宣教師時代に里帰りした際のできごとや、日本でできた友人について、そして廣井先生との特別な絆について語ったインタビュー

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マリナ・スーティ: 故郷のアメリカにいるご家族やアジアにいる親しいお友達とはどうやって連絡を取っていましたか？

ジャネル・ランディス: そうなの。私がいたあの頃は電子メールなんてなかった…手紙よね。母は書くのが上手だったし、妹も私も未だになんだけど、パソコンを持っていないの。妹は手紙に絶大な信頼をおいてるから妹には手紙を書かないといけないわ。それで書くのが上達するわけじゃないけれど。ペンの黒インクよりも修正液の白の方がたくさん使うわ。まぁとにかく、あの時は主に手紙で家族とやりとりをしていたわね。たまに電話もしたけれど、当時は電話するのに日本からインドへかけて…電話をかけるための予約をインド人に取り付けないといけなかったから、たくさん掛けることはできなかったの。しかも時々かからないこともあったから。でも日本はあの頃、産業技術が発達してきてた時期で…FAXがあったわ。未だにFAXを持ってる宣教師って結構いるの、楽に連絡を取れる手段だから。でも今の時代はみんなと同じようにインターネットよね。おそらく、それでも、インターネットなしで日本と連絡を取れるからFAXを未だに持っている宣教師達はかなりいると思う。

マリナ: アメリカへ里帰りする機会は多かったですか？前に言っていたみたいにー

ジャネル: えぇ。毎年、そうね１ヶ月くらい、日本にいる人たちが里帰りできる制度があったわ。私は５年いて１年か９か月の休暇があった。私は教師だったから一年中日本にいることはなかったのよね。４月から３月までの年度内いつでも代理の先生がいたし。私の里帰りは３ヶ月ごと、じゃなくて３年ごとに３ヶ月だったわ。ホーム・アサインメント(※1)…前は休暇という言い方をしていたけれど最近ではホーム・アサインメントと呼び方を変えたのよね。ホーム・アサインメントの3分の1は自分の余暇。3分の1…3分の2は委員の仕事をしたわ。だから里帰り中には外に出ることが多かった。できる時には自分で運転したものよ。だって自分の車がないときって、行く場所はドライバー次第で、同じ話を何度もしないといけないし。 ほら、誰かの朝食と誰か目的地を運転中の話で、[いつも同じの質問を聞かれたことは]滑稽な気分になったりするでしょ。色んな地域に行くんだけど同じ質問をしてくるから、テープ・レコーダーで返事を録音して再生したかったわよ。でも何度も戻る機会があって、行ったことある地域に割り当てられた。ペンシルバニアでは福音改革派がメジャーでキリスト連合教会ともコネクションがたくさんあった。南東部協議会、北東部協議会、中央協議会、西部協議会。地域ごとにもいくつか…オハイオには協議会もあったけど組合もあったわ。ニューイングランドの方には何かあれば頼れる人もいた。一泊してディナーとランチを取るだけじゃなくて、３日間同じところで過ごして同じ教会に属してる色んなグループの人たちと話せる機会があったの。一度会ったら、それで「さよなら」ってわけじゃなくてね、あらそういえば、日本からの宣教師がいたわ、彼女の名前なんだったかしら。コネチカット州ではグループに入っていくのが少し難しいなと思った、イタリア系の人がコネチカット州の協議会長をしてて、コネチカット・マフィアと呼ばれていたの。私の日程表を送ってきた人もイタリア系の人だったし。それでも、デピュテーション(※2)のために来た宣教師の扱いがうまかったわね。デピュテーションは宣教師の仕事の一つね。教会や宣教師派遣委員会から有給で派遣されて自分の経験を伝える機会がもてるのよ。一度新たに宣教師となる人についての記事か何かを書いたことがあったわ。

（※1 ホーム・アサインメント…宣教師が自国(＝ホーム)でデピュテーションなどのアサインメント(＝任務・仕事)をする。休暇と併せて里帰りをする）

（※2 デピュテーション…宣教師が教会に訪問して自分たちの活動の報告や働きの紹介をすること）

マリナ: マリナ：えぇと、その。日本にいたときのご友人やお知り合いはみんな日本人でしたか。もしくはみんな外国人か、両方同じくらいなのか。

ジャネル: 最初のうちは同じ配属先の宣教師と仲良くしていたけど…何年も過ごして、語学学校から戻ってからは友達のほとんどが日本人だったわね、宣教師仲間がそれと共ににどんどん減っていったわ。

最後の何年かは、宣教師が３人しかいなくなってた。音楽の先生と他に…もう一人の男性。それと同じ部署にいた女性。でも、彼女は大学にしかいなくて私は中高等学校にいたけど、彼女が病気になって働けなくなってしまったの。私はその時パートタイムだった。2006年が宮城の120周年記念で、私たちが日本に帰る、というか訪問するための資金を学校側が出してくれて行った時に音楽の先生と一緒になってね。日本訪問から戻ってすぐにその彼はカリフォルニアで亡くなってしまった。だから、宮城時代の３人の宣教師のうち生きているのは私だけ。

宣教師の奥さんの誰かが男子校で働いていると思う。ついに中学校を手伝うようになったのよ。彼女は長いこと宣教師委員会から外されていたの。すごく腹立たしかったわ。だって彼女がやってきたホスピスでの頑張りがやっと日本で受け入れられてきたところだったのに。ついに実現するってところで、宣教師委員会は彼女がどの組織にも属していないと言い出したの。4人も子どもを育てて、子どもも彼女も地域に根差しているのに。でも今では中学校で教師をしているから嬉しいわ。でも学校から直接お給料が支払われているから宣教師のリストに彼女の名前はないの。

あと若い子が一人いたわね。でも私たちの宣教師委員会では２人の宣教師をサポートしていて２人とも前任宣教師の子どもだった。１人は京都に、あと１人が仙台だけど、家族がいる関西にほとんどはいるみたいね。

マリナ: では、廣井先生との時間について訊いていきますね。

ジャネル: えぇ。いいわ。

マリナ: それでは、廣井先生に初めて会った時のことを話していましたけど、その前に廣井先生について知っていましたか。

ジャネル: いいえ。廣井先生は東京出身で仙台に住むようになったわけだけど、私は先生のことは知らなかったの。アマノさんを通して知って、アマノさんとタカハシさんが手助けするために廣井先生を訪ねていて、二人が廣井先生を見つけたの。新年の番組でインタビューするために凧づくりの職人を探していてね。男の子は凧揚げ、女の子はバドミントンをする。とにかく、凧職人が見つからなくて、ある日本人女性が、小さくて素敵な本屋さんをやってたんだけど廣井先生の知り合いだったの。それで仙台に独楽職人がいると知ったのね。そして廣井先生を見つけたら、具合がよくないことと、生活が苦しいことが判った。だから病院に連れて行って、自分たちを弟子に取ってもらうことにしたの。収入もできて、独楽づくりを再開してもらえるようにね。その頃に、私はアマノさんの奥さんと一緒にあのテレビ番組をやっていた、アマノさんの奥さんが番組助手で日本語担当、私が英語担当でね。まぁとにかく私は、TBSで働くアマノさんとアマノさんのお友達に、番組に出てくれと頼まれたの。それから廣井先生の家に連れて行かれて。廣井先生と奥さんに会ったの、おかしな家で。お店以外に２～３個部屋があって、仕事が終わった後は座ってお茶を飲んだ。

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女性は私と廣井先生の奥さんしかいなかったから、たくさん話を聞いたの。楽しかったわ。こたつに入って話し合ってるのを聞くのが楽しみだった。女子中学校、女子高校、女子大の英語の教師で、色々な場面で生徒を引っ張っていく役割になる私としては、日本人男性とテーブルを囲んで彼らの話を聞くのはそれだけで素晴らしいことだったの。だって話の殆どは独楽づくりのことで、キリスト教の学校で宣教師をしているときとは全然違う友情を築けたから。私を仲間の一人としていつでも受け入れてくれたの。

In this post, Janell Landis describes visits home during her time as a missionary, her friends in Japan, and her special relationship with her teacher, Hiroi-sensei.

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Malina Suity [7:20]: How did you communicate with your family back home in the U.S. or any people you might consider to be family in Asia?

Janell Landis: Yes. At that time there was no email when I was…with letters. My mother was very good at writing and my younger sister still, we don’t, neither of us have a computer. She’s very faithful in writing to me so I have to write to her. I’m not getting very good at writing anymore. I’m using white out more than I’m using ink [laughs]. But anyway, I had had communications with my family mainly through letters. There were occasional phone calls, but not many, because there were times when phone calls between India and Japan where you had to make a…Indians had to make a reservation to call me. And the calls wouldn’t go through sometimes. But, in Japan, when I was uh, when they were getting into the technical age..faxes. You can still see in the list of missionaries there many of them still have the fax because that was the connection that made it easy to contact somebody. But now I think they’re in the internet just like we are. Probably, but many of the missionaries still have a fax, because then they can contact the Japanese without the internet.

Malina: Did you often get chances to return to the U.S. you mentioned–

Janell: Yes. Our board had a system, every year in Japan um, for every year you’d get a month or something like. I had five years and then one years furlough or nine months. Because I was a teacher sometimes I didn’t stay the whole year. I would go and there would be somebody to replace me in that school year from April to March of the next year. But I also went home every three months, I mean every three years for three months. One home assignment–they used to call them furloughs but in more recent years they changed it to home assignment. One third of the time was for yourself. One third was–two thirds for the board. And so when I was home in the United States I was often on the road. And when I could I’d drive myself. Because when I didn’t have a car you’re at the mercy of the place you’re going to and you have to tell the same story five times. You know, somebody’s breakfast and somebody drove you there and and it became almost humorous. I would have liked to have a tape recorder and just play it for them because they ask the same questions in various areas. But I had many times I came back and I was assigned to the same areas. In Pennsylvania, the E&R Church was big and the United Church has a lot of contacts in Pennsylvania. The Southeast Conference,  the Northeast Conference, the Central Conference, and the West Conference. And then some places it was just…in Ohio it was a conference but then it had associations. And up in New England I had some very helpful contacts there. Not just one overnight and a supper there and a lunch there, but I’d be in at one place for three nights and doing various groups in the same church for several times. And I’d see people more often than just once because, ‘Oh yeah we had a missionary from Japan, what was her name?” Kind of was harder there in Connecticut to get into that group because the one visit I had there with what they called the Connecticut mafia because the Connecticut chairman was of Italian background and then this man who sent me my schedule was of Italian background. But they were very good at using the missionary who was there for what we called deputation and that was part of being a missionary. Being able to be sent and paid for by the church or the mission board for visiting and having a chance to share. I had some articles and stuff that talked about the missionary coming.

Malina: Um, what, um. Were your acquaintances and friends in Japan mostly Japanese people or mostly foreigners or was it a mix of the two?  

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[14:20]

Janell: I think in the beginning my friendships were mainly the missionaries that were aligned with…but as the years went on and I came back from language school my friends were mostly Japanese and the number of missionaries became less and less too.

In the last couple years, there were only three of us missionaries. The music teacher and another–a man. And a woman who was in the same department. But I, for some of that she was only in the college and I was in the Junior-Senior High, but then she became ill and couldn’t work and I was still part time then. And the music teacher we were together in 2006 for Miyagi’s 120th birthday and the school paid for our coming home to Japan, I mean coming back to Japan. And um then shortly after he came back from that visit he died in California. So, I’m the only living one that was in that Miyagi period where [there were] the three missionaries.

I think there’s one of the wives of a missionary who’s serving the men’s school. His wife is finally helping in the Junior High. She was dropped from the mission board for a while and that made me very angry. Because she was just getting to the point where her work with hospice was being taken up in Japan. And just before that got off the board, the mission board said she wasn’t connected to any organization. She raised four kids there and they were all in the neighborhood and she had neighborhood children in her home. But now she’s teaching in the Junior High and I’m glad for that. But she’s not listed as a missionary because her salary is coming from the school.

And I think there’s another young person there too. But our mission board is down to supporting two missionaries and they’re both children of former missionaries. One in Kyoto and one, one was in Sendai but he’s going on with his family to the Kansai area too. 

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Malina: So, now I think we’re going to shift over to, um your work with Hiroi Sensei.

Janell: Yes. Uh-huh.

Malina: So how–you mentioned how you first met him, had you heard about him before?

Janell: No. No. He came from Tokyo and settled in Sendai but it was–I didn’t know he was there. It was through Mr. Amano’s connection, he and Mr. Takahashi helping Hiroi sensei and visiting for this particular, they discovering him. They found, like I said, they were looking for a kite-maker to interview on one of these New Years programs because flying kites is the big thing for boys and playing badminton is for girls. And anyway, they didn’t find a kite-maker but a woman who was running–a Japanese woman who had a nice book store was acquainted with Hiroi-sensei.  and she found that they had a top-maker right there in Sendai. And that’s when they found him and he was not well, and he was not making much money to live on. So they got him into the hospital and got him taking them on as apprentices. So they could get some money to him and assisting him in getting back to making tops. And around that period, I had been on that program with Mr. Amano’s wife and she was my associate and using the Japanese while I was doing the English. But anyway, he and his friend from the same company, TBS, asked me to be on this program. And they took me to the home of Mr. Hiroi. And I met Hiroi-sensei and his wife in a very strange house. They had one or two rooms besides the shop and we’d sit around the table and have tea after we finished working.

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[31:28] And many times his wife and I were the only women, and so we listened a lot. And it was fun. I enjoyed those times in the kotatsu and listening to the discussions. For a teacher of English who was with college and junior high and senior high school girls, and in many ways being a leader for them, it was just wonderful to be able to sit around a table with these Japanese men and listening to what they were talking about. Because a lot of the times it was about making the tops, but the friendships that developed in that area were some that were quite different from being a missionary in a Christian school. But I was always accepted as a valid person.