Japanese translations in Nov. FSM Scale Talk
The November issue of FSM's
Scale Talk section features a very informative letter from Ken Robert on the Japanese submarine-borne seaplane
Seiran, in which Mr. Robert addresses some inaccurate information from an article in the September FSM (Alfonso Martinez Berlana's fantastic Seiran, in an article titled "Model the Mountain Haze").
In addition to correcting some false information concerning the origins of the Seiran on display at the NASM's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Mr. Robert also correctly addresses the appropriateness of the common translation of the Japanese word
Seiran as "Mountain Haze."
Indeed, the first translation given in many dictionaries is similar to the following:
Seiran: A haze that hangs over mountains on fine days; a mist, a haze
The second translation choice in the same dictionary is what Mr. Robert was referring to when he talked about a more appropriate, WWII-era nuance of the word:
Seiran: On a clear day, a sudden, blowing mountain storm.
I couldn't agree more with Mr. Robert's assessment there.
Although Mr. Robert's letter brought much insight into the history of this unique aircraft and its name, I was surprised to find one curious choice in his interpretation of the Japanese term "Tokoh" (sic), more accurately written as
tokkou, which Mr. Robert translates in his letter as "maximum effort."
Tokkou is short for
tokubetsu kougeki, a direct translation of which is "special attack," more commonly known and translated as "suicide attack."
Kamikaze squadrons were officially known as
Tokkou Butai,or "Special Attack Squadrons." While nuance and deeper meaning must always be taken into consideration when translating (as evidenced by
Seiran), I believe translating
Tokkou as "maximum effort" in the context of Mr. Robert's letter is misleading. One could of course argue that a suicide mission is indeed the epitome of "maximum effort," but in the interest of accurately portraying a foreign language in context, "special attack" is definitely more appropriate than "maximum effort."
The only reason I bring this up at all is that Mr. Robert went out of his way to correctly address the true nature of the word
Seiran as it applies to the aircraft, so I was a bit surprised to see his interpretation of
Tokkou as it was.
None of which takes away from the value of his very well-written and informative letter. As a professional translator living and working in Japan, however, I just thought I would mention it in the interest of accuracy.