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Read that a mistranslated word in 1945 kept Japan's surrender on the table for 3 extra days
The word "mokusatsu" got taken as "ignore with contempt" when the guy probably meant "no comment yet," and that one slip has bugged me all week. How many other huge turns in history came down to somebody just picking the wrong word at the wrong time?
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joel88427d ago
Kind of reminds me of how small stuff gets blown up in normal life, like my buddy once texted his girlfriend "we need to talk" meaning about dinner plans and she showed up crying. Words just carry whatever weight the person hearing them decides to put on them, and there's no taking that back once it lands. So yeah, three extra days of a war riding on one bad translation doesn't even surprise me that much.
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