Nissan Z: 50 Years of Exhilarating Performance

[Carl Beck]

5 hours ago, HS30-H said:

On page 28 Mr Uemura mentions 'Kaishinsha', and writes it correctly in Kanji.

In 2017 Uemura's friend and former colleague Mr Yuichiro Motomura collaborated with Mr Carl Beck on an English language 'translation' of the book, 'tuned' (ahem...) to an American audience. They chose to title the book 'Datsun 240Z Engineering Development: The Journey From Concept To Reality' (note the difference in titles...).

On page 8 Motomura/Beck 'translate' Mr Uemura's Kanji 'Kaishinsha' (快進社) as "Kwaishinsha".

 

So, there it is. That's an example of how the ball keeps rolling...
[cue end title music: Billy Joel, 'We Didn't Start The Fire'.] 

Thanks for the plug - we need to sell a lot more copies - -  anyone can order the English language edition hard copy or now download the digital copy at: https://www.lulu.com/search?adult_audience_rating=00&page=1&pageSize=10&q=Datsun+240Z

As usual Alan give me far to much credit. I had nothing to do with the translation - Mr. Motomura, one of the Suspension Engineers that worked with Mr. Uemura supplied the English language text files and image files in several different file formats.  Having never seen a copy of the original book, I worked with a professional book layout expert to reassemble all the individual files into the single format needed for hard copy publication and distribution,  as well as with Art Singer for the Cover Art. 

The Title page that Mr. Uemura & Mr. Motomura sent was “ The Development of Datsu Z Car"

By Hitoshi Uemura, formerly Principal Design Engineer at Nissan Motor Co., 

 

The above is cut/pasted from the original text file sent.

Yes, the title of the book was changed for the English Language edition to:  “DATSUN 240Z ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT”. “Engineering” as added to differentiate it from all the previous books devoted mostly to the origins in the “Styling Studio" . Datsun 240Z was selected -  to increase meta data for search engines (recommended by the Publisher’s suggestions)  as that is what the vast majority of English speaking customers initially search for.  It was the goal of Mr. Uemura and Mr. Motomura to get Mr. Uemura's story to the American enthusiasts that embraced the Datsun 240Z's in such massive numbers and who had kept/maintained so many of them for 40+ years. 

“Kwaishinsha” is exactly what was sent - I suppose Mr. Motomura or perhaps Mr. Uemura had photo’s of the original company signs or literature. Being a proper noun - the name of the company isn’t subject to having its name respelled. (no matter that later someone thinks it was spelled wrong to begin with)- it is the name. The owners/ creators had the right to spell it any way they wanted.. 

[HS30-H]

4 hours ago, Carl Beck said:

As usual Alan give me far to much credit. I had nothing to do with the translation - Mr. Motomura, one of the Suspension Engineers that worked with Mr. Uemura supplied the English language text files and image files in several different file formats.  Having never seen a copy of the original book, I worked with a professional book layout expert to reassemble all the individual files into the single format needed for hard copy publication and distribution,  as well as with Art Singer for the Cover Art. 

Thanks for confirming your input, or lack of it. So you never even saw Uemura san's book in the original Japanese form? Wow... 

 

4 hours ago, Carl Beck said:

Yes, the title of the book was changed for the English Language edition to:  “DATSUN 240Z ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT”. “Engineering” as added to differentiate it from all the previous books devoted mostly to the origins in the “Styling Studio" . Datsun 240Z was selected -  to increase meta data for search engines (recommended by the Publisher’s suggestions)  as that is what the vast majority of English speaking customers initially search for.  It was the goal of Mr. Uemura and Mr. Motomura to get Mr. Uemura's story to the American enthusiasts that embraced the Datsun 240Z's in such massive numbers and who had kept/maintained so many of them for 40+ years. 

Unless people have the two versions to compare and contrast, they'll never really know just how far the original Japanese language version was bowdlerised in the English language version. Whilst I can understand and commend Motomura san for wanting to get an English language version in front of an English speaking audience, I simply do not understand why it was necessary to insert the term 'Datsun 240Z' in place of Uemura san's original terms (usually 'Fairlady Z' and 'Maru Z', meaning - of course - the whole family of variants) and any reading of the English version will, as is so often the case, miss the point that Uemura san and all of the other participants were creating a family of models in the S30-series, and not just one. In some parts of the book it renders the anecdotes being related nonsensical. Its a real shame. The original makes much more sense. I might 'get' it for the title - although I'd add a caveat - but the (seemingly endless) times it is used in the text just loses the meaning of the original sentences. 

 

4 hours ago, Carl Beck said:

“Kwaishinsha” is exactly what was sent - I suppose Mr. Motomura or perhaps Mr. Uemura had photo’s of the original company signs or literature. Being a proper noun - the name of the company isn’t subject to having its name respelled. (no matter that later someone thinks it was spelled wrong to begin with)- it is the name. The owners/ creators had the right to spell it any way they wanted.. 

Since Uemura san used the (correct!) Kanji form of Kaishinsha (快進社) in his book, it won't have been him. If it was Motomura san's doing then I would find that a slightly baffling decision.

You might want to think of 'Kaishinsha/Kwaishinsha' as a proper noun, but - as the original was originally written in three Kanji characters - it is not quite as simple as that. I'd be wasting my time trying to explain the nuances of Kanji to you, but the company name is a composite of three Kanji characters and pinning it down as a single proper noun is to miss a lot of the point. That first Kanji ('Kai') means something very specific, as do the other characters, and together they mean something more. For me, the true test is in speaking the word. If you say the word 'Kwaishinsha' (with that rogue 'w') out loud it simply doesn't convey the meaning it was intended to convey any more. That is why 'Kaishinsha' is correct and 'Kwaishinsha' is not, regardless of how it was spelled out in Romaji on the side of the Kaishinsha building. If you want to tell the Toyota Museum staff, the curators of the National Science Museum in Tokyo and any number of other scholars that 'Kwaishinsha' is correct because it is a proper noun, please cc me in on the replies. Might be entertaining.  

Of course, you spell it 'Kwaishinsha' on zhome.com, don't you? I would imagine that is because - like everybody else who is spelling it out as 'Kwaishinsha', like Mr Evanow and even some of the people at Nissan - you are copying somebody else's (mis)spelling, and simply never even considered the original Kanji form. 

  

[RIP260Z]

17 hours ago, HS30-H said:

Kaishinsha (快進社)

Whether Kaishinsha is spelt in Datsun 240z Engineering and delopment correct is the least of the books concern, it can't even spell in English, Silvia and Sylvia and Toytoa 2000. Also missing the GT bit, let alone spelt wrong.

In that chapter /subheading, it talks about "sports cars in Japan after World War 2", yet no mention of the sp311, then straight into the SLR311 (should be SRL311) and as the sub heading is ...cars in Japan, surely it should be talking about the JDM model (the SR311), not the export one.. Was the SLR311 used at a test-ride even for the general public at Tochigi plant, more than likely the SR311 was used. The SRL311 didn't develop 145hp unless you went with the option pack ( USA).

As Alan says, the version is bowdlerised, and this looks like the result covering the A550X, as what is written is very much trunkated. For start, Yamaha didn't produce the fibreglass body, theirs was in steel. The fibreglass body was made by GK Design (KOIKE Iwataro).

I don't know where and how the mistakes were made, but its poor in the two or three pages as examples. I wish I could read 'Fairlady Z Development Chronicle' instead of the English version. (well I haven't read it, as the mistakes put me off).

 

Edited July 15, 2020 by RIP260Z
Added bit