Earthquake Relief and the Transfer of Scientific Knowledge in the Asia-Pacific Region of the 1920s - Chinese, Japanese and U.S. Perspectives

1920年12月16日，中国西北发生了当代史上最具破坏性的地震之一。三年后的1923年9月1日，日本大都市东京被大面积摧毁。这两次灾难都给东亚社会带来了极大的负担。与此同时，它们成为新兴的科学地震学的研究对象，并成为将当地和国际倡议联系起来的一种新型复杂的救灾场合。与这些自然灾害有关的人道主义承诺和科学交流都发生在新出现的亚太互动领域。除了地缘政治和政府之间的权力关系之外，本项目还考察了1918年至1931/32年日本入侵满洲期间这一太平洋地区的非政府相互依存关系。20世纪20年代的特点是跨国灾害管理和前所未有的中、日、美科学交流。虽然这种文化科学的跨国主义未能阻止进一步的战争，但它确实建立了新的联系，这些联系可能在20世纪后期重新连接起来。通过将该项目的目的和目标与环境灾害研究的工具相结合，该项目将跨境关系的宏观层面与地震的当地维度及其对受影响社会的影响联系起来。完整的项目分为三个互补的项目，使中国、日本和美国的经验多样化，因为它们都与慈善、科学和政治联系在一起。在弹性理论的帮助下，我们将比较地揭示这些地区在克服灾害方面的差异和共性。整个项目的目标是从亚太文化区域的跨国形成的角度，更好地理解中国和日本的灾难文化，以及它们与作为新兴太平洋行动者的美国的关系。

On December 16, 1920, one of the most devastating earthquakes in contemporary history shook northwestern China. Three years later on September 1, 1923, the Japanese metropolis Tokyo was largely destroyed. Both catastrophes exposed the East Asian societies to extreme burdens. At the same time they became subjects of the newly developing scientific seismology and occasions for disaster relief of a new type of complexity which connected local and international initiatives. Both the humanitarian commitments and the scientific communication related to these natural catastrophes took place in the newly emerging Asian-Pacific sphere of interaction. Beyond geopolitics and the power relationships between governments, this project examines the non-governmental interdependency in this Pacific space in the period between 1918 until the Japanese invasion of Manchuria from 1931/32. The 1920s were characterized by transnational disaster management and unprecedented scientific exchange between Chinese, Japanese and Americans. While this cultural-scientific transnationalism failed to prevent further wars, it did establish new contacts, which could be reconnected in the late twentieth century. Through the integration of the aims of this project and objectives together with the tools of environmental disaster research, this project connects the macro-level of cross-border relationships with the local dimensions of the earthquakes and their impact on the affected societies. The division of the complete project into three complimentary projects enables a diversification of perspectives into Chinese, Japanese, and American experiences as they are both connected and interconnected to philanthropy, science, and politics. With the help of the resilience approach both the differences and commonalities between these regions in their overcoming of disaster will be unraveled comparatively. The goal of the overall project is to better understand cultures of catastrophe in both China and Japan, and their relationship to the United States as an emerging Pacific actor from the perspective of the transnational formation of the Asian-Pacific cultural region.