IT was the most disastrous translation mistake in history: a simple language error that may have helped kill 15 million people.
In the early winter of 1941, the US Government's small band of Japanese translators were working under huge pressure. Japan and America were not yet at war but Japan's attempts to carve out an empire in Asia and America's determination to stop her had left the two countries a misplaced word or two away from a terrible conflict. Full article