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442nd’s Motto “Go For Broke” in Japanese

I received an email from Chuck today asking about the Japanese translation of the 442nd’s motto “Go For Broke”. As most of you know the 442nd is an infantry regiment of overwhelmingly American soldiers of Japanese ancestry who fought in WWII while many of their families were in internment camps. To say the 442nd was… read more

Miyamoto Musashi’s Book of Five Rings Quote

Tracking down the original Japanese from an English version of a quote can be challenging. And sometimes it produces unexpected results. This week I was asked to do a quote attributed to Miyamoto Musashi as follows: “The warrior attitude is very simple. Focus your mind on your goal, constantly strive for perfection and don’t allow yourself to be… read more

Inspired By A Nicki Minaj Tattoo

A few weeks ago, I saw Nicki Minaj on Saturday Night Live and was intrigued by the tattoo on her forearm. This Nicki Minaj tattoo, 上帝興你常在, is a Chinese saying meaning “God is Always With You”. On the right is an original design I subsequently created using my unique style and a style that I… read more

The Name Robert in Japanese

We had a great question from a client today about how Robert is rendered in Japanese. As this is an excellent example of the issues of translating names to Japanese I wanted to share the details here. In American English Robert is pronounced more like “rah-bert” and so one would assume the Japanese would be… read more