[ch 1] ...released the 50-ton bomb

[Da~Mike]

...released the 50-ton bomb

I'm curious about the phrase Kyon uses to describe Haruhi's introduction. He compares it to releasing a 50-ton bomb. That seems strange to me, as 50 tons is tremendously heavy. I dug around a bit and found two possible bombs he could be referring to:

1. The first Hydrogen bomb—code named "Ivy Mike" and detonated by the United States in 1952—was an enormous device housed in a 2-story building on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshal Islands (its detonation totally destroyed the island of Elugelab). A large number of sources on the internet say that it weighed 50 tons (though Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Mike] suggests it was actually around 82 tons).
2. The reference could be to a 50 megaton bomb. That is the approximate yield of largest nuclear bomb ever to be detonated (or built). Commonly known as the Tsar Bomba [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba], it was built and droped on Novaya Zemlya island in the Arctic Ocean by the USSR in 1961. Its primary purpose was as a Cold War political stunt, since at 8 meters long and weighing 27 metric tons, it was too large to be a practical weapon.

Could somebody check the original book to see if the translation is correct (ie, tons vs megatons)? While it is possible the reference is to Ivy Mike (especially with Japanese society having very high awareness of US nuclear testing in the Pacific), such a large bomb could not ever be "released" from anything. It was a building constructed on an island, not a bomb that could be dropped from a plane, so the usage seems to be a mistake (though it is entirely possible that it is either Kyon or Tanigawa-sensei who made the mistake, rather than the translator).

BlckKnght 09:21, 27 May 2006 (PDT)


Funny you should note this... I also felt weird about this line and looked it up. Here's the original:


　頭でひねっていた最低限のセリフを何とか噛まずに言い終え、やるべきことをやったという解放感に包まれながら俺は着席した。替わりに後ろの奴が立ち上がり―ああ、俺は生涯このことを忘れないだろうな―後々語り草となる言葉をのたまった。


Which translates to something like:

After I managed to finish my carefully thought-out, minimal-length introduction without stumbling over my words somewhat, I sat down, tucked in that feeling of relief you get after having done something you had to do. The person behind me stood up for her turn and―ah I probably won't forget this for the rest of my life―said the words that would be the topic of conversation for a long time.

--GDsMDDLFNGR 12:04, 27 May 2006 (PDT)

I thought about it some more and need some clarification... the original text used 噛 (to bite, chew, gnaw), so it's literally "without chewing my words." I put in "mumbling" for now. Any suggestions?

(Clarified - 噛む also has a slang meaning of saying something incorrectly, or getting a line wrong; updated the above translation accordingly)

--GDsMDDLFNGR 21:42, 27 May 2006 (PDT)

I've rewritten the passage, loosely based on your translation. Thanks!

--BlckKnght 13:24, 30 May 2006 (PDT)