The alchemy of humanitarianism: the First World War, the Japanese Red Cross and the creation of an international public health order

Abstract

Since the inception of the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863, the international Red Cross movement had developed under the leadership of European humanitarians. Imbued with Western values and practices, Red Cross humanitarianism reflected an ideology of civilization in the age of imperialism. The contemporary European notion of civilization characterized most Asian countries as ‘uncivilized’ others who needed benevolent instruction of Western humanitarians. This article examines the ideological politics of Red Cross humanitarianism between the West and East through an analysis of the activities of the Japanese Red Cross in the First World War era. While the dreadful calamity of total war drove relief associations to European battlefields on an unprecedented scale, the global war also stimulated the activities of the Japanese Red Cross on the other side of the world. During the war, the Japanese Red Cross endeavoured to live up to the Red Cross ideals of humanitarianism. Appropriating an ideological linkage of humanitarianism and civilization, the Japanese Red Cross attempted to enhance the international status of Japan as a ‘civilized’ nation, an exception in ‘backward’ Asia, by almost excessively complying with Red Cross principles of humanitarianism during the war. The relief activities of the Japanese Red Cross in the world war illustrate the functioning of the ideological politics of humanitarianism between the West and East in the early twentieth century. The First World War marked a watershed in the history of the international Red Cross movement. In the aftermath of the protracted war, Red Cross humanitarians envisioned the extension of their activities from wartime relief to peacetime public health programmes. Their aspiration culminated in the establishment of the League of Red Cross Societies in 1919. The new international organization embarked on a global project of creating an international public health order in a world disordered by the total war. Yet, when applied to areas outside of Europe, its public health programmes came to be tied to colonial control of the indigenous peoples. This article argues that the global project of establishing an international public health order provided a new means to maintain, and in fact strengthen, asymmetric relationships between the West and East in the post-war world by opening channel for connecting humanitarian aids with colonial rule. A close analysis of the Red Cross initiatives on public health in Asia illuminates the reality and limitations of cooperative internationalism emerging from the ashes of the First World War.