Nagashima Aiseien Sanatorium (国立療養所長島愛生園), or the National Sanatorium Nagashima Aiseien, is a sanatorium for leprosy or ex-leprosy patients on the island of Nagashima in Setouchi, Okayama, Japan, which was founded in 1930.
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In 1927, members of the Lower House presented a paper stating that the present prefectural leprosy sanatoriums were insufficient, and that the Government should establish national sanatoriums. When the bill for this was passed, it was decided to build the first national sanatorium on an island, following the recommendation of Kensuke Mitsuda.
| Year | 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 | Number of in-patients |
|---|---|
| 2003 | 499 |
| 2004 | 471 |
| 2005 | 445 |
| 2006 | 424 |
| 2007 | 396 |
| 2008 | 369 |
Kensuke Mitsuda was so determined to eliminate leprosy that he admitted too many patients compared with the capacity of the sanatorium. In 1936, the number of patients admitted was 1163 in July, while the capacity was 890. Naturally, food and housing conditions deteriorated.
On August 10, 1936, four patients tried to escape and were caught and there was an atmosphere of unrest. On August 13, Mitsuda called a meeting of the patients and warned them against misconduct. This delayed the time of dining, and in the night the patients gathered and got excited, demonstrations took place and some people refused to do their assigned work. Some patients were used as spies and the unrest had to be controlled by special policemen.
After 10 days of heated negotiations with officials from the Interior Ministry, the Police Department of Okayama Prefecture, Special Police Section and Kensuke Mitsuda, the patients were permitted to form Jichikai (a patients' association), a kind of self-governing organization. However, later patients divided into pro-Mitsuda and anti-Mitsuda factions.
On May 9, 1988, the mainland and the island of Nagashima Aiseien and Oku Komyoen were joined when the Oku-Nagashima-Ohashi Bridge was completed. It is recorded that patients had been advocating for a bridge since 1968, presumably after they realised that improvements in bridge construction such as the "5 bridges of Amakusa" in 1966, made such a bridge possible.[2] Lobbying was repeated from 1972, and the bridge was completed in 1988. The bridge was planned and built, not by the Ministry of Construction but by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The completion of the bridge was a great joy to the residents of Nagashima and was a means of decreasing the stigma of leprosy.