Miyako Nanseien Sanatorium, (National Sanatorium Miyako Nanseien) is a sanatorium for leprosy

Leprosy

Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...

 and ex-leprosy patients at Miyakojima-shi, Okinawa-ken, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 starting in 1931.

Background

Following the establishment of 5 prefectural sanatoriums in 1909, the treatment of patients in Okinawa Prefecture was inconsistent, because of the presence of resistance to the establishment of sanatoriums. On the Miyako Island, however, the resistance was relatively low.

Miyako Hoyoen and Miyako Sanatorium

• March 6, 1931: Okinawa Prefectural Miyako Hoyoen Sanatorium was opened.
• Oct 6, 1933: National (transient) Sanatorium Miyako Santorium.

Miyako Nanseien Sanatorium

• Jul 1, 1941: National Sanatorium Miyako Nanseien
• Mar 1945: Destroyed by air raids.
• Jan 1946: Under American
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
   rule.
• Apr 1, 1951: Ryukyu Government Sanatorium Miyako Nanseien.
• May 15, 1972: National Sanatorium Miyako Nanseien.
• Apr 1996: The 1953 Leprosy Prevention Law was abolished.
• Jul 1998: The trial for compensation started.
• May 11, 2001: The trial for compensation ruled that the previous Leprosy Prevention was unconstitutional.
• May 25, 2001: The trial for compensation was confirmed. The compensation of 8,000,000 yen to 14,000,000 yen was given to patients depending on the duration of unconstitutional periods.

Number of In-patients

• The number of in-patients is the sum of patients which changed not only by the newly diagnosed hospitalized and those who died among in-patients, by other factors such as the number of patients who escaped or were discharged, depending on the condition of the times. Recently they were encouraged to be discharged, but the long period of the segregation policy causing leprosy stigma might influence the number of those who went into the society.

  Year	Population
  1945	139
  1950	337
  1955	297
  1960	347
  1965	274
  1970	235
  1975	241
  1980	273
  1985	253
  1990	211
  1999	184

Year	Population
2003	131
2004	126
2005	117
2006	107
2007	98
2008	92

Miyako Nanseien and war

• Oct 10, 1944:The first air attack at Miyakojima.
• Mar 26, 1945: The second raid, and 1 patient was killed, and 4, or 5 wounded, who later died. Patients began to live in caves or other places.
• April 3, 1945: the sanatorium was completely destroyed.
• Aug 1945: the end of the World War II
  World War II
  World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
  
  .
• Sept 1945: Patients knew the end of war.
• In 1945, a total of 110 patients died, mostly of malaria
  Malaria
  Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
  
   and malnutrition
  Malnutrition
  Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
  
  .

Nusudogama (Pirates' cave)

• This is a stalactite
  Stalactite
  A stalactite , "to drip", and meaning "that which drips") is a type of speleothem that hangs from the ceiling of limestone caves. It is a type of dripstone...
  
   cave situated in the middle of a cliff some hundred meters from the sanatorium. Genroku Shimoji went to the cave escaping the air raids with several people. He was born in 1924.
  • "There was a big air raid. Airplanes attacked with machine-guns. I went to the Nusudogama, with a child and an old man. Every day people died, and the child and the old man, who was a principal of a school, died.　It was an awful task to bring his body to the sanatorium. I got malaria, but I was lucky since I was young. In September, I went out of the cave. All buildings had been burned down and we made small hatches with Adan trees. We planted vegetables and tapioca
    Tapioca
    Tapioca is a starch extracted Manihot esculenta. This species, native to the Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and most of the West Indies, is now cultivated worldwide and has many names, including cassava, manioc, aipim,...
    
    . Later, American soldiers presented food and clothes (Licenced agencies for relief in Asia)."

External links

• Miyako Nanseien Sanatorium in Japanese
• Miyako Nanseien Hp in Japanese