Great East Japan Earthquake （5/26投稿の「東日本大震災」の翻訳）
On March 11th, 2011, a giant earthquake hit the Tohoku region of Japan. At that time, I was on a long-term assignment in Southern France. Even in France, the earthquake, tsunami, and ensuing nuclear reactor incident were major headlines for days. While eating in a nearby restaurant or even getting groceries at the supermarket, I was approached by many (French) strangers. The resulting conversation was usually something along the lines of the following: Are you Japanese? That giant earthquake was quite awful. After the everything that happened, I realized how wonderful the Japanese people are! Even after suddenly suffering so much, the Japanese people went straight to working together in an organized fashion, without complaint, to build everything back again. In any other country, it wouldn`t be out of the question to see rioting and looting, so seeing Japan`s response overwhelmed me. While it was a nice honor to hear my country be praised in such a way, at the same time, hearing them have so much passion and care about my distant country showed me how kind the French people genuinely are.
In this way, even though the words and expressions are different across borders, the thoughts and feelings are often similar. This fact was first pointed out to me by Dr. Tihiro Ohkawa [1 and 2], who led scientific research teams in the United States with scientists and engineers of many nationalities. Translating foreign languages into Japanese and Japanese into foreign languages, sharing information, and empathizing with people from other countries makes this world easier to live in and more fun. A professional translator is essential, and not to mention a fantastic job, working with foreign languages and Japanese every day, playing a role as a bridge between people and between Japan and the world.
