Nurses who collapsed at the port of withdrawal at the forefront of infection risk, both now and in the past May 6, 16:38
Huis Ten Bosch, located in Sasebo City, Nagasaki Prefecture, is a gorgeous theme park where seasonal flowers bloom in the streets of the Netherlands.
In February, a memorial to a female nurse who died 74 years ago was erected on the banks of a quiet harbor four kilometers away.
Why was it built now?
(Nagasaki Broadcasting Station Sasebo Branch Reporter Sota Uehara)
Where the theme parks are located Over 70 years ago
The photo above shows the current state of Huis Ten Bosch, and the photo below is the same place just after the end of the war, more than 70 years ago.
The former Sasebo Repatriation Relief Bureau of the Ministry of Health and Welfare was set up and it was a dormitory that accepted repatriated people from overseas.
Prior to reaching the dormitory, the repatriates stepped on their homeland at Uragashira Port, four kilometers northwest.
The number of people withdrawn from Uragashira Port has reached 1.39 million in the five years since 1945.
It is 22% of the total 6.29 million Japanese salvageers.
Among them are Tokiko Kato, a singer born in the former Manchuria, Fujio Akatsuka, a manga artist, and Hisaya Morishige, an actor.
A nurse who died at the age of 22
In February, a brand new memorial monument was erected on the banks of Uragashira Port.
The memorial is engraved with the name of Yaeko Ide, a nurse who died at the age of 22.
Yaeko died 74 years ago in 1947, when the repatriates were rushing in.
In the memorial service held in March the following year, Yaeko's younger brother Eizo Ide (79) spoke in tears.
Mr. Ide
"I'm really sorry, Yaeko-nee. I should have visited early, but I've been late until now. From now on, I'll think of the memorial monument as my sister and snuggle up to it."
The trigger was
Why was the memorial monument built 74 years after his death?
The opportunity was last June.
While Eizo was organizing his home in Nagasaki, he found a photo of his sister Yaeko wearing a nurse cap.
Eizo was the seventh of nine siblings, and Yaeko was the eldest daughter.
Eizo has never heard from his parents or siblings why his sister, who was only 22 years old, died when he was five.
He found a photo of his sister and said that he had a strong question.
Eizo Ide
"I had no idea what my sister was like or where she died. It made me want to know the real image of my sister."
Eizo contacted the Nagasaki Chapter of the President of the Red Cross of Japan.
This is because the nurse cap that Yaeko wore in the photo was from the Red Cross.
Then, Eizo found surprising materials one after another in the data room of the Nagasaki Chapter of the President of the Red Cross of Japan.
"December 13, 1945 Temporary Relief Team Staff Toshite (Urato, Sasebo City) Dispatched to the Temporary Relief Station of the JRCS Nagasaki Branch"
The list immediately after the end of the war recorded that Mr. Yaeko had been dispatched to the relief team of the quarantine station set up at Uragashira Port, which was flooded with salvageers at the end of the year of the end of the war.
"Relief nurse Yaeko Ide, November 21, 1945, intestinal chibusnite hospitalization treatment no effect Naku, January 12, 1952, finally died"
The work report of the "relief team" to which Yaeko belonged said that about a year after Yaeko started working at the quarantine station, she suffered from an infectious disease, typhoid fever, and died about two months after the infection.
Eizo Ide
"I was surprised because I didn't expect to have died of an infectious disease in Uragashira. I think my sister was regrettable because she died unknowingly without being reported in the newspaper."
Infectious diseases rushed with the withdrawal
What was the situation at the quarantine station and withdrawal at that time?
First of all, Uragashira, where Mr. Yaeko was, was busy accepting and responding to 930,000 repatriates during the year of 1946.
Local history records that cholera, typhus, malaria, and smallpox infectious diseases have spread one after another as the number of withdrawals has increased.
Six months after Yaeko came to Uragashira, cholera patients continued to appear, and the "Cholera Countermeasures Headquarters" was also set up.
In the worst of times, cholera killed 148 people a month.
It has been pointed out that one of the causes of the infectious disease epidemic was that some repatriates were forced to live in groups in unsanitary camps in Southeast Asia and southern China.
On the other hand, the GHQ = Allied Forces General Headquarters, which occupied and ruled Japan, ordered the Japanese government to carry out strict quarantine in order to prevent the influx of infectious diseases into the country at the water's edge.
Crawford F. Sams, a military doctor who was the director of public health and welfare at GHQ, talks about the relationship between salvageers and infectious diseases in his memoirs.
Crawford F. Sams
"People who returned to Japan from all over the world landed in the harbor and scattered throughout the country. Those who had been evacuated to the countryside tried to return to their urban homes. Burned. Those who remained in the city went to the countryside in search of food. Under these circumstances, the infectious disease was expected to spread like a wildfire. The infectious disease of concern actually occurred, 1945 8 By the time we arrived on the moon, it was already spreading rapidly. "
The harsh environment of the quarantine station
Strengthening quarantine at the withdrawal port, which was strictly ordered by GHQ during the postwar turmoil.
Medical workers at that time were forced to work hard.
The Uragashira Quarantine Station, where Mr. Yaeko was, has records such as "quarantine of 19,000 repatriated people a day" and "he was extremely busy with cholera quarantine."
It was the job of the relief team to which Mr. Yaeko belonged to deal with the patients who were found infected.
The harsh environment of Yaeko's relief team is described as follows.
"Always the
worst food situation, the worst food situation, the worst
work, the weighted Nishite, hunger, all the members of the group are malnourished. Tonarital"
(= The nurses of the relief team are forced to work hard and complain of hunger in the worst food situation. All were malnourished)
"Nurse's current work is insomnia, and he is insomnia." (= Nurse's work is insomnia, and he cannot give a little rest, and his health condition is poor. I was worried)
Professor Taro Yamamoto of the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, who is familiar with the history of infectious diseases, pointed out that the quarantine station that was set up could only have been able to isolate infected people due to lack of medicines and medical equipment in the postwar turmoil. To do.
Professor Yamamoto
"It is unprecedented in world history that nearly 10% of Japan's population after the end of the war withdraws from all over the world, and I think that the public health measures at the port of withdrawal were a large-scale operation. I think that the infection had spread in "3 dense" on the ship. At that time, there was no antibiotics, so the patients had to be isolated, and the medical staff had to bear the risk of infection themselves and thought that it was a devoted job. Masu "
"I was a really kind nurse."
In June of last year, Eizo Ide learned what had happened to his sister through the materials stored by the Nagasaki Chapter of the President of the Red Cross of Japan, and even after that, he continued to search for anyone who knew his sister in his lifetime.
As a result, in March, I was able to meet a female colleague of Mr. Yaeko.
Yuriko Yonekura from Nagasaki City is 96 years old.
Yaeko was two years older than her friend from high school and graduated from the same nursing school in Osaka, and was assigned to the same relief team in Urato.
What kind of person and how did Yaeko get infected with typhoid fever?
Mr. Yonekura traced the memories of those days and shared his thoughts.
Mr. Yonekura
"I remember sitting with Mr. Yaeko during the lunch break at the quarantine station. Mr. Yaeko was laughing with a laugh. He was a really kind nurse. I think I got infected because I was in contact with the patient more than anyone else. "
Eizo Ide
"I thought my sister wanted to work for others and help her. I was relieved to hear the episode during her lifetime and to know her gentle personality."
Medical professionals who are always working hard
Yaeko died after fighting an infectious disease at the salvage quarantine station.
Seventy-four years later, the new coronavirus has spread nationwide, forcing healthcare professionals to work hard and at the forefront of infection risk.
Mr. Ide
"I think that medical professionals are really working hard on the new coronavirus, and I want you to know that my sister used to work with exactly the same sense of mission."
Professor Yamamoto
"The story of one medical worker, Mr. Yaeko, can change the way we look at history, and the devoted act of an unnamed person is significant. The devoted medical act that has existed in history. Finding and remembering one by one is extremely important for modern society. "
In the news, the number of infected people and the number of deaths are widely reported every day due to the spread of infection in the 4th wave.
I tend to be fascinated by the daily "numbers".
However, I must never forget that there are medical professionals who are struggling at the forefront of infectious diseases at all times, and I strengthened my thoughts that I should use my imagination more.
Nagasaki Broadcasting Station
Sasebo Branch Reporter
Sota Uehara
Joined in 2018
After working as a police officer at the Nagasaki Station, he is
currently affiliated.