- Even small children, if they were diagnosed with Hansen’s disease, had to enter a sanatorium.
- There were many children in the sanatoria. During the postwar years, there were no official schools within the sanatoria. It was the adult patients that looked after the studies of the children.
- Children worked hard to learn how to read because they wanted to write to their families and also to read letters from home.
- Yet, even after effective drugs for Hansen’s disease were made available, they were not permitted to go to school outside the sanatoria. The schools established in the sanatoria were recognized as a branch of the public school. It was here that the children were taught by teachers, who were dispatched from the public school, and the adult residents.
- Youth from across the country came to study at Oku High School Nirada Class which was established in 1955 within Nagashima Aisei-en Sanatorium in Okayama Prefecture. After graduation there were many who were reintegrated into society. But they had to hide the fact that they were former sanatorium residents for fear of discrimination.
