<![CDATA[Abstract. This study investigates how empathy is constructed multimodally in Are You an Echo? The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko. This bilingual picturebook presents fifteen poems by the Japanese children's poet Kaneko Misuzu in a trilingual format that combines the original Japanese text, an English translation, and an illustration. The study proceeds from the idea that empathy in a multimodal text is not inherent but constructed. It works through two complementary mechanisms. Transduction moves meaning across modes, while transformation restructures meaning within the same mode, as in translation. The study asks how these mechanisms construct empathic meaning and what semiotic gains and losses arise from them. It also asks how the resulting empathy contributes to the representation of Japan after the 2011 Tōhoku disaster. Using a four-stage multimodal analysis, the study examines two purposively selected spreads, "White Hat" and "Mommy Who Walks on the Sea." Both poems begin from the experience of loss, yet they construct contrasting forms of empathy. The findings show that transduction and transformation trade systematic gains and losses. The first poem constructs a broadcast empathy, and the second constructs an ambassadorial empathy. Together, these mechanisms foreground an aesthetic image of post-disaster Japan, one constructed within the text rather than measured in readers.Keywords: Multimodality, Narrative Empathy, Transduction, Transformation, Translated Picturebooks]]>
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