Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that I will give a book talk at the Meiji Jingu Autumn Lecture at SOAS University of London. This event is free, open to the public, and held both in person and online. Please see the details below.

Best wishes,

Michiko Suzuki

Internationalism in Crisis: The Fifteenth International Conference of the Red Cross in Tokyo, 1934

Speaker: Dr Michiko Suzuki, The University of Tokyo

Date: 2 October 2024

Time: 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm (GMT)

Venue: Djam Lecture Theatre, Russell Square College Building, SOAS University of London

For details: Meiji Jingu Autumn Lecture 2024

Abstract:

     The Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS) was Japan's first international humanitarian organisation and among the largest civic organisations in the world before 1945. In 1934, it hosted the Fifteenth International Conference of the Red Cross in Tokyo, which was the first to convene in Asia. The conference was the largest international humanitarian congress of the interwar period; invited guests came from all five continents representing both nation-states and colonial possessions in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and North and South America.

     This lecture explores the JRCS' humanitarian diplomacy during the Conference, under the leadership of JRCS President Tokugawa Iesato (1863-1940), the Sixteenth head of the Tokugawa Family. The Great Depression, the Manchurian Incident, the rise of National Socialism in Germany, Japan's withdrawal from the League of Nations, and the resurgence of political and economic nationalism worldwide created an atmosphere of great global uncertainty. Amidst great international tensions, the Conference unanimously adopted the Tokyo Declaration of 1934; while not approved by Great Powers, would become the foundation of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention. In the process, the JRCS successfully coordinated its activities with numerous National Red Cross Societies, including Societies of nations at odds with Japan's foreign policy, notably such as the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) and the American Red Cross (ARC). 

 

About the Speaker: 

Dr Michiko Suzuki is a research scholar in the history of modern and contemporary Japan at the University of Tokyo and received her doctorate at SOAS University of London. She is the author of Humanitarian Internationalism Under Empire: The Global Evolution of the Japanese Red Cross Movement, 1877-1945 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2024). 

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Dr Michiko Suzuki

Project Researcher

Center for Global Advanced Studies

Graduate School of Economics, The University of Tokyo, Japan

Email: misuzuki@e.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Book: Author of Humanitarian Internationalism Under Empire: The Global Evolution of the Japanese Red Cross Movement, 1877-1945. New York: Columbia University Press, 2024.

Columbia University Press Blog: Michiko Suzuki on Decentering the Western Humanitarian Movement: Japanese Indigenous Humanitarianism (Jindō).

Journal Article: Author of The Japanese Red Cross Society's Emergency Responses in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945. Social Science Japan Journal. Oxford University Press, 2021.