**Transcription below:**

**Makiko Kondo. Oshima Seisho-en: Life Review of Aging Japanese Hansen's Disease Survivors - Deeply Deeply Closing Our Eyes in Order to See What We Truly Should See. USA: Orizon Research Publishing; 2019**

**Chapter 3: The Story of Hansen's Disease Survivor Takahisa Yamamoto (Listener: Mikako Yamaberi)**

**I. Troubled times**

**1. From contracting the disease until arrival at the sanatorium**

**1) Contracted the disease during junior high school under the old system (7th–11th grades); hospitalized at university hospital; returned to hometown to continue school**

**-Contracted the disease in 9th grade; diagnosed with macular leprosy at university hospital**

Yamamoto: I contracted the disease at the end of 9th grade. Once 9th grade ended, I immediately submitted a request for a leave of absence from school and was examined at the Kyoto University Hospital. I was told, "There's no mistake, this is macular leprosy." When I asked, "do you have inpatient facilities," I was told they did. Instead of returning home, I assembled the items I would need as an inpatient from a rental bedding store and was admitted to the hospital immediately.

Listener: Wasn't Kyoto University Hospital where Dr. Noboru Ogasawara was, who opposed forced quarantining?

Yamamoto: Yes, Dr. Ogasawara was there, although I did not have much direct contact with him.

#### **-Hospitalization for one year at the university hospital; return to hometown and to schooling**

So, I was hospitalized at the university hospital. Since my condition did not change after more than a year had passed, and because I was young and hospital life was boring, I decided to return home. At the time of my return, the doctor said to me, "You must be careful. You won't be able to have peace of mind without being careful for 3–5 years, so even if you go home you will have to go to the hospital again. If you don't want to come here, send money for the medicine and we will send it to you."

By the time I was back home, the educational system reform had changed the schools. The school that I commuted to by train had been incorporated into a high school built in my local area. A teacher from that school came to invite me to enroll, saying "How about resuming your education? You can come back at any time without having to take a test." I entered that new high school.

**2) Disease worsens; prepare to enter the sanatorium**

**-Money for medicine spent for fun; new macules; it was too late, there was no choice but to enter the sanatorium**

I started school, but instead of sending the medicine money from my parents to Kyoto, I had a fun life with my friends. I had just one red macule [as one of the initial symptoms of Hansen's disease, white or reddish-brown, flat or slightly raised spots called macules appear on the skin and are not characteristically painful or itchy] on my thigh, but then one appeared on my face too, and I thought, "Ah, now it's all over."

I made up my mind. I learned enough information while I was at the hospital that I realized that I had no choice but to enter the sanatorium.

**261**

it for me.

*Spirituality and Hansen's Disease: Spirituality' Conceptual Structure and Hansen's Disease...*

**3) Overcame parental opposition and decided to enter the sanatorium -Parents said the staff would have no patience for me, and if I go to the** 

But my parents opposed this and said, "Even if you go to the sanatorium they will have no patience for you there." At the time, the general public had strong judgments about macular leprosy, so I was told, "If you run away there and then come back you will shame the family and we will no longer be able to live here. If you go,

**-Full of despair that my life was over; was indecisive for one year before** 

complete despair. I believed all my hopes and dreams had been extinguished.

persuaded my parents and came here myself. That was April 1, 1952.

**4) Surprise at the beauty of the sea around Ōshima**

**5) Hard to determine how to shirk patient labor**

**especially slipshod and let things take their own course**

by boiling. After this was over, we helped the nurses clean.

and really letting things take their own course.

Listener: What kind of work was it?

**-How to shirk patient labor**

**children living off the island**

ask people like that to cover my work.

**did not worry about criticism**

Before I went, I was filled with indecision, had no desire to study, and was in just

I thought that my life was over no matter what I did, and it did not matter when I entered the sanatorium since I had no future anyway. I'd just be kept alive until I die like a cow or a pig. I milled about with indecision for nearly a year, but in the end, I

**-Surprise at the beauty of the sea around Ōshima; people from mountain** 

**-Difficult living here; was given a lot of slack in my upbringing so I was** 

When I came here, I thought that it would be a poor place for human habitation. My strongest impression when I arrived was surprise at how beautiful the ocean scenery was, since I was from a mountain village and had never known the sea.

I strongly felt that it was a lot of trouble to live here, at least at that time. Before I came here, I lived comparatively free, as you could say that I was given a lot of slack in my upbringing, so my lifestyle here was inevitably much too negligent. What I understood from others here was that I did not do a single thing; this is because I did not feel like doing anything and so I slacked off every day, living a haphazard life

When I arrived, patient labor was waiting for me. I was immediately given my

Yamamoto: It was called outpatient treatment assistance and involved things like wrapping bandages and giving injections after the nurses had changed wound dressings. In the injection room, we had to sharpen the needles and sterilize them

The work was easy, but the hygiene was poor. I got out of most difficult work, like attendant work or nursing work at the sick ward, because I had other people do

**-My work was covered by a patient working fervently to support his wife and** 

**-Poor reputation; pushing around adults despite being young and energetic;** 

Listener: Were there people who immediately would do the work for you? Yamamoto: There were. Unlike me, who had no work experience and came straight from student life, there were people there who were married but their household was not yet on firm footing. They had children and so even though the wages were meager, they would work double or triple shifts to send money back to their wives. This kind of person would even take on unpleasant work, and I would

share of work, but all I could think about was how to shirk my duties.

**sanatorium I had better prepare to run away and never come back**

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92735*

be prepared to never come back."

**entering the sanatorium**

**villages do not know the sea**

*Spirituality and Hansen's Disease: Spirituality' Conceptual Structure and Hansen's Disease... DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92735*
