Story of A-bomb mistranslation released on tape

By Masaya Maruyama, Mainichi Shimbun, Tuesday 9 November 1999o

Mistranslation of remarks by a wartime prime minister eventually led to the atom-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki toward the end of World War II, and the story of how can now be heard exactly as it was told.

The National Diet Library on Monday made public some of the recordings of political comments made by the late Hisatsune Sakomizu, chief Cabinet secretary to Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki toward the end of World War II.

The stories that Sakomizu tells include Cabinet discussions on the acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration in 1945 and the process by which Sakomizu drafted the Imperial edict on the closing of the war. While most of the stories in the recordings have already been published among Sakomizu's writings, the recordings give the public a chance to listen to his voice speaking on the political deals toward the end of the war.

According to the recorded talks by Sakomizu, Suzuki employed the Japanese word mokusatsu when he meant there was no comment on the Potsdam Declaration at a press conference held on July 28, 1945. However, when the Domei Tsushinsha (Domei News Agency) distributed an article on his remarks, the agency translated the term mokusatsu into the English word ignore.

Domei Tsushinsha issued news that followed government policy lines and engaged in propaganda activities directed at foreign countries during World War II.

Furthermore, U.S. radio went on to quote the term as reject.

The accumulated misinterpretation of the prime minister's remarks eventually led to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, as well as the Soviet Union's participation in the war, according to Sakomizu.

Furthermore, Sakomizu suspects that the misinterpretation on the part of the United States was intentional.

I think the U.S. created an excuse to use the atomic bombs by saying that [Suzuki] ‘rejected&$8217; [the Potsdam Declaration]. So, I think the U.S. purposely used the term, ‘reject.&$8217; The Soviet Union then made use of the fact that U.S. radio quoted the term as ‘reject,&$8217; Sakomizu said in the recording.

The late official also recalls in the recording that he drafted the Imperial edict on the closing of the war because he could not ask anybody else (to do it).

Having looked at the face of the Emperor and seen him crying as he spoke (at the Imperial conference), I was able to come up with the sentences (in the Imperial edict), Sakomizu said.

Sakomizu also revealed that he changed part of the content of the Imperial edict into more colloquial expression.

In addition, the part of the recordings in which Sakomizu gives the inside story on the so-called February 26th Incident—a military rebellion by young officers in 1936—will also be available to the public at the Diet library from 2002.

In the story, Sakomizu tells how then Prime Minister Keisuke Okada, who was Sakomizu's father-in-law, escaped from the Prime Minister's Office during the coup attempt. Okada was initially reported to have been killed in the incident.