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PaperclipPerfector  11d ago (text post)   33164 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 10, 2025

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_15_incident

Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was shot by eleven young naval officers (most were just turning twenty years of age) in the prime minister's residence. Inukai's last words were roughly "If I could speak, you would understand" (話せば分かる, hanaseba wakaru) to which his killers replied "Dialogue is useless" (問答無用, mondō muyō).[1][better source needed] The original assassination plan had included killing the English film star Charlie Chaplin who had arrived in Japan on May 14, 1932 […] Chaplin's murder would facilitate war with the U.S., and anxiety in Japan, and lead to "restoration" in the name of the emperor.[3] When the prime minister was killed, his son Inukai Takeru was watching a sumo wrestling match with Charlie Chaplin, which probably saved both their lives.

Crazy.

Man, I kinda want an alt-historical fiction movie made out of this, where Charlie Chaplin has to outrun a bunch of assassins.

話せば分かる

Nitpick, this can be translated as 'if we talk (for a while), you'll understand'. It's not necessarily super-profound. It's basically just "listen to me, idiots!" to which the reply is "too late". This is why translating is hard.

(The absolutely literal meaning is "if speak, understand". Everything else is context.)

Inukai's last words were roughly "If I could speak, you would understand" (話せば分かる, hanaseba wakaru) to which his killers replied "Dialogue is useless" (問答無用, mondō muyō).[1][better source needed]

...That will stick with me for a while.

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