Accession Number: 2009.24.16.1338-1341
Description: .1338: BW print; group of patients and staff posed at end of long row of neat stone and stucco buildings; staff wear white gowns, caps, and most wear surgical masks; patients wear traditional japanese kimonos, some wear dark glasses and hold canes; captioned "Blind lepers in Japan, Oct. 3, 1948, In commemoration of Dr. Stauffer's visit to Ai-sei-en, 1 National Leprosorium."; .1339: Men--and a few women--gathered on ground in front of trees along a stone lined path or roadway; some kneel behind others and massage their shoulders; many wear Japanese military caps (the Sen-bou); some have dark glasses; captioned "Blind lepers in the garden, giving the service of massage to each other at Komyo-en Leprosarium"; .1340: Men wearing traditional Japanese robes sit cross-legged on covered porch of building facing a man standing holding an open book; a cage with a bird rests on the edge of the porch; captioned "Blind lepers accepting the reading of the Bible at Komyo-en Leprosarium"; .1341: Dr. Milton Stauffer, in suit and dress shoes and holding his hat, leans into picture with four young girls playing in the water on a sandy beach; cottages visable in background; captioned "Uncontaminated children whose parents are residing in a separate set of bldgs away from their parents on Nugashima Island".
Medium: Photographic Paper
Date: ca. 1948
History/Provenance: From Wikipedia: "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." The Prefectural Oku-Komyo-En Sanatorium was opened at Nagashima Island, neighboring the Nagashima Aiseien Sanatorium in 1938.
Credit Line: AFB Migel Memorial Library Collection, 2009.24
Subjects: Bible Leprosy Massage Swimming
