Found in Translation by Nataly Kelly & Jost Zetzsche

Author:Nataly Kelly & Jost Zetzsche [Kelly, Nataly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101611920
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2012-10-01T16:00:00+00:00

Love Is a Battlefield

Tetsu Nakama made a living from translating love letters for more than half a century. Japanese by birth, he learned English in school after World War II ended, with the prospect of eventually gaining employment at a U.S. military base. But that changed when his cousin brought him a letter from a U.S. soldier to a bar hostess in Koza (today’s Okinawa). He agreed to translate the love letter from English into Japanese.7

He must have had a knack, because more requests for love letter translation started pouring in. He translated in both directions, billing his clients a total of 50¢—equivalent at the time to a daily wage for a menial worker—to translate a postcard and a two-page reply. At first, he had mixed feelings about helping build relationships between U.S. soldiers and women from Okinawa. His memories of being attacked by U.S. planes as a child remained vivid. However, one letter at a time, he began to see that many women were falling in love, not just with the American men, but with the dream of a new life amid rather grim conditions. Many of them had lost their former husbands and families during the war. The bicultural relationships gave them hope of escaping not only from poverty but from painful memories.

Nakama started his business in 1957. As time passed and the Vietnam War grew in intensity, the number of requests for letters grew, and so did Nakama’s business. At the height of the war, up to thirty women would visit Nakama’s office per day, bearing letters from their beloved soldiers. Nakama’s eyes saw letters from mothers reporting to their sons’ lovers that they had been killed in battle. He also sometimes saw young women smile with delight upon reading his translations and learning that their dear boyfriends’ lives had been spared.

Fifty years after Nakama translated his first letter, he was still actively translating—albeit far fewer love letters than when he first started.8 In the Internet age, letters that go through the postal service are far less common than in the past. But the need for translation of loving written messages continues. Couples with hearts in their eyes will still defy any barrier in order to be together. That includes language.

Chocolates for Japanese Men on Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day in Japan was introduced by department store Morozoff Ltd. in 1936 and aimed primarily at foreigners. By 1953, Morozoff began encouraging consumers to buy heart-shaped chocolates. Candy companies soon began their own campaigns, but at one point a statement from a chocolate company executive was mistranslated, leading people to believe that women were supposed to buy chocolate for men. Japan now has a separate holiday for women on March 14, on which men buy women white chocolates, jewelry, and lingerie. But on February 14, it’s the women in Japan who buy the chocolate.

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