The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-06-01
japanese Women
urs e s Of tn e
Red Cross Society

Hw%HE Red Cross organization was
established at Geneva, Switzer-
land. in 1864 and enlarged in
scope and more accurately de-
fined as to its powers in 1868.
One after another the civilized govern
ments signed its articles of interna-.
tionaI agreement for relief work in
times of war irrespective of friend or
foe. After finishing her work of tracing
up for the United States war depart
ment the names and burial places of
$4,000 dead soldiers of our civil war
Miss Clara Barton went to Europe to
study and to aid the Red Cross So
ciety, which had not yet been estab-
Hshed in America In 1873 she return
ed to her own country to urge on con-
gress the signing for the United States
of the Red Cross convention. For five
years she got no recognition at all, and
it was not till 1882 that the Red Cross
agreement was ratified in this country.
Meantime Japan. too had become a
member of the International Red Cross
society. A large relief organiza ton of
which western nations knew almost
nothing was affiliated with the Red
Cross when Japan subscribed to its
provisions What was this relief So
ciety that existed before the Red
Cross? When western peoples began
to have knowledge of it they found that
the Japanese, whom white peoples be-
sottedly. self conceitedly classed as half
civilized, had already a system If field
and military hospital service uperior
to that of any other countr The
military hospital system was -ounded
on that of Germany. The Japs had ex-
ercised their intuitive faculty of seeing
every system and selecting the best.
Nearly thirty years ago the Japs had
their Hakuai Sha, of which the Eng
fish is Enlarged Charities association.
Although this organization was formed
before Japan was a Red Cross nation,
yet its members were bound to care for
sick and wounded in wartime irespec-
tive of friend or enemy.
Since the war outbreak between Rus
STA and Japan hundreds of American
girls. trained and unframed, have asked
to go to Japan and nurse the Jap SOL
der 1t is true they do not know a
word of Japanese. not even that "Ohio"
is Jap for Good morning" yet still
they want to go, which is perhaps cred
table to their spirit of adventure.
There are, indeed, many things these
young ladies do not know, one of them
being that Japan has now within her
own borders. among her own people,
probably the largest and most efficient
Red Cross society of any country.
The Red Cross organization of Japan
has 100000 members, mostly women.
A member of the imperial family
Prince Kan-in, is its president. 1t also
has a lady boss. 50 to speak, and she is
Marquise Nabeshima, Prince Kan-in's
wife. The emperor and empress are
warm and active patrons of the Jap
Red Cross. The empress is especially
prominent in all war relief work. After
the war with China she gave from her
private funds an artificial limb to ev-
cry soldier who had lost one. Today
she is working, as she was in that war,
with her own hands making bandages
and garments for the soldiers. She
regularly visits the hospitals in which
sick and wounded soldiers are. She
herself founded one of the leading hos
pitfalls of Japan, and she it was who in
1871 sent the first Japanese girls to