Leroy Lansing Janes facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Leroy Lansing Janes
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Leroy Lansing Janes
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| Born | 1838 Ohio, United States
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| Died | 1909 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | educator, missionary |
Leroy Lansing Janes (born 1838, died 1909) was an American teacher and missionary. He was hired by the Kumamoto Domain in Japan during the early Meiji period. This was a time when Japan was opening up to the world and learning from other countries.
Contents
Early Life and Military Service
Leroy Janes was born in Ohio, United States. He went to the United States Military Academy at West Point, which is a famous military school. After graduating, he served as a captain in the artillery during the American Civil War. This was a big war fought in the United States.
Teaching in Japan
In 1871, a powerful family called the Hosokawa clan asked Janes to come to Japan. They were the leaders of the Kumamoto area. They wanted him to teach at the Kumamoto Yōgakkō. This was a special school that taught Western subjects.
Janes created a school plan that was taught completely in English. His classes included mathematics, history, geography, and natural science. He also taught his students about Western ideas and ways of thinking.
Spreading New Ideas
Leroy Janes carefully taught his students about Western morals. After three years, he felt his students trusted him. He also thought their English was good enough. Then, he started to talk about Christianity and how it connected to Western culture.
About 30 of his students decided to become Christians because of his influence. Some of these students became very important people later on. They included Tokio Yokoi, Kozaki Hiromichi, Ebina Danjo, and Ukita Kazutami.
School Closure and New Beginnings
The Kumamoto Yōgakkō school had to close in August 1876. This happened because some people in Kumamoto did not like the new Western ideas. They were more traditional.
After the school closed, Janes and his students moved to Kyoto. There, they joined the Dōshisha school. This school had been started a year earlier by Niijima Jō. Leroy Janes returned to the United States in 1878.
He came back to Japan to teach again from 1893 to 1899. He continued to be an oyatoi gaikokujin, which means a hired foreign expert.
