Nagashima Aiseien Sanatorium

National Sanatorium Nagashima Aiseien
Geography
Location 6539 Mushiake, Oku-machi, Setouchi, Okayama, Japan
Organisation
Care system Healthcare for those who had leprosy
Hospital type National hospital run by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan)
Services
History
Founded 1930
Links
Website http://www.hosp.go.jp/~aiseien/
Lists Hospitals in Japan

The Nagashima Aiseien Sanatorium (国立療養所長島愛生園), or the National Sanatorium Nagashima Aiseien, is a sanatorium on the island of Nagashima in Setouchi, Okayama, Japan founded in 1930 for the treatment of leprosy. Currently, only former leprosy patients reside there.

History

Background

In 1927, members of Japan's Lower House presented a bill stating that the present prefectural leprosy sanatoriums were insufficient and that the government needed to establish national sanatoriums. When the bill was passed, it was decided that the first national sanatorium would be built on an island, following the recommendations of leprologist and director of the Tokyo's Tama Zenshoen Sanatorium Kensuke Mitsuda.

Nagashima riot

Background

Kensuke Mitsuda was so zealous about eliminating leprosy that he admitted more patients than the sanatorium could reasonably accommodate. In July 1936, the number of patients admitted was 1,163 while its real capacity was 890. Because of the overcrowding, its food and housing conditions deteriorated.

Riot

On August 10, 1936, four patients were caught trying to escape the sanitorium. This led to an atmosphere of unrest, and on August 13, Mitsuda called a meeting of the patients and warned them against misconduct. Dining hour was thus delayed, and in the middle of the night, patients gathered and got excited; demonstrations took place, with some people refusing to do their assigned work. The unrest had to be controlled by special policemen, and some patients were used to spy on other patients.

Negotiations

After 10 days of heated negotiations with officials from the Interior Ministry, the Police Department of Okayama Prefecture, the Special Police Section and Mitsuda, the patients were permitted to form Jichikai (a patients' association), a kind of self-governing organization. Patients later divided into pro-Mitsuda and anti-Mitsuda factions.

Oku-Nagashima Ohashi Bridge

On May 9, 1988, the mainland and the islands of Nagashima Aiseien and Oku Komyoen were joined upon completion of the Oku-Nagashima-Ohashi Bridge. The bridge was planned and built not by the Ministry of Construction but by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. There are records that show that patients had been advocating for a bridge since 1968, presumably after they realised that improvements in bridge construction and engineering such as the Five Bridges of Amakusa in 1966, made such bridges possible.[1] Lobbying was restarted in 1972, and the Oku-Nagashima-Ohashi Bridge was completed in 1988.

Timeline

Number of patients

Year
[2]		 Number of
in-patients
1945 1478
1950 1496
1955 1701
1960 1675
1965 1509
1970 1326
1975 1167
1980 1073
1985 955
1990 841
1995 685
1999 590
Year
[3]		 Number of
in-patients
2003 488
2004 457
2005 432
2006 405
2007 379
2008 360
2009 336

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Akatsukino Shiokaze (1998) Nagashima Aiseien Nyuuensha Jichikaishi. p.75, Oku-machi.
  2. ↑ http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~libell/4ryouyousyo.html2009,12,23. Retrieved December 23, 2009. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ↑ http://www.hansen-okayama.jp/topics/pdf/kousou_aiseien.pdf

References

Coordinates: 34°40′49″N 134°14′51″E / 34.68028°N 134.24750°E / 34.68028; 134.24750

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/9/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.