We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Interpreting at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal.
- Authors
Takeda, Kayoko
- Abstract
This paper gives an overview of the interpreting arrangements at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal (1946–1948), focusing on some sociopolitical aspects of the interpreting phenomena, and discusses the behavior of the interpreters and monitors during the testimony of Hideki Tojo, Japan’s wartime Prime Minister. It provides a contextualized examination of court interpreting rather than a microlinguistic analysis of interpreted texts. The study demonstrates how political and social aspects of the trial and wartime world affairs affected the interpreting arrangements, especially the hierarchical set-up in which three ethnically and socially different groups of “linguists” (language specialists) performed three different functions in the interpreting process. An examination of the linguists’ behavior during Tojo’s testimony points to a link between their relative positions in the power constellation of the trial and their choices, strategies and behavior in interpreting and monitoring. These findings reinforce the view that interpreting is a social practice conditioned by the social, political and cultural contexts of the setting in which interpreters operate.
- Subjects
TOKYO (Japan); JAPAN; TRANSLATING &; interpreting; TRANSLATORS; TRANSLATING services; TOKYO Trial, Tokyo, Japan, 1946-1948; WAR crime trials; COURTS-martial &; courts of inquiry; PROFESSIONS
- Publication
Interpreting: International Journal of Research & Practice in Interpreting, 2008, Vol 10, Issue 1, p65
- ISSN
1384-6647
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1075/intp.10.1.05tak