America: The Helping Hand

Rehabilitation conveys a connotation of ‘fixing’ something: drug addicts go to rehab to mend their addiction, veterans rehab to undo the horrors of the war—whether physical or psychological, and so on. However, rehabilitation encompasses much more than that, as symbolized through the memorialization and reconstruction of Hiroshima bombing victims as well as the spread of modern anesthesiology as a field and a practice. The effects and purposes of these global rehabilitation efforts by the U.S. provide truth to a larger narrative on America’s role in reconstructing the world, Post-WWII. Not only do the effects of globalization come into play when examining these rehabilitation efforts, but also the question of America’s growing and solidifying status as a world power. The Hiroshima Maidens and USC Missions are two examples of the U.S.’s role with global rehabilitation, and solidification of their global power. Especially in the countries affected by the war, like Japan and other European countries, America’s efforts to not only fix the destruction of the war but also to expand knowledge on fields beneficial to rehabilitation efforts solidified their role in global rehabilitation and simultaneously reestablished their role as a global power.

Yet, as it may appear, these two efforts are of drastic difference, in both the roles taken and implications to be had. The Hiroshima Maidens, brought over to undergo cosmetic surgery and make them “physically acceptable” (Sherlin, 51), was a physical rehabilitation with many psychological and social implications. The states of mind and social statuses for these women was not only examined but scrutinized and made an example of a “new kind of postwar identity. They exemplified a generation of future citizens whose bodily damage, inflicted by the chaos of modern physics, could be healed through the miracles of modern medicine” (Sherlin, 47). This goes to show that “the emphasis on the psychological, as well as physical, disabilities the Maidens experienced” (Sherlin, 43) expanded the idea of rehabilitation, and America’s role in Japanese post-war troubles, like physical and psychological injuries, made them a player in the game of global rehabilitation. This was a role gladly accepted by Americans, especially when dealing with physical injuries, medical advances, and technological applications. The Unitarian Service Committee (USC) furthers this idea through their Mission efforts to bring anesthesiology knowledge to war-torn countries. The goal of the Missions, “to help improve professional understanding between the US. And the countries the mission visited…to exchange medical information, and…to demonstrate American medicine (especially the new specialties such as anesthesiology and neurosurgery) and American methods of medical education” (Ikeda, 246) exemplifies this stance taken on by Americans in the global rehabilitation effort: to make the world whole again through sharing American advances in the medical field. In this case, rather than bringing the subjects in (unlike the Hiroshima Maidens) to America, supplies and experts were being shipped to war-torn countries in attempt to reshape, or in some cases introduce, the field of anesthesiology globally through American practices. These two stark comparisons of global rehabilitation efforts taken on by the Americans not only prove the U.S.’s role, but also begin to set up the argument that these efforts served a dual purpose of solidifying the U.S.’s undenied power as a global player.

By using American doctors, technologies, and, in the case of the Maidens, on American ground, the U.S.’s medical superiority is at the forefront. The Hiroshima Maidens “became stand-ins for social progress and the embrace of the benefits of Western architectural modernism” (Sherlin, 23), but it could be argued that they also became an example of the benefits of American medicine. Through reconstructing the damages done by the American atomic bomb, the U.S. shows off an interesting role as both the destroyer and rebuilder. Not only did the U.S. have the technologies and supplies to perform these plastic surgeries, but by bringing over the Hiroshima Maidens and studying them through an American lens, they also had the upper hand; even in helping with the global rehabilitation program, America was also gaining from the positive efforts. Another positive effort that America stood to gain from were the USC Missions mentioned above. While it is not as easy to point to the social gains, or at least insights, from these Missions, it is clear that by sending American doctors and technologies over to ‘fix’ gaps in knowledge of anesthesiology the U.S. stands something to gain, if nothing more than global recognition as advanced in this field among others.

The Mission doctors stood strong in their stance that without the proper knowledge and training, the “lectures, demonstrated anesthetic techniques, and attended conferences with surgeons in host countries” (Ikeda, 247) would mean/do little. Non-compensated efforts made by the USC doctors to expand the global knowledge of this field come from working towards “postwar rehabilitation, focusing on medical care in those countries” (Ikeda, 245). While the beneficence of both projects is hard to deny, it is clear that the benefits from the Mission were almost solely in the hands of the war-torn countries. Is it as easy to say the same of the Hiroshima Maidens effort? The reconstruction of physical damages surely works towards global rehabilitation, but how does this effort also help America’s image post-atomic bomb dropping? The choosing of before-and-after pictures in front of a building that served as “visual evidence of the remains of life before the evaporation of the city” certainly complicates the narrative of America as a helping hand. What did America stand to gain from bringing the Maidens in, rather than shipping knowledge and efforts out to Japan?

It cannot be denied that Post-WWII served as the stage for America’s reestablishment as a, if not the most, strong global power, an image started Post-WWI and continuing today. The efforts of American doctors taking part in both the Hiroshima Maidens project and USC Missions were two of many efforts taken by Americans to help rehabilitate the World. One involved bringing victims in, ‘fixing’ the problem, and using the experience in articles, among other things, to show the good effort by the American helping hand; the latter involved sending doctors, without monetary or other benefits, to damaged countries to provide a public good in the form of medical knowledge. These two cases can pose the question: Is the great American helping hand always helpful?

By bringing Japanese women directly, both physically and mentally, by the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and by expanding the global knowledge on anesthesiology, Americans are taking a role in global rehabilitation. Yet, as it may appear, these two efforts are of drastic difference, in both the roles taken and implications to be had. Especially in the countries affected by the war, like Japan and other European countries, America’s efforts to not only fix the destruction of the war but also to expand fields that