University of Guam Professor Dr. Anne Hattori chronicled this period when the U.S. Naval Administration controlled Guam. The Navy’s health care regime in Guam at the time “was a vehicle through which U.S. colonial power and moral authority over CHamorus were introduced and entrenched,” remarked Dr. Hattori, a native CHamoru and author of the 264-page book Colonial Dis-Ease: US Navy Health Policies and the Chamorros of Guam, 1898–1941. Dr. Hattori is a Professor of History, CHamoru Studies, and Micronesian Studies at UOG. 

First published in 2004, the book got new traction when the University of Hawaii Press recently reprinted Colonial Dis-Ease in paperback. The first print was hardcover. 

“The story of Guam's Hansen's Disease patients was not well published at the time I did my research, and it was an important topic to look at,” Dr. Hattori added. 

“Medical experts, Navy doctors, and health care workers asserted their scientific knowledge as well as their administrative might and, in the process, became active participants in the colonization of Guam,” Dr. Hattori remarked in describing the book. 

“Changes to Guam’s traditional systems of health and hygiene placed demands not only on CHamoru bodies, but also on their cultural values, social relationships, political controls, and economic expectations,” according to Dr. Hattori. 

Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero has signed a proclamation commemorating January 2024 as Leprosy Awareness Month. 

The book is available on UH Press.com