This study deals with war interpreters, focusing especially on their active positions in emergencies, their cultural bridging qualities, and their strategies to cross borders. The study is limited to the period of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1931-1945) and is exemplified by the case study of Xia Wenyun (夏文运/ 1906-1978), who was assigned as a translator in that war. In the study, different from Marx’s concept of capital, Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “symbolic capital”, which emphasizes the translator’s social and political capital accumulation, was used. Bourdieu’s symbolic capital describes the impact of a particular form of capital that people perceive as capital. According to Bourdieu, symbolic capital is somewhat related to habitus and includes features such as appearance, posture and speech that are related to the individual himself. His concept of symbolic capital is discussed through Xia Wenyun, who served as both an agent and a Chinese translator in the Second Sino-Japanese War. In order to collect data in the study, the role of translators in the Second Sino-Japanese War was examined by using the China Academic Journals (CNKI) database and the information obtained from open sources and the books written in this field. As a result, it has been concluded that interpreters can use their accumulated capital without hesitation when faced with extraordinary situations, both to protect themselves and to negotiate their interests.