The second character in the Japanese word for history (歴-史 Reki-shi) can be a homophone for both death (死 shi) and aspiration (志 shi). The present we live in was built upon the deaths of countless people who held onto their ideals and took action to change society. Those deaths should not be reduced to a simple record of numbers and should be studied carefully for us to learn from and decide how to live in today’s world.

Kuniharu Fukumura, 20 November 20121

1Despite being a global humanitarian network today, the dominant narrative of the Red Cross Movement is based on the premise that humanitarianism—a product of Christianity—crystallised in Europe under the Geneva Convention and was diffused to the rest of the world. While it is true that the Red Cross Movement is of European origin, this presupposition can hinder scholars from seeing the big picture of the movement. It is through this Eurocentric lens that some scholars have treated the leading figures of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Western national Red Cross societies as the driving force of the movement.2 And it is through this focus that the involvement of the peripheral non-Western Red Cross and Red Crescent societies is often sidelined, if not completely overlooked. A particularly conspicuous example of this bias can be observed in how Western scholars have treated the history of the Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS). The JRCS was among the earliest non-Western national societies to take part in the movement. Although it grew to be the largest national society by the early twentieth century, little effort has been made to cast light on the endeavours of the individuals who established and developed the movement within and beyond Japan. For example, in Caroline Moorehead’s monograph on the history of the Red Cross Movement, a mere four lines are used to describe how Sano Tsunetami founded the organisation preceding the JRCS.3 In contrast, the endeavours and background of Clara H. Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross (ARC), are highlighted across many pages.4 Similarly, while endeavours to bring attention to peacetime operations at the international level cast a spotlight on Henry P. Davison (ARC)5 and Ciraolo Giovanni (Italian Red Cross)6, almost no attention is paid to the effort made by Ninagawa Arata, who advocated implementing peacetime operations under the Red Cross’s mandate and lobbied for its codification as an international legal instrument.7 Furthermore, in the small academic space given to narrate the history of the JRCS, the rapid growth of the society is often attributed to patriotism, portraying the active members of the JRCS as mere patriots who were used as puppets by a Japanese government trying to adopt humanitarianism to present itself as closer to the Western powers in its degree of civilisation.8 While patriotism could have been the main factor that led the JRCS to bloom, I question whether ascribing this simply to patriotism—as if to say that a non-Christian country such as Japan could not possibly embrace humanity—is yet another example of a Western bias in the way social phenomena occurring outside of Europe are represented. In making sense of why and how humanitarianism took root in non-Western and non-Christian countries, it is too easy to attribute it to simple yet powerful factors such as patriotism. However, describing the individuals’ motivation as mere patriotism without seeing the humane side does not reveal a full picture of history. As one of the founding fathers of humanistic psychology Abraham H. Maslow claims, ‘[i]n most persons, a single primary all-important motive is less often found than a combination in varying amounts of all motivations working simultaneously’.9 Moreover, as the anthropologist Liisa H. Malkki demonstrates in her work, humanitarians’ motivations emanate from social and historical particularity.10 Therefore, a close examination of the historical context of the time, as well as the endeavours and motivations of the leading figures, becomes essential in understanding the nuances of the history of the JRCS.

2My humble yet committed aim in writing this paper is to address the existing Eurocentric narrative of the Red Cross Movement and broaden the academic space to study the history of the JRCS. Wylie et al. write that ‘[the Red Cross Movement] might perhaps best be seen not so much as a single river of ideas and institutions but rather as an arcuate delta where the main body bifurcates into numerous distributaries […], which follow their own course, at times converging, at other times diverging [emphasis added]’.11 Having this metaphor in my head to picture the complex movement comprised of the ICRC, 192 national societies and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)12, I seek to explore how the bifurcated stream of the JRCS developed its own flow and at times converged with other streams of national societies to create a new current in the Red Cross Movement. However, unlike Jindō Sono Ayumi published by the JRCS, this research does not try to comprehensively cover the history of the early period of the JRCS.13 What I strive to achieve in this research is to shed light on the socio-political context of the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries and highlight both how and why the leading figures of the JRCS established and developed the Red Cross Movement both within Japan and at the international level. Although this research focuses on institutional history, I do not intend to simply trace institutional records and numbers. Instead, I aspire to illuminate the human touch in the protagonists’ stories to remind us that the trajectory of organisations is marked by the individual endeavours of human beings with different motivations and personal backgrounds. In doing so, this paper does not refute the above-mentioned idea of patriotism as an important factor in the JRCS’s development; rather, it includes it in its wider exploration of how and why protagonists of the JRCS’s history put effort into developing the organisation. With these points in mind, the questions I seek to answer in this research are the following:

In what political and social context did the Japanese elites establish the JRCS in Japan and develop the Red Cross Movement at the international level?

What were their motivations and sources of influence?

What did they achieve as a result?

3Out of many figures that endeavoured to establish and develop the Red Cross Movement both within Japan and at the international level, this research particularly focuses on three elites from the early history of the JRCS: Sano Tsunetami 佐野常民 （1822–1902）, Ishiguro Tadanori 石黒忠悳 (1845–1941) and Ninagawa Arata 蜷川新 (1873–1959). The first two protagonists, Sano and Ishiguro, established and developed the movement in the late nineteenth century in Japan against the backdrop of a turbulent era when westernisation was unfolding at a rapid pace. The third protagonist, Ninagawa Arata, endeavoured to codify the Red Cross peacetime operations as an international legal instrument in the early twentieth century when Japan had become an ally of the Western powers. While Sano and Ishiguro’s stories elucidate the formation of the JRCS and stem from the main current of the Red Cross Movement, Ninagawa’s endeavour reveals the JRCS’s contribution to the creation of a new stream in the movement and shows how the JRCS was not only born out of, but was also a proactive actor in, the advancement of the movement of European origin.

4When a Japanese author challenges a Eurocentric bias ingrained in the historical narrative of the Red Cross, there is a temptation that the author’s tone of narration could become nationalistic and either consciously or unconsciously praise fellow Japanese protagonists’ accomplishments. With a full acknowledgement of this pitfall, I seek to maintain a scholarly distance from the subject of my research. As a master’s student profoundly interested in the work and the history of the Red Cross, I will explore the part of its trajectory that I am able to study in depth because I can read and write in the Japanese language.

5Although I feel comfortable stating that my research adds a new layer to the forerunners’ academic studies that seek to reverse the Western-centric perspective of the Red Cross Movement, I am hesitant to go so far as to associate this research with the ongoing academic debate on ‘decolonizing history’.14 This is because Japan was itself an imperial power that colonised Taiwan (1895–1945), southern Sakhalin (1905–45), Korea (1910–45)15, northeast China (1905–45)16 as well as the islands of Micronesia (1920–45)17, and occupied southeast China (1937–45), much of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific islands (1942–45). Yet, if in part, decolonising history means acknowledging the political and social power dynamics of the age of imperialism and addressing them to alter the Eurocentric narrative, this research could arguably speak to an academic debate on the decolonisation of history regardless of Japan’s own colonial past.

6The core of this paper, following the historiography, methodology and limitations sections, is divided into two parts. Part I recounts how Sano Tsunetami and Ishiguro Tadanori established the Red Cross Movement in Japan at the national level. Part II sheds light on how Ninagawa Arata sought to develop the Red Cross Movement beyond Japan at the international level, especially in the process of creating the League of Red Cross Societies (LRCS). Both Part I and II contain threefold elements. First comes the socio-political background of the period when the Red Cross Movement took root in Japan and evolved from Japan. Then follows the endeavours of the protagonists, describing how they pushed the Red Cross Movement forward. The motivations of those protagonists are subsequently discussed by contextualising their experiences and backgrounds. Finally, the paper concludes by drawing some implications and addressing how this research could be developed further.