Imonbukuro, or Japanese Comfort Bags, in the First Half of the 20th Century:

Developing a Procedure for Providing Comfort to Soldiers and Disaster Victims

Abstract

  Imonbukuro, or Japanese comfort bags, are considered to have been first created during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) and spread after the Manchurian Incident (1931). Yet, imonbukuro were produced and donated during the inter-war period and at times of disaster such as famines and severe earthquakes. This article explores Japanese imonbukuro in the first half of the 20th century by examining newspaper articles and advertisements, industrial papers, magazines published by associations, and reports on the activities of organizations. A way of providing soldiers or disaster victims with quantities of imonbukuro through collaboration between local governments, newspaper companies, private corporations, and local schools and communities was created during the wars and disasters of the 1910s, and was fully functioning immediately after the great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. The approach was actively employed during the Manchurian Incident, the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), and the Asia Pacific War (1941-1945). However, at the end of the last war, the use of imonbukuro declined because of the scarcity of commodities and transportation difficulties due to the disruption caused by the war.