When I said emulate, in this instance I didn't mean machine instructions, but the layers of abstraction which a virtual machine uses to interact through actual hardware. To my mind it is still "emulating " its I/O, but I guess I am likely to be misunderstood. I do try to avoid using the term "virtual" in any non-metaphysical context.
Anyway, I just wanted to document my project-in-progress. It didn't occur to me that I should justify my use of an older OS on a 68k board...