Ministry of Health and Welfare Sorokdo National Hospital Hansen’s Disease Museum

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When they heard the news about the nation's independence, inmates burnt the shrine and released people who were confined in the prison and the detention ward.

When the Japanese authority left Sorokdo, the island fell into disorder as a turf war between doctors and administrative staff went on over control of the hospital.

When doctors lost to administrative staff in a voting, they, with a view to take away the management control, peddled misinformation to patients’ representative Lee Jonggyu that 'administrative staff are trying to transport food and medicine off the island and it should be stopped.'

Being enraged at the news linked to their livelihood, patients protested in front of the entrance of the staff residence zone with sticks and shovels in their hands.

As things worsened, staff fired blanks. However, as many patients continued to rush in, they fired with live ammunition and some patients fell. Furious patients beat some staff members to death and tried to invade the staff residence zone, calling for transfer of management control to the patient council.

The two sides agreed to talk the next day. But the trick was that administrative staff asked for support to the police station of Goheung. On the day of negotiation, armed staff and security officers bound patients’ representatives and shot them to death. Also, they searched for remaining representatives and stabbed them to death with bamboo spears or shot them to death. Then, they put firewood in a sand trap in front of the main building of the hospital and burned the bodies. They also shot other representatives at sea who were returning from the mainland to transport food.

Due to the bloodshed, 84 out of 90 patients’ representatives lost their lives and only six survived.

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