Lost in translation?

“The Blue Lotus” is the sequel to “The Cigars of the Pharaoh”. Originally published in 1934-35, the canonical version of this Tintin adventure is from 1946. I don't think the plot is very exciting, and today the album is of interest mostly due to Hergé's positive depiction of the Chinese, something unusual in the West at the time. The villains, by contrast, are Japanese and English colonialists. It's quite weird to see the Japanese stereotyped, while the Chinese in general are not! It's therefore somewhat piquant that “The Blue Lotus” has been translated to…Japanese.