Museums in and of Japan: Translation and Memorialisation

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An in-person public lecture with two PhD students from Cardiff University’s School of Modern Languages, as part of the History and Heritage research theme at the School.

Paper 1: ‘Why are yosegaki hinomaru at British regimental museums?’ – Tamayo Hussey

Abstract
The last three decades have seen a shift at military museums from exhibitions with a national focus on warfare to exhibitions focused on the effects of violence from different perspectives. To do this there have been attempts to revive individual memories through the display of cultural and social objects. While there are many articles of comparative research about war-related museums in different nations, there are not many studies on small-scale museums and their collections, such as regimental museums in Britain and private-owned museums in Japan. This research focuses on particular possessions of soldiers from the Japanese Imperial Army known as yosegaki hinomaru, (often translated as ‘Good Luck flags’) which are in the collection of museums in both countries and translating the inscriptions on these flags. The texts included propaganda and personal messages written by members of the soldier’s community. In my master’s degree, I translated five flags in the collection at two Welsh military museums and helped to improve their interpretation and overall understanding of the flags as heritage objects. In my PhD research I will expand this work to other museums across the UK and explore additional issues related to the flag. This presentation will first present initial findings from my literature review and then the intended methodology, as well as my experience of participating in two external workshops.

Biography
Tamayo Hussey is a 1st year, part-time PhD student at Cardiff University, where she also received her MA in Translation Studies. She also works as a Japanese translator and quality assurance manager dealing with multi-language media content for the Asian market.

Paper 2: ‘Hibakusha legacies: an analysis of the ‘legacy successor programme’ at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum’ – Lauren Constance

Abstract
For years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, hearing a talk from a hibakusha (person exposed to the atomic bomb) was a fixed feature of a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which opened in 1955. However, as of 2022, the average age of a hibakusha is 84. This has led to an inevitable decline in living hibakusha who can still give lectures, challenging ‘museum management to maintain an interpretation form where the hibakusha tell their tragic experiences to both visitors and students’ (Yoshida et al. 2016: 36). The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum offers its visitors the experience of listening to denshōsha, (legacy successors), who did not directly experience the event. Denshōsha are trained for three years to ‘inherit’ a hibakusha’s experience so that they can still convey their testimony at the museum. However, the idea that someone can give testimony on behalf of a direct eyewitness could be considered ethically problematic. Indeed, hibakusha Emiko Okada (in Rosner, 2017), who before her death in April 2021, entrusted the retelling of her experience to Yasukazu Narahara from Tokyo, a ‘legacy successor’ asked: ‘Can successors pass on the words that come out of our souls, something so painful, our experiences and thoughts and feelings?’. Based on scholarly literature, publicly available interviews with denshōsha, and fieldwork conducted in Japan between June-August 2022, this paper raises significant questions about the ethics of storytelling. 

Biography
Lauren Constance is a third year PhD student at Cardiff University’s School of Modern Languages, where she also completed her undergraduate degree in Japanese and Spanish.

Event format & recording
The event will take place in person and will be recorded for publication after the event.

Simultaneous Translation
The event will be delivered in the medium of English. You are welcome to ask questions in the medium of Welsh during the Q&A session. If you intend to do this, please contact mlang-events@cardiff.ac.uk by Wednesday 12 April to request simultaneous translation. Please note that 10% or more of those planning to attend will need to request this provision in order for it to be sourced and will be subject to resource availability.

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