Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In 1933, James Weldon Johnson received a letter of introduction from Yasuichi Hikida, a Japanese immigrant and Harlem occupant. The letter, shy and unassuming, told of his life in the states and the myriad ways in which he identified with the struggles of Black America. After stating his admiration for the Black political vanguard of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Hikida outlined the reason for his choice of Johnson as pen pal: he desired to translate Johnson’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing”—by then regarded as the Negro National Anthem—into Japanese. The relationship between Johnson and Hikida exemplifies the fact that the national borders and racial barriers constituted by political and governmental bodies—and those “imagined” by their citizens—could not restrain the global consciousness that was spreading as third world and race struggles began to organize in tandem. The correspondence following the original interaction between the two men reveals that Hikida did indeed translate “Lift” and return to his community with the text in hand. In this paper I will explore how and why this happened and, to what effect. What were the situations in Black America with which Hikida could most identify? What were the resonances in this particular song that made it the choice for this transnational translation?