Translating japanese to English with latin characters

[mrs_mia_wallace]

hello all-
i am new to this forum, and am hoping i can ask for some help! i am very interested in japan's history, culture, and tradition. right now i am writing a play about a japanese family living in an internment camp in california during world war II.
i don't know how to say anything in japanese besides hai, arigato, and konichiwa (sad i know, i hope to learn more!) and i am hoping someone can help me out with some words and phrases.
words:
mother
daughter
father (i am hoping for more a "position" something similar to the english "head of the house" the man who is responsible for the family)
japanese pet names, such as what a husband would call his wife, and what a wife would call her husband
i am looking for a name that a mother would use when speaking to her daughter about an older japanese woman, what name would she use to signify respect for the woman? (example in english, madame)

some of my descriptions maybe be a little confusing so ask if you need clarification. i would appreciate any help!
<3

 

[The7thSamurai]

mother: okaasan
daughter: my daughter might be "uchi no musume", another person's daughter would be "musume-san"
father (i am hoping for more a "position" something similar to the english "head of the house" the man who is responsible for the family): otousan would fit this. You could also say 'goshujin' (literally, 'master of the house')
japanese pet names, such as what a husband would call his wife, and what a wife would call her husband: the only one I know is 'anata', meaning something like 'dear'.

These will all need to be confirmed by a Japanese native speaker though.

 

[Elizabeth]

father (i am hoping for more a "position" something similar to the english "head of the house" the man who is responsible for the family): otousan would fit this. You could also say 'goshujin' (literally, 'master of the house')

Oodana, danna(sama) are the only two others I can think of.

japanese pet names, such as what a husband would call his wife, and what a wife would call her husband: the only one I know is 'anata', meaning something like 'dear'.

Kimi is common for husband to wife/girlfriend

i am looking for a name that a mother would use when speaking to her daughter about an older japanese woman, what name would she use to signify respect for the woman?

Fujin or Okusama would work, but only if she were married....?

 

[nice gaijin]

One of the most tragic things about the internment was that over 60% of the detainees were American citizens, locked away by their own government. I'm curious as to why you are highlighting their being Japanese. These were mostly Americans in America; throwing in random Japanese words is more likely to confuse the audience than to lend any credibility to your story...

 

[Elizabeth]

One of the most tragic things about the internment was that over 60% of the detainees were American citizens, locked away by their own government. I'm curious as to why you are highlighting their being Japanese. These were mostly Americans in America; throwing in random Japanese words is more likely to confuse the audience than to lend any credibility to your story...

If this is a historical context, forget what I answered above. Things would have been more formal then. You would probably have used "sama" as an honorific suffix even for family members, for instance.

I didn't even notice that this was for the war period. And I agree it is going to sound silly, perhaps even disrespectful or sarcastic, to be throwing around a lot of terms whose usage you have little if any real understanding.

 

[epigene]

If this is a historical context, forget what I answered above. Things would have been more formal than. You would probably have used "sama" as an honorific suffix even for family members, for instance.
I didn't even notice that this was for the war period. And I agree it is going to sound silly, perhaps even disrespectful or sarcastic, to be throwing around a lot of terms whose usage you have little if any real understanding.

I agree with Elizabeth.

In addition to considerations for historical context, the terms change by situation and relationship within a family. Terms for father, daughter, etc., are not interchangeable with English words.

 

[Buntaro]

Mia,

You need to do a lot of research. Have you visited the Japanese-American relocation-camp museum in Los Angeles?

Homepage | Japanese American National Museum

They can probably point you to a lot of people you can interview for your book.

 

[mrs_mia_wallace]

One of the most tragic things about the internment was that over 60% of the detainees were American citizens, locked away by their own government. I'm curious as to why you are highlighting their being Japanese. These were mostly Americans in America; throwing in random Japanese words is more likely to confuse the audience than to lend any credibility to your story...

i'm still in the very early stages of writing my one act; thus far i have only done some internet research (which has given me a good base, but i prefer to read books when it comes to facts) and read farewell to manzanar, "only what we could carry" which is a large non fiction book with more accounts, and i have another book called "looking like the enemy" that i am about to begin. if you have any advice on further reading, i would appreciate it.
i'm honestly not sure if i am going to end up using the japanese words-- often when i'm writing i take things out at the end that seem silly, the last play that i wrote had about seven monologues from a grandmother in it, and i ended up deleting them all in revision-- and I thank you for your advice and i will take it into consideration. the main reason i was thinking of needing these words is because i'm just unsure of how they would speak to each other, if they would say "sweetie" or if they would say a japanese pet name? and there is an instance where the mother refers to her daughters husband as taking the father's role, do you think she would use english terms when explaining that?
oh, and the family that i am writing about includes a mother, son, and daughter who moved to japan about eight years before the camps, an american-japanese man who is married to the daugher, and their american-japanese daughter. so i would think that there would be some weight especially coming from the parents (which i am inferring from what i have read) placed on keeping japanese traditions.