Lewis S. C. Smythe

{{Short description|American Christian missionary and sociologist}}

Lewis Strong Casey Smythe [pronounced "Smith"{{Cite web|title=The Bulletin, Spring 2008 (Vol. 44, No. 2): The Newsletter of the Lexington Theological Seminary |year=2008 |page=4 |url=https://www.lextheo.edu/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/bulletinspring08.pdf}}] (Washington, D.C. January 31, 1901 – June 1, 1978) was a sociologist and an American Christian missionary to China who was present during the Nanjing Massacre.{{Cite web|title=Lewis S.C. Smythe | publisher=The Nanking Massacre Project: Yale Divinity School, Yale University |url=http://web.library.yale.edu/divinity/nanking/smythe}}{{Cite web|title=Oral History Catalogue: Claremont Graduate University |url=http://web.cgu.edu/oralhistory/china_missionaries_project.htm}}{{Cite book|title=They Were in Nanjing: The Nanjing Massacre Witnessed by American and British Nationals, Vol. 1. | author=Suping Lu |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |year=2004 |page=137 |isbn=9789622096868 }}{{Cite book|title=A Mission Under Duress: The Nanjing Massacre and Post-massacre Social Conditions Documented by American Diplomats |editor=Suping Lu |publisher=University Press of America |year=2010 |page=331 |isbn=9780761851509 }}

The son of Lewis Strong Smythe (of DeRuyter, New York) and Annie Amelia Casey (of New Brunswick, Canada), Smythe spent most of his early life in Great Falls, Montana{{Cite book|title=They Were in Nanjing: The Nanjing Massacre Witnessed by American and British Nationals, Vol. 1. | author=Suping Lu |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |year=2004 |pages=137– |isbn=9789622096868 }} where he finished high school and worked on a cattle ranch.{{Cite web|title=113 Session-North Carolina Convention of Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) |date= November 12–14, 1957 |page=21 |publisher= North Carolina Disciples of Christ |url=https://archive.org/details/programsofncdisc01nort}} During his undergraduate studies he met Margaret "Mardie"{{Cite web|title=The Bulletin, Spring 2008 (Vol. 44, No. 2): The Newsletter of the Lexington Theological Seminary |year=2008 |page=5 |url=https://www.lextheo.edu/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/bulletinspring08.pdf}} Lillian Garrett, an American born in Nanjing, China, to missionary parents; the couple married in 1924 and had two daughters{{Cite web|title=China News Letter - Letters from Phillips House to friends in the United States | publisher=The Nanking Massacre Project: Yale Divinity School, Yale University |url=http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/Nanking/Images/NMP0263.pdf}}{{Cite book|title=Protestant Medical Missionary Experience During the War in China 1937-1945: The Case of Hubei Province |author=Jocelyn Mary Chatterton |publisher=School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |year=2010 |url=http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/16916/2/Jocelyn.pdf}} – Margaret "Peggy" Ann (1931 – 2016) and E. Joan (1934 – 1963).{{Cite web|title=The Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper: Cincinnati, Ohio |date=January 27, 1945 |page=9 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/104079797/}}{{Cite web|title=The Courier-Journal newspaper: Louisville, Kentucky |date= May 15, 1957 |page=17 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/108138986/}}{{Cite web|title=The SASA News, March 2016 (No. 79) | author=Shanghai American School Association |year=2016 |pages=2–3 |url=https://www.saschina.org/uploaded/community/Alumni/SASA_20Newsletter_Spring_2016.pdf}} Smythe enrolled at Drake College in 1918, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Law and BA degrees in 1923. In March 1927, he earned an MA (Department of Practical Theology, Chicago Divinity School) for his dissertation "The Social Background of the Shanghai Incident and Its Influence Upon Christian Missions in Chicago".{{Cite thesis|title=the University of Chicago Dissertations and Theses: The [University of Chicago] Library |date=1927 |oclc=46919596 |url=http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/4415439 |last1=Smythe |first1=Lewis S. C. }} In August 1928, he earned a Ph.D. (Department of Christian Theology and Ethics, Chicago Divinity School) for his dissertation "Bibliographic Details Changes in the Christian Message for China by Protestant Missionaries".{{Cite thesis|title=the University of Chicago Dissertations and Theses: The [University of Chicago] Library |date=1928 |oclc=77984626 |url=http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/4261946 |last1=Smythe |first1=Lewis S. C. }} He was also influenced by and affiliated with faculty from the University of Chicago's prestigious Chicago School (sociology), notably Ernest Burgess and Robert E. Park.{{Cite journal|title=Editor's Note | author=M. F. Nimkoff |journal=Journal of Marriage and Family Living (Now the Journal of Marriage and Family) |year=1952 |volume=30 | issue=4 |pages=272–273 }}

In 1928, the Smythes were dispatched to Nanjing (Nanking) by the United Christian Mission Society (Indianapolis, Indiana). Smythe served as Professor of Sociology at Nanking University (1928 – 1951) while his wife, a physician (MD from Rush University, Chicago, Illinois,{{Cite web|title=The Courier-Journal newspaper: Louisville, Kentucky |date= December 4, 1953 |page=51 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/108476558/}} served as a medical missionary.{{Cite web|title=The Courier-Journal newspaper: Louisville, Kentucky |date= February 8, 1957 |page=22 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/108808651/}}

Smythe was in Nanjing during the Battle of Nanking and its aftermath, the Nanjing Massacre. He served as Secretary of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone from December 14, 1937 to February 10, 1938.{{Cite book|title=Documents on the rape of Nanking |editor=Timothy Brook |editor-link=Timothy Brook (historian) |publisher=University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor Paperbacks |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-472-08662-7 }} In that role, he and the Committee's chairman, John Rabe, recorded the atrocities committed by Japanese troops and made daily reports complaining to the Japanese embassy. Smythe reported that while the Japanese embassy continually promised to do something about the atrocities, it was not until February 1938 that anything substantive was done to restore order to the city.{{Cite book|title=Documents on the rape of Nanking |year=1999 |editor=Timothy Brook |editor-link=Timothy Brook (historian) |publisher=University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor Paperbacks |isbn=978-0-472-08662-7}}

After the end of World War II, Smythe was among members of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone who testified about the Nanjing Massacre to the International Military Tribunal of the Far East.

The Smythes were forced by the Communists to leave China in 1951. Smythe subsequently worked as an adviser to several organizations and wrote several articles and books relating to social change in China. He served as a Professor and Chair of the newly established Department of Christian Community (1952 – 1964) at The College of the Bible (Lexington, Kentucky{{Cite book|title=Lexington Theological Seminary, 1865-1965: The College of the Bible Century |editor=Dwight E. Stevenson |year=1964 |pages=301, 331, 344 |publisher=The Bethany Press |asin=B000HHNQES}}{{Cite journal|title=The Success of Chinese Families as Families | author=Lewis S. C. Smythe |journal=Journal of Marriage and Family Living (Now the Journal of Marriage and Family) |year=1952 |volume=30 | issue=4 |pages=286–294 }} During a one-year sabbatical (1957 – 1958), he served as the Assistant to the President of Silliman University (Dumaguete, Philippines) and instituted a local, rural development program.{{Cite book|title=Lexington Theological Seminary, 1865-1965: The College of the Bible Century |editor=Dwight E. Stevenson |year=1964 |pages=351 |publisher=The Bethany Press |asin=B000HHNQES}}

In the documentary film Nanking, Smythe was portrayed by actor Stephen Dorff.