A public school for elementary and junior high school students was completed on the site of the only prison for Hansen's disease patients in Koshi City, Kumamoto Prefecture, and a stone monument was set up near the school gate to pray for the elimination of discrimination against ex-patients.
The former Kikuchi Medical Prison was established in 1953 as part of the Hansen's disease patient isolation policy, and was closed in 1996 as the only prison dedicated to Hansen's disease patients in the country.
Koshi Kaede no Mori Elementary School and Junior High School were completed on the site including the site of the building, and a stone monument was set up next to the school gate to write down the history of the prison and hope to eliminate discrimination against ex-patients.
At the unveiling ceremony, Yasushi Shimura, chairman of the Kikuchi Keifuen Autonomous Society, said, "I hope this school will become a model school for human rights education."
The completed school building is a three-story reinforced concrete building with many atriums and glass doors, giving it a feeling of openness. From this spring, a total of about 900 elementary and junior high school students will attend.
At the school, we are working on human rights education, such as providing opportunities for interaction with residents of the adjacent Kikuchi Keifuen.