The walls crumble : the emancipation of persons affected by Hansen's disease in Japan

“To deny the basic human rights of someone who is ill is totally unconscionable. I believe that the fact that the Leprosy Prevention Law has, in the name of law, in fact made de facto prisoners of those who suffer from this disease by forcing their isolation in the name of ‘public welfare. In banishing a group of people from the rest of society, the law has condoned the way that society has both despised, ignored and discriminated against these people. This was not merely wrong, this indicated a conscious intent to cause harm. From both the social and ethical perspectives these are acts which cannot be permitted to continue or be forgotten. This book is an attempt to analyze what effect the Leprosy Prevention Law (through its several stages of amendments) has had on this country and how it was terminated.” -- From the Foreword, by Fujio Ohtani