Losheng Sanatorium

Losheng Sanatorium(Chinese: 樂生療養院; pinyin: lèshēng liáoyǎngyuàn) is a hospital for lepers, which is located in Hsinchuang City, Taipei County, Taiwan. Losheng means "Happy life". It was constructed in the 1930s during the colonial Japanese period.

There has been heated debate, and protests, in the 21st century about plans to replace the site with an MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) development. These are ongoing as of April 2007.^[1]

History

Losheng, named Rakusei Sanatorium for Lepers of Governor-General of Taiwan Taiwan Sōtokufu Raibyō Rakuseiin (臺灣總督府癩病療養樂生院) originally, was built in 1929 during Japanese colonial period and served as an isolation hospital for leprosy patients at that time. The Japanese government forced leprosy patients to live in this hospital. The first 5 buildings can house more than 100 patients.

During the 1930s, this hospital was the only public sanatorium for leprosy patients in Taiwan and also the first leprosy hospital in Taiwan, designed for the quarantine and treatment of lepers. With the force of sanitary police and medical officers, the investigation, quarantine, and imprisonment of lepers were conducted thoroughly in the period from 1934 till the end of colonial governance of Japan. As a result, Losheng Sanatorium became the institution of compulsory quarantine as well as life-long imprisonment for the leprosy patients. Thousands have been quarantined for life^[1]. Patients with leprosy are no longer confined for life, but many have grown used the way of life and feel they would face discrimination or isolation if they left.^[2].

Debates

In 1994, Taipei Rapid Transit System planned to build a depot on the site where now the Sanatorium is. Chen Jing-Chuan, (陳京川) the ex-director of Losheng was opposed to this decision, and did three surveys among the patients to see what they thought and needed, shortly before he got demoted and reprimanded. Ever since then, the patients had no access to the MRT construction plans and its related discussions.^{[citation needed]}

Fight for preservation

In 2001, due to the construction of Hsinchuang Line, the government planned to transform Losheng to a community hospital, thus put an end to its dedicated hospitalization and care for leprosy patients. Many students, urban planners and NGO tried to protect this sanatorium ever since then.^{[citation needed]}

In 2002, the new housing projects, Huei Long Hospital (迴龍醫院) was initiated, but instead of ‘houses’ which were earlier promised to the patients, the new director gave them two tall buildings with modern hospital facilities. It became clear that the new administration team intended to run a hospital business and make money. The skyscraper-ish hospital buildings were designed mainly for housing short-term patients; therefore it has inadequate space for residents to move around freely. Moreover, the hospital management team forbids the patients from bringing with them personal belongings, from cooking, and from coming over to the front building, which policy is nothing less than discriminative.^{[citation needed]}

Long before the depot construction was initiated, Loshen’s ex-director and history professionals have demanded a large-scale inspection of Losheng’s position as a historical site. The scholars appealed to the MRT Department that they should spare the Losheng Sanatorium, while they unanimously agreed the entire site should be preserved. However, the officials unilaterally terminated the process of inspection, and decided the Sanatorium should be torn down entirely.^{[citation needed]}

It was not until 2004, when Prof. John K.C. Liu (劉可強) came up with a symbiosis plan, and when the Council for Cultural Affairs has deemed the Sanatorium a historical spot, that the MRT Department was pressured to rethink the possibilities of preservation.^{[citation needed]}

Reasons for preservation

People who claimed that the Losheng Sanatorium should be preserved have raised the following issues:

The MRT depot was originally planned to be built Yingpan (營盤) near Fu Jen Catholic University (FJU, 天主教輔仁大學), and FJU station should be terminal station. That's why the number of that station is O1, meaning "first station of Orange Line".

But the plan was altered by local politicians. It has been asserted that this is wrong for the following reasons^{[citation needed]}:

Waste of money: 3/5 of the depot site needs to be built on flatland; therefore $90 million (USD) will be spent on flatting and improving the soil.
Disaster for the environment: What comes after flatting the mountains is a ten-story-tall retaining wall, which destroys the natural environment.
Safety concern: the future depot will be situated upon earth faults.
Ravaged historical site: the Losheng Sanatorium is an important cultural asset for people in East Asia. The depot construction will turn all this treasure into dust.
Ordeal for patients: the patients are forced to leave the place they spent their lives, suffering mentally and physically from the displacement.
Autocratic decision-making: the MRT Department never inquired the needs of Losheng patients--the ‘residents’ of the site—which is a violation of fundamental human rights.

Futhermore, they argued that the Losheng Sanatorium should be an accredited World Heritagesite for it has witnessed the inhumane treatment (such as discrimination and compulsory quarantine) inflicted on the lepers, who had undergone 70 years of governmental oppression.

Doubts for the 90% plan

In the press release issued by the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA, 文建會) in Jan. 23, 2007, it was mentioned: “according to recent news, some local representatives and organizations in Taipei City and Taipei County claimed that the 90% Losheng preservation plan proposed by CCA will severely delay the MRT construction. Hereby CCA reiterates that the 90% preservation plan, evaluated by Hsin-Lu cooperation, will lengthen the construction period for about four months, and appends a three billion budget to it. It is not true to say the MRT construction will be delayed for two to three years.” It is untrue for the media and Department of Taipei Rapid Transit System (DORTS, Taipei) to say that the 90% preservation plan will delay the construction of MRT for two to three years and result in a two to three hundred billion NTD (approx. 760 million USD) increase in budget.^{[citation needed]}

Protests

March 11, 2007

The activists held a sit-in protest in front of Premier Su Tseng-chang's (蘇貞昌) house, and demanded to negotiate with the Premier himself. The protestors, consisting of students and remaining Losheng patients, were later forced by the police into buses and immediately transported to suburban mountainous areas around Taipei City, and were ordered not to return to the scene that day.

March 16, 2007

There were scuffles as the authorities attempted to post a notice announcing a deadline for residents to leave the complex. There were four arrests, and claims by the organisers of unnecessary violence against protesters.^[2]

April 15, 2007

A protest march of thousands of people from all over the country took place in Taipei on the day which had been announced for the eviction of the remaining 45 residents of the Sanatorium. Hsu Po-jen (許博任) of the the Youth Alliance for Losheng was reported as saying that more than 100 civic groups took part.^[1]

Appeals

The Taipei County Government has issued an official order that Losheng should be torn down no later than April 16, 2007.

Image gallery

Whole sanatorium is on the hill
Convenience Shop
Dormitory
"Keep Losheng completely"

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Loa Iok-sin (2007-04-16). "Thousands back saving Losheng Sanatorium". Taipei Times. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
^ ^a ^b "Protesters arrested at sanatorium". The China Post. 2007-03-17. Retrieved 2007-05-02.

External links

Losheng Nakasi

http://blog.yam.com/lsynakasi

Videos about Losheng "(痲瘋共和國的美麗與哀愁)"

http://www.im.tv/vlog/Personal/334088/1306073

[tt2003356820-1] Loa Iok-sin (2007-04-16). "Thousands back saving Losheng Sanatorium". Taipei Times. Retrieved 2007-05-02.

[cp104814-2] "Protesters arrested at sanatorium". The China Post. 2007-03-17. Retrieved 2007-05-02.

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