Of the foreign nationals who provided relief to Hiroshima, Marcel Junod, a Swiss doctor and chief representative to Japan of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), was probably the first. Dr. Junod arrived in Hiroshima on September 8, 1945 (one month after the A-bombing) and brought along approximately 15 tons of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment provided by the U.S. Army that saved many lives. Later, a monument was set up in a green space near the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in commemoration of Dr. Junod; and the anniversary of his death (June 16) is still commemorated each year.
Floyd Schmoe, an American university lecturer, started making frequent visits to Hiroshima in 1949 and continuously built houses for those who had lost their homes in the atomic bombing. He fundraised in the U.S. and worked with Japanese volunteers. By 1954, he had built a total of 20 housing units and one community center. Since 2012, the community center, the last remaining structure, has been opened to the public as the Schmoe House, a branch of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
Norman Cousins, editor-in-chief of the New York-based magazine, the Saturday Review of Literature visited Hiroshima in 1949. After Cousins returned to the U.S., he called on citizens to participate in a moral adoption program for Hiroshima’s atomic bomb orphans. His decade-long efforts resulted in about 20,000,000 yen being sent to nearly 500 orphans to take care of their expenses. Cousins also helped female A-bomb survivors—who suffered from keloid scars—receive medical treatment in the U.S. In May 1955, 25 girls, made a journey to the U.S. and stayed for over a year while receiving operations and treatment.
Support was received from overseas Japanese immigrant communities as well. In April 1948, people living in Hawaii who traced their roots to Hiroshima Prefecture established the Hawaii Society for Relief of Hiroshima War Victims and sent total amount of 90,000 USD to Hiroshima Prefecture and Hiroshima City. In 1951, another 20,000 USD was sent to Hiroshima City. The Hiroshima City Children’s Library and other facilities were constructed with the Hiroshima Kenjinkai of South California in the United States’ four million-yen donation sent in 1950 and the Hiroshima Kenjinkai of Peru’s 1.4 million-yen donation.