The Happy City (1959)

[Music] high in the Sha Hills of Burma close to the China border there is a leper colony almost completely isolated from the outside world but its Fame has spread beyond the mountains and across the Frontiers and the people come walking often for weeks and months they outcasts not permitted to live among their fellow men because they are leers and children of [Music] lepers they live on what they manage to pick or kill in the jungle around berries insects wild plants Huts made of branches help protect against the monsoon rains and chill Mountain [Music] Knights they bring little with them they have little to bring but their pain and hope that at the end of the road there will be help ahead lies Kang Tong leprosy Colony for those who live here for hundreds of miles around Kang Tong Colony has come to be known as the happy City [Music] I had traveled this road before now I was returning to a people and a place like no other in the world what I will tell you of this place is true what you see is what I saw heard falcon [Music] [Applause] I had not expected a welcome such as this many years had passed but we had not forgotten each other could I ever forget these [Applause] faces but I remembered different there were so many now and what had become of the stained and filthy rags the vacant stairs of Despair where was the decaying flesh the anguish cries of the leopard some miracle had happened since last we met so many years before a holiday had been declared and a program carefully prepared weeks in advance I sat with Father Columbo my friend the colony's architect doctor priest bricklay and blacksmith the Council of headman read the official speech of [Music] Welcome then old and special friends were presented according to their custom I had known enan as a leper 6 years before now she was well and married living in a nearby Village one child named William for me the other Caesar for father Columbo the gifts began with trays of bananas baby food and Beetle nuts rice eggs matches hoarded for months the best of what they had I would have to find a way of returning it all without appearing ungrateful what could I do with a chicken but all of this was not for me alone they could see and hear and touch me they could not see and say what they felt for the many Americans who would helped this once grim and ugly place of pain become the happy City [Music] the show began with the children children of lepers most of them born here in the colony but leprosy will not invade these healthy little bodies if he can help it [Music] [Applause] [Music] is my I like to I love my I love my I love [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the costumes made by the sisters from cloth sent from the states a bit of bright cloth and a straw hat to lift the spirits for the children for all of Kang Tong's people as good as any medicine I [Music] thought there are several different tribes and religions too in the colony Shan EOS kachin Buddhists Catholics Protestants each tribe in its traditional costume would try to outdo the other in inventiveness and the show went on and on [Music] father Columbo brought in the Bullocks which had been fattened for the feast once or twice a year he's able to provide meat for the colony they were tied where all could see and admire them for a few hours and sympathize with their inevitable Land Two Bullocks will provide a few ounces of meat for each of the 1500 people of Kang Tong Colony nothing will be left everything is eaten including the skin meat is a luxury in a place where there's usually not even enough rice to go around the colony depends completely on rice for its sustenance the problem of providing sufficient food for survival is one he faces [Laughter] daily the feast was soon underway I wondered how long they had been on short rations saving for all of this I marveled at the way they looked poshen was a pretty girl by anyone's standards yet she was a [Music] leper I worried about father Columbo he looked so tired but it would be useless to say take care of yourself there was no self it had been a long and wonderful day as night fell suddenly over the hills the curfew belt told its warning for with Darkness there was danger now the joy of the day was gone and in its place was fear as people hurried to their houses hidden in the Hills Beyond in the jungle and darkness were marauding Guerilla bands terrorists insurgents Communists and others bent on Revolution on separating these sha States from the union of Burma the Burmese troops nine or 10 of them assigned to duty in the colony took up their positions for the night father Columbo secured the doors his army gathered a 100 lepers armed with ancient flint lock rifles prepared for Jungle Patrol to stand guard outside while the colony slept be careful now take no chances fire only if you must do you have enough food and blankets send a message if you need me I watched the Valiant little Detachment move out to watch and wait for the enemy there were mornings when they did not all come back a deep and anxious Stillness hung now over the colony Columbo's Army took up positions in the jungle but what could gorillas want from lepers food medicine guns money blankets anyone to kill so that others would be afraid and Obey Terror was the weapon this is how War Works Burma style ad midnight father Columbo made his rounds to see that all was well the this place should have to face Terror from without what strange irony I thought in the morning we walked through the colony there were so many new things he wanted me to see new families to [Music] meet look at this face he would say it was so distorted a year ago you wouldn't have recognized it [Music] isn't it marvelous what the new leprosy drugs can do look at her face wonderful Improvement but I wish we'd been able to do something sooner he was so proud of their progress of Life returning to paralyzed hands of the [Music] children he was proud of the way they had learned to work Timber for building must be soaked for a year or more before it can be used the soaking discourages termites and other insects which would quickly destroy a building the men are paid for their work it's not really necessary and the amount is very small but father Columbo believes that it is important in maintaining morale and helping them feel less like outcasts and more like useful needed honest workmen [Music] they were building a storehouse for the [Music] rice Columbo the master Carpenter and patient teacher providing strength and experience where it was needed teaching a craft to a people who knew little more than how to build a bamboo Hut when they came here teaching skills by which they can live were when they leave [Music] here from a nearby lake comes the mud to make bricks they've experimented for years with methods and techniques different kinds of Earth trying to make bricks which will last which will not crumble back into Earth again with the rains [Music] as important as what they are accomplishing is the fact that the will to learn to work to build has been given to a people often without even the will to live when they came here it took 3 years to make and bake enough bricks for the colony's proudest accomplishment the new hospital I'd often see him stop for a moment to gaze and admire it as if it were something marvelous to behold and indeed it was built by the people themselves every block and brick made here in the colony the money from America the work by the lepers cooperation [Music] for 15 years he had operated outside under the sun because there was no shelter clean enough and with light enough for surgery and no means of building one now at last there was an operating room and a proper table to lay a patient on he had trained the sisters himself to assisted all kinds of surgery this was a simple append to [Music] me Beyond the table itself and instruments there's yet no other equipment in the hospital not even beds but the building at least is here and perhaps the rest will [Music] come besides surgeon he's also pediatrician it's always a fight to keep them well but much more of a problem to find space food and Medicine for the hordes who have heard of the happy City and come streaming in lepers down from China from all over Burma they have been cast out as unclean from home family and [Music] friends as in Biblical Times cast out as lepers [Music] these only a handful of the 12 million forgotten hidden uncare for lepers in the world today who can be cured he would take care of them allall if he could where have you come from how long have you been traveling the touch of his hand offers home hope that their Journey can be over for they cannot return to the place from when they have [Music] come feed them sister find them someplace to sleep for tonight we'll have to see what can be done when last I visited here I did not see how he could take in another single person yet in 6 years The Colony has doubled in population but how to feed them already the rice ration is cut to survival limits how to cure them what to do so little to do with somehow he manages takes care of them all and Kang Tong flourishes they gather on the porch of the dispensary the next morning and [Music] waited he examined them one by one the disease in its early stages here spots on the face and on the [Music] back little damage yet to muscles or nerves at last in the 20th century ad man has found the way the drugs to combat and eradicate Forever This ancient curse careful medical records are begun in a year the spots will have disappeared if she can be kept here nourished and [Music] treated father Columbo and the sisters have vowed to remain here for life to do just [Music] that if help comes in time the disease can do little damage but useless hands and feet and Bone cannot be restored among the newcomers is one addicted to Opium the poppy grows freely in this part of Asia a tiny pasty ball of raw opium is heated and placed in the pipe a few deep drafts and there is no pain no hunger only dreams of a heaven full of rice the Council of head men of the colony know of the Opium smoker they have decided that somehow they will find rice and make room for the new ones but an opium addict cannot be allowed one addicted is a sorrow to his family a problem and a threat to the Peace of the happy [Music] City but I can stop anytime they always plead you can't do it by yourself it's impossible I'll help you if you'll try otherwise you must leave Ian knows what lies ahead [Music] for 10 days he will stay here confined Alone 10 days of struggle of torture of mental and physical pain almost Beyond imagining [Music] on the fourth or fifth day the pain and craving subsides but it will [Music] return understanding and Mild sedatives will help him through what is to come and he will Triumph as have the others who have gone before him there is a new home for children which was not here when last I knew this [Music] place his Recreation is a few minutes each day with the [Music] baby before the nursery was built children born in the colony were set out to live with Foster families few survived 92% died before they were three now it is different children are separated from their parents to avoid possible contagion but kept here in the colony given anti-leprosy vaccine loving care and they have every chance of growing into normal healthy adults the child mortality rate has dramatically reversed itself now over 95% [Music] live sister Maria cares for over 250 children in the nursery the problem of getting three-year-olds to take a nap seems to be the same the world over I wondered though what would have become of these children if this building were not here here would they be among the 92% to die I suspected they would how much life depended upon a board floor and a roof I thought there was a sudden Baby Boom in progress over a hundred born in the last 10 months the question now was where to put them all [Music] the new Nursery already hopelessly inadequate the care and love they provided in abundance but babies need much more than this they were running out of baskets and blankets out of bottles and nipples every rag available served as a diaper [Music] they howled and screamed like babies everywhere they ate and slept peacefully not knowing how much their lives depended upon Providence on help from people they would never see or perhaps even hear [Music] of sister Maria and sister saraph make the formula twice a day and live in fear of that day when the shipment of powdered milk does not arrive because there is nothing else to feed the [Music] babies washing diapers goes on endlessly but perhaps even more needed than a washing machine are better means to educate the growing number of children they cannot be sent forth from here as a literates there must be a real school a full-time teacher and books but all of this must wait until still more pressing problems are dealt with in Patty Fields a few miles from The Colony ex lepers prepare the land for the new rice men who no longer show signs of active leprosy who appear to be cured who are able to work some place must be found for them to live something given them to do since never again can most return to their villages to take up life as they left [Music] it near the Patty is a village composed of these people several satellite Villages like this one have been established for people well enough to go out from the colony to make room for others there are now nearly as many people in these outside Villages as there are in the colony itself I cannot abandon them to starvation and reinfection when they leave father Columbo says and so he organizes a village supplies food and medicines to get them started they're still his patience under observation and Care the doctor wants to be certain that the new drugs really cure not merely arrest the disease it will take time to tell [Music] besides the colony and these satellite Villages Dr Columbo also cares for the people of the town of kangun which is the capital and Market Center for this whole vast area of the Eastern sha [Music] States every morning at 7: he visits the dispensary the people arrive before Daybreak and crowd the examination room there is the usual malaria malnutrition a variety of tropical diseases and [Music] disorders sometimes leprosy is detected in its early stages among those who are not even yet aware that they have the [Music] disease in Kang Tung Tang there are many things to to look after certainly his most difficult single problem is providing rice for the colony there is a bit of help from the government but hardly a tenth of what is needed the rice Merchants extend credit but a time of Reckoning always comes and he must plead for more time and more rice he borrows money from one Merchant to pay another robs Peter to pay Paul he said to me one day if they ever all catch up with me I'll spend the rest of my days in jail but for another reason this is a real possibility all vehicles are stopped and searched aiding the terrorists is punishable by [Music] death the area is a war zone bullet carts constantly smuggle food and arms to the insurgents villagers who are now considered insurgents have been his friends for years they need him too he treats them but this is [Music] treason while a colony sleeps you'll find him still at work at his desk keeping medical records up to date always studying he learned medicine in this room later after 2 years of study in an Italian hospital he was able to pass the Examination for an MD there are letters to write letters of appeal and thanks to people overseas who help he sleeps 3 hours and 24 and often this is interrupted I would look out of my window in the small hours and see him in the Moonlight carrying a syringe of morphine to someone in pain threats from the insurgents continued sometimes dramatic one letter contained a bullet which meant there would be killing a feather which said it would be quick the charcoal was obvious The Colony would be burned to the ground unless demands for money and food were met a knock at the door meant he was needed in the jungle someone was hurt [Music] [Music] one of the leper guards killed two insurgents captured [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] there were several funerals during my days here grief and a terrible sense of loss would descend upon us all each life here was desperately fought for and hard one this was not the way to see one end his grief was greatest of all for they were his [Music] children I worried I knew he worried about who would bury them when he was no longer here there was no one was there another man like this man to be sure he will live here forever but what will it be like when the voice is stilled and there is only the memory to guide King Colony [Music] when the time came I wasn't quite ready to leave but my life and work was not [Music] here my two weeks were over I might never return I knew it they knew it and we wished it were not [Music] so I said goodbye to the sisters and perhaps for the last time looked through those soft deep eyes into that Noble heart [Music] I was leaving the happy City but I would carry its joy and sadness with me always and I hoped something of the spirit of Columbo of kangon [Music] a [Music]