An island leper colony established by Japanese colonialists 90 years ago will soon get its first bridge to the South Korean mainland -- sparking both hopes and fears among patients who once endured decades of isolation and maltreatment.
The 1,160m bridge from Sorok to the southwestern port of Nokdong is scheduled to open by the Korean Thanksgiving holiday on Sept. 25.
"I hope the bridge will help remove prejudices against Sorokdo [Sorok island] residents," National Sorokdo Hospital spokesman Kim Kwang-moon said.
Systematic abuses ended in the early 1960s and prejudices against lepers have largely disappeared.
"We used to keep the lepers away. Now I know they are not infectious, but I still feel uneasy about their ugly looks," said Jun Chun-rul, 58, owner of a five-story Nokdong motel overlooking the tranquil and beautiful island.
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a bacterial disease which can be cured with a sustained course of antibiotics, but can cause deformations if untreated.
For the first five decades after its foundation in 1916, the island was a prison camp for victims forcibly ferried to it from all over Korea.
Kim Myong-ho, 58, leader of 645 surviving lepers in seven villages on the island, gave the bridge a cautious welcome.
"If our predecessors -- some of whom drowned trying to escape -- could hear about it, they would rejoice," said Kim, who has spent 14 years on the island.
"But on the other hand, we are concerned about a reckless influx of outsiders disturbing peace and order," Kim said.
Visitors who come by ferry are currently banned from staying overnight and their access to the seven villages is restricted.
"Hopefully such restrictions will remain intact even after the bridge opens," Kim said, adding residents and authorities are discussing how to preserve peace and the environment.
For Park In-suk, 84, who has lived on Sorok since 1936, the project is a cause for concern.
"What if thieves sneak in here across the bridge?" she said in an interview in her one-room house.
She is almost blind and has lost both hands and both legs below the knees.
"With my flesh perishing, I just believe in going to heaven here," she said.
Japanese police forced Park to leave her home at the age of 13 and come to Sorok. The day she arrived, she wept for her lost family.
Worse was to come -- decades of meager food, insufficient treatment and gruelling labor, with patients forced to make bricks, weave straw bags or labor in construction.
Jang In-sim, 69, a former patient and tour guide at the island's museum, said brutalities escalated in 1940 when Masasue Suo became hospital director.
She said Suo practised forced labor, beatings and torture and erected a statue of himself on a hill to which patients were forced to bow every morning.
His tyranny ended two years later when one outraged patient, Lee Chun-sang, stabbed him to death. Lee was executed.
In contrast Zenkichi Hanai, hospital director from 1921 to 1929, allowed religious freedom and improved welfare, Jang said.
Patients built a memorial to Hanai that still stands.
Chang Ki-jin, 87, who was brought to Sorok in 1942, recalled being forced to labor from dawn to dusk.
One of his most horrifying memories was a two-week stay in prison after he refused to visit a Japanese shrine.
"They stripped me and beat me until I was unconscious," he said. "Then they sprayed cold water on me and beat me again."
Confinement and maltreatment continued after Korea's liberation from Japan in 1945 and up until 1963, Chang said.
"We were treated worse than beasts," he said.
Chang was allowed to marry in 1972 only after being sterilized, as the South Korean government maintained the practices of the Japanese.
The Japanese forced pregnant patients to have abortions. Post-war South Korean governments allowed them to give birth but took the babies away.
Belying its brutal past, the island has beautiful beaches and pine forests where deer roam. Hundreds of colonial-era red brick buildings, all built by lepers, are well preserved and some are still in use.
Seriously ill patients stay in the hospital under intensive care while others live in individual houses. All medical services, food and other daily necessities are free and 190 permanent hospital staff are stationed at Sorok.
"We do not call them patients and instead use `grandma' or `grandpa' to refer to them," said Chang Ki-ok, a chief nurse.
Behind the hospital is Central Park, which attracts hundreds of tourists daily with its gorgeous landscaping and plants.
"Healthy people did not lift a finger to construct this park. It was done by ailing lepers," Jang said.
None of the 645 sufferers on the island are infectious, but Chang Ki-jin said restaurants in Nokdong still turn him away.
Kim Myong-ho said some laundries in the town refuse to serve the lepers.
But the prejudices are slowly dying, especially among the young.
"I am not afraid at all because they are just like fathers or mothers to me," said Kim Jeong-eun, a 19-year old hospital volunteer.
When US budget carrier Southwest Airlines last week announced a new partnership with China Airlines, Southwest’s social media were filled with comments from travelers excited by the new opportunity to visit China. Of course, China Airlines is not based in China, but in Taiwan, and the new partnership connects Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with 30 cities across the US. At a time when China is increasing efforts on all fronts to falsely label Taiwan as “China” in all arenas, Taiwan does itself no favors by having its flagship carrier named China Airlines. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is eager to jump at
The muting of the line “I’m from Taiwan” (我台灣來欸), sung in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), during a performance at the closing ceremony of the World Masters Games in New Taipei City on May 31 has sparked a public outcry. The lyric from the well-known song All Eyes on Me (世界都看見) — originally written and performed by Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One (玖壹壹) — was muted twice, while the subtitles on the screen showed an alternate line, “we come here together” (阮作伙來欸), which was not sung. The song, performed at the ceremony by a cheerleading group, was the theme
Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised eyebrows recently when he declared the era of American unipolarity over. He described America’s unrivaled dominance of the international system as an anomaly that was created by the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. Now, he observed, the United States was returning to a more multipolar world where there are great powers in different parts of the planet. He pointed to China and Russia, as well as “rogue states like Iran and North Korea” as examples of countries the United States must contend with. This all begs the question:
In China, competition is fierce, and in many cases suppliers do not get paid on time. Rather than improving, the situation appears to be deteriorating. BYD Co, the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer by production volume, has gained notoriety for its harsh treatment of suppliers, raising concerns about the long-term sustainability. The case also highlights the decline of China’s business environment, and the growing risk of a cascading wave of corporate failures. BYD generally does not follow China’s Negotiable Instruments Law when settling payments with suppliers. Instead the company has created its own proprietary supply chain finance system called the “D-chain,” through which
RSS