masao ishida has long wanted to visit the facility.s spent most of his life in the sanatorium in japan. >> thank you for coming. it's a dream come true. >> thank you. welcome. >> reporter: it was modeled after the one on this island. >> translator: i think the two sanatoriums in japan and the philippines are somehow connected. in a sense, it seems that the two facilities are just like brothers. >> reporter: ishida first visited the island museum. this panel depicts the gate that separated the sanatorium from the rest of the island. this is a coin which could be used only on the island. ishida learned that leprosy patients here were cut off from society and treated inhumanely just like what happened in japan. but that's where the similarities end. people here were allowed to have families and to live as families. but in japan it was the opposite. japanese patients were forbidden from having children. pregnant women were forced to have abortions and men were sterilized. >> translator: in the philippines people were allowed to get married