"Manchukuo" in Missionary Archives: Christian Missions under Colonial Conditions

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00090
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 01030:Religious studies-related
• Research Institution: Meiji Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: Watanabe Yuko 明治学院大学, 教養教育センター, 教授 (20440183)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: キリスト教史 / 中国近現代史 / 「満洲国」研究

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this research is to clarify how Christian missionary, educational and other enterprises were carried out in Manchukuo under the colonial situation by using missionary materials.
Although the research work at the National Library of Scotland, which has a large archive of Manchurian missions, had to be postponed by the Covid-19 pandemic, I was able to analyse other related materials and consider the background to the shrine worship imposed on the people, including Christians, by the Manchukuo government and the unification of the Chinese churches led by the Japanese pastors.
And last year I was finally able to fly to Edinburgh to collect missionary archives in the library.

Free Research Field

中国キリスト教史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

1941年6月に日本のプロテスタント諸教派が合同し設立された日本基督教団にならって「満洲国」でも日本人牧師の指導によって中国人教会の合同が断行され満洲基督教会が設立されたが、中国人が合同の過程をどのように見ていたのかは、宣教師の報告に依拠するしか方法がない。宣教師資料を用いて宣教師の視点を加えつつ、教会合同の経緯を明らかにするものとして本研究の意義は小さくない。
同様に神社参拝問題も、植民地期朝鮮や台湾と異なって研究の蓄積が極端に少ない「満洲国」の状況を解明する点に本研究の学術的、社会的意義がある。