Mokusatsu ...One word, misinterpreted...

A Japanese word, Mokusatsu, may have changed all our lives. It has two meanings: (1) to ignore (2) to refrain from comment. The release of a press statement using the second meaning in July 1945 might have ended the war then. The Emperor was ready to end it, and had the power to do so. The cabinet was preparing to accede to the Postdam ultimatum of the Allies – surrender or be crushed – but wanted a little more time to discuss the terms. A press release was prepared announcing a policy of “mokusatsu”, with the “no comment” implication. But it got on the foreign wires with the “ignore” implication through a mix-up in translation: “The cabinet ignores the demand to surrender”. To recall the release would have entailed an unthinkable loss of face. Had the intended meaning been publicized, the cabinet might have backed up the Emperor’s decision to surrender. In which event, there might have been no atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, no Russian armies in Manchuria, No Korean war to follow. The lives of tens of thousands of Japanese and American boys might have been saved. One word, misinterpreted.

Courtesy: “Power of words”

Stuart Chase