SARC / Hany Hawasly

NEWSLETTER

Issue No.15

ICRC NEWSLETTER- CONTENTS Column, World Field News

1Feature: A Japanese Delegate in the Field

2

Historical Relationship between Japan and the ICRC

3The RC/RC Movement, Updates from ICRC Tokyo

4

By Yoshinobu Nagamine
Head of Office
Dear readers,
The Arab Spring is nearing the next spring after
having gone through other seasons. The armed
conflict in Syria is being fought with increasing
intensity putting a heavy burden on the civilian
population trapped in the fighting. The secretarygeneral of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC)was recently killed in January 2012 while
traveling in a car clearly marked with the Red
Crescent emblem. There are currently only
a limited number of doctors working in thestill functioning hospitals in areas affectedby the violence: health-care workers fled
due to insecurity and patients are too scared
to be arrested at the hospital. The staff areincreasingly under direct or indirect threat attimes when health service is needed the most.
The ICRC is currently in contact with all parties
to the conflict and has called for at least twohours of cease-fire to step up humanitarianassistance to people in need. Since 11 February,
the ICRC and the SARC managed to enter thecities of Homs, Hama, Idlib, Dara'a and rural
Damascus to provide assistance.
In February 2012, ICRC Director of Operations,
Pierre Krähenbühl came to Japan as part ofNEWSLETTER

the annual strategic dialogue with Japan. In apress conference held at the Japan National
Press Club, he first expressed condolence
to the vic tims of the Great East Japan
Earthquake as well as the admiration for theswift reconstruction effort. He then thanked
the Japanese government for the politicaland financial support (CHF 48 million) despite
the difficult times in which Japan finds itself
after the earthquake. "The record number ofJapanese delegates (currently at 18) can be seen
as an increasing level of interest and ownershipin the institution."
This year will also be a special one for Japan
since it hosts for the first time the annual Donor
Support Group Meeting in May 2012 where
the 18 top donors for the ICRC come together
to discuss the most urgent policy issues. The
President of the ICRC, Jakob Kellenberger will
also come to Japan for this occasion and holdtalks with senior Japanese officials.
The top 10 countries in which the ICRC works
in 2012 are Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Pakistan,
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),Sudan, Israel and the occupied territories,
Yemen, Colombia and South Sudan. Japan
has been assisting many of these countries
for a long time and as a coincidence, morethan half of the Japanese staff abroad workin one of these countries. One of them is ourcommunication officer who is on three-month
mission in South Sudan from the end of January
2012. We are looking forward to reporting toyou what our staff experienced in the field.
Damascus neighborhood, Al-Zahirah, Syria.
Basement of an under-construction hospital turn into anemergency operations centre. Two volunteers from theSARC take care of a patient.

World Field NewsCyprus
During its session of 22 to 23 February 2012,
the ICRC recognised the Cyprus Red Cross
Society as the 188th National Society of theInternational Red Cross and Red Crescent
Movement.

Syria
On 7 March 2012, a joint team from the ICRC
and the SARC finally entered the district ofBaba Amr in Homs. The team is to continue
evacuating the wounded, the seriously illand the dead and providing food and otherbasic items for people in areas affected bythe violence.

Mali
As the situation worsens in the Sahel, theICRC is appealing for CHF12.3 million in orderto bring aid to some 700,000 people in Mali
and Niger and thereby help forestall a major
humanitarian crisis in the two countries.

Colombia
On 6 March, 11 employees from a petroleum
company were handed over by members of
the Frente Domingo Laín unit of the National
Liberation Army to the ICRC, representativesof the Catholic Church and the ombudsman.

FeatureInterview:

A Japanese Delegate in the Field

As of March 2012, 15 Japanese delegates areworking in conflict areas in the world. One of ourdelegates dealing with life on the front line talked
about her experience working with the ICRC.

Mariko Harada

ICRC / Natthapong Faiwayladee

Several years of experience
working in humanitariana n d d e ve l o p m e nt f i e l d
before joining the ICRC in
November 2010. Completed
her 1st mission in Thailand
and will start working in Mindanao, thePhilippines in mid‐March 2012.

Q. Can you tell us about your work inThailand?
The ICRC has been working in South Thailand
since 2005 due to ongoing violence andunrest in the Muslim majority areas. Our maintask was to visit those arrested and detainedin relation to security incidents especially
under the existing Martial Law and Emergency
Decree. We, as the ICRC does elsewhere in
the world, spoke to concerned individuals
in private, worked with the authorities toensure humane treatment of detainees and toimprove conditions of detentions as needed.
We also followed up on possible civilian
protection cases, but immediate needs wereaddressed by the support of the authorities
in most cases. Therefore we focused moreon addressing medium to longer term
impacts and rehabilitating their livelihood byproviding productive goods and services.

Q. What did you find most challenging inyour work in Thailand?

2

fundamental values and available expertiseand resources, seemed often rather limited. It
was naturally frustrating to many of us in thesubdelegation.

Q. What stands out in your memory fromyour experience in Thailand?

Q. What do you think makes the ICRC
unique compared to other organisations?
The ICRC has access to many places andpeople, which other organisations mightnot. Even in South Thailand, we were theonly international organisation that had apermanent presence. I also think the factthat the ICRC, keeping its neutrality, works
with different stakeholders and delivers its
assistance directly by itself strictly basedon the needs of the affected, makes theorganisation somewhat different from others.
I think having personnel with different racial,religious and cultural backgrounds might havean advantage for the organisation. In dealing
with different interlocutors and stakeholders,say, promoting international humanitarian
law and humanitarian principles, it might help
reminding those that these are not Western
rules and vaules but are universal that they
are obliged to respect.

ICRC

An unknown and low intensity of situation ofviolence has been part of peoples' daily life inSouth Thailand. My work was most of the time
‘unglamorous’ and maybe non-newsworthy
but of course many people left impressions
on me, generously sharing with me theirthoughts about their life and struggles andwhat they wished for their family in the future.
I think it is a humbling experience to be able
to assist their effort to restore their ability tohelp themselves and therefore their dignity.
We have this lady in her 20’s who started asewing business with support from the ICRC.
She now manages to raise a little child herself
while her husband has been detained for a

prolonged period. She never felt at ease as her
husband’s cases were still in court, but at leastshe did not have to worry about supporting
her family any longer. I was touched by many
individuals I met through my work with theICRC last year; they stayed strong and tried
their best in a difficult situation.

ICRC / Kanya Chimroylarp

Many people may wonder why the ICRC
works in a place like Thailand. Indeed, it is not
the most typical context that the ICRC works.
What the ICRC could do from its mandate,

The ICRC assisted detainees with necessities at the time of Thailand flood in 2011.

Supported by the ICRC, Harina (centre), whose husband has been detained, started a sewing business.

Harina gave a dress she made to Ms. Harada as a farewell present.

Historical Relationship between Japan and the ICRC
A new historical series about Japan-ICRC relationship

Establishment of the League of the RedCross Societies
At the same time, the League of the Red Cross
Societies was established as an organisation tocoordinate all Red Cross Societies. The League
expressed its mission to embark on activities topromote health, prevent diseases and relieve
pain throughout the world, which further
promoted the Red Cross activities in peacetime.

Key Japanese Contribution in theEstablishment of the League
Prior to the establishment of the League,
five Red Cross Societies from US, UK, France,
Italy and Japan held a conference at Cannesin France. It is not well known but one of theparticipants, Dr. Arata Ninagawa, from theJapanese Red Cross Society (JRCS) played avital role to promote the Red Cross's peacetime
activities and then establish the League.
Dr. Ninagawa had visited Red Cross Societies inEurope and the ICRC, as a part of the Japanese
Red Cross mission in 1918. In a meeting with theminister of the Home Affairs in Switzerland andat a dinner hosted by the ICRC, he advocatedthat the Red Cross should work also inReference

Dr. Ninagawa (left) and other members of the research committee for the establishment of the League.

These efforts coupled with Dr Ninagawa's
advocacy for the need for peacetime activities
led the Red Cross to increase its peacetime
activities and to establish the League. "TheWorld's Health", a monthly magazine of theLeague of the Red Cross, records that "We
must not forget that the first specific idea forestablishing the League came from Japan".

Peacetime Activities in JapanAs the League was established, new activities
such as "Mother and Child Health Care" and "RedCross Youth" started worldwide and these also
influenced the activities of the JRCS. In Nagasakiand Hyogo, midwives visited mothers withfinancial difficulties and helped with the birth oftheir children at no cost. Healthcare centres werealso established in several areas and medical
examinations and consultation for children under
7 were provided for free of charge.
The "Red Cross Youth" began as an initiative by
the Canadian Red Cross Society in 1914 during
the World War 1. It began by registering boys

Takashi Masui "Sekai to Nippon no Sekijuji" Times,1999"Jindo - Sono Ayumi – Nippon Sekijujisha Hyakunenshi" JRCS,1979
Compiled by the JRCS "Nippon Sekijujishashi Zokkou" Vol.2, 1929
Translated and witten by Narumi Ota, Chapter 11, "Sekijujisha Renmei no Seiritsu no Jitsujo""Sekijuji no Izumi wo Motomete- Episodo de Tsuzuru Sekijuji no Kokoro" JRCS, 1999

1863	Establishment of the International Committee for

who then participated in producing medical
dressing that were used in the battlefields ofEurope. This then spread to the US when they
entered the war in 1917 and the Red Cross
Youth expanded the range of its activities tosupport many other Red Cross activities. Afterthe World War 1, the Red Cross Youth started
supporting war orphans. They sent gifts andletters to orphans and this led to increased
cultural exchanges between children all overthe world. For the purpose of peacekeeping andcultivating future Red Cross human resources,
this idea was spread worldwide – that every
country should have its own Red Cross Youth.
This worldwide trend reached Japan and theRed Cross Youth activities began in earnest. At
the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923,
they took part in providing food and water anddelivering daily supplies to people affected bythe earthquake. The Japanese Red Cross Youthmembers also had international exchange
programmes and exchanged gifts such as
albums and dolls with 30 countries acrossEurope, Asia and South America. In the Matsue
chapter in the western part of the country,
they held an exhibition of gifts from foreigncountries. According to the records, the children
were thrilled with the gifts from the US, which
had been sent as Christmas presents.
EndJRCSIn 1919, after World War 1, the Red Cross
activities took a different turn. The importanceof peacetime activities was emphasised in theCovenant of the League of Nations, which wasa component of the Treaty of Versailles. These
new activities were increasingly focused onin line with the need for medical services forinjured soldiers and the epidemic in countries
devastated by the World War. In particular, theSpanish Cold pandemic, a kind of influenza, that
had killed 4,000 to 5,000 people and Typhus,
which spread amongst injured soldiers, wereseen as two key reasons.

peacetime and the Geneva Conventions should
be modified for that purpose. His idea was that"The Red Cross should cooperate each other torelieve people's pain and eliminate injustice".
Ms. Cramer, a member of the ICRC, then sent
a letter to Dr. Ninagawa saying the ICRC had
increased its interests in peacetime activities
and had considered conducting research intopeacetime activities thanks to his advocacy.
Later, Dr. Ninagawa wrote a document for "TheRed Cross Magazine" as requested by the ICRC.

JRCS

Promotion of the Peacetime Activities

JRCS conducted medical examinations for children.

Compiled by Fumitaka Kurosawa "Nippon Sekijujisha to Jindo Enjo" University of Tokyo Press, 2009
"Kokusai Sekijuji no Shikumi to Katsudo" JRCS, 2007"Sekijuji Shimbun" Vol.736, 2001, Vol.850, 2011
Andre Durand "History of the International Committee of the Red Cross, from SARAJEVO toHIROSHIMA", Henry Dunant Institute Geneva, 1984

1877 The battles of the Southwestern Rebellion

1937 Sino-Japanese War	Establishment of the Philanthropic Society in Japan

1939 World War 21864 Signing of the first Geneva Convention

1886	Signing of Japan to the second Geneva Convention

1941 The Pacific War

1867 The first Red Cross International Conference

1887 Renamed JRCS

1942	Establishment of the representative office of thethe Relief of the Wounded

Paris World Expo

JRCS recognised as a National Society by the ICRC1871 Iwakura Mission

1894 Japanese-Sino War

1873 Vienna World Expo

1904 Japanese-Russo War	Meeting of Iwakura Mission and Moynier, the1914 World War 1

ICRC in Japan
1945 Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
End of the World War 2
1949 Establishment of the four Geneva Conventions

Chairman of the International Committee for1919 Establishment of the IFRC

1953 Accession of Japan to the four Geneva Conventions

Relief to the Wounded1920	Three JRCS nurses receive a prize of the1977 Establishment of the two Additional Protocols

1876	Renamed to the International Committee of theRed Cross

Nightingale Medal
1931 Manchurian Incident

2004 Accession of Japan to the two Additional Protocols
2009 Establishment of the ICRC Tokyo Office
3The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

Megumi Nagata

Victor Delnore, a Colonel of the US Occupation
Forces, came to Nagasaki and saw for himself
the devastation right after the atomic bombing.
Struggling with his position as a Colonel, hecommitted to appeal the terribleness of theeffects caused by the atomic bomb to theworld, such as giving his permission to theNagasaki City to hold the 1st Peace MemorialCeremony. Featuring his actions, students intwo schools explored "humanitarian activities."

The Yoshijima students showed around the Peace Memorial Park to the Momonoki-dai elementary school students.

Updates fromICRC Tokyo
100th Anniversary of the Empress Shoken Fund

Empress Shoken and the Red Cross Exhibition

Empress Shoken in Western style dress,
setting the standards for a new era of Japanese women.

Megumi Nagata

IHL Penetrating into
the Students

All the 75 students of 6th graders performed in the play.

In 2009, the Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS)
hosted a seminar for teachers focusing on EHL.
Following the seminar, one of the participants,
Mr. Tamura, ran a research project on Col.
Delnore with his 1st and 2nd grade students
at Yoshijima junior high school in Hiroshimacity. Later, Ms. Nagata from the Momonoki-dai
elementary school in Osaka learnt about theproject and also started EHL activities featuring
Col. Delnore at her school.
When the 6th graders of the elementaryschool visited Hiroshima as a school trip, theYoshijima students showed them around thePeace Memorial Park and the Museum. The
Momonoki-dai students continued to research

Empress Shoken (Empress of the Meiji Emperor)
made an effort to promote education andcharities in her lifetime. She showed greatinterest particularly in the humanitarian
activities of the Red Cross. When the Bandai
Mountain erupted in 1888, she asked the JRCS
to send doctors to the devastated areas to treatand rescue the victims.
"Empress Shoken Fund" was created in 1912
with a donation of JPY 100,000 (equivalent toCHF 3.8 million at the present time) that wasgranted by the Japanese Empress Shoken for
Red Cross's peacetime activities. Some CHF
12.6 million has been used so far for disasterprevention, sanitation and blood transfusion inover 157 countries and areas. To commemoratethe 100th anniversar y of the Fund, anexhibition will showcase Empress Shoken’s
precious artifacts and document the historyof pioneering humanitarian and supporting
activities since 1912.
Date :26 March to 28 May, 2012
Time :
9:00am to 4:30pm
Place :
Treasure Museum Annex, Meiji Shrine
Admission : Free
Organizer : JRCS, ICRC, IFRC
Support : Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mainichi Newspaper
Cooperation : Meiji Shrine

ICRC Tokyo Office
Toranomon40MT Bldg. 6F, 5-13-1 Toranomon
Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0001 Japan
TEL : +81(0)3-6459-0750 / FAX : +81(0)3-6459-0751
Website : http://www.jrc.or.jp/ICRC/Col. Delnore when they returned and learnt
more about preservation of human dignity.
Finally, they staged a play centred around theatomic bomb, Col. Delnore and the educational
exchange with the Yoshijima students. A
student comments "Through performing theplay, I realised how important it is to keep
appealing to the future generations not to use
atomic bomb, which causes a great number ofdeaths."

EHL (Exploring Humanitarian Law)EHL is an International Humanitarian Law(IHL) education programme for young
people between ages 13 to 18.

Workshop“Journalists and the IHL”
On 15 February 2012, the ICRC held a workshop
in Tokyo for journalists who report from theconflict areas. Professor Tadao Inoue fromthe JRC Akita College of Nursing presented asession detailing the legal status of journalists
under the IHL.
Attacks on civilians are prohibited under theIHL. Prof. Inoue started off by explaining thatjournalists are civilians and should not beattacked or detained. He also explained thatjournalists are at risk being mistaken for spies
in certain contexts. As a means to protect
journalists in case of being captured, detainedor missing, he introduced ID cards issued by theMinistry of Foreign Affairs and ICRC's "Hotline
for journalists", which is available not only tothe journalists but also to their families and theorganisations to which they belong.
The participants raised various questions such as
status of journalists entering a country without
clarifying their professional purpose and thenbeing detained or the legal interpretation
regarding attacks on broadcast stations. Prof.
Inoue explained that the journalists should not
be attacked as long as they are not directlyparticipating in hostilities, while broadcast
stations could be justified targets dependingon the role they are playing, thus the matter ofattacks on broadcast stations is sensitive andcannot be generalised.