Since 2022, I have been part of a research group working on the CARE International records at the New York Public Library. The project was previously affiliated with the Wilson Centre and is now associated with the Cold War Archival Research Institute. 

CARE, an abbreviation of the ‘Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe (and the East, Inc.)’, is an American private relief agency that organised and delivered humanitarian aid during the Cold War, and is still operating today!

My working paper examines CARE activities in occupied Japan. At that time, CARE worked on the devastated frontline while serving the US government’s foreign policy and seeking to influence the ideologies and behaviour of aid recipients. Furthermore, I argue that it also served as a financing mechanism for the capture of non-governmental capital to support Japan’s reconstruction. This offers an alternative perspective that will enrich our understanding of the existing narrative of Japan’s postwar recovery, namely: The use of public funds in the US and beyond to subsidise war-ravaged Japan.

I have written a blog post about my preliminary findings.