James Murdoch

James Murdoch

By Shiori Haba

Do you know that Natsume Soseki, considered Japan's greatest modern writer, studied English? Yes, he learned English at university. Who was the teacher? The answer of this attractive question was in Australia. His name is James Murdoch.

In 1986, James Murdoch was born in Stonehaven in Scotland. He went to Aberdeen University to study. In 1881, he moved to Australia and lived here from this time to 1889. When he lived in Australia, he became a journalist and wrote about the class of Australian laborers. In 1889, he was invited to Japan and began to teach English and European history in high school. He married Okada Takeko when he taught in a commercial high school (now Hitotsubashi University). In 1917, he went back to Australia and he became an adviser of policy to Japan. Then he could visit Japan many times.

Murdoch had several faces. One was as a teacher and another face was as a journalist. He was also an adviser of policy to Japan. When he came to Japan, he taught at high school and one of his students was Natsume Soseki. At same time, he published some books. One of his books was “Ayame-san” which was the romance story. He also published books about history of Europe, Australia and Japan, but his way of writing was sometimes not good for people to read because his style of writing was unpleasant and sometimes there were strange comical parts. In addition, he became an adviser of policy to Japan, so he could come to Japan every year to get the information about Japanese people and how foreign policy was changed. Therefore, he was a mediator between Australia and Japan.


We had the discussion and I could get some interesting opinions. We talked about two topics. First one was “If you would work for foreign policy, how would you like to help Japan become close friends with the foreign countries?” There were two main opinions. First of all, student A and student B wanted to try to understand foreign culture and introduce Japanese culture for foreign people. In addition, they wanted to learn not only foreign culture but also Japanese culture to introduce about it. Secondly, student C wanted to try to have Japanese people and foreign people get to know each other. For example, they wanted to organize some events and give the chance to exchange their cultures and get to know each other more than before. I think all ideas are fantastic for making friends with foreign countries. The most interesting point is that they want to learn Japanese culture. I agree with this because in order to understand culture of foreign countries, we have to know our culture more.

The second topic was that “If you could show off Japanese strong points for foreign countries, which point would you like to introduce?” There were three opinions. The first one was that they want to introduce about Japanese traditional and modern culture such as temples in Kyoto and high technology in Tokyo. Secondly, student B wanted to show Japanese characteristics such as being kind to other people. The last one was about four seasons. Japan has spring, summer, autumn and winter, so it is tasteful. I like these opinions because they look at the good points and they are pride of Japanese culture and characteristic. I think it is important to know and find good points our country to know other countries. Therefore, we need to know ourselves more than before if we would like to understand foreign countries.


Through this project, I could learn the connection between Japan and foreign countries especially Australia by researching about James Murdoch. We learned about some travelers to Japan in Meiji and Taisho period, but I could learn and understand Japan though these foreign people. I think that researching foreign people who are related to Japan and looking at Japan through their eyes is a better way to know more about Japan. We thought about this in the discussion and I got various opinions. I would like to consider these opinions when I research the history of Japan and foreign countries. I’m interested in the history of the connection between Japan and foreign countries, so I would like to continue to learn it.


References

James Murdoch (2014) Wikipedia Retrieved July 3, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Murdoch_(Scottish_journalist)

Australian Dictionary of Biography Murdoch, James (1986) D.C.S Sissons Retrieved July 3, 2014 from http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/murdoch-james-7690

我輩は日豪パイオニアある (2010) 考えRoo Retrieved July 4, 2014 from
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/murdoch-james-7690