“I Must Endure Courageously and Manfully”—Robinson Crusoe Translated by Minami Yōichirō and Its Influence on Later Translations in Post-war Japan

Abstract

Kazuya Sato’s “I must endure courageously and manfully”: Minami Yoichiro’s Translation of Robinson Crusoe in Post-War Japan” focuses on Minami Yoichiro (1893–1980), a prolific writer of children’s stories, who is also well-known for his retelling of European children’s classics. His version of Robinson Crusoe (1st edition 1938, with changes in 1946 and 1950) is not a literal translation, but departs from the original in a number of significant ways. First, Minami begins the story with the scene of the first shipwreck at Yarmouth, retelling the story in medias res, instead of following the chronology of the novel. Second, he seeks to make Crusoe more humane and approachable for Japanese juvenile readers by providing a detailed and sentimental description of Crusoe’s attachment to the animals around him. Third, Minami turns Crusoe into a hero with remarkable physical strength, who makes fierce moral judgements against cannibals and mutineers. Minami’s representation of Crusoe seems supportive of British and Japanese imperialism. Interestingly his translations continued to appear after the war, only with the omission of more explicit references to Japanese imperialism. Even more importantly, Minami’s rendition much influenced later retellings, many of which also seem to endorse imperialism and male-chauvinism in his work without knowing it. In order to reveal this hidden buried ideology, this essay argues for the necessity of paying attention to this writer/translator in understanding the perception, status, and influence of Robinson Crusoe in post-war Japan.

In this paper, I quote from this Japanese version by translating the passages back into English myself. I indicate Japanese names in the Japanese order, that is, surname first. I also translate into English all the quotations from Japanese authors and writers, including Japanese translators, unless otherwise indicated.