Passivization
Probably the most widely known passivized translation from Japanese is one that has been made from the inscription engraved on the monument in Hiroshima to those who were killed by the atomic bomb. The original inscription, which contains what may be the most broadly inclusive zero pronoun, is a sobering one, with far greater impact in the Japanese original than in its weakened English translation:
安らかに眠って下さい。過ちは繰返しませぬから。
“Rest in peace, for X will not repeat the mistake.”
This has been rendered, “Rest in peace, for the mistake will not be repeated,” which is far less problematical than the original. “Who will not repeat the mistake?” people wanted to know when the monument was unveiled. “And who made the mistake in the first place — the Americans when they dropped the bomb, or the Japanese when they started the war?” The transitive Japanese verb in the active voice calls for a subject — a responsible actor. The passivized translation makes far less stringent demands. With its unnamed subject, the Japanese sentence seems discreetly to avoid placing the blame on anyone, but it is far more thought-provoking than the English translation would suggest …