Funeral held for former leprosy patient who won compensation from Japan

Taipei, Dec. 9 (CNA) A funeral was held in Taoyuan on Saturday for Huang Chin-liang (黃金涼), a former Taiwanese leprosy patient who, in 2005, successfully sued the Japanese government for its mistreatment of leprosy patients in Taiwan.

The event to celebrate Huang, who died at the age of 95 and had advocated on behalf of 24 others in Taiwan, took place at the Losheng Sanatorium and Hospital run by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Known then as Losheng Sanatorium, the facility was built in 1930 during the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945) and served as an isolation hospital, as there was then no cure for the infectious disease.

Chang Hsin-lung (張鑫隆), a legal scholar who provided assistance in the case, said in a Facebook post that Huang and her younger brother and sister were diagnosed with Hansen's disease (leprosy) during the Japanese rule of Taiwan.

The text of Huang's speech at a Japanese court, provided by the non-governmental Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR), states that her family hid the three siblings to prevent them from being sent to the Losheng Sanatorium.

According to the World Health Organization, individuals with leprosy in Taiwan have had access to curative medication since 1983.

Japanese patients successfully sued the Japanese government in 2001 for how they were mistreated, but those from Taiwan and South Korea were not eligible.

Japanese human rights lawyers subsequently traveled to Taiwan to try and persuade those who had been forcibly isolated to file lawsuits. In 2005, Huang and Chen Shih-shih (陳石獅) were among those who did so on behalf of the 25 victims in Taiwan who were still alive.

In her oral arguments at the court recorded by the TAHR, Huang said she had been forcibly separated from loved ones.

She said she never knew she had human rights and that she had wanted to say to the Japanese government: "Please give me back my family! Please give me back my home! Please give me back my dream of becoming a teacher!"

Chang noted that Huang's childhood wish was to be a teacher, but that being sent to the Losheng Sanatorium at age 14 had put paid to that dream.

Despite marrying at the sanatorium, she had been unable to have children due to a compulsory sterilization policy. She previously said her biggest regret was that she and her siblings had been unable to have families.

Her testimony before the Tokyo District Court swayed the judge and led to the victory of the 25 plaintiffs who had been isolated at the Losheng Sanatorium.

Those from South Korea have also received reparations. Family members of victims in Japan won compensation in 2019.