Home Country
by Ernie Pyle

"Home Country" by Ernie Pyle, first printed in 1947 by William Sloane Associates, Inc.
Chapter 16 - "The Leper Colony"

".....The day was misty, and air currents banged us as we dropped over the cliff and roared down upon the earth. It was as though we were suddenly flying over the remote Tibetan monastery of Lost Horizon. We bounced on the rough runway. Only one person was in sight when we climbed out - a Hawaiian in overalls, who stood by the side of an old Ford a hundred yards away and looked at us. He was a leper - a word that is in disfavor at Kalaupapa. In the legal phraseology, he was a “patient”. He merely stood and watched.

In a few minutes a car came speeding over the dirt trail from the settlement. It was “Doc” Cooke, the settlement’s superintendent, come to take us in. He wasn’t a doctor; they just called him that. We rode in a new Chevrolet sedan, and talked about things in Honolulu. But my thoughts were not on Honolulu. I was peering ahead, filled with an eager but fearful anticipation....." (Read the entire chapter)

Ernie Pyle visited Kalaupapa late in 1937. He was America's best-loved war correspondent, and was called "America's greatest frontline war reporter". He remained friends with Doc and corresponded with him until Doc's death.

He was killed on April 18, 1945 by a Japanese sniper bullet while on the frontlines with American marines on an island four miles west of Okinawa. Other books by Ernie Pyle: "Ernie Pyle in England", "Here Is Your War", "Brave Men", and "Last Chapter".