Chapter 6. Interpreting with “human sympathy”

Abstract

Utilizing language skills and cultural knowledge obtained through their time proselytizing or by virtue of growing up in Japan, a number of repatriated Christian missionaries and their children took part in the Allied war effort during the Pacific War (1941–1945) and the postwar occupation of Japan (1945–1952), including as interpreters and trainers of interpreters for military intelligence. By examining what language-related activities these missionary-connected Americans and Canadians engaged in and how they viewed their own participation in the defeat and occupation of communities among which they had recently lived and worked, this chapter adds to the discussion of roles missionaries play as linguistic mediators, informants, and advisors in colonization, trade, diplomacy, and conflict.