‘Kkokkomu’ conveyed the secret of human rights violations in Sorokdo, where Hansen's disease patients were forcibly isolated, evoking anger and tears over long-standing prejudice and discrimination.
The SBS entertainment program ‘The Story of That Day, Connecting Tails’ (hereafter ‘Kkokkomu’), aired on the 3rd, featured singer Chung Ha, actress Seo Young-hee, and actor Choi Won-young as listeners, with the theme ‘Stigma - The Island Where Children Cannot Be Born’.
The broadcast began with the story of Lee Nam-cheol, who was forcibly isolated in Sorokdo, located in Goheung-gun, Jeollanam-do, away from his parents because he had a history of Hansen's disease as an elementary school student. At that time, Sorokdo housed up to 6,000 residents, with staff and patients separated by barbed wire.
Patients lived in group settings under strict distance regulations from staff, enduring poor living conditions. When it came to marriage, men underwent sterilization surgery, known as ‘Danjong surgery’, while women had to undergo abortion if they became pregnant. Moreover, after death, their bodies were subjected to dissection.
As a result, people in Sorokdo expressed their despair, saying, “I want to die on the weekends when the staff are off.” However, by the 1970s, it was already established that Hansen's disease was not hereditary. Yet, the norms in Sorokdo did not change, and it remained a literal ‘concentration camp’.
Recalling that time, Lee Nam-cheol said, “I wondered if I had to live like this without being treated like a human.” Meanwhile, Jang In-sim, a victim of forced abortion, tearfully recalled her horrific past, saying, “I was dragged away like I was going to a slaughterhouse. They said a crow wouldn’t give birth to a crow.”
The fetuses that were forcibly aborted were placed in glass jars filled with formalin and turned into specimens, ultimately left unattended. Children born under the watchful eye of the staff were called ‘Mikama’, meaning ‘not yet infected’, and were forcibly admitted to the Sorokdo orphanage, separated from their parents. Seo Young-hee could not continue speaking, saying, “I can’t even imagine. My heart hurts so much.”
The conditions in the Sorokdo orphanage were dire, and the children suffered from hunger. The children in the orphanage had a meeting with their parents once a month. They were allowed to meet for one hour while maintaining a distance of 2 meters. This hour of weeping was referred to as ‘Sutan-jang’, meaning ‘The New Road of Weeping’.
When photos of them from that time were revealed, Seo Young-hee said, “It breaks my heart,” and Chung Ha sobbed, “I would want to run to them so much.” Jang Sung-kyu reported, “Some expressed it as ‘the child was taken away from the mother’.” When the children reached middle school age, they were forcibly transferred to Samyook Academy in Daegu, and due to being children of Hansen's disease patients, they continued to face hardships, including restrictions on parental visits.
It was revealed that the forced isolation of Hansen's disease patients in Korea began in 1916 during the Japanese colonial period, surprising many. The Japanese established a Hansen's disease treatment hospital called ‘Jahye Hospital’ in Sorokdo, but its purpose was more for isolation than treatment. The Japanese even forced labor on patients and extorted money for the construction of a statue of the hospital director. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, patients were mobilized for the production of military supplies, and after their deaths, they were dissected against their will.
However, even after liberation, nothing changed. The contagiousness of Hansen's disease is very low, and a treatment was developed in the 1940s, with most patients in Sorokdo being cured. Yet, dissections continued until the 1960s, forced isolation until the 1970s, and abortion surgeries until the late 1980s. Even sterilization surgeries were performed until 1992.
In contrast to Japan, which has already apologized to its Hansen's disease victims, Korea's victims only managed to win a Supreme Court ruling for state compensation in 2013. Jang Sung-kyu explained, “There are two things that do not exist in Sorokdo: one is children, and the other is graves,” stating that the deceased patients were cremated, and their remains were buried in a single urn. Chung Ha said, “I feel like I now understand Sorokdo. I am ashamed,” and Jang Sung-kyu expressed, “I hope that even now, they can have peaceful times,” leaving a lasting impression.
Following the broadcast, various online communities and social media reacted with comments such as, “The story of Sorokdo is so heartbreaking. I cried endlessly while watching,” “Thanks to Kkokkomu, I learned about Sorokdo. Kkokkomu is indeed precious,” “It’s so sad and infuriating that what they wanted was just ‘to be treated like humans’,” “A meaningful time to rethink discrimination,” and “Patients are people too, and they certainly have the right to live a dignified life.”
Meanwhile, ‘Kkokkomu’ is a program where three ‘storytellers’ share what they have learned and felt with their ‘story friends’ in the most ordinary spaces, one-on-one. It airs every Thursday at 10:20 PM.
[Lee Da-gyeom, Star Today Reporter]
