The Great Kanto Earthquake and U.S.–Japan Relations: Japanese Students’ Thank-You Letters Sent to the United States and Their Implications for International Disaster Risk Reduction Cooperation

Abstract

After the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, Japan received international humanitarian aid from many countries, most notably from the U.S. The U.S. provided an “unprecedented deployment of humanitarian aid,” which was unusual for conventional U.S. international humanitarian assistance. The U.S. aimed to improve the U.S.–Japan relationship, seizing this disaster assistance as an opportunity. In various ways, Japan expressed gratitude to the U.S., including through 744 thank-you letters from Japanese students, confirmed by the authors for the first time. The authors analyzed these letters and discovered that they not only expressed the students’ gratitude for the U.S. support but also their wish to promote friendship between Japan and the U.S. and to achieve world peace. The U.S. aid following the Great Kanto Earthquake and the Japanese students’ thank-you letters exemplify “disaster diplomacy.” These letters indicate that disaster diplomacy involves not only direct disaster relief, but also efforts to strengthen friendly relations between people of the two nations.