ABSTRACT
The term 'Magic' was used to describe the work as well as the personnel involved in this brilliantly successful decoding activity.4 The word Magic is used here in its familiar usage to indicate the actual decoded and translated material itself. It is well known that the American decoding of secret Japanese communications played an important part in the negotiating process before Pearl Harbor. American decoding of Japanese communications played an important part in the negotiating process before Pearl Harbor. Because of the technical and linguistic problems of putting Japanese into code, of decoding and then translating into English, it was an important source of misunderstanding. The attempt here is to examine the role of Magic in detail by looking at the process of decoding, translating, and interpreting. Specific examples will be given of misinterpretation which arose from decoding and faults of translation. The translator from Japanese to English is particularly free to make his or her own interpretation.
