My Diary 233 --- 【ZT】紐約時報社論：《令人厭惡的日本外相》

 

【ZT】紐約時報社論：《令人厭惡的日本外相》

 

文章來源: 時事述評 於 2006-02-16 17:51:14    譯者：劉伯鬆

“世界各國人民都希望能為自己國家每一頁曆史感到自豪。但誠實的人明白這是不可能的，而明智的人則意識到承認令人難堪的曆史真相、並從中吸取教訓的積極價值。然而，日本新外相麻生太郎做出一係列二戰時期日本災難性的軍國主義、殖民主義和戰爭罪行的煽動性言論，既不誠實，也不明智。

“除了激怒日本需要結為盟友和貿易夥伴的鄰國外，也傷害了他一直試圖取悅的日本人。第二次世界大戰在今天大多數日本人出生前早已結束了，然而，日本的公開輿論也好，學校現代史課程也吧，卻從未適當地承擔該國對可怕的曆史事件所應當負起的責任，如大批綁架韓國年輕婦女並強迫她們做充當“慰安婦”性奴隸、在中國城市和手無寸鐵戰俘身上做生物戰爭試驗、以及在南京殘暴虐殺數十萬中國平民的“南京大屠殺”事件。

 “這就是為什麽會有那麽多亞洲人對去年秋天上任的外相發表一連串駭人聽聞的言論而深感憤怒的原因。他最近兩次讓人憤怒的言論有：一，建議日本天皇應該參拜供有14名日本戰犯、充滿軍國主義氣氛的靖國神社；二，聲稱台灣教育程度高，應該歸功於日本50年占領期間的開明政策。（1895年日本從中國掠奪了台灣作為戰利品。）後來，麻生曾經軟弱無力地試圖澄清自己的話，卻沒能改變這些言論產生的惡劣效果。

“麻生還不厭其煩地在已經苦難重重的中日關係火上加油，把中國的長期軍事建設說成是對日本“重大威脅”。中國近來並沒有威脅日本的記錄。這一點，除了日本以外的整個世界都知道，情況和麻生太郎所說的恰恰相反。由此，麻生太郎先生對外交領悟和他對曆史領悟，一樣令人詫異，難於理喻。”

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Editorial :Japan's Offensive Foreign Minister

Published: February 13, 2006

People everywhere wish they could be proud of every bit of their countries' histories. But honest people understand that's impossible, and wise people appreciate the positive value of acknowledging and learning from painful truths about past misdeeds. Then there is Japan's new foreign minister, Taro Aso, who has been neither honest nor wise in the inflammatory statements he has been making about Japan's disastrous era of militarism, colonialism and war crimes that culminated in the Second World War.

Besides offending neighboring countries that Japan needs as allies and trading partners, he is disserving the people he has been pandering to. World War II ended before most of today's Japanese were born. Yet public discourse in Japan and modern history lessons in its schools have never properly come to terms with the country's responsibility for such terrible events as the mass kidnapping and sexual enslavement of Korean young women, the biological warfare experiments carried out on Chinese cities and helpless prisoners of war, and the sadistic slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians in the city of Nanjing.

That is why so many Asians have been angered by a string of appalling remarks Mr. Aso has made since being named foreign minister last fall. Two of the most recent were his suggestion that Japan's emperor ought to visit the militaristic Yasukuni Shrine, where 14 Japanese war criminals are among those honored, and his claim that Taiwan owes its high educational standards to enlightened Japanese policies during the 50-year occupation that began when Tokyo grabbed the island as war booty from China in 1895. Mr. Aso's later lame efforts to clarify his words left their effect unchanged.

Mr. Aso has also been going out of his way to inflame Japan's already difficult relations with Beijing by characterizing China's long-term military buildup as a "considerable threat" to Japan. China has no recent record of threatening Japan. As the rest of the world knows, it was the other way around. Mr. Aso's sense of diplomacy is as odd as his sense of history.

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今早在網上讀到這篇《紐約時報》的社論，我幾乎不敢相信自己的眼睛：這是《紐約時報》嗎?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/opinion/13mon3.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

也許美國在日本曾經投下了兩顆原子彈，說它是內疚也好，說它是罪惡感也好，它對日本和日本人向來總是客客氣氣的。像《紐約時報》這篇《令人厭惡的日本外相》社論，如此猛烈的抨擊日本軍國主義，鐵證如山，理直氣壯，旗幟鮮明，畢竟是少見的。

據悉，日本一位知名文藝評論家曾經憂心忡忡地指出，日本社會似乎愈是說狠話，愈是不妥協，愈具攻擊性，就愈是受歡迎，愈是有市場，愈能吸引眼球。在這種政治風氣下，麵對政治權力和功名利益的巨大誘惑，日本外相越無禮越胡扯，政治價值也愈高了。但作為外相，而且又可能是日本未來首相人選之一，麻生理應具有基本的分寸和克己的。同時，他的言論代表日本外交策略和曆史認知，到底日本新一代政治人物究竟想把鄰國關係引向何處？

作為一個日本外相，麻生對外交領悟和對曆史領悟竟然如此無知、如此漠然、如此抵賴，怪不得《紐約時報》說這個無禮的外相“難於理喻”了。

By 劉伯鬆