Government Reform (1880s-1969)
During their respective reigns, King Kalakaua and Queen Lili'uokalani made provisions to improve the lives of the patients. However, American imperialism prompted Hawai'i's annexation, resulting in stricter regulations concerning segregation. By the early twentieth century, this implementation of an American government solidified, leading to better living conditions and proper medical care. In 1969, newfound knowledge about treatment options for leprosy signaled the end of medical segregation.
Statistics courtesy of O.A. Bushnell's article "The United States Leprosy Investigation Station at [Kalaupapa]."
|
"The election of David Kalakaua to the throne in 1874 created an upsurge of Hawaiian nationalism. Once again, Hawaiians blamed the foreigners for having brought about the decrease of their race through the introduction of diseases. At this time, leprosy was regarded as one of the major factors in the continued decrease of the Hawaiian population. Because of the large number of Hawaiians afflicted with the disease and the emotions aroused by the segregation laws, leprosy could not escape being a political issue." "The Board of Health leprosy budget at the height of the epidemic late in the nineteenth century represented about five percent of the kingdom's total budget. Leprosy was even a consideration in the annexation of the islands by the United States in 1898." |
"The government has a responsibility to protect the public...During the monarchial period, especially early in the colony's establishment, the government did not provide adequate health care or provisions (i.e. food, shelter, clothing). However, during the monarchial period the government was more tolerant of having kokuas (helpers who didn't have the disease, often spouses or other family members) live in the settlement to assist."
-Historian and Kapi'olani Community College Professor Colette Higgins, in a personal interview (Mar. 27, 2014)
"Kalaupapa Hawai'i Leprosy Historical Chronology"
1881: "Lili'uokalani visits Kalaupapa in September."
"[Queen Kapi'olani, King Kalakaua's wife] asked the state of [the patients'] health and how they fared. The replies in general of the stircken people to the Queen's inquiry was "pilikia," the Hawaiian word that means hardship and suffering. The Queen seeing with her own eyes the poverty, squalor and squalid bare conditions of the homes of some of her people, was visibly affected, and her only comment heard of the scene she was witnessing was 'Kaumaha nohoi' (deep sorrow)." "[Increase] the food and clothing allowances, [improve] the water supply, [provide] a resident physician and assistant, [obtain] Sisters of Mercy, [enlarge] the hospital, [provide] an ambulance to transport those who had disabilities, and [provide] other wagons to deliver food.” "Having seen the situation facing her people...[Lili'uokalani] is instrumental in establishing the Kaka'ako branch Hospital...for the treatment of persons with leprosy." |
Photos courtesy of Hawai'is Story by Hawai'i's Queen, Lili'uokalani.
|
1883: "Emissaries of the King and Queen write letters of appeal to the heads of more than 50 convents in the U.S. and Canada in search of 'hospital sisters'...Only one positive response is received-from Mother Marianne Cope."
"What little good we can do in the world to help and comfort the suffering, we wish to do it quietly and so far as possible, unnoticed and unknown." "Shortly after the turn of the century, the situation at Kalaupapa greatly improved and the 1900s saw Kalaupapa become the greatest leprosy treatment facility in the world. It was a place where society's outcasts were treated with respect, love, and dignity...It is doubtful that this state of affairs would have transpired had Mother Marianne not been at Kalaupapa...At that time, the steady hand and heart of this unassumingly great woman helped keep the settlement from drifting aimlessly and lawlessly into a state of confusion and limbo." |
Photo courtesy of the IDEA Archives and the Hansen's Disease Medical Examination Photograph Collection from the Hawai'i State Archives.
|
1887: "King Kalakaua is forced to sign the "Bayonet Constitution...the number of people sent to Kalaupapa [increases.]""In 1886, only 41 people were sent to Kalaupapa. During the first six months of 1887, only 10 people were sent to Kalaupapa. However, on...July 6, 1887...members of the Hawaiian League, a group of planters and businessmen, predominantly Protestant, brought a new constitution to King Kalakaua which he was forced to sign. Less than two weeks after the Bayonet Constitution was forced on the King, 31 people were sent...within six months, 210 more people had been sent...in 1888, the number of people sent to Kalaupapa jumped drastically to 558, which represented the largest number of people ever sent to Kalaupapa in one year. By 1890, the number of individuals affected by leprosy at Kalaupapa hit a peak of 1,213." "[This] year also saw the beginning of a political revolution between those who wanted to see Hawai'i annexed by the United States and those who wanted Hawai'i to retain her independence...during the beginning of this revolution, the government made extensive changes in the personnel of the Board of Health and reinstituted a stricter enforcement of the segregation laws. Once again, the 'welfare of the nation' took precedence over the rights of the individual." |
Table courtesy of Pennie Moblo's "Defamation by Disease: Leprosy, Myth and ideology in Nineteenth Century Hawai'i" (May 1996).
Photo courtesy of the Hawai'i State Archives.
|
1888: "Without the approval of the king, the Hawaiian legislature passes the Act to Facilitate the Segregation of Lepers.""As the Board made more stringent rules, community resistance grew and for the first time in years people were running away. There were three escapes reported in the first year of the new administration...three more were reported before the end of 1888." |
Personal photo of "An Act to Facilitate the Segregation of Lepers."
|
1893: "Queen Lili'uokalani...is deposed and a 'Provisional Government' is established.""The monarch was overthrown and a provisional government formed...The 1893 'revolution' was the culmination of a gradual growth of Western influence over the government of the monarchy...nearly everyone convicted (diagnosed) of the crime of leprosy was a native Hawaiian — 97% of the exiles during the first 20 years...this disparity — set in the context of nineteenth-century Western concepts of the nature of 'race' — provides the racial vector of the episode." "With the institution of the provisional government...public health officials hoped to create a legal apparatus that would assist them in their efforts to curtail behavior they considered conducive to the spread of leprosy within the islands." |
Photo courtesy of the Bishop Museum.
|
1894: "The Republic of Hawai'i is established.""On July 4, 1894, the Republic of Hawai'i was established with Sanford B. Dole, a former advisor to Queen Lili'uokalani, as its first president and William O. Smith as Attorney General. Four months later, a notice was posted at Kalaupapa stating that all remaining kama'aina (natives) must leave within two months or face possible confiscation of their land...an important chapter in the history of Kalaupapa, in the history of the care and support given by the kama'aina, the original residents of Kalaupapa, to those who had leprosy, was brought to an end." |
Photo courtesy of the Hawai'i State Archives.
|
1898: "Hawai'i is annexed by the United States.""Spurred by the nationalism aroused by the Spanish-American War, the United States annexed Hawaii in 1898 at the urging of President William McKinley...Racial attitudes and party politics in the United States deferred statehood until a bipartisan compromise linked Hawaii’s status to Alaska, and both became states in 1959." "The Hawaiian language was banned from schools after the Annexation of Hawaii by the United States and thus the voices of at least 90% of the people sent to Kalaupapa were further isolated from the historical record." |
Photo courtesy of Honolulu Advertiser (Jul. 6, 2002).
|
1899: "Father Damien dies [of leprosy].""I myself have been chosen by Divine Providence as a victim to this loathsome disease. I hope to be eternally thankful to God for his favor; as it seems to me that this disease may shorten a life, and even make more direct, my road to our dear fatherland." |
Photo courtesy of the Damien Museum.
|
1901: "Bayview Home for aged and helpless opens at Kalaupapa."
"A home exclusively for Hawaiians, to be known as the new Bay View home, is to be erected...a $25,000 appropriation, set aside by the 1913 legislature...is to be used for this, and an additional $12,000 likely will be appropriated by the present legislature to be used in completing this institution or in building other edifices." |
Photo courtesy of Wayne Levin.
|
1905: "Dr. William J. Goodhue and John D. McVeigh assume the positions of Resident Physician and Superintendent of Kalaupapa.""Dr. Goodhue, the pioneer of leprosy surgery, is a hero who should receive every medal that every individual and every country has ever awarded for courage and life-saving." |
Photos courtesy of the Hawai'i State Department of Health and Anwei Skinsnes Law's Collection.
|
1905: "U.S. Congress passes a bill...for the establishment of a hospital and laboratory at [Kalaupapa.]""In an attempt to reduce the dependence on local government, the Board of Health...devised a plan to interest federal authorities in the islands' leprosy problem...U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt recommended construction in Hawai'i of a hospital and laboratory for the study of leprosy, and on March 3, 1905, Congress passed legislation appropriating $100,000 for these facilities and $50,000 for operations during their first year...it was the first time that Congress authorized a hospital for research on a specific disease." |
Photo courtesy of Wayne Levin.
|
1905: "A home for leprous women and girls is repaired by the Charles Reed Bishop Trust."
"As for the girls in the Bishop Home, of the many beautiful things I have been privileged to see in life, they, and what has been done for them, are not the least beautiful...The dormitories were airy, the beds neatly made; at every bed-head was a trophy of Christmas cards, pictures and photographs." |
Photo courtesy of the Damien Museum.
|
1909: "U.S. Leprosy Investigation Station established."
"The U.S. Leprosy Investigation Station had two goals: to aid in the treatment of leprosy and to undertake scientific research. It failed miserably in the first. The patients were curious and in awe of the beautiful hospital built in their midst, but few of them wanted to exchange their life of relative freedom at the settlement for a life of confinement and experimentation at the station." "A number of distinguished scientists were drawn to this institution, where they conducted important studies in epidemiology, methods of transmission, treatment, and cultivation of the leprosy bacillus on artificial media." |
Photo courtesy of Anwei Skinsnes Law's collection.
|
1919: "[Development]...of chaulmoogra oil as a remedy for leprosy."
"The most significant work that emanated from the investigation Station..was the development by 1919 of an improved form of chaulmoogra oil...[which] was administered orally or by injection...for the first time in the history of leprosy in Hawai'i, physicians and patients alike felt that there was, at last, a cure for the disease." |
Photo courtesy of the Damien Museum.
|
1930s: "Governor Lawrence Judd undertakes ambitious construction and rehabilitation projects."
"Fifteen new outhouses have been built and additions built on some of the outhouses occupied by lepers in the district. One hundred and fifty-one lepers are housed in the Bishop home, Baldwin home, [or] Bayview home." "Whereas in the early 1920s there had been talk of abandoning the settlement, in 1932 it was almost entirely rebuilt. The physical improvements to the buildings were needed and appreciated, but at the same time, they signaled to the patients that there was little chance they would be able to leave." |
Photo courtesy of the Bishop Museum.
|
1946: "Sulfone drugs introduced in Hawai'i for the treatment of leprosy."
"Discovery of the sulfone drugs as a cure for leprosy in the early 1940s and their introduction to Hawai'i in 1946 heralded another era of hope for patients at the settlement...the new medication brought physical changes practically overnight, and as their health improved, patients were increasingly able to participate in sports and other activities." "Although they began to feel more like 'normal human beings.' there were still constant reminders that they were 'patients.' The settlement was filled with physical barriers between patients and non-patients. Fences separated visitors from patients at the visitors' quarters. Rows of potted plants separated patients from non-patients on the dance floor, and rules and regulations separated patients from non patients after working hours...It was done to make the public feel safe with little regard for how it made the patients feel." |
Photos courtesy of Emmett Cahill's Yesterday at Kalaupapa (1990) and the collection of the Hawai'i State Department of Health (1932).
|
1947: "Former Governor Judd promotes social activities and adult education classes for Kalaupapa inhabitants such as Boy and Girl Scouts, Lion's Club, and American Legion."
"By providing structured activities and instigating a general cleanup of the grounds, Judd attempted to eradicate habits he considered disruptive and unhealthy and replace them with wholesome pastimes that engaged patients in the community and elevated their spirits." |
Photos courtesy of the IDEA Archives, Emmett Cahill's Yesterday at Kalaupapa (1990), and the Hawai'i State Archives..
|
1950s: "Medical drug treatments prove successful as leprosy epidemic is no longer contagious."
"As a result of the sulfone antibiotics, patients lived longer. Consequently, the Board of Health set a policy that no new patients be sent to Kalaupapa except at its request." "In 1960, the reorganization act which abolished the Board of Health created the Department of Health...the Department's powers have augmented considerably since 1959 with the passage of legislation relating to industrial hygiene, chronic renal disease, mental health services, infectious and communicable diseases, and the inspection of food, drugs and cosmetics." |
Statistical graphs courtesy of the International Journal of Leprosy and other Mycobacterial Diseases.
|
Photos courtesy of the Pictorial History of Kalaupapa from the Hawai'i Medical Journal (Feb. 1988).
1969: "Hawai'i Department of Health ends policy of segregation."
"Dr. Robert Worth showed in a 1968 article that patients on sulfone drugs were not contagious...it was only as a result of [the review of Hawai'i'is Hansen's disease program] that the legislature finally acted in 1969 to repeal the law and end the enforced segregation of Hansen's Disease patients." "Leprosy patients are given promise of a new way of life...The leprosy patient should from this day forward be nothing more than an average citizen with a disease that needs medical treatment and possibly a brief hospitalization. But he should no longer be an outcast, no longer a leper, no longer a scourge. His life should be no more abnormal than that of any other pill-taker." "At this time, many of the patients realized that they needed to have a voice in their lives, lives that were no longer dominated by a disease but by society's ignorance of it. They proceeded to become involved in political struggles and public education efforts that sought to reaffirm their humanity and the fact that they had a real contribution to make in the treatment and ultimate eradication of the disease." |
Photo courtesy of the Pictorial History of Kalaupapa from the Hawai'i Medical Journal (Feb. 1988).
Table courtesy of Charles Langlas, Ka'ohulani McGuire, and Sonia Juvik's "Kalaupapa 2002-2005: A Summary Report of the Kalaupapa Ethnographic Project" (2008).
|
Timeline events courtesy of "Remembering Kalaupapa" and Ka 'Ohana O Kalaupapa's "The History of Leprosy/Hansen's Disease in Hawai'i" (2014).