Augmenting combat power: Military translation in China-Burma-India Theater

Tian Luo

doi:10.52034/lanstts.v0i15.396

Abstract

Despite the growing academic interest in translators and interpreters in war, there is still a need to discuss the nature and role of translation from the perspective of military principles. This paper, drawing upon the theories about combat power, defines military translation as an intangible factor of combat power involving information and knowledge, and proposes a framework to map out how translation acts upon the internal mechanism of war. Based on the relevant historical records about and memoirs by the interpreters serving in the China-Burma-India Theater, the case study was able to discover that interpreters contributed greatly to the victory of the Alliance through their bilingual services that increased tangible and other intangible factors of combat power, and aided in its execution. This paper concludes that military translation can help reshape the combat power relations between the parties involved in conflicts, and ultimately influence the outcome of the war.

Highlights

The role of translators and interpreters in war can never be underestimated
Military translation works with information and knowledge to increase the tangible and other intangible factors of combat power
LaVonne Camp (1997, p. 39), one of the American nurses who worked at the 14th Evacuation Hospital in the CBI Theater, remembered that when she was assigned to a ward filled with about fifty Chinese patients, the Chinese Army provided her with an interpreter, “a real necessity”

Summary

Introduction

The role of translators and interpreters in war can never be underestimated. In the Pacific Theater in World War II, more than 6,000 Nisei linguists, who were second generation Japanese Americans, served in the US army and worked as translators, interpreters and interrogators (McNaughton, 2006; Takeda, 2007). Before we discuss how translation influences the combat power as well as the result of war, we need to understand in advance another two key factors in the process of command: information and knowledge. They are two closely related concepts, as important as lethal action in determining the result of military operations. This framework provides an insight into military translation: what it is in nature, and how it influences the result the war. Military translation works with information and knowledge to increase the tangible and other intangible factors of combat power. The interpreters’ role in war will be discussed from the three aspects, namely tangible factors, intangible factors and the execution of combat power, after an overview of the CBI Theater is given

The CBI Theater and its need for interpreters

Interpreting for tangible combat power

Interpreting for intangible combat power

Interpreting for the gain of air supremacy

Conclusion