The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai by John TaymanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a detailed an expansive history of the leper colony at Molokai covering over a century from the late 19th Century to the early 1990s. I had read about and had a clear idea of the sainted Fa. Damien whose selfless support of the inmates and deathbed photo brought international attention.
This also covers the pre-Damien days when the rude colony had patients and provisions thrown into the pier-less sea, suffered privation and the cruel supervision on an island nation with more than its share of leprosy and trying to shake the stigma of it. (The supposition that it was a haven for the fear inducing condition was a roadblock to integration into the United States.) Later, famous visitors like Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack London and more were appalled and inspired. With homemade masks, the inmates made a parade of "horribles" for London as he drew in the inspiration that would lead to reportage and fiction.
When Hansen's Disease was made manageable and the reasons for quarantine undercut, the closing and removal of the persons interred there was a cruel, heartless, and sudden as the establishment of that cruel institution. Detailed stories of key persons like Joseph Dutton, Catholic missionary who worked with Father Damien and took over for him after leaving the Trappists, and William Ragsdale, popular Hawaiian attorney and politician, who served as superintendent at Kalaupapa for four years (1874-1878), greatly personalize this history. Some memoirists are covered in detail like the too-typical stolen child and author of "Olivia: My Life of Exile in Kalaupapa:, Olivia R. Breitha.
Compelling stuff about man's inhumanity to man in the absence of science following a vaguely Biblical prescription.
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