Photo/Illutration President Donald Trump prepares to sign an executive order on Feb. 3. Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick is standing next to him in the Oval Office in Washington. (AP Photo)

I am re-reading a Japanese translation of “Lingua Tertii Imperii: Notizbuch eines Philologen” (translated into English as “The Language of the Third Reich: A Philologist’s Notebook”) by Victor Klemperer (1881-1960), a German literary scholar and diarist of Jewish descent.

Published in 1947, the book is in the form of personal notes, which Klemperer secretly kept to study Nazi utterances while surviving the persecution of the Jews under the Third Reich.

One outstanding feature of that language was the proliferation of hyperbolic adjectives.

Perfectly routine acts of the Nazi Party were glorified as “historic,” “unprecedented,” “eternal” and so on.

Klemperer observed that even outright lies and boasts, if repeated enough times, can indoctrinate people.

I know better than to make simple comparisons. Still, I cannot help thinking of U.S. President Donald Trump’s language.

In his inaugural address, he declared, “America will soon be greater, stronger, and far more exceptional than ever before.” He also said, “Today, I will sign a series of historic executive orders.”

If self-aggrandizement was all Trump was up to, I suppose I can let it go. But there are other things that just cannot be overlooked.

Trump recently signed an executive order banning transgender troops from serving openly in the military. A passage from the order reads, “… adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle.”

This ridiculous accusation is said to be directed at 0.7 percent of all troops.

But the size of the number is irrelevant.

A person who is not directly affected may feel safe to just stand back and watch--until they realize they are no longer safe. And by then, it’s too late, and nobody is going to come to their rescue.

That’s what history teaches.

We must not become used to rude and unrestrained utterances. Klemperer warned to the effect, “Words may be something like a trace amount of arsenic one ingests, which at first does not seem to have any effect. But its toxicity becomes apparent over time.”

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 3

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.