George Ashmore Fitch (1883–1979) was an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
YMCA
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...
,
Nanking Safety Zone International Committee Administrative Director, and the
grandfather of
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
George B. Fitch.
Fitch was born in
Suzhou
Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, the son of
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
missionaries George F. and Mary (McLellan) Fitch. He graduated from the
College of Wooster, Ohio, in 1906, and
Union Theological Seminary in New York with a
Bachelor of Divinity
In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity or Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD or BDiv; la, Baccalaureus Divinitatis) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology ...
in 1909. He was
ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1909 and went to China to work with YMCA in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
.
Nanking Massacre
When the
Nanking Massacre
The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Ba ...
occurred in 1937–1938, Fitch, who was head of YMCA there, served as director of the
International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone. He compiled a diary and filmed some of the atrocities committed by the
Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
in Nanking in December 1937.
December 24, 1937
Writing later in his
autobiography
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life.
It is a form of biography.
Definition
The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...
, Fitch said, "My story created a sensation in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
, for it was the first news of what had happened in the capital since its evacuation, and it was copied and mimeographed and widely distributed there." In 1938 Fitch traveled throughout the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
giving talks about the Nanking Massacre and showing films to document it.
In the 2007 documentary film
''Nanking'', Fitch was portrayed by actor
John Getz
John William Getz (born October 15, 1946) is an American character actor. After starting his acting career on stage, he has appeared in numerous television series and films.
Personal life
Getz, one of four children, was born in Davenport, Iowa, ...
.
After George Fitch departed,
Hubert Lafayette Sone was elected administrative director of the Nanjing International Relief Committee, successor to the Nanking Safety Zone.
Subsequent career
Fitch returned to China in 1939 to serve with YMCA and later with the
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in November 1943, it was dissolved in September 1948. it became part o ...
until 1947. He then served YMCA in
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
and
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
until 1961, when he retired in the United States. He died in
Claremont, California
Claremont () is a suburban city on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles. It is in the Pomona Valley, at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 census it had a popul ...
.
Fitch was a
Freemason
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
.
Bibliography
*George A. and Geraldine T. Fitch, My Eighty Years in China (1967)
Further reading
*Zhang, Kaiyuan, ed. ''Eyewitnesses to Massacre'', An East Gate Book, 2001. (includes documentation of American missionaries; M.S. Bates, George Ashmore Fitch, E.H. Foster, J.G. Magee, J.H. MaCallum, W.P. Mills, L.S.C. Smyth, A.N. Steward, Minnie Vautrin and R.O. Wilson.)
(Google Books version)*biographical sketches: one from The National Cyclopedia of American Biography; one by George A. Fitch entitled "Grand Old Man of the Pacific-and of YMCA"; a March 1949 issue of Science of Mind.
References
*Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright (c) 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, The Gale Group; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan
External links
*http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/f/fitch-george-ashmore.php
*http://www.interq.or.jp/sheep/clarex/discovery/discoverylog03.html
*http://special.lib.umn.edu/findaid/html/ymca/yusa0012.phtml
*https://web.archive.org/web/20070922143410/http://www.history.gr.jp/~nanking/nanking.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitch, George Ashmore
1883 births
1979 deaths
American Freemasons
American Protestant missionaries
Protestant missionaries in China
People assisting Chinese during the Nanjing Massacre
American humanitarians
American expatriates in China
YMCA leaders