"The Colony": Horrific history of the lepers in Hawaii

"The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai"
by John Tayman
Scribner, 432 pp., $27.50

"The Colony," a tale of alienation and neglect, has its roots in the infamous leprosy colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Author John Tayman uses a journalistic approach to trace the 1866 formation of an encampment of 13, its growth to more than 1,000 residents, its designation as a National Historic Site in 1988 and its evolution into a tourist attraction today.

The front end of this book is meticulously researched and footnoted. Tayman underlines how little physicians knew about leprosy as a disease and how to treat it. A high-level Hawaiian health official asserted that it was a late stage of syphilis. Early Hawaiians believed it was a punishment from the gods. Treatment was often as bad as the disease. In one case a child had his affected hand plunged into boiling water.

Descriptions of leprosy's onslaught are graphic, such as this one given in 1866 by Dr. Edward Hoffman, an Oahu health official: "Cartilage in the nose collapsed. Eyelids, lips and chin distended enormously and the whole face has a horrid appearance. ... The skin becomes gangrenous leaving the muscles bare."

Although leprosy was once believed to be highly contagious, it is not. Most who get it have a gene that makes them susceptible to the disease. Still, bounty hunters rounded up suspected victims, and with little examination and no diagnosing medical test, they were exiled.

The early days of the Molokai colony were simply horrific. Sick people were abandoned there with little food or housing and left to fend for themselves until they died. No medical care was provided. Some food was shipped to the island but the state expected the exiles to grow their own. Thus, "treated like a leper" came to mean banishment and neglect.

The outside world's view of the exiles changed with the coming of Catholic priest Father Damien. He dedicated his life to caring for the exiles and their souls. Damien's notoriety brought attention, help and money to the plight of leprosy patients. In recounting this saga, however, Tayman does not effectively portray its heroes and saints. Damien is left as a one-dimensional character.

More personal stories of the early colonists would also have helped this telling. But by the end of "The Colony," Tayman's story does come alive, as we meet real victims of the disease and feel their struggle and hunger for acceptance. Twelve-year-old Makia Malo was diagnosed and sent to join his brother and sister on Molokai in 1947. He was left blind by leprosy before drugs arrested the disease. Still, he was able to attend and graduate from the University of Hawaii and marry.

Today, Hansen's disease, as it is now called, can be cured in as little as three months with the correct drug therapy. Extinguishing the stigma of leprosy will take more time.

Ginny Merdes is a part-time resident of the Hawaiian island of Kauai.