The Cross and the Rising Sun: The Canadian Protestant Missionary Movement in the Japanese Empire, 1872-1931

2. Early Days in Japan

CHAPTER TWO Early Days in Japan George Cochran and Davidson McDonald arrived in Japan in mid1873 to establish a Methodist church patterned on the Canadian model. These pioneer missionaries saw their role as simply one of building a strong church organization which would provide a firm foundation for later expansion. In their concern to emulate Western church organization as well as its theology and discipline, they made few concessions to the sensibilities ofJapanese culture and society. It is somewhat surprising, given the exotic nature of their religious message and the foreignness of the church organization, that they were able to make any headway at all. But they indeed did make headway, partly because they responded to an immediate need in early MeijiJapan,.the great demand for English-language teachers in schools specializing in Western studies. Missionaries, Cochran and McDonald among them, saw that they could open Christian work through language instruction. Such was the desire to study English and Western scientific subjects that the Japanese most often took the initiative in seeking out missionaries. As the response of the ex-samurai who became converts indicates, the Christian message in the mid-1870s fitted in with the transformation of Japan then taking place. It is this phenomenon, which contrasts sharply with Chinese attitudes toward Mackay in Taiwan, that greatly facilitated the initial success of Canadian Methodist efforts. The social and political atmosphere in Japan when the two Canadians arrived in 1873 was receptive to change and open to Western influence. By 1881, the mood ofJapan was less open, but in the interim the Canadian missionaries had made great strides in developing their mission. During the halcyon days of the mid-1870s, the Canadians formed two groups of Japanese converts, the Koishikawa Band in Notes for Chapter Two are found on pp. 227-30. 35 36 THE CROSS AND THE RISING SUN Tokyo and the Shizuoka Band, out of whose number came many ofthe Japanese workers and pastors who contributed to the success of Canadian work in later years. The network of contacts the two Canadian missionaries made while forming these two Christian groups reveals how Western ideas, Christianity among them, were transmitted into Japanese society in both a metropolitan and a provincial setting, and the example of these two Christian groups further illuminates the intellectual response of the Japanese to the deluge of Western ideas that flooded into Japan during the 1870s. BUNMEI - KAlKA AND WESTERN TEACHERS In April 1868, five years before Cochran and McDonald arrived, the new Meiji government took the initiative in openingJapanese society to Western influences in order to develop the country economically, industrially, and militarily, an aim symbolized by the idea of fukokukyohei -"a rich country and strong army." The new regime hoped to achieve diplomatic equality between Japan and Western countries.l Western science was encouraged as a means of achieving progress and Chinese learning was denounced in favour ofthejitsu gaku - "practical learning" of the West.2 The attitude of the Meiji government toward what they thought was Western civilization (which in this Victorian context means modernization ) was opportunistic. Although home-made programs and theories of civilization had not been formed, the government avidly and indiscriminately introduced the material aspects of Western civilization, without concern for their effect on the life of the general population. The material objects of civilization flooded Japanese society very quickly. Bunmei-kaika, the Japanese term for civilization, was used to refer to anything from the West.3 Beyond this, mostJapanese had little idea of what civilization was or where the flood of new Western ideas was taking their society. As a result, a sense of disorientation accompanied the beginnings of Meiji modernization.4 There was an undercurrent of anxiety beneath the surface of Japanese society, which belied its seemingly robust and flamboyant atmosphere. It was against this background that some Japanese intellectuals began working out theories of civilization, in which they criticized the Meiji government's policy of Westernization, particularly its opportunism and superficiality. At the same time, these intellectuals attempted to show the Japanese people what civilization truly was and how they could attain it inJapan. Yet in constructing their own theories of civilization, they were forced to refer to Western theories. The initiative to develop Japanese theories of civilization had its nucleus in a learned society, the Meirokusha (Society ofMeiji Six), which EARLY DAYS IN JAPAN 37 was founded in Tokyo in 1873. All its members...