Interpreting live TV coverage of a major event such as the war on Iraq during the first part of 2003 was a major challenge for broadcast interpreters. To get the real time information accurately and quickly to the Japanese audience watching Japanese TV, the interpreters were required to interpret news that was broadcast by foreign TV for foreign viewers. In the caseof the war on Iraq, English-Japanese interpreters were mobilized in great numbers to promptly convey real-time information originally broadcast by foreign media for foreign viewers as part of the news broadcast by Japanese TV stations for the Japanese audience. Promptness and accuracy of information were the most important points called for by the viewers. But in the case of live TV coverage of the war to be interpreted into Japanese, the interpreters are caught in the middle of how to interpret the foreign news geared towards foreign audiences in the most intelligible manner to the Japanese audience. There are issues of terminology specific to war that interpreters need to know, plus differences in the reporting viewpoints by various original TV stations that interpreters need to be aware of in order to choose the most pertinent words for interpretation. This article will look into how the actual interpretation process was conducted in the interpretation of live TV coverage of the war in Iraq for Japanese TV, and it makes concluding remarks and suggestions as to what would be the best way to proceed in the case of such a major event to be interpreted live on TV.
