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Why Did It Happen To Us Hawaiians?
A Chapter From
The Separating Sickness
Male, Hawaiian
Widowed
Age: 81
67 years at Kalaupapa
My wife passed away at Kalaupapa. We celebrated our fiftieth wedding
anniversary right here. She was a patient too. Like many of our
people, we married one another inside Kalaupapa. Me, I am eighty-one
now. Old man, eh? I have been confined since I was twelve. That
is when they first diagnosed the sickness in me. I have been in
hospitals for sixty-nine years--two years at Kalihi and sixty-seven
years at Kalaupapa.
Things are not too bad with me. I am disabled, but it could be
worse. I have no feeling in my hands and feet. My eyes are not
too good either. Also, I have kidney trouble. But for my age,
I'm OK.
They sent me to this place when I was fourteen years old. Like
the other patients, they caught me in school. The teacher knew
that I was what you call 'a contact.' You see, my ohana had leprosy
through my father. My father died from this sickness at the old
Kakaako Hospital in Honolulu. My brother died from this sickness
here at Kalaupapa. So they all figured I was 'a contact.' I think
they first found the sickness when they gave me the vaccinations
in school. The teacher told the doctor that my father had the
mai Pake, so I think she turned me in. People were so scrared
of this sickness. But I was lucky. Even though we had the disease
in our ohana, my family never rejected me. Many people lost their
families after they were sent here. That was real isolation then.
I think Chinese people were most scared of this disease, but the
Japanese and Hawaiians were too. Today, maybe people are not so
scared, but I know people still look at my hands when I go outside.
I think people still fear us,
especially the older ones. But some folks look at my crab hands
and think I had an accident. Plenty of us say that. What are you
going to say to one stranger? I am a leper? The ones who recognize
the signs of this sickness, those people shy away.
I don't believe you catch this disease from contact with leprosy
people. Plenty people lived together in the ohana whereonehad
it, and the rest never caught it. For instance, I know about one
case that happened right here in Kalaupapa, and there were plenty
like this one. There was one wife who loved her husband so very
much. He caught the leprosy sickness. She knew they would send
him away to Kalaupapa, so she wanted to catch it too. She loved
him so much that she used to rub herself with the pus from her
husband's leprosy sores. But she never caught it, no matter how
hard she tried. Finally they caught him and broke them apart.
They sent him to Kalaupapa. Later, the wife could not stand being
apart from her husband, so she volunteered to come to Kalaupapa
as a kokua (helper). That way, she stayed here with her husband
until he died. There were so many cases like that, so I don't
believe you catch the sickness from contact. That wife, she never
caught it. Plenty other kokuas never caught it either. But the
teacher turned me in. She thought I was a contact, and the law
said contacts must be turned in and examined.
The worst thing about being a leprosy patient is that they shove
you around like cattle. They take you here to die, and still they
push you around--like this problem at Hale Mohalu. First they
sent us to Kakaako, then to Kalihi, then to Kalaupapa, and now
up to Leahi. Of course, we do get good things too. The government
takes good care of me. I get my medical attention, my housing,
food, like that. Sometimes, though, I think I may leave this place
now that I am old. I think about my children and grandchildren,
moopunas, you know? - But maybe my family might be hurt if I get
too close to them. Maybe people will talk. Maybe patients should
live here with their own kind and not shame their families. But
I wish the Health Department would let us be. We have been sent
away enough. They move us from one place to another, against our
wishes.
I think Hale Mohalu is a good place for us. It's easy for family
to visit us there. W e have privacy and plenty of space. It is
like our home away from home in Honolulu. So close to shopping,
friends, and I think we get good care there too. The people in
Pearl City are used to us. The shopkeepers, they open their doors
for us. In the beginning, they were frightened of us, just like
other people. Maybe Leahi people will fear us, then we have to
go through the same thing all over again. We are too old for that.
No, I don't like Leahi. We have been shoved around all these years.
Maybe, this is one more time of being shoved around. Always the
same thing for us.
About my medicine--I never take it any more. Some other patients
feel the same way. The medicine for this illness is no good for
our kidneys. Me, I got well by myself. I think most people at
Kalaupapa die from taking the treat- ment. They don't die from
leprosy, but from the treatment! First, they gave us chaulmoogra
oil. That killed people. Maybe with these other drugs the same
thing happened. I think it's better not to take medicine. I don't
take anything, except some Vitamin C. This sulfone treatment gives
people kidney trouble, and they all die from that.
The worst thing about being in here is missing my children. I
have twelve children and they were all born inside. Nine of my
children lived. I delivered all of my own babies. They were all
born inside Kalaupapa. Twelve children I delivered. The first
few times, the midwife showed me how to do it. With the other
nine, I delivered them myself.
You know, the babies that were born inside here were not allowed
to stay with their parents. After the babies were born, the law
said they had to be taken away to the baby nursery in Kalaupapa.
They were afraid of the contact-- afraid the babies would catch
the disease from their parents. But some of my children, I will
tell you this, some of them I kept longer. Most times, the babies
were born in the night. We kept everyone quiet so the administrators
and nurses would not hear the baby being born. All my babies were
born in my own home, right here. After I delivered the babies,
we
were so happy. I called the young girl patients and they would
come running in the night to look at the newborn one. Everyone
was so happy to see baby children. And us, we were so proud of
our new babies, we had so much love. My babies stayed with me
that way, longer than the law said they could. But my children
never caught the sickness. We would try to keep the babies as
long as we could, but most times, we kept them only until morning.
Then we would carry them to the nursery. I didn't want any trouble
with the administrators, or with the Board of Health. So we gave
them up. That was the law. They allowed the children to live one
year inside Kalaupapa nursery. There we could see them only through
thick glass, but no can touch! Then after one year, they were
removed. They were either hanai by family members, or "issued"
out for adoption by the Board of Health.
It was so hard to give up your children like that, especially
to the Board of Health. Seven boys and five girls we had. But
three boys died in the nursery. They never took good care of them,
yet they would not let us care for our own children, even when
we knew they were sick. It was hard. You love them, and then they
are taken away, just like we were taken away. But the children
would never know us as parents. Well, I try to make the best I
can of this disease. I have to like this disease. I have to make
the best of it.
Tell me, why were there so many of us Hawaiians in here? Why did
so many Hawaiians die in here? Why did it have to be that way,
with us Hawaiians? Maybe when we were kids in school, maybe they
gave us the wrong medicine, the wrong vaccinations? They caught
me at vaccination time, like the others. Sometimes I think maybe
they wanted to get rid of the Hawaiians. The plantations wanted
our land, so they tried to get rid of us. I don't know. Our family
had land on Maui in Hana, and the plantation there tried to take
away our land. Who do I blame for this disease? I don't know.
But why us Hawaiians?
RETURN to "The Separating Sickness"
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