Reflections on the Easternisation of the Red Cross Movement: the role of the Japanese Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies, 1907–1926

This paper focuses on three distinct moments in the history of the Japanese Red Cross between 1907 and 1926 in order to explore the relationship of this national Red Cross society and the broader Red Cross Movement. Specifically, the paper seeks to explore to what extent did the Japanese Red Cross use the ‘soft power’ of humanitarian diplomacy as the leading Red Cross society in the ‘Far East’ to influence the direction and scope of the Red Cross Movement? At this time, the Japanese Red Cross was one of the largest in the world; part of the Japanese modernization and democratization processes of the Meiji period with the Hakuaisha Society (or Philanthropic Society), the precursor of the Japanese Red Cross established in 1877.