Comments on: Understatement http://keywords.oxus.net/archives/2007/12/22/understatement/ The personal blog of P. Kerim Friedman. Sun, 31 Jul 2011 02:00:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: 28481k http://keywords.oxus.net/archives/2007/12/22/understatement/comment-page-1/#comment-7461 28481k Fri, 28 Dec 2007 05:35:04 +0000 http://keywords.oxus.net/archives/2007/12/22/understatement/#comment-7461 From your linked video, Emperor Hirohito's speech is not only archaic, his speech was also rather astonishingly influent -- he sounded as if he wasn't prepared for the speech at all! Of course, I don't think he would normally speak in that style, otherwise he would be more used to speaking that script. No wondered it wasn't broadcasted in live: giving such a heavy announcement is no easy job for one who had always been hidden from public view since the war. Talking about archaic language, a Chinese translation in <a href="http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%BB%88%E6%88%98%E8%AF%8F%E4%B9%A6" rel="nofollow">Chinese Wikipedia</a> used the appropriate Classical Chinese to translate his speech. (If it were in late 19th Century it could even written in Kanbun first!) The "戰局必スシモ好轉セス世界ノ大勢亦我ニ利アラス" line is rendered as "而戰局並未好轉，世界大勢亦不利於我。" (The was has not turned for the better, and the general trends of the world have not been advantageous to us either.) I guess that would be the most neutral interpretation a la Matt's. From your linked video, Emperor Hirohito’s speech is not only archaic, his speech was also rather astonishingly influent — he sounded as if he wasn’t prepared for the speech at all! Of course, I don’t think he would normally speak in that style, otherwise he would be more used to speaking that script. No wondered it wasn’t broadcasted in live: giving such a heavy announcement is no easy job for one who had always been hidden from public view since the war.

Talking about archaic language, a Chinese translation in Chinese Wikipedia used the appropriate Classical Chinese to translate his speech. (If it were in late 19th Century it could even written in Kanbun first!) The “戰局必スシモ好轉セス世界ノ大勢亦我ニ利アラス” line is rendered as “而戰局並未好轉，世界大勢亦不利於我。” (The was has not turned for the better, and the general trends of the world have not been advantageous to us either.) I guess that would be the most neutral interpretation a la Matt’s.

]]> By: Charles http://keywords.oxus.net/archives/2007/12/22/understatement/comment-page-1/#comment-7430 Charles Sun, 23 Dec 2007 18:58:37 +0000 http://keywords.oxus.net/archives/2007/12/22/understatement/#comment-7430 The phrase I am most interested in here is, "not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization." This phrase is couched in Japanese religious symbolism, in the dogma of many Japanese Buddhist and Shinto sects, the Japanese People ARE the entirety of human civilization. I could easily find many citations in Japanese religious writings where Japan is described as THE World, and if Japan falls, the world falls. For the Emperor, seeing Japan destroyed was equal to having the whole world destroyed. With this phrase, the Emperor establishes that by surrendering in order to protect the (remaining) Japanese people, he is acting as a God to protect all of mankind. The phrase I am most interested in here is, “not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization.”

This phrase is couched in Japanese religious symbolism, in the dogma of many Japanese Buddhist and Shinto sects, the Japanese People ARE the entirety of human civilization. I could easily find many citations in Japanese religious writings where Japan is described as THE World, and if Japan falls, the world falls. For the Emperor, seeing Japan destroyed was equal to having the whole world destroyed. With this phrase, the Emperor establishes that by surrendering in order to protect the (remaining) Japanese people, he is acting as a God to protect all of mankind.

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