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概要：
Journal of Humanitarian Studies Vol. 1, 2012The Archives of the Japanese Red Cross Society from 1877 to 1945Toshinobu Kawai (1)IntroductionThe Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS) was established as the ....

Journal of Humanitarian Studies Vol. 1, 2012The Archives of the Japanese Red Cross Society from 1877 to 1945Toshinobu Kawai (1)IntroductionThe Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS) was established as the Philanthropic Society in 1877 to care forthe sick and wounded during the Southwestern Rebellion, the last rebellion in Japan, whether friend or foe.In 1886, the Japanese Government acceded to the Geneva Convention of 1864 and adopted the Red Crossemblem. In 1887, therefore, the Philanthropic Society changed its name to what it is called today. UntilWorld War II, the JRSC focused on wartime relief operations, the original purpose of its foundation, whilesince the 1880s it has been engaged in disaster relief and other peacetime operations. Since the end of theSecond World War, the Society has constantly been engaged in peacetime operations.The JRCS archives tell the Society’s long history, butunfortunately they have been scattered and now kept at twoplaces, namely Japanese Red Cross Toyota College of Nursing,located in Toyota City, and the JRCS Headquarters in Tokyo.This article explains what the Japanese Red Cross archives are,how they have survived, and why they are now kept separately attwo different places. Then, it explains, in particular, the archiveson wartime relief operations, which remains almost intact, and onrelief activities at natural disasters. Lastly this article limits itsscope to the archives of historic significance from 1877 to 1945.1. Overview of the Japanese Red Cross ArchivesRed Cross Archive Room,JRC Toyota College of NursingThe Japanese Red Cross archives documents from the its establishment up to World War II are included innumbered black files. In terms of their content, these documents are classified into two major categories.One is wartime relief documents, and each of their files has a number, for instance,“Wartime 123.”Theother is documents other than wartime relief documents, which are called“general documents”. Each ofthe file that includes general documents is simply numbered. Varied in content, the documents in these filesmainly consist of approval documents, reports, letters, minutes, and communications with JRCS chaptersand overseas Red Cross Societies.The archives have become scattered and lost on an extensive scale four times. First, the Great KantoEarthquake of 1923 caused fire in many parts of Tokyo, which burned the JRCS Headquarters as well assome documents. The second loss took place immediately after the end of WWII. Many of the documentsdisappeared, probably burned by the JRCS staff. The third came in 1963, when, chiefly for financialreasons, JRCS’museum and library were closed, and many of their exhibits and historical materials weresold. The fourth occurred in 1974 to 1977, when the JRCS Headquarters building was reconstructed.Despite efforts to preserve documents, a large volume of documents were discarded. In particular, 3,551files of general documents were preserved in 1947, but with 2,104 of them having been disposed of, only1,151 files survived the reconstruction. The wartime relief documents, on the other hand, escaped the fate(1)Japanese Red Cross Toyota College of Nursing人道研究ジャーナルVol. 1, 2012149