英媒：日本历史: 选择性记忆

日月星辰

译文简介:
经济学人：对日本过往历史的叙事方式所进行的及时深思。
译文来源:
原文地址：http://www.economist.com/node/21560842
原创翻译：龙腾网 www.ltaaa.com 翻译：chen_lt 转载请注明出处
正文翻译:
Japanese history
Selective memory
A timely meditation on shaping narratives of the past

日本历史：
选择性记忆
对过往历史的叙事方式所进行的及时深思

AS THE ghosts of the Pacific war judder back to life in Asia, it seems appropriate to consider how nation states remember, and misremember, the past. Japan’s current tiffs with its neighbours, China and South Korea, are rooted in the march to war and its undigested aftermath, more than 75 years ago. They are inflamed, however, by different narratives of history, and by national media coverage that is often parochial and amnesiac.

由于太平洋战争的鬼魂们又开始在亚洲复活，所以现在似乎是时候来看看那些国家是如何记住或者记错过往历史的。日本目前和其周围的邻居（中国和韩国）的争端可以追溯到75年前的战争以及战后日本的态度上来。可是，他们的关系也因为对历史的不同解释而变得更加的火上浇油，当然国家媒体狭隘和片面的报道也导致了关系的更加紧张。

Conflict and memory are the themes that animate this new collection of essays by John Dower, author of the Pulitzer prize-winning “Embracing Defeat” (1999), which looked at Japan after the second world war. Mr Dower is particularly interested in Japan’s sanitisation of its military past, but also the way history in general is often a tool used by the powerful.

争端和记忆是推动约翰 道尔新书的两个主题，他也是获得普利策奖的《拥抱失败》（1999）一书的作者，这本获奖作品主要关注的是战后日本的情况。道尔先生尤其感兴趣的是日本对其过去军国主义历史的否认，同时他还对那些有权有势的人如何利用历史感兴趣。

Mr Dower discusses his surprise at hearing his own work cited after 9/11, when American officials evoked the post-war occupation of Japan as a model for post-invasion Iraq. President George W. Bush should have seen that Japan provided “no model” for occupying Mesopotamia, Mr Dower wrote in a strikingly prescient 2002 New York Times op-ed, reproduced here. “To rush to war without seriously imagining all its consequences, including its aftermath, is not realism but a terrible hubris.”

道尔先生在书中谈论了自己的惊讶，因为他听说了自己的作品尽然在911事件后被引用了，当时美国的官员都希望把战后占领日本的模式应用到被占领后的伊拉克。布什总统应该看到日本根本没有提供一个“模式”来让美国占领美索不达米亚，道尔先生在2002年的纽约时报专栏上富有预见性的写道，我们把这句话重现一下。“在没有仔细考虑后果的情况下就发动战争，这并不是一种现实主义的行为，而是一种可怕的狂妄自大。”

He returns to the terrain of “Embracing Defeat”, marvelling at how the vicious racial hatreds of the Pacific war dissipated so quickly, as though “turned off like a spigot”. The lesson for Mr Dower is not only that reluctant civilians must be mobilised by propaganda to fight and die, but also that new realities force new biases.

他转而回到了《拥抱失败》这本书上来，他感到异常的惊奇：太平洋战争所引发的种族仇恨是如何在顷刻之间烟消云散的，好像“水龙头突然被关掉”似的。道尔先生得到的答案是，不仅仅是这些心不甘情不愿的普通民众会被国家的宣传机器动员去战斗并且牺牲自己的生命，而且新的现实还会催生出新的偏见。

No side, he argues, launched a more sophisticated propaganda blitz than the Japanese, who saw their “mongrel” enemies as biologically inferior. But they were hardly alone. During the war Americans viewed their Asian rivals as “monkeys” or “rats”, but with the start of the occupation, Japan became an ally. The popular racism in the American media more or less stopped, and stayed buried until the 1970s, when Japan emerged as an economic superpower. This resurrected Japanese stereotypes of “predatory economic animals” in Western suits who were launching a new “financial Pearl Harbor”. The spigot of racial hatred had been turned back on.

他争辩说，没有国家可以像日本人那样快速的发起如此老道的宣传闪电战，日本人把其“杂种”敌人当作是低等级的生物。但是日本人从来就不孤单。在二战期间，美国人把它的亚洲对手看作是“猴子”或者是“老鼠”，但是一旦美国开始占领日本后，日本又成了美国的盟友。美国媒体中的种族主义言论也开始渐渐变少，并且几乎都销声匿迹了，但是到70年代的时候，情况又变了，因为当时日本成为了一个超级经济强国。这又再次使得日本人在西方人的眼里成了“掠夺性的经济怪物”，因为日本当时正在建立起新的“经融珍珠港”。所以种族仇恨的水龙头又再一次的被打开。

When the fighting is finished, history is written, inevitably by those in power, observes Mr Dower. The standard American view of the struggle against Japan is that it was just and moral. But this grants little space for the ghastly side of victory, which included the airborne destruction of 66 cities and the incineration of more than half a million civilians. China and Korea’s political elites have found it endlessly useful to bang the nationalist drum to unite potentially fractious populations against their old enemy. Japanese conservatives have made it easy for them, whitewashing the past and attempting to pass off Imperial Japan’s rampage across Asia as a “holy war” against Western colonialism.

一场战斗结束后，就成为了一段历史，当然这段历史是由成功者来抒写的，道尔先生如此观察道。在美国人的标准观点里，他们认为对日本的战争是正义和道德的。但是这种观点没有给战争失败的一方留下任何的反驳的机会，包括因空袭而造成的日本66座城市的损坏以及50多万民众被活活烧死的事实。中国和韩国的政治精英都发现了一个永远都不过时的方法，只要他们打的是民族主义的口号，那些易怒的民众就会被很容易的利用来对付它们的老敌人。而日本的保守派人士的做法更是让中韩的政治领导人们有机可乘，因为这些保守派日本人否认过去的历史而且还试图把日本侵略亚洲的暴行说成是为了反抗西方殖民主义而发动的“圣战”。

Selective memory is often a harmful feature of children’s education. Japanese high-school textbooks devote impressively little space to the war, reflecting official attempts to “downplay the dark aspects of Japan’s modern history,” writes Mr Dower. For its part, China’s government relies on its struggle against Japanese aggression for its historical legitimacy, so memories of wartime atrocities are kept fresh in schools. This helps to explain the strikingly different public reactions to the current island disputes. While the Chinese angrily take to the streets, the Japanese stay at home and watch it on TV.

选择性的记忆对儿童教育来说是有害的。日本的中学教科书里面很少提到有关战争的事情，这反映了日本官员试图“忽视日本当代历史中黑暗的一面，”道尔先生如此写道。而从中国的角度来说，日本越是否认历史，中国政府越是高兴，因为只有如此，中国的学校里的学生们才会被一再的灌输日本曾经侵略中国的罪行。通过这一点我们就很容易明白为什么最近的岛屿争端两国人民的反应是如此的不同，当中国人上街进行愤怒的抗议时，日本却呆在家里通过看电视来了解情况。

For a solution, Mr Dower looks to the 20th-century views of E.H. Norman, a Japan expert and Marxist historian. Like Norman, he feels that most countries need a “revolution from below” against any system that “represses freedom, sacrifices life, and retards the creation of true self-government”. All citizens should be able to challenge the narratives held by elites. At a tense time of toxic nationalism in Asia, this book is a timely reminder of the uses and abuses of history.

为了获得解决方案，道尔先生把目光转向了诺曼在20世纪所提出的观点，他是一名日本学者和马克思主义历史学家。像诺曼一样，道尔先生觉得世界上的大多数国家都需要一个“自下而上的革命”来推翻“抑制自由，牺牲生命和阻碍自我管理”的系统。每个公民都应该能够挑战政治精英们提出的历史叙事观点。当亚洲的具有破坏性的民族主义之风盛行之时，道尔先生的这本书不失为一个及时的提醒，一个利用和滥用历史的提醒。


评论翻译:

bampbsAug 23rd, 19:43
The Japanese have scarcely behaved in a way to make the Chinese, or, for that matter, anyone else, believe that they genuinely regret their international aggressions prior to their defeat in 1945.
They do, however, regret the defeat; and they feel terribly sorry for themselves because the Americans saved millions of Japanese lives by using atomic weapons to end the war quickly.

日本人的行为一直以来都没办法让中国人或者任何其他国家的人相信日本真正的在为其1945年之前的侵略行为感到忏悔。
但是，日本确实是为他们的战败感到后悔的；并且他们还对自己感到异常的惋惜，因为美国通过核炸弹来快速的结束战争从而挽救了数百万日本人的生命。

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Headlessly Running Aroundin回复 cshimaAug 24th, 20:25
I am comfortable to believe that Germany of today is not the same as Germany 70 years ago but cannot say the same thing about Japan. Just look at how differently Germany and Japan treat World War II.

我相信今日的德国已经不是70年前的的德国了，但是日本那就不一样了。只要看看德国和日本在对待二战的态度上有何不同你就知道了。

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Headlessly Running Aroundin 回复 Mike Tyson IronmanAug 24th, 14:39
Why were Japanese soldiers anywhere near Marco Polo Bridge, and, for that matter, anywhere on Chinese soil? They had started the to invade China and occupied vast areas of China aoil as early as 1931.
What you say about the Chinese and Koreans parallels Holocaust denial, and, if your view is shared by more than a small fraction of Japanese, it means that Japan, unlike Germany, has perverted the horrible lessons of WWII.

为什么日本兵在卢沟桥附近到处出现以及在中国的其他地方大量出现？日本人最早在1931年时候，就已经开始对中国发动战争了，而且还占领了中国的大片领土。

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Headlessly Running Aroundin 回复 TohakuAug 24th, 14:42
The Japanese could have surrendered and stopped their aggression in the rest of East Asia while their homeland was being bombed. What were the allies supposed to do? Stand by and let Japan continue? Invade Japan before softening it up and sacrifice allied soldiers unnecessarily? Loss of life is to be regretted but at a time like that it had to be done to save lives. The lessons here is not to start wars of aggression in the first place.

当日本本土被空袭时，日本人本就已经可以投降并且停止侵略东亚其他的地区了。同盟国应该怎么做？袖手旁观继续让日本为所欲为？在日本软化之前，为了不牺牲同盟国战士而袭击日本难道不是应该做的事情吗？生命的逝去是一件令人遗憾的事情，但是在当时的那种情况下，只有这么做才能拯救更多的生命。所以我们能够从中得到的教训是，首先就不应该发动战争。

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Headlessly Running Aroundin 回复kalitataAug 24th, 20:17
The Japanese government never did apologize for the atrocities.

日本政府从来就没有为其战争罪行道过谦。

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DeskHopperin 回复 Mike Tyson IronmanAug 24th, 04:43
Oh please. It might or might not be the Chinese who fired first, but it was the Japanese that later assaulted Beijing.
If it weren't for that, the whole Marco Polo bridge incident would be nothing more than a minor skirmish.
What do you have against the Chinese and the Koreans anyway?

哦 得了吧。或许是中国人最先开火的，但也有可能不是，但是后来的确是日本人侵占了北京。
如果日本不侵占北京的话，卢沟桥事件最多只能算是一次小规模的冲突。

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A. AndrosAug 24th, 17:41
"He returns to the terrain of “Embracing Defeat”, marvelling at how the vicious racial hatreds of the Pacific war dissipated so quickly, as though “turned off like a spigot”. '

“他回到了《拥抱失败》这本书上来，他感到异常的惊奇：为什么太平洋战争所引发的种族仇恨是如何在顷刻之间烟消云散的，好像“水龙头突然被关掉”似的。”

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A. AndrosAug 24th, 17:41
"He returns to the terrain of “Embracing Defeat”, marvelling at how the vicious racial hatreds of the Pacific war dissipated so quickly, as though “turned off like a spigot”. '
Dowling's "War Without Mercy" is the least convincing of his excellent books and the above statement badly undercuts his thesis of an essentially racist WW2 in the Pacific. During the war American propaganda was indeed racist . . . toward all its enemies. (View the wartime classic "Der Fuerher"s Face" for an equally contemptuous portrayal of Germans and Italians.) German and Russian propaganda was also intensely racist toward each other's nationality, especially the ultra-racist Nazis. However, Ilya Erhenburg was virulently racist toward the Germans.The reason that the racism Dowling so excoriates was "turned off" so quickly after VJ Day is because is was never as deep as he portrays. It was a wartime hyping of casual peacetime civilian prejudices and when the Four Years of Hate were over it simply collapsed to its normal, puny size.
But, Dowling's sensitive exploration of WW2 in the Pacific as primarily a "racist" war can tempt us to an attitude of "A plague on both your houses" toward the combatants. This would be a misreading of history.
The Japanese were aggressors throughout the Pacific Basin from the late Meiji Restoration until the end of WW2. The Sino-Japanese War (1894), the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5), the invasions and conquest of Taiwan and Korea, the carving out of "Manchuko" from China in 1931, the attempt to conquer China anew that began in 1937, the attempted aggression against Russia in 1938 and, finally, the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, demonstrate a record of ceaseless aggression over a half-century that is virtually unmatched, even by Germany, in modern history. Although reasonably civilized in their war against Russia in 1904-5, subsequent Japanese aggression was carried out with an atavistic savagery divorced from military necessity that was truly depraved.
The American bombing of Japanese cities was immoral. But, to quote Bomber Harris, "Cite an act of war that IS moral." Japan had to be defeated if the Pacific Basin was to have any future as a relatively peaceful and prosperous part of the globe, other than as a victim of Japanese imperialism. In China, alone, reasonable historians with no axe to grind estimate that right up until VJ Day something in the order of 100,000 Chinese civilians died each month under Japanese brutality. The only way to avoid wartime atrocity is to avoid war. And, one way to avoid war is to not attack one's neighbors.
As the war begins to fade from living memory we can detect a sort of "On the one hand, on the other hand" attitude emerge in textbooks and monographs. The press the Nazis have gotten in the past makes their white-washing a bit more difficult than that of the Japanese but this, too, will emerge.
At the same time, the war is over and those Japanese who perpetrated it are long dead and it is unjust to hold contemporary Japan responsible for what it did in the first half of the last century. There simply is nothing positive to be gained by waving the bloody shirt, other than to stir up domestic political advantage. (But, Japanese denial of their culpability produces no sweet smell either. ) The Japanese have been asked to apologize too many times already -- this need not go on forever. Let the dead bury the dead.
But, let us not further this necessary process of reconciliation by obscuring the horror that Japan inflicted throughout the Pacific for fifty years, beginning in the 1890s. What happened then is no part of Japanese life today. But, it is part of Japan's past.

“他回到了《拥抱失败》这本书上来，他感到异常的惊奇：为什么太平洋战争所引发的种族仇恨是如何在顷刻之间烟消云散的，好像“水龙头突然被关掉”似的。”
道林的《没有怜悯的战争》是他写过的所有书里最没有说服力的，而上面的这句话则严重的削弱了道林的理论：从本质上来说，发生在太平洋的二战是一场种族主义的战争。在战争期间，美国的宣传机器的确是对所有的美国敌人都采用了种族主义的宣传策略。（参考一下战时的经典《Der Fuerher"s Face》一书，这本书对德国和意大利采取了轻蔑的态度）
德国和俄罗斯对各自国民的政治宣传也是采用了种族主义的策略，特别是纳粹德国的种族主义者。可是，伊利亚·爱伦堡（苏联的作家，记者，翻译家，文化名人，同时也是臭名昭著的战争罪犯）却是倾向于德国的恶毒种族主义者。道林严厉批评种族主义的原因是在二战胜利后人们好像很快就忘记了仇恨，而这是道林没有想到的，因为他之前觉得人们的仇恨应该会很深才对。所以这是在利用和平时期人们的偏见来进行战时的宣传，而当四年的仇恨过去以后，所有的仇恨都恢复了平静。
但是，道林对发生在太平洋地区的二战战事进行了敏感的探索，他把太平洋地区的战事称为“种族主义”战争，而这可以让我们引发我们对那些战斗的战士产生这些一个态度：战争对每个士兵来说都是一个灾难，因为他们各自的家园都在战争被毁掉了。而这可能会让我们对历史产生误解。
日本从明治维新到二战结束期间，在太平洋地区一直都扮演着侵略者的角色。1894年的中日战争，1904-5年的中俄战争，对台湾和韩国的侵略和征服，1931年分裂满洲国，并试图在1937年重新侵略中国，在1938年试图侵略俄罗斯，以及最后在1941年袭击珍珠港，所以这半个世纪的侵略行为都表明了在当代历史上日本的侵略行为是无与伦比的，即使是德国也没办法和日本相比。虽然在对俄罗斯的1904-5的战争中日本人没有采取太多的暴行，但是在接下来的日本侵略行为中都表现出了隔代遗传的野蛮性，这种野蛮性实际上已经脱离了军事上的需要，所以是相当卑鄙的。
美国人对日本的城市进行轰炸是不道德的。但是曾经的袭击日本的哈里斯却说袭击日本是一种道德的行为。如果太平洋地区想要在未来拥有一个和平的环境而不是成为日本军国主义的牺牲品的话，那么日本一定要被打败。单单在中国，一些公道的历史学家估计，直到日本投降为止，每个月都有10万人在日本的铁蹄下死亡。阻止战争暴行的唯一方法是阻止战争的发生。而防止战争发生的方法就是不要对邻国发动袭击。
随着战争在人们的记忆中不断的消逝，我们可以在可以在一些教科书或者文章里面发现“一方面，另一方面”这样的态度出现。即使德国政府想要抹除过去不光荣的历史，德国媒体界也是不会同意的，起码没有日本那么容易，但是或许在将来，德国也可以变得很容易。
同时，战争已经结束了，而那些发动战争的日本战犯也已经死了，所以虽然日本在半个世纪之前犯下了错误，但是现在的日本并没有错，所以现在的政府并没有责任，否则就是对日本的不公平。一味的煽动仇恨情绪并不能带来什么成果，这样做只会使那些国内的政治家获益罢了。（但是日本否认过去的罪行也不会产生什么好结果。）日本被多次的要求进行道歉——不能再这么继续下去了。过去的就让它过去吧。
日本进行了半个世纪的侵略历史（从19世纪90年代开始），在这过程中，日本给亚洲人民造成了巨大身心上的伤害，所以我们也不必要为了和解而忘记日本的所作所为。日本虽然在过去犯下了侵略事实，但是和今天的日本一点关系也没有。但是，那是日本历史的一部分。

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Headlessly Running Aroundin回复 TohakuAug 24th, 20:29
Well, who knows, maybe American couldn't beat Japan without atomic bombs either. In that case, it was a good thing they did use them. It would surely be the lessor of two evils.

好吧，谁知道呢，如果美国不使用原子弹的话，或许也无法打败日本。所以从这个角度来看的话，美国人使用原子弹是正确的做法。

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Bernard TownsendAug 30th, 18:53
Fact is fact. Nobody can deny it. You can have different viewpoints, but need to have some very basic human conscience.
The way that "Mike Tyson Ironman" whitewashes Japanese war crimes is shamelessly naked and extreme. This goes way beyond disliking the Chinese government. You put all Chinese and Koreans in a category so you can target your hatred. What's your agenda, after all??
Denying Nzai Germany's war crimes is itself a criminal act in Germany. The equivalent, however, is conveniently known as "freedom of speech" in Japan, embraced by Shintaro Ishihara and alike.
If the German government denies Holocaust systematically, regularly organized memorial masses for Adolf Hitler and other war criminals, nobody in Europe or Israel would just sit and watch doing nothing. But if the Japanese government and politicians do so, it's acceptable and correct to do?
Numerous Chinese governments did cause damage to its own people. That's a separate matter. But that does not justify Japanese war crimes. A Jew cheating another Jew does not justify Holocaust.
If Chinese government was democratically elected, China defended itself like Israel does, and there will be more peace in Asia, and more basic human conscience among the Japanese and some of their proxies like "Mike Tyson Ironman".

事实就是事实。没有人可以否认。你可以拥有不同的观点，但是还是需要具备基本的人类良心的。
“Mike Tyson Ironman”式的试图对日本战争罪行进行掩饰的行为是毫无羞耻，赤裸裸和极端的。日本政府这么做并不仅仅讨厌中国政府那么简单了。你把所有的中国人和韩国人都归类在一起，这样子你才能把你的仇恨都释放出来。所以你的目的到底是什么呢？？
在德国，对纳粹德国所犯下的战争罪行进行否认本身就是一种犯罪行为。而在日本，人们会认为这是一种“言论自由”的表现，石原慎太郎以及类似的一些人都这么认为。
如果德国政府也有组织的对其过去的战争罪行进行否认，并且还经常组织民众去参拜希特勒和其他的战犯的话，那么欧洲人和以色列人肯定不会袖手旁观的。但是如果日本的政治家和日本政府这么做的话就是可以接受的和正确的吗？
中国政府的确做了一些对不起其人民的事情，但是那是两回事。但那并不能使日本的罪行合理化。正如一个犹太人欺骗另外一个犹太人并不能使纳粹的暴行合理化一样。
如果中国政府是通过民主选举出来的话，如果中国也像以色列那样为自己争取权益的话，那么亚洲将会更加的和平，并且也会唤起日本人以及其代理人比如“Mike Tyson Ironman”更多的人类基本道德良心。

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ashbirdin 回复 Mike Tyson IronmanAug 24th, 18:27
Mike Tyson,
"Legitimate rape" all over again?
You want to do it "harder" this time to make it more "legitimate"?

Mike Tyson，再一次的“合法性强奸”？
你这次想做得“更绝一点”来让它变得更加的具有“合法性”？

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ewakornAug 28th, 03:32
Japan cannot face squarely the past because it is not a normal country.
Under the unilateral decision of super Shogun General MacArthur, Emperor Hirohito was acquitted of all charges of war crime even though there were strong evidence to show that he had a strong role in the planning of major strategic battles.
Moreover, the start of Korean War had rehabilitated a whole segment of war criminals to be in charge of government and major industry.
So with a whole bunch of war criminals and their descendants in charge, how could they face squarely the past?
If Japan had gone through joint Allied Occupation like Germany was, then there is no way Japan could whitewash its history like how it does today.
If Japan has really got rid of ultra-nationalism, then how come a right wing politician like Shintaro Ishihara, who denied that Nanking Massacre had ever happened, could be voted into office as the governor of Tokyo?
What if anyone denies that Holocaust ever happened in Europe?
He would be convicted and sentenced to jail (so much for the Freedom of Speech) if he were in UK, France, Austria,.... and Germany.
Ishihara is lucky that China and South Korea are not strong enough to behave like what the European countries do.

日本不能诚实的面对过去，因为日本不是一个正常的国家。在超级幕府首领麦克阿瑟将军的片面决定下，日本裕仁天皇没有受到任何的战争起诉，虽然有明显的证据表明裕仁天皇在一些主要的战略性战役中都扮演着关键的角色。
可是，朝鲜战争使大量的日本战犯重新获得资格来控制日本政府和主要的工业部门
所以在这些战犯和其后代掌权的情况下，日本怎么能够诚实的面对过去的历史呢？
如果日本也像德国那样被盟军联合的占领，那么日本今天就不可能对其历史进行粉刷了。
如果日本政府真的摆脱了极端的民族主义者，那么像石原慎太郎这样否认南京暴行的右翼政治家怎么会被当选上东京市长呢？
如果有人否认在欧洲发生的大屠杀的话那结果又将会怎样？
如果在英国，法国和奥地利，，，，和德国，那他肯定会被起诉然后被送进监狱的（言论自由也就到此为止了）
石原慎太郎应该感到庆幸，因为中国和韩国不够强大，所以没办法做欧洲国家做的事情。

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Headlessly Running Aroundin回复 A. AndrosAug 24th, 20:33
"The Japanese have been asked to apologize too many times already -- this need not go on forever." Totally agree, EXCEPT that Japan never did apologize. If they had behavied in a way similar to the Germans the Japanese would have been asked repeatedly to apologize.

“日本被多次的要求进行道歉——不能再这样继续下去了。”我完全同意，除非日本从未道过谦。如果日本人也像德国人那样的话，那么日本人会被一再的要求去道歉的

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Headlessly Running Aroundin 回复 A. AndrosAug 24th, 22:44
Erratum for my post: [If they had behaved in a way similar to the Germans the Japanese would not have been asked repeatedly to apologize.]

我发的帖子有错误：如果日本人像德国人那么做的话，那么日本人就不会一再的被要求其道歉了。

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Perfect Choicein 回复 cshimaAug 25th, 07:39
cshima, Japan doesn't have a functioning military?
Are you on drugs?
Japan's army has 469 aircraft and 400+ helicopters.
Japan's navy has 168 aircraft, 129 helicopters, 110 warships including advanced AEGIS destroyers and 4 escort carriers (Japan call them Helicopter Destroyers). The carrier will most likely be modified to accommodate F-35s near future.
Japan's air force has 805 aircraft, including 213 F-15 fighter bombers, 17 AWACS and 4 airborne refueling jumbo planes.
Japan's military strength is SECOND only to the USA in East Asia. Even at current strength, Japan's military can flatten Korea and China in 7 days. Japan's AEGIS destroyers and advanced diesel subs can blockade Pusan, Incheon, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, Hong Kong, Taipei and Hainan Island.
S. Korea's F-16s don't have enough range to fly over to Japan. They are still 'testing' their F-15s, which started to arrive only a few years ago (thanks to America's Japan first policy).
China doesn't have a significant number of long range bombers, and their medium range missile ranges are within Japan's air range.
Look, the Pentagon and the CIA have already ran the simulation back in 1990s and a year few years ago. Japan is not a kitten you believe it to be. Japan can devour her neighbors like Godzilla.

cshima，你说日本没有拥有一支完备的军队？
你是不是嗑药了？
日本陆军拥有469架战机和400多架的直升机。
日本海军有168架战机，129架直升机，110艘战舰，包括宙斯盾驱逐舰和护航航空母舰（日本称其为直升机驱逐舰）。在不远的将来，这些航空母舰很有可能被改进用来搭载F-35s战机。
日本空军有805架战机，包括213架的F-15战机，17架空中预警机，4架空中加油机。
在东亚地区，日本的军力排在了美国的后面，位列第二。即使以目前的军事水平来看，日本能够在7天的时间里把中国和韩国夷为平地。日本的宙斯盾驱逐舰和先进的柴油潜水艇可以封锁釜山，仁川，上海，天津，青岛，香港和海南岛
韩国的F-16s战机不具备足够的里程来覆盖到日本。韩国还在“测试”他们的F-15s战机，直到几年前美国才把这种战机卖给韩国（因为美国的战略是把日本放在第一位）
中国没有足够数量的远程轰炸机，并且他们的中程导弹靶场在日本的航程以内。
看，五角大楼和中央情报局在90年代以及几年以前就已经做过模拟了。日本不是你所认为的小猫。日本可以像哥斯拉一样把领国给吞并掉。

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ashbirdin 回复 A. AndrosAug 24th, 18:42
Great post.
But, let us not further this necessary process of reconciliation by obscuring the horror that Japan inflicted throughout the Pacific for fifty years, beginning in the 1890s. What happened then is no part of Japanese life today. But, it is part of Japan's past.
Truth and reconciliation.
Thanks for your succinct overview of history from the late Meiji period to end of WW2.

说的很好
“日本进行了半个世纪的侵略历史（从19世纪90年代开始），在这过程中，日本给亚洲人民造成了巨大身心上的伤害，所以我们也不必要为了和解而忘记日本的所作所为。日本对然在过去犯下了侵略事实，但是和今天的日本一点关系也没有。但是，那是日本历史的一部分。”
事实与和解
谢谢你对明治时期到二战结束的这段时间所做的简洁回顾。

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Bernard TownsendAug 30th, 18:59
Some basic facts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes
Don't get me wrong - I peraonally have many Japanese friends and find them great individuals to get along with, but if we teach the world and our children naked lies, we are not responsible to even ourselves. It goes against our own self interest! Don't you want to sleep better?

一些基本的事实：
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes
不要误会我——我本人拥有很多的日本朋友，并且发现他们都是很好的人，但是如果我们对世界以及我们的孩子说的都是赤裸裸的谎言，那对我们自己来说都是一种不负责任的行为。这种做法是和我们自己的利益相冲突的！
难道你不想睡得更加安稳一点吗？

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law-and-orderin 回复Marquis de SadAug 28th, 01:28
Japanese lost their rights to treat their savageness in a cursory fashion when they behaved likes savages. If they had any intellectual honesty, they should be really embarrassed.

日本人没有权利以草率的方式来处理自己的野蛮行为，因为他们过去的确像野蛮人一样。如果他们在心智上真的是诚实的话，那么他们应该感到尴尬才对。

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gdpbullAug 28th, 00:26
I don't think any country is totally immune to white-washing their history. Perhaps Japan is more egregious than most.
Even American does it. Any serious historian does not deny that the Roosevelt administration did their best to maneuver Japan into making the first strike in WWII. Secretary of War Stimpson wrote in his dairy about discussions with Roosevelt "how we should maneuver them [the Japanese] into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves." After Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt's administrative assistant Johnathan Daniels quoted Roosevelt as saying "The blow was heavier than he had hoped it would necessarily be. ... But the risks paid off; even the loss was worth the price."
There are plenty of documents declassified and people's memoirs at the time that document the fact. What is controversial is that some people say Roosevelt was a hero by dragging the reluctant American citizens kicking and screaming into the war, and others saying what he did was despicable.
He also tried his best before that to get Hitler to attack US warships, but was unsuccessful. He was GREATLY relieved when Germany honored their treaty with Japan and declared war on American when Japan did. (one of the few things ever honored by Hitler)
Don't anyone think that I think the Japan government was a bunch of good guys at that time. I'm just saying we cloud our history too.
But, even though its well documented, almost 100% of any American you may stop on the street and ask about this, they would have no knowledge of it and would consider you to be a conspiracy kook. So even though serious historians agree, its simply brushed over or not covered at all in lower school history classes.
Its also not really covered that there were many high level people in the Roosevelt administration that were communists and even Soviet spies for example Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White.
Now I am expressing my own opinion. I believe the Roosevelt administration was not all about protecting democracy, doing the right thing, blah, blah blah. It was all about helping the Soviet Union. Roosevelt grew up in New York state at a time when virtually all of the elite were communists. He and many in his administration had a natural affinity for the Soviet Union.

我觉得任何国家都没办法完全的粉饰自己的历史，或许日本在这方面的行为比大多数国家做的都过分。
甚至美国人也这么做。任何严肃的历史学家都不会否认是罗斯福政府尽了最大的努力用计让日本在二战的时候最先发动对美国战争。美国的一位高官在其日记中写道了他和罗斯福总统的交谈，“我们怎样才能用计让日本最先对我们发动攻击而我们又不会有太大损失呢。”在珍珠港事件后，罗斯福的行政助理丹尼尔斯引用了罗斯福的一句话“这次日本的袭击比我想象中的要猛烈。。。但是这次的冒险是值得的；这次的损失是值得的。”
当时就有很多解密的文件和回忆录来记录了这件事。而具有争议的是，有人说罗斯福使那些不愿意参战的美国人卷入了对日战争，所以他是个英雄，而有的人则认为他的所作所为是卑鄙的行为。
在那之前，罗斯福还试图引诱德国袭击美国的舰船，但是没有成功。当他知道德国履行了和日本签订的条约并且在日本宣布对美战争的情况下德国也这样做时，罗斯福这才放下心来。（这是希特勒履行的少数条约或承诺中的一个）。
我的意思并不是说当时的日本政府里的人都是好人。我的意思是我们也在玷污我们的历史。
虽然有很多文件记录下了罗斯福的这一计谋，但是你随便问美国街上的行人这些问题，几乎有100%的美国人不知道这个事情，而且他们还会认为你是某个有阴谋的家伙。所以即使历史学家同意这些文件的说法，但是根本就没有人重视并且在小学历史课上根本就没有这方面的介绍。
并且也没有多少人知道在罗斯福的政府中有很多的高官都是共产主义者和苏联的间谍，比如阿尔杰 西斯和哈里 怀特。
我表明的只是我自己的观点。我相信罗斯福的政府班子并不仅仅只是为了保卫民主和做正确的事情等等等等。。。罗斯福政府所做的事情就是为了帮助苏联。罗斯福在纽约州长大，在当时，几乎所有的精英都是共产主义者。罗斯福和其领导班子里的许多成员对苏联具有一种天生的亲和力。

http://www.ltaaa.com/wtfy/6431.html

leobien

如果中国政府是通过民主选举出来的话，如果中国也像以色列那样为自己争取权益的话，那么亚洲将会更加的和平，并且也会唤起日本人以及其代理人比如“Mike Tyson Ironman”更多的人类基本道德良心。

石原慎太郎应该感到庆幸，因为中国和韩国不够强大，所以没办法做欧洲国家做的事情。