2024 Volume 93 Issue 2 Pages 49-56
I first visited Nagashima in 1999, and in my involvement with the Hansen’s disease issue to this day, I have learnt that the history of human rights has been advanced by those who have fought for human rights under the wrong Hansen’s disease segregation policy of the state, and I had the valuable experience of visiting the Kalaupapa sanatoria in Hawaii, as well as in Korea and Taiwan, which were established during the Japanese colonial period.
I learned three important things from the Hansen’s disease issue; (1) the history of the victims who fought for human rights with human dignity under the state’s Hansen’s disease segregation policy; (2) the strength, kindness and richness of the victims’ hearts; and (3) in order to build a symbiotic society where the human rights of all people are respected and not discriminated against, it is important not to forget the inhuman facts that have taken place over the years under the wrong Hansen’s disease segregation policy and to fulfil our responsibility to pass on the story to the next generation, thereby making a step forward in the history of human rights in Japan.
