Tracing Japan's modern history of war and Hansen's Disease reveals that war strengthened the isolation of Leprosy patients and further exacerbated the damage caused by isolation. This museum talk will examine the postwar movements of residents at what is now Okinawa Airakuen which suffered particularly severe damage among all the leprosy sanatoriums in the country, as well as the position of children and former military service patients in Leprosy sanatorium during the war. Over the course of three lectures, we will explore Issues related to leprosy through the realities of war, which have not received enough attention until now. Please join us.

1st　※Finished
"The Battle of Okinawa and Airakuen: The people of Airakuen who reconstructed the family registers that had been burned down"
You can watch the recording of the day on YouTube.

[Lecturer] Yoko Suzuki (curator of Okinawa Airakuen Center)
[Date and Time] Sunday, November 30, 2025, 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
[Capacity] Advance registration required. Capacity 130 people (first come, first served)

In Okinawa, where fierce ground battles took place, family registers were lost except on the outlying islands. The re-creation of these family registers began in earnest in 1954 under US military rule. However, some residents of Airakuen were excluded from family register declarations by their families, and some did not re-create their family registers out of consideration for their families. The re-creation of family registers for residents of the facility was completed after the "reversion." We will look at what residents of the facility wanted from their family registers through their daily lives.

Right image: The destroyed Kunigami Airakuen (now Okinawa Airakuen, photographed in July 1945, owned by the Okinawa Public Archives)

2nd session　※Finished
War and Children in Leprosy sanatorium
You can watch the recording of the day on YouTube.

[Lecturer] Naoko Nishiura (Curator The National Hansen's Disease Museum)
[Date and Time] Sunday, December 14, 2025, 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM

Children who were placed in sanatoriums during the war had to endure hunger, hard labor, and the resulting progression of symptoms and disabilities, with no hope of recovery. How did children try to survive in sanatoriums where even adult residents struggled to find food? We explore this through surviving literature and photographs.

Right image: Children at Nozomigaoka (Nagashima-Aiseien), 1940, provided by Nagashima-Aiseien History Museum

3rd　※Finished
The song was written by a soldierleprosy (lie)"
You can watch the recording of the day on YouTube.

[Lecturer] Gen Yoshikuni (Curator The National Hansen's Disease Museum)
[Date and Time] Sunday, January 18, 2026, 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM

Leprosy patients had served in the military were known as "military lepers" and were forced to enter Leprosy sanatorium during and after the war. This lecture will explore the knowledge gained through The National Hansen's Disease Museum 's gallery exhibition "80 Years After the War - War and Hansen's Disease" (now closed), and will primarily focus on tanka poems by Tachibana Seiichiro (Oku-Komyoen) and Masaishi Mo (Oshimaseishoen). We will trace the thoughts embodied in each poem and consider what the experience of "military lepers" means in the context of Issues related to leprosy.

(Image center) From the frontispiece of "Mizunoo Masasekimon Poetry Collection" (Seisho Poets Association, 2010)
Right image) Masashige Sekimou's "Randoryu" (Seisho Poets Association, 1964)

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