Kingston Images

An aerial perspective reveals the isolated community of Kalaupapa nestled between verdant hillsides and the azure Pacific Ocean on Molokai island. For over a century, this remote peninsula served as Hawaii's quarantine settlement for those afflicted with Hansen's disease, forcibly separating some 8,000 patients from their families. Today, this peaceful landscape houses fewer than a dozen former patients who chose to remain after the isolation law was repealed in 1969. Now a National Historical Park, Kalaupapa's scattered buildings, church spires, and neat roadways stand as physical reminders of a community that transformed a place of exile into one of dignity, resilience, and aloha.