保護と奉仕 hogo to hōshi To Serve and Protect
保護と奉仕 (hogo to hōshi), protection and service, keeps the order of the Los Angeles police motto, to protect and to serve, chosen in a magazine contest in 1955. The Japanese pairing was already in print in 1934, and not about police: a church steward's duty at a village Christmas, keeping the draft off the children.
Abstract
保護と奉仕, protection and service, renders to protect and to serve, the motto of the Los Angeles Police Department, chosen in a contest in the department's magazine in 1955 and put on its patrol cars in 1963. The Japanese pairing was already in print in 1934, in a book of anecdotes of Japanese Christendom, where it is the duty of keeping the children warm and the candles safe at a village church's Christmas. Eight prewar books carry the pairing; none renders the American motto.
Overview
The sense. To protect and to serve was chosen by a Los Angeles police officer in a magazine contest in 1955. The Japanese is a pair of nouns in the motto's own order.
The words. 保護 hogo, protection; 奉仕 hōshi, service, the word for church service and volunteer work, with a note of devotion. と to joins them, protection and service.
The text in English. The order is what a rendering keeps, and the Japanese keeps it: protect first, serve second, as the department says it. To serve and protect is the order the motto is usually misquoted in.
The historical record
1934 and 1955. To protect and to serve, and a church steward's Christmas. The Los Angeles Police Department's own page tells the motto's story: a contest in the department's BEAT magazine in February 1955 for a police-academy motto, won by Officer Joseph S. Dorobek with To Protect and to Serve; adoption by the academy, then the department, and on 4 November 1963 a City Council ordinance placing it on the patrol cars beside the city seal [1]. The Japanese pairing was already in print in 1934, and not about police: a collector of anecdotes of Japanese Christendom describes a village church's Christmas celebration to which 私は保護と奉仕の任務を帶びて出張したのである, I went out charged with the duty of protection and service, and the duty turns out to be keeping the draft off the children and the candle in the lavatory lantern from setting fire to anything [2]. Eight prewar books in the National Diet Library's full-text index carry the pairing; none renders the American motto [3].
What is not a source. The Japanese renders its motto in no book known. The 1934 page is the pairing in ordinary use, not the motto, and it has no author.
A reading
A pair of plain nouns in the right order, which the English itself does not always manage. 奉仕 brings a note of devotion the English serve can carry or not, and the 1934 steward's Christmas shows the pair at its humblest: protection and service as keeping a room warm and a candle safe.
References
- Los Angeles Police Department, "LAPD Motto". https://www.lapdonline.org/lapd-motto/
- 天使の手記：日本基督教界の落穂拾ひ, 報恩会, 1934, scan 7. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1035744/1/7
- National Diet Library Digital Collections, next-generation full-text search on 保護と奉仕, counted to 1946. https://lab.ndl.go.jp/dl/