Question Translation? -- Google terrible.

bldrhouse · 22 Feb 2023

I ran this thru Google translate numerous times and what i got back were dreadful snippets, some of which were almost funny... were they not about something serious such as not dying "like a dog.."

I note that the text below the English is a translation of that, but the rest....?

The leaflet is very small, maybe 3 1/2 by 4 1/2

Thanks for your generous patience.

Zigy

Grandpa Frank · 22 Feb 2023

Enlarged a bit.

Toritoribe · 22 Feb 2023

The reason why Google Translate didn't work well was mostly because of furigana (the reading of kanji on the right side of it). Here's a result of a revised version. It makes enough sense, isn't it? (It seems that Google Translate doesn't know a common idiom 犬死 "dying in vain".)

Why do you want the dog to die?
If you want to live and serve Japan, come and surrender!
Regardless of day or night, approach the US military position by yourself and wave this piece of paper.
U.S. military preferential treatment.
Fear not!
US military commander

Google 翻訳

translate.google.co.jp

As for the upper right one, Google translate doesn't know a four-kanji idiom 四面楚歌 "being surrounded by enemies", either.

The voice of the four-faced song
desperate situation

Google 翻訳

translate.google.co.jp

Dentanmono · 22 Feb 2023

That leaflet is an early-ish version of the surrender leaflets that would be extensively used throughout the war. I believe it's first usage was during the Aleutian Campaign. It was used in the hundreds of thousands on Kiska Island, where it was extremely effective in getting the inhabitant to surrender. Intelligence says that the only remaining Japanese thing on the island, a dog was well treated after surrendering to U.S. troops. Joking aside, the U.S. papered the island with leaflets not knowing the Japanese had left weeks before, and the bit about the dog is true, well the part about it being the only thing there, I don't know about its later treatment. I would imagine it was treated well.

Grandpa Frank · 22 Feb 2023

Spent a year on the next island over , Adak. The weather there would have made life miserable duty back in those days.

Dentanmono · 23 Feb 2023

Uncle Frank said:
Spent a year on the next island over , Adak. The weather there would have made life miserable duty back in those days.

If I recall correctly, both sides during WW2 agreed with you on it being a pretty miserable place to be haha. To the point of another leaflet, used "empathy" in its messaging on the front for the Japanese soldiers there. "Japan – 3,600 kilometers – What a pity – Kiska Island -"

Dentanmono · 23 Feb 2023

Not to hijack this thread but the backside also talks about it being a horrible place lol "...an isolated island of the bleak Aleutian chain...this isolated, distant, storm beaten north Pacific island..."

Grandpa Frank · 23 Feb 2023

Adak was called "the birthplace of the wind" with 100 MPH wind gusts quite common. Had 3 people die in the year that I was there , caught up in the sudden snow storms called "willie waas". Twice the big 30 passenger bus that took us to our duty stations blew over from the wind. This book is a good story about what went on.

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