Molokai History:
(From “The Separating Sickness: Ma’i Ho’oka’awale: Interviews with Exiled Leprosy Patients at Kalaupapa, Hawaii” by Ted Gugelyk and Milton Bloombaum, Ma’i Ho’oka’awale Foundation, Honolulu, HI, 1979)
Female, Japanese
Disfigured, Blind
70 years of age
40 years at Kalaupapa
Akerameru
My family had many problems after I got the disease. To help them, I keep away from my family members. I don’t go out and I don’t mix. They have a family business and I don’t want to hurt them in any way. So I keep away. I go out of Kalaupapa one time a year. I see my daughter at Hale Mohalu only. I never go to the family home. They would be disgraced.
Today, I think about my illness, my life, and I feel very sad for my family. I feel shame, and I feel bitterness also; but I accept it. In Japanese, we say, “akerameru” (I accept my fate).
Let me say something more, I don’t want to be sent from Kalaupapa to some old age home. This is my home. I don’t want to be mingled, mixed with non-leprosy people. These are my people. I am old, blind, crippled, and helpless. Let me stay here forever.
Blessings, Pule & Pono,
Fr. Brian, ss.cc.
Priest
Molokai Topside