Quarantine Station at Megami, Nagasaki, c. 1910. Established in 1880 for passengers arriving and departing one of Japan’s first treaty ports, the facility was at the mouth of Nagasaki Harbor on the Megami River, some distance from the city-proper.

“As the children were small, I secured two Japanese amahs to look for them when they arrived [in 1908]. When the ship arrived, all the passengers were landed at the quarantine station and I was not allowed on board until the fumigation process had been carried out.

“The passengers were taken out into the bath houses and had to take baths under the direction of the Japanese doctors, and after the baths, while their clothing was being fumigated, they were given Japanese kimonos and slippers. Finally, I was allowed in the enclosure of the quarantine station, and there I met my family dressed in kimonos and we had our first visit, sitting on bags of charcoal in the grounds of the quarantine station.

“After the necessary formalities were gone through, the passengers were allowed to land and we all went to a hotel in Nagasaki.”

– George Barnett, Marine Corps Commandant: A Memoir, 1877-1923, by George Barnett, edited by Andy Barnett, 2015