John Batchelor

John Batchelor

By Mei Suzuki

John Batchelor was called a father of Ainu. He was born on March 20, 1854 in England. His parents were Christian so he became Christian as well. He learned how to spread Christianity to Oriental countries in his university so he moved to Hong Kong in 1877 as a missionary. However he couldn't get used to Hong Kong, so he moved to Hakodate in Hokkaido when he was 24 years old. In Hokkaido, he heard that Ainu were discriminated against by wajin (old Japanese), so he wanted to change their situation.

Ainu were often separated into two regions, which were Karahuto and Chishima, because of relationship between Japan and Russia at that time. Also they had to be the same as wajin because Meiji government forced them to do that. So they had to work like wajin but they didn’t know how to work and how to write because their main job was hunting animals. Therefore Ainu spent hard life and were discriminated against by wajin.

Batchelor was sad when he heard about Ainu so he did a lot of things for Ainu. He built a school, Airin Gakkou, for Ainu. They could learn alphabets there. Then, he made a dictionary, Kawaeisantai, of Ainu language. He translated Ainu language to English so people around the world could know Ainu language. In addition, he built a hospital for Ainu so they could go there for free. Then he made an Ainu girls school. This school is for Ainu girls who lost parents or didn't have houses. After that, he made an Ainu Kyouka-Dan to let Ainu children study higher level than junior high school. At last, he built a Batchelor school in Sapporo.

He helped Ainu children to be able to go to school and to spend a valuable life by donating. A lot of Ainu children could go to school thanks to him. When he was 70 years old, he retired as a missionary and went back to England. He died when he was 90 years old in England. After his death, Ainu held a lot of ceremonies for him. Because of such a great achievements for Ainu, he was called a father of Ainu.

During the discussion, I asked my classmates “What did you know about Ainu?” and I realized Japanese people don’t know much about Ainu even though Ainu are related to Japanese people the most. I thought they should know about Ainu because Ainu and we are friends. Also they said they could understand what Ainu is, and how terrible the discrimination that they faced, through my presentation, so I was happy.

Through this presentation, I could learn much about Ainu that I didn't know much and what an important person Batchelor is for Ainu. He is not Japanese but he studied a lot about Ainu and did a lot of great achievements for them. I really respect him. In addition, I could learn many wonderful people and what they did through my classmates’ presentations. I became more interested in history thanks to this project.

John Batchelor

By Student A

John Batchelor and Ainu people

Introduction

From the end of Edo to Meiji Era, Japanese people started accepting a variety of western cultures and ideas that were inspired from Europe like the UK. Later these western cultures and ideas had a great impact on things such as governmental system, foods, fashion or education in Japan. Although westerners impacted on many things in Japanese society, the governmental system was one of the most affected aspects because it led Japan to get the idea of imperialism like the UK in this time.

While the big western wave was coming to Japan, a Japanese ethnic group, Ainu, who lived in Hokkaido, was facing difficulties. At that time, John Batchelor, a Christian missionary from England came to Japan. Batchelor spent his life in Hokkaido as a missionary and he saw the difficulties that Ainu were facing; although he was not Japanese, he wanted to help Ainu. Finally, people called him “Father of Ainu”.

Why did he dedicate himself to saving their cultures? What happened in Ainu communities in Hokkaido in this time? In this report, I would like to discuss the reason why Batchelor wanted to help the Ainu ethnic group and how he contributed to protecting Ainu people and their culture.


Ainu’s suffering

To know about Bachelor’s works I will explain what happened to Hokkaido and Ainu. After Meiji Restoration [1868], government introduced new polices to develop Hokkaido because they government felt the need for stronger national defense and the territorial extension against powers like China or Russia. Hokkaido became a place of national land development. The government wanted to develop Hokkaido because Hokkaido was a big island and it had a lot of natural resources.

Hokkaido Development Commissioners started to cultivate the land, Non-Ainu people recognized that Ainu ethnic group was not “Japanese” and considered them to be inferior beings. Ainu people were discriminated against and they faced difficult and awful environments.

Because hunting and fishing were banned, Ainu people faced inadequacy of food because they got their foods from nature. They needed to work to get “money” to survive. They started to work under government, however local public officers foully abused them. In addition, by losing Ainu’s traditional ways to survive, Ainu people became very poor and physically weak because of weakening of resistance to get through the hard winter. For those reasons a lot of Ainu people passed away and got serious diseases.


Why did Batchelor come to Japan, Hokkaido?

After Batchelor finished studying theology in seminary in England, he moved to Hong Kong as a Christian missionary to witness people.

However, he got endemic diseases there. By doctor’s advice, he moved to Japan to cure his illness. Japanese weather was like England's, and Hong Kong’s one did not fit him. He arrived in Yokohama at first and took medical care. After that, Batchelor moved again on medical specialist’s advice and next place was Hokkaido. The doctor thought that cold place like Hokkaido was good for medical care. Finally Batchelor came to Hokkaido but until this time he hadn’t known what Ainu was.


Why did Batchelor focus on “Ainu”?

By Meiji governmental policy, Ainu people lost their land and culture for the reasons above. After Batchelor came to Hokkaido and cured his disease, he started missionary activities locally. He got a great shock from the hard discrimination against Ainu people by non-Ainu people. Batchelor started to want to save their hearts by Christian idea gradually.

To understand Ainu, he stayed at a local Ainu community leader’s house for over 3 months at first and tried to learn Ainu language. Gradually, Batchelor knew Ainu’s holding idea for God and nature; he recorded what he learned from them. He respected Ainu culture and thought deeply how they can find the joy of life in this suffering situation.


Batchelor’s achievements

Batchelor was called “Father of Ainu” by local Ainu people. He became the first Ainu culture keeper. There are two main big achievements about Ainu. I will introduce Batchelor’s ethnological study achievements in here.


Study achievement

Batchelor deeply studied Ainu and he conducted his mission telling about Christianity by Ainu language. At the same time, he focused on saving poor Ainu people with charity works like building hospitals, a children’s home for girls who lost their parents. Many local Ainu people witnessed Batchelor’s attitudes, and then those people become Christian.

During his mission, he published “Today and past story in Ezo” (蝦夷今昔物語) in 1884. It was about Ainu culture customs and life styles. He knew true Ainu’s things by local Ainu, not local non-Ainu who make a border for Ainu. Also Batchelor could tell for public true Ainu and their beautiful and respectable culture in nature.

A dictionary named “Ainu, Japanese and English dictionary”(蝦和英三対訳辞書) was published in 1889, and finally he published part of the New Testament in Ainu while he was in England temporarily to do dedication works in the local church in 1890.

It is difficult to decide if Batchelor’s missionary activities were good for local Ainu, because even though they had their local nature faith in Hokkaido, introducing western religion changed this local faith. However, the new idea of God and faith saved part of the Ainu people's damaged hearts.

Also Batchelor left a lot of studying and communication records like diaries or books. Those materials are very valuable today. We can know how local Ainu people spent their life and how they lived with hard nature in Hokkaido. Bachelor cultivated new study fields in Hokkaido historical culture and he expanded the being of true Ainu. Batchelor retired in 1923. He spent over 46 years in Japan and dedicated his life to trying to save internal and external Ainu culture.


References

『HOMAS (北海道マサチューセッツ協会)　日本語版ニューズレター 』

No64北海道開拓の基礎を築いた指導者たち⑲　

「アイヌ民族保護を訴え続けたジョン・バチェラーの生涯と業績」

2011年12月10発行記事　北海道マサチューセッツ協会　



『近代アイヌ差別の発生についての考察』　

上野昌之著

　早稲田大学大学院教育学研究科紀要　別冊　19号―2　

2012年3月　早稲田大学大学院