Ever since I first arrived in Korea, I wanted to visit Sorokdo. This was because I had written a paper at McGill on Hansen’s Disease policies in colonial Korea after reading Susan L. Burn's 2019 book "Kingdom of the Sick: A History of Leprosy in Japan." Unfortunately, during my first few years here, the island was completely sealed off, with outsiders prohibited and all transportation halted due to the coronavirus. Given these circumstances, I first traveled to Yeosu Aeyangwon (formerly Biederwolf Leper Colony) instead. Eventually, I would make it to Sorokdo, riding a bus from Gwangju as its sole passenger.

Hidden not far from the drop-off stop is the Sorokdo Shinto Shrine, in the staff housing area. It is normally closed to visitors, and I had to seek special permission to see it. It is composed of the haiden (offering/worship hall) and honden (main sanctuary). Its torii gate, which would have symbolized the boundary between the human and spiritual worlds, has long been lost. Old photos suggest it was originally erected by the stairs at the entrance. Both of the surviving buildings are relatively small, even compared to the smallest shrines in Japan. Their design is simple, with reinforced concrete imitating traditional wooden shrine architecture. According to the CHA's 2006 Survey Report, they were built in 1935 under the hospital’s fourth director. This was the central Shinto site on the island and served as a symbol of Japanese spiritual authority. However, it was not a space for daily enforcement of worship.

A branch shrine was erected within the main hospital area to make patient participation in rituals easier to enforce. Visits were mandatory on the 1st and 15th of every month, and married couples also had to attend on their anniversaries. Christian patients, in particular, resisted these compulsory visits. In April 1938, evangelists Choi Byeong-su and Jeong Dal-su were subjected to repeated interrogations and beatings for refusing to participate. Deacon Moon Seok-du was also severely beaten and imprisoned for over a month.

Stricter rules for ritual participation were imposed under the Sorokdo's fifth director, a man named Nishiki, from August 1943. Pressure was also ramped up for households to install "kamidana," miniature shelf altars honoring Amaterasu Omikami.

Although now effectively abandoned, the shrine has been registered as a national cultural heritage property and is now in fairly good condition for its age thanks to a CHA-sponsored restoration. Looking at photos from before this work was carried out, I can tell both structures were repainted from white and all of the weeds growing through cracks in the foundation of the honden were removed, as were several tree stumps very close to the haiden. A square window that had been cut into the honden’s back wall was also sealed over.

The shrine’s presence alongside a Won Buddhism hall to the north and a Catholic church to the south is a reminder of the colonial past and of how, despite repression, other faiths would eventually find footholds on the island and provide spiritual comfort to the patients forced to live there.