| Japanese term or phrase: 被占領心理 | This is the title of a journal article about the US postwar occupation of Japan. The article seeks to understand among other things the current Japanese historical mindset as a function of Japan's postwar bureaucracy and the US occupation of Japan. The article accuses the Japanese bureaucracy of arrogant manipulation of Japanese women to secure its own survival in postwar Japan.
As I was unable to come up with a suitable English equivalent for the phrase 被占領, I circumvented the problematic phrase as follows: "The Japanese Psychology of the US Occupation".
As the term 被 can be interpreted into English in a variety of ways and all of them appear appropriate, it has proven difficult for me to fall upon a single word or phrase that captures the idea intended by the author (川島高峰). Might someone have a suggestion? |
| Roddy StegemannKudoZ activityQuestions: 666 ( 4 open) ( 6 without valid answers) ( 3 closed without grading) Answers: 1221
United States
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Grading comment Firstly, I would like to thank everyone for their sincere effort.
Secondly, I would like to thank Dr. Niranjan for his excellent suggestion. Indeed, I am somewhat embarrassed that I did not come up with it myself. Perhaps I was tired, as the article was not always easy to read and digest. I have chosen Dr. Ninranjan's suggestion with only slight modification for the following reasons:
1) The notion of being occupied, as opposed to a state of occupation, captures a very important meaning of the character 被 and places, thereby, the emphasis on the Japanese side of the issue. Moreover, it does not smother the other notions that the term 被implies -- especially, the way in which many Japanese and some Americans have sought to cover up the truth about the use of 慰安婦 during the postwar period.
2) More importantly, perhaps, it captures the juxtaposition of the following two pairs of terms -- namely, 占領 and 被占領, and 支配 and 被支配. These two pairs of terms both appear in the article, and together they capture the notion of Japan as a ruler and occupier of East Asia before the war's end, and Japan as the ruled and occupied after the war's end -- more specifically, the use of the 慰安婦 during Japan's imperial rule, and their continued use by the Japanese bureaucracy under the "imperial rule" of Douglas MacArthur in the immediate postwar period.
3) When working with titles we are permitted to relax certain grammatical restrictions to make them more attractive, so I have dropped the initial article "The".
Yumiko: In regard to some of the others' comments, I cannot understand how anyone could be insulted by the term "occupied", unless, of course, they have in their mind a common expression found on closed toilet doors when the toilets are in use. I, for one, do not easily equate toilets, sex, and armed occupation.
Humbird: Although it is surely the case that Japan was a conquered nation, and that many in the US military establishment treated Japan as such, the Japanese received amazingly good treatment from the United States government after the war -- in part, because of the mistreatment of Japanese women by the Japanese bureaucracy. This is, indeed, an important point of Kawashima's article.
Once again, many thanks to everyone.
Roddy
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer |
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peer agreement (net): +4