A study on interpreters and interpreting in wartime language policy and war crimes, drawing on class B/C war crimes trials against the Japanese

• Project/Area Number: 17K02988
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Rikkyo University
• Principal Investigator: TAKEDA Kayoko 立教大学, 異文化コミュニケーション学部, 教授 (60625804)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2019)
• Budget Amount: ¥4,290,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥990,000); Fiscal Year 2019: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000); Fiscal Year 2018: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000); Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
• Keywords: 戦時通訳者 / BC級戦犯裁判 / 被告人としての通訳者 / 証人としての通訳者 / 通訳者の共同責任 / 通訳者の可視性 / 通訳内容の遂行性 / アジア・太平洋戦争 / 通訳者の幻想主体性 / 太平洋戦争 / 戦犯裁判の被告人 / 戦犯裁判の証人 / 対日諜報活動 / 日本語言語官の養成 / 法廷通訳 / 裁判の証人 / 第二次世界大戦 / 日本語教育 / 戦争と言語 / 戦争犯罪裁判 / 言語政策 / 諜報員養成

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study concerned issues of languages in war. It mainly examined wartime interpreters as defendants and eyewitnesses of war crimes at post-Asia-Pacific-War British military trials against the Japanese. By paying attention to the historical and geopolitical contexts and the role of interpreters in violent conflict, it discussed the issues of interpreters’ visibility and risk of being "concerned in" war crimes, focusing on the "performativity" of what they interpreted, their "illusory agency" and joint responsibility in taking part as interpreters in unlawful acts such as torture. This study also discussed how the US, Britain, Australia and Canada recruited and trained wartime Japanese linguists as well as how the Japanese military recruited Taiwanese and local civilians in Japanese-occupied territories as interpreters. The findings of this study were presented through publications and lectures in international settings, reaching audiences in diverse academic disciplines.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

戦時通訳者が戦犯として有罪判決を受ける、また、戦争犯罪の目撃者として法廷で証言を行う、という特異な事例に注目し、その背景と裁判内容を提示し、現代の戦争・紛争で通訳者が直面する課題と関連づけて論じたことは、新奇性という意味で学術的意義があるだけでなく、社会的意義があると考える。特に、本研究が提示した戦時通訳者の可視性、違法行為への関与リスク、訳出内容の「遂行性」、所属部隊の行動に対する共同責任などの課題は、従来から唱えられてきた通訳者の「黒子的」役割、中立性、守秘義務といった考えに一石を投じるものである。さらに、戦時言語官の養成に関する研究は、安全保障や諜報における現代的課題にも通じると考える。

Research Products

• [Int'l Joint Research] 国立政治大学(台湾)
• [Int'l Joint Research] メルボルン大学/モナシュ大学(オーストラリア)
• [Int'l Joint Research] ケンブリッジ大学/ユニバーシティ・カレッジ・ロンドン(英国)
• [Int'l Joint Research] ハワイ大学/フーヴァー研究所(米国)
• [Int'l Joint Research] シンガポール国立大学(シンガポール)
• [Int'l Joint Research]
• [Int'l Joint Research] ケンブリッジ大学(英国)
• [Int'l Joint Research] スタンフォード大学(米国)
• [Int'l Joint Research] モナシュ大学(オーストラリア)
• [Int'l Joint Research] 台湾政治大学(その他の国・地域)
• [Int'l Joint Research] ブリティッシュコロンビア大学(カナダ)
• [Int'l Joint Research]
• [Int'l Joint Research] 台湾国立政治大学(台湾)
• [Int'l Joint Research] フーヴァー研究所(米国)
• [Int'l Joint Research] ケンブリッジ大学(英国)
• [Int'l Joint Research] ブリティッシュコロンビア大学(カナダ)
• [Int'l Joint Research] モナシュ大学/オーストラリア国立大学(オーストラリア)
• [Int'l Joint Research]
• [Journal Article] Culture-specific Evidence before Internationalized Criminal Courts: Lessons from Asian Jurisdictions (2019)
  • Author(s): Cheah, W. L.
  • Journal Title: Journal of International Criminal Justice Volume: 17 Pages: 1031-1055
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] The Battle of Saipan in Japanese Civilian Memoirs: Non-combatants, Soldiers and the Complexities of Surrender (2018)
  • Author(s): Trefalt Beatrice
  • Journal Title: The Journal of Pacific History Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 252-267
  • DOI: 10.1080/00223344.2018.1491300
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
• [Journal Article] British War Crimes Trials in Europe and Asia, 1945?1949: A Comparative Study (2018)
  • Author(s): CHEAH W.L.、VORMBAUM MORITZ
  • Journal Title: Leiden Journal of International Law Volume: 31 Issue: 3 Pages: 669-692
  • DOI: 10.1017/s0922156518000262
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
• [Journal Article] Guadalcanal Revisited (2017)
  • Author(s): Totani, Yuma
  • Journal Title: Hoover Digest Volume: 3 Pages: 110-119
  • Open Access
• [Journal Article] Collecting Bones: Japanese Missions for the Repatriation of War Remains and the Unfinished Business of the Asia- Pacific War (2017)
  • Author(s): Trefalt, Beatrice C.
  • Journal Title: Australian Humanities Review Volume: 61 Pages: 145-159
  • Peer Reviewed / Open Access
• [Presentation] Interpreters’ visibility and joint responsibility in war crimes (2020)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: Center for Translation Studies Research Events at University College London
  • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
• [Presentation] Rewriting war memory through translation: Japanese-South Korean relations (2020)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: The 16th International Conference on Korean Language, Literature, and Culture
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Language training in crises: Lessons from the Pacific War? (2019)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: The CCTS Lecture at Dublin City University
  • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
• [Presentation] Training of Japanese linguists for Allied military intelligence during the Pacific War (2019)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: ICAS (International Convention of Asian Scholars) 11
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Protecting interpreters from being “concerned in” war crimes? (2019)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: EST (European Society for Translation Studies) Conference
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Trust and joint responsibility: Japanese programs in Australia during the Pacific War and interpreters convicted as war criminals in postwar trials against the Japanese (2019)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: Public Lecture at University of Melbourne
  • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
• [Presentation] From Cambridge classicists to Japanese code breakers: How the British recruited and trained Japanese linguists for military intelligence (2019)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: Wolfson Lunchtime Seminars
  • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
• [Presentation] Mediating communication for the occupying foreign military in postwar Japan: Status and stigma (2019)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: Passing, Posing, Persuading: Cultural Production and Coloniality in Modern Japan
  • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
• [Presentation] Language Cramming for Crown and Country: Wartime Japanese programs in Britain and their legacy (2019)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: The CEISR (Centre for European and International Studies Research) Seminar
  • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
• [Presentation] The role of Nisei translators and bilingual journalists in national news agencies in wartime Japan (2019)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: APFTIS (Asia-Pacific Forum on Translation and Intercultural Studies) 7
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Strategic use of translation in the representation of colonial and wartime memories by the Japanese government (2019)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: A crisis in ‘coming to terms with the past’? At the crossroads of translation and memory
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Trial and error in the interpreting and translation procedures during the Tokyo Trial (2018)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: 70 Years Later: The International Tribunal for the Far East
  • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
• [Presentation] Interpreters and War Crimes (2018)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: MIIS Public Lecture Series
  • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
• [Presentation] Method in translation and interpreting history (2018)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: Graduate Seminar at Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
• [Presentation] Various faces of interpreters at the British war crimes trials against the Japanese in Hong Kong (2018)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: The Yau Shing-yen Lecture in Translation at Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
• [Presentation] Microcosm of wartime interpreters found in war crimes trials documents (2017)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: The Translator Made Corporeal: Translation History and the Archive at the British Library
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Collaborative research for the history of interpreting (2017)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: 台湾翻訳通訳学会大会（台北）
  • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
• [Presentation] Is interpreting torture a war crime? (2017)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: FIT Congress 2017 (Brisbane, Australia)
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Nisei linguists across the Pacific and the Atlantic during World War II (2017)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Organizer: The First Japanese Diaspora Workshop at the Hoover Institution
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Book] The Crisis in Coming to Terms with the Past ("Rewriting War Memory through Translation" (Takeda, K.)) (2020)
  • Author(s): Forsdick, C., Mark, J., Spisiakova, E., Takeda, K., Cercel, C., David, L., Salt, K., Subotic, J., Sawkins, I., Neuhauser, S., Schneider, N., Crenzel, E., McKay, D., Steele, B., Noussis, G., Gordon, M., Arens, S., Vaisman, N.
  • Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• [Book] 70 Years On: The International Military Tribunal for the Far East ("Trial and Error in the Interpreting System and Procedures at the Tokyo Trial" (Takeda, K.)) (2020)
  • Author(s): Dittrich, V., von Lingen, K., Makraiova, J., Osten, P., Totani, Y., Aksenova, M., Amann, D. M., Cohen, D., Crowe, D., Ferencz, D., Morris, N., Orentilicher, D., Ozaki, K., Safferling, C., Seraphim, F., Simpson, G., Takeda, K., Trefalt, B., Wilson, S.
  • Publisher: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher (TOAEP)
• [Book] The Evolving Curriculum in Interpreter and Translator Education ("TI Literacy for General Undergraduate Education" (Takeda, K. & Yamada, M.)) (2019)
  • Author(s): Sawyer, D.B., Austermuhl, F., Enriquez Raido, V., Takeda, K., Yamada, M., Torres-Simon, E., Pym, A., Gambier, Y., Schaeffner, C., Meylaerts, R., Metzger, M., Cagle, K., Hunt, D., Poechhacker, F., Mikkelson, H., Slay, A., Szasz, P., Cole, B., Sayaheen, B.
  • Total Pages: 430
  • Publisher: John Benjamins
  • ISBN: 9789027203175
• [Book] Representing Translation: The Representation of Translation and Translators in Contemporary Media (2019)
  • Author(s): D. Abend-David, K. Takeda, E. Heller, Ying Xiao, C. Bucaria, D. Chiaro, I. Mazur, Z. Pettit, Ying Cui, Yanil Zhao
  • Total Pages: 245
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury
  • ISBN: 9781501333873
• [Book] 太平洋戦争 日本語諜報戦 (2018)
  • Author(s): 武田 珂代子
  • Total Pages: 240
  • Publisher: 筑摩書房
  • ISBN: 9784480071620
• [Book] 東京裁判「神話」の解体 (2018)
  • Author(s): デイヴィッド・コーエン、戸谷 由麻
  • Total Pages: 288
  • Publisher: 筑摩書房
  • ISBN: 4480071903
• [Book] The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal (2018)
  • Author(s): D. Cohen, Y. Totani
  • Total Pages: 543
  • Publisher: University of Cambridge Press
  • ISBN: 9781316348659
• [Book] 東京裁判における通訳（新装版） (2017)
  • Author(s): 武田珂代子
  • Total Pages: 238
  • Publisher: みすず書房
• [Book] Japanese War Criminals (2017)
  • Author(s): Wilson, S., Cribb, R., Trefalt, B., and Aszkielowicz, D.
  • Total Pages: 417
  • Publisher: Columbia University Press
  • ISBN: 9780231179225
• [Remarks] Selected Works of Kayoko Takeda
  • URL: https://works.bepress.com/kayoko_takeda/
• [Funded Workshop] Military Linguists in War and War Crimes (2020)