Hiroshi Shima (real name Kaoru Kishiue, 1918-2003) was a Japanese novelist, activist, and former university assistant professor of an agricultural college in Tokyo. He spent many years confined in the Japanese National Sanatorium Hoshizuka Keiai-en.
Shima was admitted to Oshima Seisho-en sanatorium in 1947 and transferred to Hoshizuka Keiai-en in 1948. He edited an in-house literary magazine, ‘Kazan Chitai’ (Volcanic Region), from 1958. In 1990, when challenged by an HIV/AIDS activist on the lack of voices of people affected by leprosy, he began to be an advocate by sending a letter to a lawyer, writing an article in a human rights journal, and submitting an appeal to the lawyers’ association. This marked the beginning of the lawsuit against the Japanese government, which eventually led to an apology and compensation paid by the government to former leprosy patients who had been confined in Japan’s isolation program. Shima was the honorary president of the plaintiffs in these lawsuits.
Shima left the sanatorium in 1999 and continued writing essays and novels. His writing is critical and satirical in tone.