The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) contain textual records, motion picture films, sound recordings, and photographs related to leprosy. The textual records refer to Japan, the Philippines, and Korea. The textual material is created by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, Public Health and Welfare Section. The records that relate to Japan refer to 1945-1951 and 1945-1953; and to the Ryukyus (Okinawa): 1945-1953 and 1952-1953. The material that refers to the Philippines deals with starvation of the Culion Leper Colony and Mistreatment of American and Chinese at the Leper Colony (1945-1946). The material that relates to Korea is from 1945-1953.

The textual records also include material relating to the use of Promin, Diasone, and Chaulmoogra (1946-1950) created by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, Economic and Scientific Section and Foreign Trade and Commerce Division. There are also records of the Leonard Wood Memorial (American Leprosy Foundation) Working Clinical Conference held in Japan (Jan-April 1952, 1945-1953). In addition, there are the records of the Kumamoto Leper Hospital (British) 1943-1951 and 1945-1951.

Motion picture films include “Living Conditions and Public Works in the US Virgin Island 1931-1943", created by the Government of the Virgin Islands; “Good News from the Mission Fields” (1934); a black and white, silent film titled “Africa Film Project; Song After Sorrow; the Story of Bibanga Leper Camp, A Cooperative Project of the American Presbyterian Congo Mission, the American Mission to Lepers, and the Belgian Colonial Government, 1939” both created by the Harmon Foundation; three films on the Leper Colony, Yagachi Shima, Okinawa, Ryukyu Island (1945) created by the Department of Defense, US Army (Office of the Chief Signal Officer, Army Pictorial Centre, Army Motion Picture Depository) (1965); and three of St Joseph’s Leprosarium, Bien Hoa Ab and Ben San, Vietnam, created the United States Air Force in 1965 and 1966. “Litany of Hope” – a silent, black and white film - relates the story of Han Ha-Wun, a Korean poet, suffering from leprosy from childhood, who, when cured assists in locating others who are suffering from the disease so that they can be treated. There is also a silent, unedited, black and white film “Relocation of Montagnard Villages” made by the Department of Defense showing the relocation of 9 000 villages in order to escape from the Vietcong. (This includes images of an American Serviceman giving treatment to “an old man with leprosy”.)

Sound recordings include “Leprosy Press Conference”, “Rehabilitating Leprosy Patients”, and “New Horizons; New Hope for Leprosy” disseminated by the United States Information Service (1969).

The photographs include photographic albums created by Ben Holland MD 1908-1939, a US Navy doctor who worked with leprosy patients in Samoa. There are two photographs from Hawaii of the Leper Settlement (1905, 1906); photographs of the Philippine Islands 1898-1935, ca 1907-1918 and of miscellaneous activities in the Philippine Islands (1900-1936); and of construction of Federal Buildings (1885-1954).

Entry made February 2002