Hannah Riddell

Hannah Riddell

By Ryo Isono

Introduction

Do you know leprosy? This is the one of infectious and skin diseases. In Meiji period, people considered leprosy to be a fatal disease, because there were no medicines for it. Moreover, this disease has bad effects to a patient’s skin and face. That’s why patients of this disease suffered from disease and discrimination because of their terrible looks and because there were no ways to treat it. However one woman who came from foreign country, England, contributed to help Japanese sufferers. This woman was Hannah Riddell.

Personal History

Riddell was born in London as ordinary family. When she was 20 years old, she established a private school with her mother to make money. At first, the management of school was good and she taught all subjects to students even though she was still twenty, but her mother died in 1886. After that the situation of management gradually went bad. Three years after death of her mother, her father also passed away, and moreover the school was bankrupted. Because of this she had no job, so she became missionary who belonged to one organization, CMS (Church Missionary Society).

When she was 35, she came to Kumamoto in Japan as a missionary. Then, five missionaries were sent to Japan and she was oldest woman of all of them. She saw patients of leprosy there for the first time. She was surprised at such terrible situation for patients. She had been interested in making new organization and was good at making relationship with people of upper class, so she decided to try to establish a hospital called Kaishun hospital for patients of leprosy. However she suffered from financial problem because England couldn't send monetary aid because of the Russo‐Japanese War. 

Nonetheless, she succeeded to change situation for the better thanks to a lot of gifts of money and support by upper class people such as Okuma and Shibusawa. She was fond of noble culture and upper class people, so she was able to get help from people who had power in Japan. Owing to this relationship with upper class, she got a chance to spread her idea by making speech in front of upper class and imperial family. She devoted her life to care for lepers.

Summary of discussion

I asked two discussion questions to my group member.

First question was “If you got a disease like leprosy, what do you think and do?” Most members said they wouldn’t want to be alive, if they had leprosy.

Second question was “If you were in her position, do you think you could behave like her and why?. Some of them said “Of course, I would do same thing like her”, and one of them also answered “if I were in strong position, I would help lepers, but in case I were ordinary person, I couldn’t.”. These answers made me know her greatness.

Reflection

I could learn new thing about hidden Japanese history through this presentation because I have never heard and seen the name of her and leprosy in class of high school and junior high school. I also didn’t know many people suffered from leprosy at that time. I feel it would be difficult for me to help other people by devoting my life to them, so she is a great person for me.


References

“Hannah Riddell”, (n.d.). In Wikipedia, accessed January, 2015 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Riddell

Social welfare service corporation Riddell Right Home HP, (n.d.). Riddell joshi [Ms Riddell], accessed January 2015
http://www.riddell-wright.com/history_riddell.php

Hannah Riddell

Hannah Riddell

By Shota Inoue

Life of Riddell

Hannah Riddell was a British woman who devoted her life to caring for patients of leprosy in Japan. When she was younger, she and her mother established private school, because they need money. The school sometimes succeeded, but in 1889 it went into bankruptcy. Then, her next job was as superintendent for the YMCA (Young Women’s Christian Association). In 1890, she was selected as missionary to Japan. At the same time, she heard about Japan from her friend. She got good impression of Japan. Therefore, she decided to go to Japan.

In 1891, she saw the leper at the Honmyoji temple in Kumatmoto. When she saw the leper begging for mercy (like “help me”), she made up her mind to devote her life to their care. She decided to establish Kaishun hospital. Then, she did donation work. But Japanese didn't know about her. She behaved like upper class and attended upper class party. She was also supported by British, in and 1895 Kaishun hospital was complete. Next she set the policy, but she was not doctor. She didn't know about leprosy and way of cure. At that time nobody also knew about that. She thought that the best way of cure for leprosy was sexual abstinence and to quarantine these patients in Kaishun hospital. Because she didn't like sexual relations, and her idea is that men and women didn't get along with each other.

In 1918 she established institute (lab) of leprosy in Kaishun hospital, thanks to a lot of donations. Plenty of famous persons donated to this hospital, because Riddell made efforts for helping leper. She gathered scholars and doctors to search and look for a remedy. She was sometimes greedy, but lepers had good impression of her, because although many people despised lepers, she interacted with them with a smile. After her death, the effort was continued by niece “Ada Hannah Wright”.

Summary of discussion

My questions were “If you were healthy person in this time, would you help the leper?” and “What do you think was the best kind of cure?”

My discussion member’s idea is to help them. It stands to reason that people should help them, because we are people. If you help the leper, you might be ignored by other healthy person. Most people are influenced by others but some people have a strong heart.

We don’t know about leprosy and medical science. Maybe we would try to do donation work and encourage to them. We would also establish medical facility. And then, we spread that the leprosy is safe.

The discussion is important for me, because member’s views were different from mine. I can soak up other information.



Reflection

I think Riddell was great person, because in this time most of people ignored and despised lepers, but she devoted her life to caring for them. Then, nobody knew whether this flu infected other people or not. In addition, Japan is not her hometown, but she helped them. Thanks to her efforts, all of Japanese minds was becoming better for medical treatment. Therefore, Japanese government attached importance to the medical treatment and supported medical facilities. Now Japan has good medical technologies.

References
“Hannah Riddell” Wikipedia, accessed July, 2014
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Riddell

“Hannah Riddell by Jingo Tamotsu”, accessed July, 2014
http://anglicanhistory.org/asia/jp/riddell1937/text.html

Hannah Riddell

Hannah Riddell

By Kana Suzuki

Hannah Riddell was a British woman who saved many Japanese patients. But her job was not a doctor. When she came to Japan, she was shocked by Japanese situation for a certain group of people.

She was born in 1855 in North London. She managed small private school with her mother. However, after her parents passed away, she went bankrupt. She joined Church Missionary Society to make her life again. So she came to Japan as a missionary in 1891. She stayed in Kumamoto with her co-workers. As well as her missionary work, she studied Japanese and taught English at local high school in Kumamoto.

In the same year she came to Japan, Riddell saw some people who were suffering from something in Honmyo temple. And they begged passers-by for alms. They were all Hansen’s disease (leprosy) patients. At that time, the patients of this disease were discriminated against and isolated because of their appearance (symptoms) such as a rash and 2 misunderstandings.

Hansen’s disease is curable now, however, it was considered to be incurable disease. And many people believed it was contagious disease. In fact, the possibility of infection is quite low. These misunderstandings also caused suffering for the patients.

In Europe, there had been patients of Hansen’s disease, and discrimination against them, in the Middle Ages. But in modern time, this situation had improved greatly. So Riddell was shocked by this difference of situation between Japan and Europe.

Riddell decided to help them. At first, she wrote a letter about what she saw and her desire to build hospital for the patients to YMCA, which organization she joined as headmistress. She also asked support to Church Missionary Society. But both of them replied “No”, because they thought it was impossible for a foreign woman to build hospital in Japan. Nonetheless, she never gave up. She also asked support to her friends in Liverpool. Her characteristics helped a lot: she was very active to make new relationship and contact with someone who has authority. She made relationships in Kumamoto. She sometimes held tea parties with professors of school and prefectural officers. She talked about strong wish to save the patients.

By her these efforts, Hannah could get agreement for her idea and support from some people of CMS. In 1985, she finally built Kaisyun (回春) hospital for the patients of Hansen’s disease. Kaisyun means “resurrection of hope” in English. She named from her thought and wish that although patients had felt much pain for a long time, now they could get back hope again.

Riddell and Kaisyun hospital still had the problem for managing and money. So she decided to write a letter to Okuma Shigenobu who was prime minister of Japan at that time. She explained about treatment of patient and how situation was bad. Next year, the meeting about relief for Hansen’s disease patient was held. It was the first time this problem was discussed as a national problem. From this time, Japanese support system has developed quickly.

Riddell came to Japan as a missionary, however, she saved the patients of Hansen’s disease not as a missionary. She saved them just as a foreign woman. So, we discussed about “if you find someone who was discriminated against or suffered from some kind of reason or disease when you were in foreign country, what would you do?” in my group. Our main opinion was we couldn't do anything for them because we wouldn’t know anything about their situation and rules in the country. And we are just a foreigner. It is difficult problem even now. Especially, in 1890s the visit to Japan of foreigners was more limited than now. So the position of foreign women was not so stable and they didn't have social power at that time. But Riddell was so brave and active person doing something new. These attitudes for Japanese serious situation changed one aspect of Japanese society and medical situation. However I don’t think every foreigner and even local people could behave like her. All we could do and need to do is to know about the country and situation well. It is true that we couldn't do anything if we don’t know anything about it. So I think we can begin help with knowing the situation.


References

Retrieved June 18 2014. Wikipedia

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8F%E3%83%B3%E3%83%8A%E3%83%BB%E3%83%AA%E3%83%87%E3%83%AB

Retrieved June 25 2014. Fukushi shinbun web

http://www.fukushishimbun.co.jp/topics/3416

http://www.fukushishimbun.co.jp/topics/3488

http://www.fukushishimbun.co.jp/topics/3529

http://www.fukushishimbun.co.jp/series02/3571

http://www.fukushishimbun.co.jp/topics/3682

http://www.fukushishimbun.co.jp/topics/3819

Picture

from http://riddell-wright.com/history_index.php

Hannah Riddell

Hannah Riddell

By Ayaka Kamoda

Hannah Riddell was born in London in 1855. Her father was sick, so she and her mother managed girl’s school instead of father. Although she was only 20, she taught all subjects. In 1886, her mother died, and also her father died soon after, so the school went bankrupt. After that she joined CMS (Church Missionary Society), and she was send to Japan when she was 35 as missionary. There, she saw Hansen’s patients, and she decided to support the building of a hospital for Hansen’s disease, even though she wasn’t doctor. It was called Kaishun hospital in Kumamoto, southern Japan. The reason why she took part in it was that she had read the bible. It says you should help people who are not helped by anybody.

It was hard for her to achieve her purpose because she was not Japanese and people did not try to understand Hansen’s disease, but she took action actively. To begin with she started fundraising campaign. She needed money, so she pressured a Zaibatsu [Editor's note: a large industrial conglomerate in prewar Japan, with influence over large parts of the economy] to support her, and she stayed in Karuizawa during summer to meet powerful person. As a result industrialist Eiichi Shibusawa and politician Shigenobu Ookuma decided to help her.

Secondly, she had a talented for publicity work, so she gave two lectures per a day. In addition, she tried to understand about Hansen's disease. At that time nobody knew that the chance of transmission was low between humans, especially adults. She also isolated them, but she respected patients. For example, they could wear clean clothes, and they were required to control sexual abstinence, so they could not marry. Many people might think it’s not reception, but they can go out if they did not want to be there, so it’s not obligation. Therefore she really wanted to help them, she did like that. In addition Shigenobu Ookuma suggested that Hannah should build another hospital in another place. As a result she built hospital for Hansen’s disease in Kusatu and Okinawa.

She stuck to her opinion, so she had many enemies in the organization. As a result she could not work with them. There is a definitive incident that shows this. It is that Jon Bishop and Hannah were on bad terms with each other, and finally Jon became mentally deranged in 1897. When he was moving to Hong Kong for medical treatment in 1900, he died on the ship. Henry Evington, who was enemy of Hannah, said that he died because of her. Therefore she had to work far from Kaishun Hospital. It was her obstacle, but she overcame it. She looked at it from a different angle, and she thought it is chance to do freely. She was active in the front more than before.

At that time Japanese had ignored Hansen's patients because they did not try to understand Hansen's disease. Riddell had a lot of enemies, and couldn’t speak Japanese. Moreover, she could have lived in London if she had gone back, but she stayed in Japan to help foreigners. Could you be as active as Hannah in foreign country?

Hannah Riddell

By Jaimie Natsuki

Hannah Riddell

Hannah Riddell was an English women who devoted her life to leprosy victims in Japan. Leprosy is a serious chronic disease which destroys the flesh and nerves. From 1907 to 1996 in Japan, leprosy victims had serious discrimination problems. For example, they were treated cruelly by people, government, and even by hospitals.

However, in 1895, Hannah Riddell made a hospital called “Kaisyun hospital” in Japan, and she made a great contribution to the Japanese policy of leprosy, but if she were not inflexible person, deepen people’s understanding of leprosy was not easy. In this paper, I will focus on the reasons why she came to Japan, her achievements, and the two sides of her character.

Hannah was born in 1855 in London, and her family were Christian. She and her mother managed a women's school, and even though she was only 20 years old at that time, she could teach all the subjects. Her parents were quite old and she had a brother’s little nephew and niece to bring up, because he died of pneumonia. Hannah had to work to live, and she had no choice except being a teacher.

When she came to Japan as a missionary, she met a little boy suffering from leprosy at Honmyou temple in Kumamoto, and that made her decide to take care of leprosy victims for her whole life.

In 1895, finally she was able to build her ideal hospital, “Kaisyun hospital”, but it was not so easy. She had to negotiate with many top class people, and solicit funds. She had a bad relationship with middle echelons, and because of her character, she made many enemies on the church organization committee, so she had to manage without their help. However, that made it easier to collect funds. In 1905, she held a nationwide conference and her proposal for a nonprofit hospital was accepted.

Also, she cared about the location and hospital name too. The location was peaceful, and had beautiful nature, and moreover it was easy to go to the city, but was not too close. The outside of house did not look like a hospital. The design was a mix of western and oriental style. Hannah did not want to get image of “revival” and “regenerate”, so she choose the name very carefully. In English, it means “Resurrection of Hope”, but in Japanese, her concept of “revival” and “regenerate” is well expressed in appropriate language.

Hannah believed that leprosy is a hereditary disease, and was convinced that men and women should live separately, even though in 1873, a doctor proved it is bacterial disease. Here is her opinion: “Leprosy victims should not live in the same house, and if it is possible, the house should be as far as possible, and the best way to avoid this disease is to ban a marriage in two generation. It might sound little bit hard, but still it is possible to learn the happiness and joy, and they will understand that they just do not have choice to get married.” She strongly believed the best way to avoid leprosy is to control passions and desires, but in fact, just keeping a clean and noble life was not helpful. Her knowledge was too scanty, even though she devoted her life to leprosy.

Some victims felt “Kaisyun hospital” is like a religious house because sometimes victims felt pleasure to become Christian. However, even though the hospital was like a religious house, it was overwhelming popular to enter, especially for serious cases.

To build up the medical treatment of leprosy took a long time, but following all of her efforts, in 1910, Japanese authorities recognized leprosy as a social problem. Nowadays Hannah’s opinion is accepted and respected from some Japanese top class people, and patients had their love and respect for her.


<References>

Boyd, J. (1995.11.16). Hannah Riddell: an English woman in Japan, Charles E. Tuttle Company.