From my mother-in-law Mary’s way of writing: Why do we write America as Beikoku?

Yoshie Doi

Pre-war photos found in an album

　My mother-in-law’s name was Mery. She was born and raised in America, but returned to Japan during the war. I never thought it was strange to write America as “Beikoku,” but when I learned the spelling “Beikoku,” I understood.

　A long time ago, I obtained a copy of my family register and found out that she was born in Washington State, USA, and that her name was written in Japanese kanji. I also found out that her name was written in kanji on my American bankbook.

　When Japan opened up to the world with the Meiji Restoration, it began to write European and American countries in kanji. From that time on, ateji characters using the sounds of kanji were used, and America was written as 亜米利加, which was shortened to 米国（Beikoku）. England was written as 英吉利, France as 仏蘭西, Germany as 独逸, Italy as 伊太利, Australia as 濠太剌利, Canada as 加奈陀, Turkey as 土耳古, Denmark as丁抹, Sweden as 瑞典, Israel as 以色列, and India as 印度.

　As a result, it is still in use today in 米国 the United States, 英国 the United Kingdom, 仏国 France, 独国 Germany, 伊国 Italy, 豪国 Australia, and other countries. When the Nanban people arrived in Japan in the 16th century, Japan’s unique kanji writing system was developed. It is said to have originated from Chinese kanji writing. I was impressed by how interesting the history of kanji writing is, as it reflects the vast capacity and ingenuity of the Japanese language.

　For your reference, we have also provided the Chinese spelling of country names in China, which uses Chinese characters. Although the pronunciation is different, there are some country names that are written with the same characters.

Country	Japanese	Japanese	Chinese
America	アメリカ	米国	美国
England	イギリス	英吉利	英国
France	フランス	仏蘭西	法国
Germany	ドイツ	独逸	徳国
Italy	イタリア	伊太利	意大利
Australia	オーストラリア	濠太剌利	澳大利亚
Canada	カナダ	加奈陀	加拿大
Turkey	トルコ	土耳古	土耳
Denmark	デンマーク	丁抹	丹麦
Sweden	スウェーデン	瑞典	瑞典
Israel	イスラエル	以色列	以色列
India	インド	印度	印度