At this time no missionaries were allowed in Japan. So
Neesima, recognizing God as the only father to whom he owed life fealty,
determined to break the environments of his youth, and to leave temporarily his
home and country. With some difficulty he obtained first his prince's, then his
parents', sanction to leave Yedo, ostensibly to go to Hakodate, and in the
spring of 1864 went thither. Neesima, always thinking of his country and its
conditions, watched closely the people of Hakodate, and, painfully cognizant of their corrupt existence, determined that
Japan needed moral reformation more than mere material progress. His desire to
visit a foreign land he confided to a Japanese clerk employed by an English merchant. This friend at midnight and with great
difficulty conveyed Neesima in a row-boat alongside an American vessel, whose
kind-hearted captain had consented to take the Japanese boy as far as China. At Shanghai, Neesima was transferred to the
American ship Wild Rover, whose captain employed Neesima to wait upon the table
; and not liking "Shimeta," called " his boy" Joe, and was uniformly kind to him. After a four months' voyage the
ship reached Boston Harbor ; and through the kind interest of Captain Taylor,
Neesima was introduced to the owner of the Wild Rover, Mr. Alpheus Hardy, one of Boston's noblest philanthropists. He became
at once interested in the boy, and, with Mrs. Hardy, assumed the responsibility
of his education.
In
September,1865, he entered the English department of Phillips Academy, Andover.
Here he
remained until 1867, when his benefactors sent him to
Amherst. His letters during his student life tell of frequent illnesses, which
at times interfered with his work, of his tramps through different States
during vacation, of letters from his Japanese parents, of his
anxiety about his home affairs during the rise of the princes against the
shogun in 1868-1869, of his growing spirituality, and of his heartfelt
gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. Hardy. In a letter dated March 21, 1871, Neesima
writes that he met in Boston, Mori, the Japanese minister sent to Washington by the mikado. Mr.
Mori offered to reimburse Mr. Hardy for Neesima's educational expenses, and
thereby make Neesima subject to Japanese government. Mr. Hardy at once declined
the proposition. On Sept. 17, 1871, Neesima wrote to Mrs. Hardy that he had
received a passport from the Japanese government, and that from the same source
his father had received a paper saying : "It is permitted by the
government to Neesima Shimeta to remain and study in the United States of
America.”
In 1872 an
embassy representing the imperial government of the Mikado visited America and
Europe on visits of inquiry into Western civilization ; and Minister Mori
summoned Mr. Neesima to Washington to meet the embassy, and to assist Mr.
Tanaka, the commissioner of education. In this way Mr. Neesima became
acquainted with the most progressive men of new Japan, whose friendship in
later years was of great value to him. Fearing, however, that his plan to return
to Japan as a free advocate of Christianity might be endangered, he carefully stipulated that Mr.
Mori should state to the embassy that any service desired of him would be
undertaken only under a contract that freed him from all obligation to the
Japanese government. Under these circumstances he was engaged, and soon proved
so valuable an assistant, that Mr. Tanaka insisted upon his accompanying the
embassy to Europe. There he gave all his time to the study of the best methods
of learning in schools and institutions of all grades ; and on the basis of his
reports was built to-day's educational system in Japan-. From this European
trip with the embassy Mr. Neesima returned to Andover in September, 1873.
In March,
1874, Mr. Neesima formally offered himself to the American Board, and July 2
was appointed corresponding member to the Japanese mission. He was graduated as
a special student from Andover Theological Seminary, and ordained in Boston,
September 24. The Board held its sixty-fifth annual meeting at Rutland, Vt.,
that autumn, and Mr. Neesima spoke on the establishment of a Christian college
in Japan. By his soul-felt enthusiasm the young Japanese carried his audience
with him ; $5 ,000 was at once subscribed, and Neesima's dream became a reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment