Kaijin Akashi (1901-1939) was an author and poet who lived in confinement in the Japanese National Sanatorium Nagashima Aisei-en from 1926 until his death in 1939. His anthology ‘Hakubyo’ sold 250,000 volumes. His best known prose is:
Leprosy fell upon me a divine scourge.
As my afflictions mounted one after the other, I sobbed, I cried out, I moaned in agony, even as I groped through the dark days of my illness for a ray of light to guide me. But like those luminescent fish dwelling in the sunless depths of the sea, I would have no light until I lit up from within.