Japanese Translation Question

Boongie · 18 Nov 2020

Hello. If I may ask a cultural question. There is a private Japanese elementary school near where I live. I have several Japanese World War II period military documents and several Yosegaki Hinomaru. Would I offend the instructors at the school if I contacted them and asked for assistance in translating the documents and the flags? I am aware of the sensitivity of American possession of these types of items from that period, particularly Yosegaki Hinomaru or Senninbari. I don't wish to offend anyone. Or instead should I seek out a person in my area that teaches the Japanese language for translation assistance?
Thank you for any feedback.

mdchachi · 19 Nov 2020

Boongie said:
Hello. If I may ask a cultural question. There is a private Japanese elementary school near where I live. I have several Japanese World War II period military documents and several Yosegaki Hinomaru. Would I offend the instructors at the school if I contacted them and asked for assistance in translating the documents and the flags? I am aware of the sensitivity of American possession of these types of items from that period, particularly Yosegaki Hinomaru or Senninbari. I don't wish to offend anyone. Or instead should I seek out a person in my area that teaches the Japanese language for translation assistance?
Thank you for any feedback.

Even native speakers are not necessarily good translators for historical documents like this. If you have some small budget, I'd probably find a translator on fiverr.com. The flags don't need much translation because they are 95% just people's names who signed it, unless you want all those names translated too.

Boongie · 19 Nov 2020

mdchachi said:
Even native speakers are not necessarily good translators for historical documents like this. If you have some small budget, I'd probably find a translator on fiverr.com. The flags don't need much translation because they are 95% just people's names who signed it, unless you want all those names translated too.

Thank you. I will check out that web site. What I am finding out, from feedback on this forum, is that some of these items are not period authentic. In particular the Yosegaki Hinomaru.

Majestic · 19 Nov 2020

I don't think they would take offence if you contacted them and asked if there were any staff members would would be interested in looking at some militaria and possibly trying to translate. If they aren't interested, they would just turn you down. The request itself wouldn't be cause for them to be offended - not a one-time request, anyway. If you keep on showing up asking for translations, they would probably start to get bothered.
As mdchachi says, people with no interest in this stuff aren't great judges of these items. Often, the writing is hard to read even for Japanese people. Or, they may tell you what they think you want to hear, out of politeness. This forum, and Wehrmacht-Awards (a militaria forum, maybe you already know it) handle these kinds of requests all the time, so we have seen a fair amount of fakes.

Boongie · 19 Nov 2020

mdchachi said:
Even native speakers are not necessarily good translators for historical documents like this. If you have some small budget, I'd probably find a translator on fiverr.com. The flags don't need much translation because they are 95% just people's names who signed it, unless you want all those names translated too.

Thank you. I am most interested in three items: translation of slogans, translation of the owner's name, and authenticity. Based on the kindness of people responding to my several posts of various Yosegaki Hinomaru, I am seeing an unfortunate pattern of potential fakes. Such as nonsense kanji and the same signing hand across multiple names. Unfortunately, I am not skilled at detecting these issues. The members of this forum have been most helpful.

Boongie · 19 Nov 2020

Majestic said:
I don't think they would take offence if you contacted them and asked if there were any staff members would would be interested in looking at some militaria and possibly trying to translate. If they aren't interested, they would just turn you down. The request itself wouldn't be cause for them to be offended - not a one-time request, anyway. If you keep on showing up asking for translations, they would probably start to get bothered.
As mdchachi says, people with no interest in this stuff aren't great judges of these items. Often, the writing is hard to read even for Japanese people. Or, they may tell you what they think you want to hear, out of politeness. This forum, and Wehrmacht-Awards (a militaria forum, maybe you already know it) handle these kinds of requests all the time, so we have seen a fair amount of fakes.

Thank you for your feedback. And your help with my prior posts.

Japanese Translation Question

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