2023 Volume 46 Issue 2 Pages 13-23
People all over the world are forced to cope with unknown infectious diseases; as part of that process, patients and medical professionals treating them face prejudice and discrimination. This situation brings to mind that, historically, it was common practice to exclude leprosy patients.
A leprosy survivor, Mr. Yasuji Hirasawa was deprived of all rights to live as a human being because of his disease. However, he sought a way out through education and serves as a storyteller to promote the importance of human rights at nursing schools and local elementary and junior high schools.
The question addressed in this paper is, “What is the significance of using storytellers’ narratives as teaching materials and promoting human rights education?” To answer this question, the author will (1) examine the use of narratives as teaching materials and point out the direction that human rights education should take for improvement, (2) clarify the significance of using leprosy survivors’ narratives as teaching materials in the COVID-19 pandemic, and (3) shed light on the function and meaning of “silence” after storytelling in the classroom. We will explore these three issues from various perspectives to raise questions concerning human rights education, which tends to become merely a formality.
