The Reverend

John Batchelor, DD, OBE
Missionary
John Batchelor (1928)
Personal details
Born(1855-03-20)20 March 1855
Uckfield, Sussex, England
Died2 April 1944(1944-04-02) (aged 89)
Hertford, Hertfordshire, England

Archdeacon John Batchelor, D.D., OBE (20 March 1855 – 2 April 1944) was an Anglican English missionary to the Ainu people of Japan until 1941. First sent under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society of the Church of England, Batchelor lived from 1877 to 1941 among the indigenous Ainu communities in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. He was a charismatic and iconoclastic missionary for the Anglican Church in Japan and published highly regarded work on the language and culture of the Ainu people. Batchelor only reluctantly left Japan at the outbreak of the Second World War in the Pacific in 1941.[1][2]

Early life and missionary career

John Batchelor was born in Uckfield, East Sussex son of William Batchelor, a local tailor and parish clerk. Batchelor attended Uckfield Grammar School and with the support of the Rev. E.T. Cardale was accepted as a candidate for study at the Church Missionary Society College, Islington.[citation needed]

On 22 September 1875, Batchelor set out with a group of Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries for Hong Kong. Arriving in Hong Kong on 11 November 1875, he immediately set about studying the Chinese language. While in Hong Kong Batchelor fell ill to malaria and hearing that the climate in Hokkaido was similar to his native England left for Hokkaido via Yokohama. He left Hong Kong on 31 May 1877, then on 16 July he boarded a freight ship to Hakodate from Yokahama. In Hakodate he was assigned as a junior to the senior missionary Walter Dening of the CMS, settling in the city's Motomachi district. It was in Hakodate that he had his first encounter with the Ainu.[3]

Hakodate from 1877

1877 - Batchelor moved to Hokkaido.

1884 - Batchelor married Louisa Andrews, who had a young brother, Walter, who was working as a missionary in Hakodate.

1886 - Batchelor moved to the new house in April. That summer, a British Japanologist Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850–1935), professor at Tokyo Imperial University, visited Batchelor's house to write on Ainu and stayed with Batchelor for three weeks. Batchelor took Chamberlain to Ainu villages, which was beneficial to the publishing of a book on Ainu.

1889 - Batchelor wrote Japanese Ainu in English and published Ainu-English-Japanese dictionary.

1891 - Batchelor and his colleague Lucy Payne of Anglican Church founded Harutori Ainu school in Kushiro.

Sapporo from 1891

In 1895, a church was constructed at Biratori, the other at near Mount Usu in Hokkaido.

In 1896, Batchelor sent an English nurse and missionary Mary Briant to Biratori. She stayed in Japan for 22 years.

In 1906, Batchelor and his wife adopted a young Ainu woman, Yaeko (1884–1962).

In 1908, Bachelor went to Sakhalin to preach with Yaeko after the Russo-Japanese War.

In 1909, Bachelor, his wife, and Yaeko temporarily visited England via Vladivostok by the Siberia Railway.

In 1936, Batchelor's wife Louisa died at the age of 91.

In 1941, Batchelor returned to England.

Views on the treatment of the Ainu communities

Batchelor harshly criticised the Japanese for their cruel treatment of the Ainu, saying "I'm past eighty, and probably that accounts for it. But I've been told I'm the only foreigner in Japan who can tell the Japanese exactly what I think of them and get away with it."[4]

The Japanese forced the Ainu from their land and forbade them to practice their traditions and culture, Ainu were not allowed to hunt for food, speak the Ainu language, or obtain an education, being forcefully segregated in small villages.[5] After Japan realised they could exploit the Ainu they reversed their policy, Batchelor said "The Japanese treat them better now, simply because they came to realize that the Ainu were a valuable curiosity worth preserving. There was no kindness or sentiment in it — none whatever. They quit trying to exterminate this shattered relic of a dying Caucasian race when visitors with money to spend began coming from all over the world just to see and study them. If today the Ainu are protected wards of the Government, and if the Government has paid me any honor, it is not because of a change of heart on the part of the Japanese; it is only because the Ainu became worth something to Japan."[6] During the era of Samurai in Japan, Ainus had to grovel and smear their face on soil when they met a Japanese soldier, or face immediate decapitation.[7] Japan also forbade the ownership of weapons among the Ainu.[8]

Batchelor wrote extensively, both works about the Ainu language and works in Ainu itself.[9]

Works by Batchelor

See also

References

  1. ^ Frédéric, Louis (2005). "Ainu". Japan Encyclopedia. Translated by Roth, Käthe (illustrated, reprint ed.). Harvard University Press. p. 13. ISBN 0-674-01753-6.
  2. ^ Ivar Lissner (1957). The Living Past (4 ed.). Putnam's. p. 204. Retrieved 23 April 2012. In 1877 a young and industrious theologian went to visit the Ainu. His name was John Batchelor, and he was a scientist and missionary. He got to know the Ainu well, studied their language and customs, won their affection, and remained their staunch friend until the end of his days.[Original from the University of California Digitized 27 January 2009 Length 444 pages]
  3. ^ Jalal, Ibrahim (2021) Hokkaido - A History of Japan's Northern Isle and its People. Earnshaw Books. p 163
  4. ^ John Patric (2005). Why Japan Was Strong: A Journey of Adventure (reprint ed.). Kessinger Publishing. p. 72. ISBN 1-4191-6878-9. Retrieved 23 April 2012. The old man was bitter as he recalled Japanese cruelties to his beloved people during his early years among them. "I'm past eighty," he said, "and probably that accounts for it. But I've been told I'm the only foreigner in Japan who can tell the Japanese exactly what I think of them and get away with it."[ISBN 1419168789, ISBN 978-1-4191-6878-9 Length 320 pages]
  5. ^ John Patric (2005). Why Japan Was Strong: A Journey of Adventure (reprint ed.). Kessinger Publishing. p. 72. ISBN 1-4191-6878-9. Retrieved 23 April 2012. miserable remnants of this once proud and powerful race from whom the Japanese took Japan were herded into little inland villages, forbidden to hunt or fish — though hunting and fishing had been their livelihood just as with our own Indians. They were forbidden to speak the Japanese language; there were no schools for them, and their own language was unwritten. It seemed that the Japanese were determined to starve them out to the last pitiful survivor.[ISBN 1419168789, ISBN 978-1-4191-6878-9 Length 320 pages]
  6. ^ John Patric (2005). Why Japan Was Strong: A Journey of Adventure (reprint ed.). Kessinger Publishing. p. 72. ISBN 1-4191-6878-9. Retrieved 23 April 2012. The Japanese treat them better now," Batchelor said, as we ate the hearty five-o'clock breakfast of beefsteak to which this hale octogenarian had invited me, "simply because they came to realize that the Ainu were a valuable curiosity worth preserving. There was no kindness or sentiment in it—none whatever. They quit trying to exterminate this shattered relic of a dying Caucasian race when visitors with money to spend began coming from all over the world just to see and study them. If today the Ainu are protected wards of the Government, and if the Government has paid me any honor, it is not because of a change of heart on the part of the Japanese; it is only because the Ainu became worth something to Japan.[ISBN 1419168789, ISBN 978-1-4191-6878-9 Length 320 pages]
  7. ^ John Patric (1943). Why Japan was strong (4 ed.). Doubleday, Doran & company, inc. p. 170. Retrieved 23 April 2012. when one considers how they, in turn, were treated by their Japanese conquerors. Batchelor said that in olden times—in the golden days of the knightly samurai — an Ainu, seeing a Japanese soldier approach, was obliged to get down on all fours and literally grovel. He had to wipe his face in the dirty as a sign he was part dog. The luckless aborigine who failed to show respect to his conquerors might have his head lopped off at once and without ceremony.[Length 313 pages]
  8. ^ John Patric (2005). Why Japan Was Strong: A Journey of Adventure (reprint ed.). Kessinger Publishing. p. 170. ISBN 1-4191-6878-9. Retrieved 23 April 2012. conquerors might have his head lopped off at once and without ceremony. For of course the Ainu had no recourse to civil law-nor did his widow. In those days the Ainu were denied weapons of any kind, just as the Koreans are today.[ISBN 1419168789, ISBN 978-1-4191-6878-9 Length 320 pages]
  9. ^ John Patric (1943). ...Why Japan was strong (4 ed.). Doubleday, Doran & company, inc. p. 72. Retrieved 23 April 2012. John Batchelor set about to learn the Ainu language, which the Japanese had not troubled ever to learn. He laboriously compiled an Ainu dictionary. He singlehandedly turned this hitherto but spoken tongue into a written language, and himself wrote books in it which[Original from the University of California Digitized 16 October 2007 Length 313 pages]

Further reading

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