Interpreting at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of the interpreting arrangements at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal (1946)(1947)(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.

Methodology in interpreting studies

“…One is an action research study in which action is used as the research tool (Waters-Adams 2006) to find solutions to specific problems in specific situations. Three are historical studies (Lung 2008(Lung , 2009Takeda 2008) where historical archives are analyzed to answer questions about past phenomena and one study that uses the interpretive analytical approach (Apostolou 2009) in the tradition of hermeneutics. Table 1 in the Appendix lists all 26 studies with their principle methodologies, main constructs, data collection methods and instruments, forms of data, and methods used to analyze data.…”

“…Historical research is rare in interpreting studies as evidenced by the limited number of this type of research published in Interpreting -only three articles within the examined period. Takeda (2008) investigated a unique case in world history -the testimony of Japan's wartime prime minister during World War II at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, focusing on the arrangement and behavior of interpreters and monitors of interpretation. Lung (2008) studied two different types of translation officials in the central government of the Tang Dynasty.…”

“…In addition to their different themes, the data used in these historical studies are also quite different. Takeda (2008) employed the recordings of the court proceedings, supplemented with her interviews conducted with some participants of the event. Lung (2009) made use of a combination of primary sources, such as memorandum and poems, and secondary sources, such as standard histories to provide evidence.…”

“…When interpreting their data, Takeda (2008) drew on the reoccurring concepts of power and trust as the general analytical framework and focused on the "choices, strategies and behaviors of the interpreters, with reference to the social and political contexts of the setting in which they operate" (p. 72). Lung's (2008) main concern was to differentiate two translator titles in Tang China.…”

Diseño de una herramienta de evaluación de la calidad del desempeño del intérprete judicial: INTER-Q

“…Es preciso citar en este subepígrafe dedicado a los tribunales internacionales los juicios que se celebraron para juzgar los crímenes de guerra tras la II Guerra Mundial; los juicios de Núremberg (1945de Núremberg ( -1946) y el juicio de Tokio (1946Tokio ( -1948 han de considerarse un hito para la consolidación de la profesión del intérprete de conferencias y de la interpretación simultánea (Gaiba, 1999;Baigorri Jalón, 2004;Watanabe, 2009;Takeda, 2010). Estos juicios son representativos desde varios puntos de vista, pues serán un ejemplo para el juzgamiento de otros crímenes posteriores contra la humanidad y, en cuanto a la interpretación, se consideran como un hito en el nacimiento de la interpretación simultánea y en la organización del trabajo de los intérpretes (Baigorri Jalón, 2004, pp.…”