The next meeting of the Japan History Group (JHG) at the Institute of Social Science (ISS), University of Tokyo, will be held on Wednesday, 22 November 2023, at 17:00 AM (JST), both at the ISS' Center Meeting Room (5th floor of Akamon research building in Hongo Campus) and the Zoom Meeting.

If you want to join online, please get in touch with the following link by 5 pm, 19 November;

 

https://forms.gle/qDL3Mhbwo4DQMaEB8

The URL will be emailed to the applicant on 20 November.

Presenter: Dr. Michiko Suzuki, ISS, the University of Tokyo

Discussant: Prof. Keiichi Sato, Senshu University

Title: Japanese Red Cross Society's Emergency Responses to the Kantō Massacre during the Great Kantō Earthquake, 1923

Abstract:

This research explores Japan's internationalism in the interwar period by presenting the history of the Japanese Red Cross movement. It focuses on one event of the Great Kantō Earthquake in 1923 that illustrates the Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS)'s humanitarian operations. This research envisions a two-fold approach. The first focuses on JRCS' chapters on emergency responses to the Kantō Massacre that occurred during the disaster. The great natural disaster that struck Japan's capital created widespread panic; fuelled by false reports, crowds and police assaulted and killed many people seen as 'outsiders': ethnic Koreans, Chinese, socialists, and anarchists. This presentation will briefly recount how the JRCS responded to the humanitarian crisis that confronted Korean survivors of the massacre by focusing on the special mission of JRCS Korean Headquarters led by Dr Shiga Kiyoshi (1871-1957).

The second set of narratives relates to JRCS' initiative to create an international cooperative system for natural disasters. The relief operations for the Great Kantō Earthquake were the first large-scale international humanitarian operations of the early 20^th century, an outpouring of humanitarian relief which was only exceeded eighty years later in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. American Red Cross, the Red Cross Society of China and many other National Red Cross Societies assisted in the relief operations. International relief of the Great Kantō Earthquake, which served as a model and created networks for subsequent international disaster relief operations.  The JRCS' role in making natural disaster relief a global phenomenon continues to this day. 

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Dr. Naofumi NAKAMURA
Professor of Business History
Institute of Social Science, 
The University of Tokyo
naofumin@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp