Post on X: Japan & Turkey love each other historically

Post on X: x.com/randomyoko/status/1865269436191772939

Japan & Turkey have loved and helped each other for many years 🇯🇵 🇹🇷

Turkey has a rich culture and a pro-Japanese attitude.

I’m not sure about the current President Ertuğrul, but let me share the general backgrounds.
The origin of the friendly relations between Japan and Turkey is the Ertuğrul shipwreck in 1890.
I’ll give you the full story after the summary.

During the Iran-Iraq war in 1985, the Turkish government sent a special Turkish Airlines plane to help Japanese people.
At the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, the Turkish government dispatched an aid and rescue team to deliver canned food, water, blankets, and other relief supplies to the affected areas.

At the time of the Turkey-Syria earthquake in 2023, the Japanese government dispatched an international emergency relief team to the region to conduct search operations, provide emergency relief supplies, and provide emergency grant aid.
What was the powerful origin that let us have the friendly relations?

It goes back to the end of the 19th century. Abdülhamid II, Sultan (Emperor) of the Ottoman Empire (predecessor of the current Republic of Turkey), who was dissatisfied with unequal treaties with European powers, planned to send a goodwill mission to Japan in order to conclude an equal treaty with the Japanese Meiji government, which was also troubled by the attitude of European powers. The plan was to send a goodwill mission to Japan with the aim of concluding a treaty of equality with the Japanese government.

On their way back on September 16, 1890, strong winds and high waves caused by a typhoon ran aground and sank off Kashinozaki in Kushimoto-cho, Wakayama Prefecture, killing 587 crew members. However, 69 survivors were rescued due to the strenuous rescue efforts of Oshima islanders. This incident was published in Turkish history textbooks and is widely known in Turkey.

The locals also searched for and collected the bodies of those who had unfortunately passed away.
Donations were also collected from all over Japan for the survivors.

About a month after the accident, the survivors were sent back to their home countries after completing their treatment.
Initially, Russia, not Japan, offered to take care of the transport of the survivors.

However, when this matter was reported in the newspapers, public opinion turned against them, saying, "Why leave it to the Russians? The survivors should be sent back to Japan by Japanese hands.

At that time, there were no airplanes. The Japanese Navy had just been established. Dispatching two warships with nothing to spare would have consumed a huge amount of money and created a power vacuum, so it was a major decision for the Japanese government of the time.

The following year, on January 2, 1891, "Hiei" and "Kongo" arrived at the port of Istanbul, then the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and were reportedly welcomed with heartfelt gratitude by the Turkish people.

The year after the Ertuğrul was lost, a monument was erected in the town of Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, overlooking the area where the Ertugrul sank. Since then, memorial services have been held many times. Although the memorial service was interrupted once during World War II, it is still held every five years in cooperation with the Republic of Turkey.

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-Story of Ertuğrul was cited from:
100年越しの恩返し トルコ×日本の“奇跡の絆”を導いた「ロシアには頼るな」という世論
2024.06.23凪破真名（歴史ライター・編集）
▶︎ trafficnews.jp/post/133207

-Image from the same article captioned:
“The crew of the "Ertuğrul" receiving medical treatment (Image: Kushimoto Town)”

🇯🇵 🇹🇷💕