one wall.
Not far from the names was the Japanese word for “complete idiot,” an apparent reference to Mitsuda, an authority on leprology who promoted the policy of segregating patients.
The same wall featured part of a well-known tanka poem composed to comfort patients by Empress Teimei, the mother of Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa.
The original tanka goes to the effect: “Make friends with (the patients) and comfort them on behalf of me/ As it is difficult for me to visit them.”
It is not clear if the poem was inscribed to seek compassion from the empress or if it was meant as sarcasm against Mitsuda and other sanitarium administrators.
Squares and kanji numerals left on the walls are believed to have been counters for the days in lockup.
The negatives of the photos were donated by Cho’s bereaved family to the National Hansen’s Disease Museum in Tokyo, where they have been kept from public viewing, except for a few special exhibitions.
Members of the nonprofit organization Hansen’s Disease Sanatoria World Heritage Promotion Council asked the museum for cooperation. It found about 300 photos showing the interior and other parts of the prison facility.
NPO members studied the area by conducting a drilling survey in 2021 and announced in spring last year they found remains of the prison structure still underground.
But they couldn’t figure out the scribbles on the walls at the time.
The prison was used to prevent patients from fleeing and to maintain order at the congested sanitarium.
At 12 other national sanitariums for leprosy patients around the country, similar confinement facilities were mostly destroyed.
The remains of Nagashima Aiseien’s prison are believed to have retained the conditions of the facility 70 years ago when it was abolished because it was buried without being demolished.
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