Conclusion
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1As with any history of a movement, the trajectory of the Red Cross Movement is interwoven with stories of people who spent part of their lives furthering its development. However, when a Eurocentric bias is applied, the endeavours of the leading figures of the non-Western national societies get obscured. Not only that, in that Eurocentric narrative of the JRCS, the motivation for people to engage in Red Cross work is often reduced to mere patriotism. In pursuit of challenging this narrative, this paper has sought to add a new layer to existing studies by examining various primary sources closely, casting light on the historical context of the time, and exploring the endeavours and motivations of the leading figures of the JRCS.
2Shedding light on Sano and Ishiguro’s endeavours and the historical context of the time allows us to see how they established and developed the JRCS against the turbulent backdrop of various social, political and cultural reforms to portray Japan as closer to the Western countries in its degree of civilisation. However, contrary to Checkland’s narrative presenting active members of the JRCS as puppets used by the Japanese government to become closer to the West, Sano and Ishiguro’s endeavours show their profound initiative and perseverance in promoting the Red Cross’s work. Although the context in which Sano and Dunant created the organisation was different, Sano was deeply inspired by the mission of the Red Cross and persevered to obtain permission to establish an organisation resembling the Red Cross during the Satsuma Rebellion, just as Dunant toured Europe to gather support for his idea after witnessing the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino. Upon gaining permission from Prince Arisugawa to organise relief activities, Sano immediately created Hakuaisha, the organisation preceding the JRCS, and coordinated activities on the frontlines of battle. After Hakuaisha officially became the JRCS, Ishiguro, influenced by Sano’s passion, used his own money and time to promote the activities of the Red Cross in Japan to increase its membership and secure funds for its operation. Moreover, as a military doctor himself, he negotiated with the Ministry of the Army and the General Staff Office to create the first opportunity for Red Cross female nurses to carry out relief activities on the battlefield. As for Ninagawa, studying the situation of the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century allows us to appreciate his advocacy in implementing peacetime operations under the Red Cross’s mandate and most importantly his proactive lobbying for its codification as an international legal instrument when Japan had become one of the Allied powers in WWI. Ninagawa’s endeavour is often overlooked in the main narrative of the establishment of the LRCS. Yet, it is crucial to cast light on his endeavours as it shows how the JRCS was not only an offspring of the movement from Europe but was also a dedicated actor in creating a new stream in the movement.
3Moreover, contextualising the protagonists’ thought processes and experiences of their lives enables us to understand that patriotic motivation to promote the nationalistic agenda was not their sole motivation for establishing and developing the movement. The exposure of Sano and Ishiguro to ‘the way of the samurai’ which was shaped by Confucianism, appears to have nurtured their obligation to become leaders in society and engage in Red Cross work, which they considered a moral imperative. Moreover, their keen study of Western medical ethics in their youth suggests that their motivation to engage and persevere in Red Cross work sprang from the ethics that valued self-sacrifice, impartial treatment and persistence. As for Ninagawa, it can be inferred that his unique combination of international sensibility, skill, personality and position created a sense of obligation to do what he could when confronting the devastating situation on the battlefields of WWI. These different possible sources of motivation observed in the protagonists’ experiences can be elucidated by Malkki’s finding that ‘the need to help […] [emerges] from a number of different sources, including the particularities of people’s own subjectivities and subject positions, and their felt obligations to specific relationships defined by things like occupation, nationality, and an internationalist political imagination’.1
4What this research exposes about endeavours and motivation is that the sources of endeavours can be multiple and vary from person to person. However, in as much as their potential motivations were rooted in personal experiences, the background of the leading figures of the Red Cross Movement, at least between the JRCS and the ICRC, were more or less similar despite differences in national contexts. The privileged elites with education in medicine, military, law and religion took the lead in establishing and developing the movement not only in Switzerland but also in Japan. Moreover, despite the difference in eras, the Red Cross aid workers’ desire to fulfil their own personal needs or obligations, as suggested by Malkki, can be mirrored in the JRCS’s leading figures’ experiences. The combination of these two observations suggests that part of the history of the Red Cross, if not all, was written both nationally and internationally by the privileged experts that embraced their desire to fulfil their own needs. And because this is something that we still observe in the world today, I consider it particularly important to study motivations together with endeavours.
5Since this paper is about the endeavours and motivations of individuals, touching on my background and thoughts to explain the personal importance of this study here in the conclusion seems appropriate. The two years of the interdisciplinary master’s programme in Development Studies at the Geneva Graduate Institute helped me to reflect profoundly upon my previous few years of a roller coaster ride of emotions in what Barnett describes as the ‘alchemical branch’ of humanitarian work.2 Out of many thoughts that I turned over in my mind over the course of the two years, I have come to consider that humanitarians (including myself), if unaware of their own sense of obligation or the desires they bring into their work, could set aside whom their work is meant for and operate without respect and consideration towards the aid recipients. Although it may be true that their sense of obligation can help them practice their work with a high sense of commitment and dedication, their own need to fulfil professional obligations can make them consciously or unconsciously prioritise their own sets of beliefs over what is most suitable in a given context. Similarly, their eagerness to satisfy their own personal desires could lead them to project their own ideas onto what might be most needed by aid recipients. And when humanitarian workers operate with the idea that they know more than the aid recipients and make one-sided decisions without their consent, they instantly become what Rodogno describes as ‘arrogant’ humanitarians.3 Therefore, I believe acknowledging one’s own sense of obligation/desires and not letting them influence one’s work is crucial in embodying humility and respect for the aid recipients in humanitarian activities.
6Why do humanitarian workers devote part of their lives, sometimes at the risk of their own lives, to alleviate the suffering of strangers? The answers to this question can be deeply embedded in the self in such an entangled way that it can be difficult for one to describe without objective analysis. I myself, have been carrying out this research in search of my own embedded sources of motivation for humanitarian work. Hence, examining the protagonists’ personal experiences within their local context has also helped me become more aware of my own background and make better sense of the motivations rooted in me—although I am still grappling with the intricacies. Since it may not be an easy task for humanitarians themselves to figure out (and accept) their own locally nurtured desires or obligations to help, more academic studies could help them make better sense of humanitarian motivations. It is for these reasons that I look forward to seeing more cross-disciplinary studies on the past and current endeavours and motivations of the individuals working with the Red Cross, or any other humanitarian organisations.
7Although this study was written with a Japanese focus to balance the Eurocentric narrative of the Red Cross Movement, the same attention should also be paid to the endeavours and motivations of the leading figures of other non-Western societies. Moreover, even within the scope of the JRCS, I have only featured the endeavours and motivations of three leading figures from its early history, out of many figures that have contributed to advancing the organisation. More studies not only on the prominent figures but also on nurses, doctors, and other staff who engaged in the relief activities both in wartime and in peacetime catastrophes ought to be carried out to see the bigger picture of the story. I am also keenly aware that this study is aid-provider focused, lacking the perspective on how aid recipients did or did not benefit from the activities carried out or the international laws created by the protagonists. Without these layers, the studies of the endeavours made by the individuals of the JRCS would remain incomplete. As indicated in the epigraph, the words of Fukumura remind us that it is from the predecessors’ motivations and endeavours that we can learn to question how to live in the present day. Although studying the complex trajectory of the Red Cross Movement is not an easy task, efforts should be made to cast a spotlight on the endeavours and motivations that are missing from the existing narratives. With this thought in mind, I hope that this paper opens avenues to further exploration of the subject.
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