teams left Japan between October and December 1914 and were assigned to Petrograd, Paris, and Southampton. The arrival of these nurses received wide press coverage, and their host countries subsequently asked for these teams to extend their assignment to fifteen months. Meanwhile, within Japan, German prisoners of war, who had been captured at the Battle of Tsingtao, were treated fairly well with the help of the Red Cross. In 1934, the Japanese Red Cross Society hosted the 15th International Conference of the Red Cross at Tokyo. During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), the Japanese Red Cross Society played a vital role in assisting Japanese civilians and wounded soldiers. However, as the Imperial Japanese Army tended to ignore the Geneva Convention, government and military restrictions hampered the ability of the Japanese Red Cross Society to assist the hundreds of thousands of European military and civilians interned in prison camps in the Japanese-occupied areas of Southeast Asia. After World War II, the Japanese Red Cross Society was reformed under American advisers. On 14 August 1952, it was given legal status as a special non-profit corporation. See also International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement List of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies References External links Official website of Japanese Red Cross Society Red Cross and Red Crescent national societies Medical and health organizations based in Japan 1877 establishments in Japan Organizations established in 1877