THE EMPEROR’S SPEECH – PART TWO

Tags

Akihito, Hirohito, WWII

Imperial Conference of 9-10 August 1945 – by M. Terauchi

I was surprised to hear most of my students say they had never heard all of Emperor Hirohito’s speech that ended the war, only about one minute of it.  Even more surprising was that many of them have never read the transcript. The language and the Kanji characters in the one the Japanese media published are so archaic the document is unintelligible even to well educated Japanese.

I found the English version that was translated in 1945 by University of Washington alum Tadaichi Hirakawa.  Mr. Hirakawa’s effort to remain true to the spirit of the Japanese original resulted in a rather clumsy translation that is also hard for most Japanese to comprehend.

I took the liberty of paraphrasing Mr. Hirakawa’s translation so that my students would finally be able to digest this important prelude to Japan’s pacifist era.  The exercise was an eye-opener for me and I hope it will be for my non-Japanese readers, too.

THE EMPEROR’S SPEECH

Tags

Akihito, Hirohito, WWII

This is the dialog I wrote to help my students answer a foreigner who asks about the recent headline news from Japan. I wrote this based on answers I got from some of my more advanced students.  Only item No. 10 is my own opinion.

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT DAY IT IS?

Tags

Children's Day, Constitution Day, Golden Week, Greenery Day, Hirohito, japanese emperor, Tenno Heika, YUJI DIALOGUES

Dane: Tomorrow’s the 29th. I hear we’ve got the day off.

Yuji: Yes, it’s a national holiday.

Dane: What holiday is it?

Yuji: Uh, I don’t know.

Dane: Well, I’m sure the Japanese aren’t celebrating Obama’s 100th day in office. So, can anybody tell me what holiday April 29th is?

Reiko: It’s Greenery Day.

Dane: But I heard May 4th is Greenery Day.

Fumio: That’s right. Starting last year they changed the 29th from Greenery Day to Showa Day and moved Greenery Day to the 4th.

Dane: So, what does Showa Day celebrate?

Daisuke: It’s the birthday of Emperor Hirohito, the Showa Emperor.

Fumio: It used to be, but not anymore. Now it celebrates the Showa Era of Peace.

昭和時代

SHOWA ERA: 12/25/1926 – 1/7/1989

Dane: That’s so Japanese. Conservative patriots like Daisuke can celebrate the war emperor and liberals like Fumio can celebrate peace — both on the same day!

Reiko: And next week we all celebrate Golden Week . Every day from the 3rd to the 6th is a holiday!

Dane: What’s the 3rd?

Reiko: I thinks it’s, uh, National Founding Day.

Fumio: No, that’s in February. May 3rd is Constitution Day.

Dane: And the 4th is Greenery Day, so what’s the 5th?

Daisuke: It’s Children’s Day.

Dane: How do you celebrate that?

Daisuke: We fly koinobori fish wind socks for every boy in the family.

Dane: Only for the boys?

Daisuke: Yes, traditionally it’s Boys’ Day.

Reiko: Girls’ Day is on March 3rd, but it’s not a national holiday.

Dane: This is all very confusing. I’m afraid to ask about the 6th.

Fumio: Oh, the 6th is an alternate day off since Constitution Day is on a Sunday this year.

Dane:  OK.  I suppose it doesn’t really matter what you call it, as long as we get some days off.  But it seems like a lot.  How many national holidays do you have every year, anyway?

Yuji:  15 regular national holidays plus another 4 or more days off during New Year and the summer Obon festival.

Dane:  You’re kidding! Americans have only 9 national holidays.

Yuji:  We like to take our vacations at the same time, so we have more holidays and fewer personal vacation days.

Dane:  So I guess it’s impossible to go anywhere during New Year’s week, Golden Week and Obon week.

Yuji:  Normally, yes.  But this year with the economy so bad here and the swine flu overseas, it looks like most  everyone’s staying home.