Can 神様 also be translated to "Oh god"?


In the English version of 神の子供たちはみな踊る (The Murakami collection of short
stories with the English title "After the Quake") the ending line of the short
story "All God's Children Can Dance" goes:

> 神様、と善也は口に出して言った。

Which I (and also the German translation) have always interpreted as: "God",
Yoshiya said aloud. However, in the English translation it says:

> "Oh God", Yoshiya said aloud.

Which I (without wanting to bother you with the rundown of the story) find to
give the ending quite a different meaning. Can "kamisama" be used as an
exclamation of sort? Because if not, I find the translation to be kind of off.




Yes. That utterance of "神様" can be interpreted as addressing God (as opposed
to just making reference to God), in which case the vocative "Oh" is justly
employed in the translation.

