The Gist of Japan: The Islands, Their People, and Missions

by R. B. Peery

A certain amount of educational work seems necessary to the success of every mission. First in importance is theological training. A body of well-trained native pastors is absolutely essential. Especially in this land, where there are many educated people and where all forms of rationalism and skepticism are rife, is it necessary that the evangelist have a liberal education, that he be well rooted and grounded in Christian doctrine, and able to answer the philosophical objections to Christianity that meet him on every side. An educated ministry is just as necessary in Japan as it is in the West, and the schools that are providing such a ministry are doing a good work.

But some of the methods used by them are open to criticism. Heretofore most theological training has been in the English language, and the language alone has taken up a great deal of the student's time and strength. And again, very few Japanese young men gain a sufficient knowledge of English to appreciate or derive full benefit from a theological course in that language. Against this is urged the paucity of Christian literature in Japanese, and the wide field of religious thought which a knowledge of the English language opens to the student. This is very true; but if the same amount of time and energy that has been expended in instruction in English had been given to the creation of a native Christian literature the evil would not exist. I am glad to note that recently nearly all the theological schools have introduced courses in the vernacular for those who cannot take the English course. It would be well if the English course were dispensed with entirely and all instruction were given in the vernacular.

Many of the missions operating in Japan have sent worthy young men to America and England for theological training. In nearly every instance this has proved an unwise investment. The good people at home take up these young men and nurse and pet them until they are completely spoiled. They come back to Japan unfitted by taste and education for the position they must occupy and the work they must do. Most of them become dissatisfied in the work after a few years. Foreign education largely denationalizes them and removes them from the sympathies of their own people. Of course there have been some exceptions to this rule; but, in general, experience has proved that locally trained evangelists are best suited for the work and give most satisfaction in it.

By this it is not intended to imply that Japanese pastors and teachers should not have the advantages offered by the Western seminaries when they desire them and are able to obtain them for themselves. They are as capable of receiving advanced instruction as we are, and have the same right to it. But the money which foreign boards spend for training evangelists should be spent in the field.

Besides the theological schools there are large numbers of academical schools for young men, in which a great deal of mission money is spent. In justification of these it is argued that they are necessary for the preparatory training of evangelists. It is said that the education of these future pastors of the church should be Christian from the beginning, and this is true. But more than half the evangelists now laboring in Japan have not received such training. The education they received from government and private schools answers very well in their case. Actual experience has proved that, whatever may be the aim of these academies, as a matter of fact they do not train evangelists. Most of the men who take their full course enter other professions. One of the oldest missions in Japan, employing about twenty evangelists, has among them only one man who has taken the full academical course in its mission college; but many men have been educated at the church's expense for other professions.

Again, it is said in justification of these academies and their large expenditure of mission money that a Christian education must be provided for the children of the constituency of the mission. The church provides a Christian education for her sons and daughters at home; why should she not do it for her wards abroad? Far be it from me to attempt to minimize the importance of Christian education; but will it not be time enough for such education when the constituency of the native church feels its need to such an extent that it will demand this education itself, support the schools with its money, and send its sons and daughters to them? At present even the Christian people frequently prefer a government school to a mission school; and they often send their children to the latter, when they do send them, because they will there be given financial aid.

There was a time when Christian schools did a good work in Japan. Before the government schools were brought up to their present standard the mission schools were well patronized, and they considerably benefited the cause of missions. But to-day the government has schools of every grade, and frequently they are better than the mission schools. The students who formerly flocked to the mission schools now flock to those of the government, and the former have but few pupils. The times have changed, and these large, expensive schools are now hardly needed. In so far as they are needed for the preparatory training of a native ministry, and can be made to serve that end, they may be all right, but certainly as an evangelizing agency they are not justified. The native church should be encouraged and stimulated to educate its own children; it might even be assisted in the attempt, when it has shown an honest effort to do this; but its children should not be educated for it by the mission free of charge. To spend so large an amount of the people's money in purely secular education seems to me a misappropriation of funds.

More than half the mission schools in Japan are boarding-schools for girls. Nearly all the unmarried women engaged in mission work are in these schools, and there are many of them. Some of these schools have very fine locations and buildings, about as good as those of the average girls' college at home. That they are more popular and better patronized than those for boys is because the government does not provide for the higher education of girls as it does for boys.

The purpose of these girls' boarding-schools is to train up earnest Christian women, who will be the wives and mothers of the new Japan. It is said that if the mothers of the nation are made Christian the evangelization of the whole people will speedily follow. This purpose is a worthy one. Most of the girls who enter these mission schools become Christians, and the training given them seems to be good. I recently attended the closing exercises of one of the largest of these, and was surprised at the progress made by the girls. They could paint and draw, and recite classical music as well as the young ladies of the seminaries at home; and I have no doubt that the graduates leave the schools pure-minded, earnest Christians, with worthy aims and aspirations, and with a full intention to exert their influence for God and His church.

But alas! when they go back to their homes the position Japanese etiquette assigns them so effectually ties their hands that the results are bitterly disappointing. I will mention one case which came under my own observation. A young lady was educated by a mission school in a certain city, who was noted for her piety and earnest Christian spirit. Her teachers had most extravagant hopes as to the strong positive influence she would exert for Christianity. After her graduation she spent several years in the same school as a teacher, and her Christian life was broadened and deepened by longer and more intimate contact with the foreign teachers. She finally married and removed to her new home, in a distant city. There she attended church once or twice and then stopped entirely. Neither the urgent personal request of the native pastor nor the oft-repeated invitation of the Christian congregation could induce her to come any more. Instead of exerting an influence for good upon others she herself became a fit subject for mission work. I have known several cases of this kind, and all missionaries have had the same experience. Social conditions in Japan are such that a girl marrying into a non-Christian home can exert little Christian influence.