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The Leprosy Colony in Molokai Hawaii

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Posted by: Phin Upham

In the article “Before There Was Paradise,” John Tayman writes about the forgotten history of the island of Molokai. According to the article, for a little over 100 years the government used the island as a place to send people who had leprosy. It describes the reasons why the Hawaiian and American governments would send more than 8,000 people to a remote place like Molokai. They thought leprosy was extremely contagious, isolation was the only way to control the disease, and that the people they sent there were doomed to die anyway. However, the governments were wrong on all three counts.

The article describes the story of the way people were sent to the island to live in brutal conditions. Over the years many writers, celebrity sightseers, and other people visited the island to witness the small community in person. The article goes into Hawaii’s struggle to dispel the reputation of being an island of horrors. Jack London had a small part to play in that, although it was World War II that eventually turned it into paradise.

Read the entire article: http://www.cntraveler.com/features/2005/11/Before-There-Was-Paradise