Japan’s balloon bombs remain little known 70 years after the end of World War II for several reasons. They were developed in strict secrecy by the Japanese military as its naval fleet suffered a crushing blow in 1944 and could no longer strike the United States. The U.S. government also censored virtually all news reports of balloons striking its territory, threatening to charge those who did disseminate such news with aiding the enemy. The War Department destroyed much of the evidence of the bombs. Finally, the bombs did very little damage compared to the scale of the conflict.
But the explosive balloons were remarkable feats of engineering with a distinctly Japanese touch. Their development was centered at the Imperial Japanese Army Noborito Laboratory, located in the hills of Kawasaki southwest of Tokyo on land in Kanagawa Prefecture that now belongs to Meiji University. Known for its links to the military Unit 731, which experimented on human subjects in Harbin, the lab was charged with developing secret weapons and techniques to undermine enemy states, such as the production of counterfeit currency distributed in China. In response to the April 1942 “Doolittle Raid” on Tokyo — the first U.S. attack on Honshu — Japan wanted to hit back by any means possible. The army considered initial plans to load high-flying balloons with the rinderpest virus, but this was ultimately abandoned for fear of a terrible retaliation by the U.S. — which came anyway in the form of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Americans from Bly weren’t the only ones killed by the balloons. Six Japanese also died in an accident when releasing them, according to Akira Yamada, curator of the defunct Imperial Japanese Army Noborito Laboratory Museum for Education in Peace. The museum is housed in an original wartime laboratory building and has a small-scale replica of a balloon bomb as well as exhibits about how the washi paper was fabricated. “The attacks by balloon bombs were adopted as a last-ditch measure,” says Yamada. “Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier units didn’t have enough fuel to attack the American mainland, and the military didn’t have any long-range bombers that could do the job.”
Japan Timesの日曜版を見て、生田まで行って資料館を見てきましたが、無料ながら、３０ページもある資料冊子ももらえて、展示はしっかりしていて、DVDによる説明もあり、とても充実したものでオススメです。映画でやっていたドイツ軍に偽札造り。日本も中国に向けて実行していたなんて、この資料館のおかげで初めて知りました。。。
Japan Times On Sundayで渡辺謙さんのミュージカルデビューについて記事にされていました。残念ながら英語力が足を引っ張っているというのです。Japan Timesは閲覧回数制限があるので、Kyodo Newsをシンガポールのサイトでご紹介。
Actor Watanabe slammed for poor English in New York musical reviews PUBLISHED: 4:01 PM, APRIL 18, 2015 NEW YORK — Japanese actor Ken Watanabe received scathing remarks about his English skills, although not his acting, as critics reviewed on Friday (April 17) the opening of the Broadway musical The King and I in New York.
“His diction is not always coherent,” The New York Times said, while The New York Post called Watanabe’s English “rough”. “His solo turn, ‘A Puzzlement’, is just that — a garbled mess,” it added. inline
The Daily News said the 55-year-old actor’s English “is a work in progress, so sometimes his lines and lyrics are blurry”.
The Wall Street Journal said: “His thick Japanese accent is something of a trial in ‘A Puzzlement’, but that’s the only thing slightly wrong with him.”
映画は撮り直しがききますが、ミュージカルはそうもいきませんから難しいのかもしれませんね。
Watanabe spoke about the challenge his English skills face in a musical the day after the first preview show.
“Movies are more forgiving of mistakes, whereas if you make too many mistakes in a musical, you won’t be able to reach the audience,” he told a press conference on March 13. KYODO NEWS
Cast members were panicky because they could hear those blue-haired ladies who make up much of the Lincoln Center audience saying things like “What’s he saying?,” “What kind of an accent is that?” and, my favorite, “Speak English — like Yul Brynner!”
Apparently, Watanabe was nervous about the language problem as well. And so he decreed about three weeks ago — after all, he is the King — that everybody on the show address him in English at all times.
Yul BrynnerとDeborah Kerr のKing and IがYouTubeにありました。
まだ始まったばかりですから、今後の挽回を期待してたいです！！
“He has spent every day since previews speaking in English and in English only,” a source says. “Even at home, I think.”
Well, the Rosetta Stone crash course paid off. Watanabe can now be understood, for the most part, by everybody in the theater. The little old ladies have settled down. They are no longer puzzled by “A Puzzlement.”
Name: Donna Burke Age: 50 Nationality: Australian Occupation: Singer, voice actor, Tokyo Comedy store improvisor, business owner Likes: Cats Dislikes: People who don’t like cats
1. What first brought you to Japan? The chance to be a full-time singer and actor. 2. What’s keeping you here? I love Tokyo, the energy, people and the mountains nearby where I go to relax and recharge in our cabin in Minakami. There is no snow in Perth, Western Australia, and now I love skiing. 3. Who in Japan do you most admire? I admire parents who work, cook meals, clean up, plant gardens and care for pets without complaining or falling asleep at work. They are legends and superheroes who inspire me when I think I work too hard. I just think how exhausted I’d be if I was a parent. All you tired parents out there: you’re an inspiration! 5. What’s your favorite Japanese word or phrase? Ōhayō gozaimasu (good morning). I feel like a real J-hipster when I arrive at a studio saying ōhayō! It signifies that (a) I’m in the music biz, baby, and (b) you know that I know I’m in the music biz!
20. Do you have any words of advice for young people? Read lots of biographies and autobiographies. Don’t visit fortune tellers; write your own fortune. Look after your teeth — they can’t grow back. Early success is overrated — being a late bloomer is way better than peaking and burning out early in life.
We’re all familiar with the concept of untranslatable words and ideas and I ask Powell if there are any specific difficulties with translating Japanese to English? “Yes,” she says with a laugh. “The syntax is so different that it’s almost impossible to do a literal translation. The ideas that we express at the end of a sentence, Japanese will put at the beginning. You’re getting the information in a different order. When I’m translating it into English I have to decide what’s the most important part of this sentence, is it the information or is it the way that you’re getting it? That’s fun. I heard another translator describe his process as trying to recreate the way that he felt when he read the original and I aspire to that.”
“Then there’s the subject. In Japanese dialogue, who is speaking is often implied but not expressed. Another translator from Japanese said he was working with the author and he got who was speaking wrong. That happens to me, too. It’s embarrassing, but really, how are you supposed to know? Maybe the Japanese always know when they’re reading it but that’s a challenge. And there’s a lot of repetition. In English we vary the way we say things, we vary our use of nouns and verbs, we use synonyms but in Japanese you’ll find the same phrase repeated and I don’t think that works well in English. I think as a translator the most important skill you have is being able to write well in the target language. Obviously a facility with the source language is important but it’s not as important as being able to produce a finished product that reads well.”
最後に一番重要なこととしてI think as a translator the most important skill you have is being able to write well in the target language.と語っています。これもよくいわれることですね。。。（苦笑）
Bending Adversity, a Portrait of Contemporary Japan Date: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 Time: 19:30 (Door open at 19:00) Speaker: David Pilling (Asia Editor of the Financial Times) Venue: Azabu Hall, Temple University, Japan Campus 2F Moderator: Jeff Kingston, Director of Asian Studies, TUJ Admissions: Free Language: English Registration: If possible, we ask you to register by E-mail (icas@tuj.temple.edu) , but we always welcome participants even you do not register. / 参加登録はなしでも参加できますので、直接会場へお越しください。 Facebook: Check out this event's Facebook page for discussions.
David Pilling will talk about his newly released book Bending Adversity, a portrait of contemporary Japan. Throughout its history, Japan has weathered calamities from natural disasters such as the 2011 tsunami to crushing defeat in war and its more recent loss of economic vigour. Drawing on a wide range of contemporary Japanese voices and on the author’s own experiences living in Japan as a foreign correspondent for six years his book draws together many threads – economics, history, politics and contemporary reportage – together in one volume. Bending Adversity’s publication coincides with a surge of renewed interest in Japan, still the most important US ally in Asia, as its territorial disputes heat up dangerously with China, as it attempts a radical revival of its economy and as the Fukushima nuclear disaster rumbles on.
The title of “Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival” refers to an old Japanese proverb about making the best of a bad situation or transforming crisis into opportunity. Japan is no stranger to crisis, or to monumental “bending,” but will the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 serve as a catalyst for transformation and, if so, leading where?
David Pilling, former Tokyo bureau chief for The Financial Times (2001-08), has written a superb book on contemporary Japan that, better than any other I have read, manages to get the reader inside the skin of Japanese society. Full disclosure, Pilling is a good friend and I commented on early drafts of this astutely observed account. But trust me, this is a great read brimming with insights and should shoot to the top of your reading list.
Sensibly, Pilling refrains from declaring the recent cataclysm a game changer, instead introducing us to various Japanese and how they are responding. The yearning for greater certainty and security confronts perceptions that Japan risks even more without substantive reform. “Bending Adversity” benefits considerably from Pilling’s incredible access to a wide range of people from government, industry, academia and the arts, drawing heavily on their voices to deliver a convincing and nuanced portrait of Japan. It helps that he also shares his everyday encounters and personal impressions in crafting a colorful and rounded analysis, one that doesn’t shy from criticism, but also veers away from shrill harangue. It is evident that Pilling is keen on Japan, but it is not a naive embrace.
Natural disaster and China’s rise have jolted Japan out of cautious consensus as exemplified by “Abenomics,” but can it deliver substantive reforms? Pilling explains the logic of this high-stakes gamble, but one year on skepticism is growing. Neither Abenomics nor the 2020 Tokyo Olympics offer a magic wand, but Pilling’s reappraisal of the so-called Lost Decades in the 1990s and beyond usefully reminds us that Japan was never the basket case pundits were writing off and retains considerable strengths. He also notes how change, paradoxically, is a Japanese tradition, an incremental and gradual process the author elucidates very well. Although Heisei Era (1989-) Japan’s ongoing transformation has been fitful, Pilling draws our gaze to dramatic shifts in norms, values and practices and the emergence of a more dynamic civil society.
Japan Sitting tight How the catastrophes of 2011 changed Japan Jan 18th 2014 | From the print edition Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival. By David Pilling. Penguin Press; 385 pages; $29.95. Allen Lane; £20. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
THE triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident that struck Japan on March 11th 2011 was an extraordinary and terrible event. According to the National Police Agency, it killed 15,856 people and left another 2,643 missing, shaking the confidence of millions. The visible horror of the tsunami and the dread of radiation and nuclear explosion provoked anxiety the world over, leading many to ask: what might this terrible event do to Japan?
The clues that emerged pointed in opposite directions. The stoicism and social solidarity of ordinary Japanese in the face of the disaster led to hopes of renewed unity. The speed with which railways, airports and factories were cleared and reopened, often beating initial estimates by months, led to predictions of renewed economic vigour.
