Document translation help

[Nick Komiya]

I'm having a hard time finding anything about Minister of Navy Mitsumasa Yoneuchi, can anyone help with his information?

Thanks for all the help!
Rodney

That is because his name should be read Yonai, not Yoneuchi. Here he is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsumasa_Yonai
Of course Yoneuchi is a more straight forward way of reading the name, but there
are often names that are read in an irregular way like this.
At the beginning of the China campaign, both the army and navy were short on gas masks and steel helmets, so they relied heavily on private donations like these to buy those items and when those items got issued, it was in the names of the donors.
Army ones are most often encountered with Tojo's name on them.

[Rommel1933]

Neat Stuff Nick.. I guess Yoneuchi is correct but more formal? Kind of like someone in USA going by the name Bob instead of Robert?

[Rommel1933]

Rodney,

I just talked to Su about the Red Stamp. That is called a INKAN. She said that often people in Japan have a unique INKAN for official documents. For instance if you are signing your mortgage you would write your name now but also use your INKAN to stamp it. This is the INKAN of Mitsumasa.

Here is some data on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_(E...Japanese_usage

Thank you!
Scott

Thank You Scott and Suemi for the translation. I know it's hard to translate Japanese to english and get the full meaning. I think they still used the old style kanji which makes it harder to find the translation in a modern Japanese kanji books. I really appreciate both your help.

This would be an unissued letter of Appreciation to a company or individual that gave money (or ?) to the IJN. Is the red stamped on the lower left corner that of Mitsumasa Yoneuchi? I'm having a hard time finding anything about Minister of Navy Mitsumasa Yoneuchi, can anyone help with his information?

Thanks for all the help!
Rodney

[Nick Komiya]

Neat Stuff Nick.. I guess Yoneuchi is correct but more formal? Kind of like someone in USA going by the name Bob instead of Robert?

His name was formally Yonai, never Yoneuchi. Yoneuchi is one possible way of reading it, but is not correct in this case. As your wife will readily agree, Kanji has many possible ways of reading, and if you had to guess, Yoneuchi was the most probable of the possibilities. But when you want to be sure, you need to Google the name in kanji to confirm, especially for historical figures who are known. Japanese kanji names can NEVER really be read with absolute certainty, we read them the way we most often heard it, so we have statistics on our side, but some names go against the rule.
For instance, 御手洗 is normally read Ote-arai, which means Toilet or literally "hand washing". It can also be a family name, in which case you need to be able to read it as Mitarai or you will have a very embarassing situation.　In Japanese application forms, etc you are ALWAYS required to write your name as well as address twice, in Kanji and then in either Hiragana or Katakana. The latter 2 are phonetic writing, so you can only read it one way, unlike the kanji. That is the only way we know for sure how to read a Japanese name; to ask the person.

If that is baffling for you, you'll go crazy in places like Taiwan where western names are written also in Kanji. There can be infinite Kanji combinations that approximate the sound of the name BEATLES, but the group's name ended up being one of the masterpieces of Foreigner-naming Chinese Style. They also chose the kanji by its meaning, not only the sound, so the Beatles in Kanji is written as " 4 crazy men with wild hair" or something similar. It must be a nightmare to be a journalist there when a foreign name hits the news the first time, as everyone needs to ask "How do you write Obama for Christ Sake!?". The Japanese just use Katakana, so it's real easy.

I digress, but this sort of moment of uncertainty also can exist in languages like German, too. There are many words in German borrowed from foreign languages and when you borrow a noun you have a problem, because German nouns are either Masculine, Feminine or Neutral and the article, which is simply "the" in all cases in English is der, die or das according to the gender of the noun. So somehow you have to decide Sushi is an "it" or das Sushi and Tsunami is a "he" or der Tsunami, der Kamikaze and so on.

[Rommel1933]

Hi Nick,

Kind of like when called her a "Shufu"and I said "Shofu"

Apparently the difference is very significant....

Scott

His name was formally Yonai, never Yoneuchi. Yoneuchi is one possible way of reading it, but is not correct in this case. As your wife will readily agree, Kanji has many possible ways of reading, and if you had to guess, Yoneuchi was the most probable of the possibilities. But when you want to be sure, you need to Google the name in kanji to confirm, especially for historical figures who are known. Japanese kanji names can NEVER really be read with absolute certainty, we read them the way we most often heard it, so we have statistics on our side, but some names go against the rule.
For instance, 御手洗 is normally read Ote-arai, which means Toilet or literally "hand washing". It can also be a family name, in which case you need to be able to read it as Mitarai or you will have a very embarassing situation.　In Japanese application forms, etc you are ALWAYS required to write your name as well as address twice, in Kanji and then in either Hiragana or Katakana. The latter 2 are phonetic writing, so you can only read it one way, unlike the kanji. That is the only way we know for sure how to read a Japanese name; to ask the person.

[RodneyO]

HI Nick,
Thank you for the Wikipedia link to Mitsumasa Yonai. He had a long naval career spanning from R/J War up until the end of the war in 1945. Didn’t know he was Prime Minister of Japan (and also backed by Emperor Hirohito) for a short period in 1940 and was the target of several assassination attempts as a Naval Minister. How he could have change the outcome of Japan if he had stayed Japan’s Prime Minister.


HI Scott,
Please thank your wife for the translation and the information on the INKAN. The document must have been pre-signed and INKAN stamped between 1937-1939 when he was Navy Minister.

Nick, I know what you mean. I got my first hanko stamp in Okinawa but the 1st kanji of my name was wrong, yet right. Even when I got my new hanko stamp here in Hawaii at the Hakubundo Store, the sales lady wrote the kanji the same way (as my first hanko stamp) but I had to tell her it was IN and not ON but written as ON in English……..hard to explain!

Thanks again for all the help and information,

Rodney