John Batchelor (Missionar)

John Batchelor D.D., OBE (japanisch バチェラージョン; * 20. März 1855 in Uckfield, Sussex, England; † 2. April 1944 in Hertford, England) war ein anglikanischer englischer Missionar und Archidiakon in Japan. Er war der erste, der Sprache und Kultur der Ainu umfassend erforschte.

John Batchelor (1928)

Leben

John Batchelor wurde in Uckfield, East Sussex geboren. Sein Vater, William Batchelor, war ein Schneider und Pfarrsekretär (parish clerk). Batchelor besuchte die Uckfield Grammar School und durfte mit finanzieller Unterstützung von Rev. E.T Cardale am Church Missionary Society College, Islington studieren.

Am 22. September 1875 reiste Batchelor mit einer Gruppe von Missionaren der CMS nach Hongkong, wo er zunächst Chinesisch lernte. Von 1877 bis 1941 lebte er dann unter den Ainu auf der Insel Hokkaido, im Norden Japans. Er war ein charismatischer und ikonoklastischer Missionar für die Anglican Church in Japan und verfasste umfangreiche Schriften über Sprache und Kultur der Ainu und schrieb auch selbst in der Sprache der Ainu.[1] Beim Ausbruch des Zweiten Weltkrieges 1941 verließ er Japan nur zögernd.[2][3]

Kritik an der Politik der Japaner gegenüber den Ainu

Die Japaner vertrieben die Ainu von ihrem Land und verboten ihre Traditionen und ihre Kultur. Den Ainu war es nicht erlaubt, zu jagen, ihre Sprache zu sprechen, oder Unterricht zu bekommen und sie wurden unter Zwang in bestimmten Dörfern ghettoisiert.[4] Als die Japaner jedoch entdeckten, das man die Ainu ausbeuten könnte, änderten sie ihre Politik. Batchelor schreibt: „Die Japaner behandeln die Ainu heute besser, einfach aus der Erkenntnis heraus, dass die Ainu eine wertvolle Kuriosität sind, die man erhalten könnte. Darin lag jedoch keine Freundlichkeit oder Mitgefühl. Sie hörten einfach auf, diese zerstreuten Relikte einer Kaukasischen Rasse auszulöschen, als Besucher kamen und Geld dafür zahlten, sie zu sehen und zu studieren. Wenn heute die Ainu geschützte Mündel der Regierung sind, und wenn mir die Regierung irgendeine Anerkennung gezollt, dann nicht, weil sie ihr Herz geändert hätten, sondern nur, weil die Ainu einen Wert darstellen.“[5] Während der Zeit der Samurai mussten Ainus sofort auf der Erde kriechen und ihre Gesichter mit Dreck beschmieren, sobald sie auf einen japanischen Soldaten trafen, um nicht sofort enthauptet zu werden.[6] Außerdem war den Ainu das Tragen von Waffen verboten.[7]

Batchelor kritisierte die Japaner heftig für ihre grausame Behandlung der Ainu. Er schreibt: „Ich bin über achtzig, und vielleicht ist dies der Grund, aber mir wurde vor kurzem gesagt, ich sei der einzige Ausländer, der den Japanern gerade heraus sagen kann, was er von ihnen denkt und der damit davon kommt.“[8]

Werke

An Ainu-English-Japanese dictionary: (including A grammar of the Ainu language). Methodist publishing house; London, K. Paul, Trench, Trübner, co. 1905. (2. Ed., reprint, Tokyo, Methodist Publishing House, Ginza, Tokyo London Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, Co.) – University of Michigan, digitalisiert 8. Dezember 2006 (books.google.com)
Ainu grammar. Issue 1 of Memoirs of the Literature College, Imperial University of Japan, 1887. Basil Hall Chamberlain, John Batchelor, Imperial University, “Japan Mail” Office, Yokohama. 1. März 2012. (The Imperial University, Tokyo) Harvard University Digitalisiert 30. November 2007 (books.google.com).
聖書・新約: アイヌ. 1897. Printed for the Bible society’s committee for Japan by the Yokohama bunsha. Harvard University, digitalisiert 8. Oktober 2008 (books.google.com) Gesehen: 1. März 2012.
聖書・新約: アイヌ. 1896. Printed for the Bible society’s committee for Japan by the Yokohama bunsha. Harvard University, digitalisiert 8. Oktober 2008 (books.google.com) Gesehen: 1. März 2012.
Ainu Karisia Eiwange Gusu an Inonno-itak Oma Kambi. (The Book of Common Prayer in Ainu) 1896. SPCK, London. (justus.anglican.org) Gesehen: 5. März 2012.
Sea-girt Yezo: glimpses of missionary work in North Japan. Church Missionary Society, Gilbert & Rivington, LTD., St. John’s House, Clerkenwell, E.C. 1902. Harvard University, digitalisiert 11. September 2007 (books.google.com) Gesehen: 23. April 2012.
Ainu economic plants. In: Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan. Vol. 21, 1898. Mit Kingo Miyabe. Gesehen: 23. April 2012. (Harvard University, digitalisiert 30. Jan 2008)[Yokohama: R. Meicklejohn & CO., NO 49.] (books.google.com).
An itinerary of Hokkaido, Japan. Band 1. Tokyo Tsukiji Type Foundry, Japan 1893. Japanese Central Association, Hakodate Chamber of Commerce. Harvard University, digitalisiert 20. Januar 2006 (books.google.com) Gesehen: 23. April 2012.
The Koropok-Guru or pit-dwellers of north Japan, and, A critical examination of the nomenclature of Yezo. Band 19, 1904. Japan Mail, Yokohama. Harvard University, digitalisiert 20. Januar 2006 (books.google.com) Gesehen: 1. März 2012.
The Ainu of Japan: The Religion, Superstitions, and General History of the Hairy Aborigines of Japan. Religious Tract Society, Spottiswoode & CO., London 1892. University of California, digitalisiert 21. November 2007 (books.google.com) Gesehen 1. März 2012.
The Ainu and their folk-lore. Religious Tract Society, London 1901. Harvard University, digitalisiert 24. Januar 2006 (books.google.com) Gesehen: 1. März 2012.

Siehe auch

Nibutani

Weblinks

Commons: John Batchelor – Sammlung von Bildern, Videos und Audiodateien

Wikisource: Author:John Batchelor – Quellen und Volltexte (englisch)

John Batchelor bei Project Canterbury
The reason why John Bachelor made his mind to work for the Ainu

Einzelnachweise

John Patric: Why Japan was Strong. 4. Auflage. Doubleday, Doran, Incorporated, 1943, S. 72 (englisch, books.google.com – Digitalisat des Originals – University of California 16. Oktober 2007): “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”
Louis Frédéric (Übersetzt von Käthe Roth): Japan encyclopedia. Harvard University Press 2005. Kap. Ainu ISBN 0-674-01753-6 (books.google.com).
Ivar Lissner: The Living Past. 4. Auflage. Putnam’s, 1957, S. 204 (englisch, books.google.com – Digitalisat des Originals – University of California 27. Januar 2009): “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. It is to Batchelor that we owe our deepest insight into the”
John Patric: Why Japan Was Strong. A Journey of Adventure. Kessinger Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-4191-6878-9, S. 72 (englisch, books.google.com – Nachdruck): “…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.”
John Patric: Why Japan Was Strong. A Journey of Adventure. Kessinger Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-4191-6878-9, S. 72 (englisch, books.google.com): ‘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.’
John Patric: Why Japan was strong. 4. Auflage. Doubleday, Doran & company, inc., 1943, S. 170 (englisch, books.google.com): “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 oblidged 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.”
Why Japan Was Strong: A Journey of Adventure. Kessinger Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-4191-6878-9, S. 170 (englisch, books.google.com): “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.”
Why Japan Was Strong: A Journey of Adventure. Kessinger Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-4191-6878-9, S. 72 (englisch, books.google.com): “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.’”

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[1] John Patric: Why Japan was Strong. 4. Auflage. Doubleday, Doran, Incorporated, 1943, S. 72 (englisch, books.google.com – Digitalisat des Originals – University of California 16. Oktober 2007): “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”

[2] Louis Frédéric (Übersetzt von Käthe Roth): Japan encyclopedia. Harvard University Press 2005. Kap. Ainu ISBN 0-674-01753-6 (books.google.com).

[3] Ivar Lissner: The Living Past. 4. Auflage. Putnam’s, 1957, S. 204 (englisch, books.google.com – Digitalisat des Originals – University of California 27. Januar 2009): “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. It is to Batchelor that we owe our deepest insight into the”

[4] John Patric: Why Japan Was Strong. A Journey of Adventure. Kessinger Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-4191-6878-9, S. 72 (englisch, books.google.com – Nachdruck): “…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.”

[5] John Patric: Why Japan Was Strong. A Journey of Adventure. Kessinger Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-4191-6878-9, S. 72 (englisch, books.google.com): ‘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.’

[6] John Patric: Why Japan was strong. 4. Auflage. Doubleday, Doran & company, inc., 1943, S. 170 (englisch, books.google.com): “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 oblidged 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.”

[7] Why Japan Was Strong: A Journey of Adventure. Kessinger Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-4191-6878-9, S. 170 (englisch, books.google.com): “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.”

[8] Why Japan Was Strong: A Journey of Adventure. Kessinger Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-4191-6878-9, S. 72 (englisch, books.google.com): “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.’”