Christa Scheck

Carolyn Topper: So can you introduce yourself real quick?

Christa Scheck: So, I am Christa Scheck. I’m from Eaton Rapids, I’ve been attending Kalamazoo College for four years; I’m about to graduate.

CT: Congratulations.

CS: Thank you.

CT: So, this project, can you give us a brief description of what you worked on?

CS: Well, my job when I worked on it was largely translation based--making an English translation of the Japanese interview--however I did, once that was finished, work extensively on the indexing of the interviews I worked on, especially, um, Kang Doksang’s interview.

CT: Is there anything in particular you found interesting about his interview?

CS: His interview talked a lot about the political and social conflicts with Koreans--specifically, Koreans who were born in Japan or moved to Japan at a young age--and the kind of discrimination that they faced, in addition to the way that that interacted with the culture of World War II, especially with the 00:01:00emperor. And it was actually extremely fascinating to hear his viewpoint on it, especially considering he apparently had some controversy for sharing it, in the past.

CT: Did you have any particular views about what this project would be about before you started it? And were your expectations met or were they different?

CS: I didn’t have too many particular views necessarily, I think I had some views on the actual act of translating and the difficulties of working with spoken word, which is much more complicated than translating, say, like a drama speech or a written book. I was mostly focused on the challenges of it when I started, I wasn’t necessarily thinking about the content, as I got into it more later.

CT: Okay. And then, has there been anything particularly meaningful to you?

CS: I remember watching the interview of Nakagaki--uh, Itsuki Nakagaki, I think--and she talked about her experience at living through an air-raid. And the way that she told it, in addition to the content, it was very emotionally moving, especially the first time I read through it. Because a lot of the experiences felt very raw, especially considering the darkness of the time period that she was talking about. That’s one thing that stuck with me.

CT: Okay, well, thank you. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

CS: Not particularly. It was, I think, a very important experience for growth, especially for my understanding of the language.

CT: Alright, thank you very much for your time.

CS: You’re welcome.