【华盛顿邮报 20150325】七十年了，二战仍未结束

满仓

【中文标题】七十年了，二战仍未结束
【原文标题】70 years later, the world is still fighting World War II
【登载媒体】华盛顿邮报
【原文作者】Ishaan Tharoor
【原文链接】http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/03/25/70-years-later-the-world-is-still-fighting-world-war-ii/



2015年3月23日，德国总理安吉拉•默克尔（右）与希腊总理阿莱克斯•齐普拉斯在柏林大使馆召开的新闻发布会上。

2015年标志着二战结束70周年，但是，从某种程度上说，世界性的冲突远未结束。一系列的纪念活动再次揭开了战争创痛的伤疤，同时也上演着地缘政治分歧的大戏。让我们来看看为什么二战的遗产依然是地方局势紧张的原因。（与70年前的战争一样，俄罗斯依然扮演着重要的角色。）

要求德国赔款

希腊的经济苦难——包括令人难以置信的3000亿美元债务——是当今世界的重大问题之一，他们的新左派政府找到了一个解决方案，就是向历史索取赔偿。希腊司法部长最近表示，他同意当局没收德国在希腊的数百万美元资产，作为二战期间战争罪行的赔偿。按照1960年的协议，德国已经对希腊做出赔偿，但是希腊声称，已经支付的数百万美元不足以弥补纳粹占领希腊期间所造成的损失。

作为欧洲经济的引擎和欧盟的保护者，德国在国际问题上扮演了重要的觉得，包括力争把希腊留在欧元区，但是遭到很多希腊人的谴责，说它把破坏性的节俭政策强加给雅典。

希腊总理阿莱克斯•齐普拉斯星期一在与德国官员的一次会议中说：“这不是物质问题，而是道德问题。”

普京回避奥斯威辛纪念仪式

1945年1月27日，苏联红军进入了被遗弃的奥斯威辛集中营。苏联士兵是首批见证这一恐怖景象的人，超过100万人——大部分是犹太人——被纳粹杀害。但是当各国领导人在年初举办纪念活动的时候，莫斯科的领导人却不见踪影。俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔•普京缺席波兰的这次活动，原因是俄罗斯对乌克兰的高压攻势。这让俄罗斯与波罗的海和东欧国家的关系迅速恶化，包括波兰在内的各国害怕普京的野心。

乌克兰的法西斯主义阴影


2014年1月1日，民族主义者在基辅高举火炬，纪念斯捷潘•班杰拉诞辰105周年。

乌克兰又如何？政治危机在一年前出现之后，二战的遗产把这个地区笼罩在阴影下。在莫斯科兼并克里米亚之后，普京不厌其烦地宣扬苏联红军为抵抗纳粹军队，包围黑海半岛而做出的牺牲。战争期间，苏联共有2700万人死亡。

与此同时，俄罗斯媒体和政客不断谴责基辅的新政府，说它包庇新法西斯分子和纳粹的同情者。这时因为乌克兰一小部分民族主义右翼分子，一年前走上街头进行反对莫斯科的抗议活动。他们拥护有争议的乌克兰英雄人物，比如斯捷潘•班杰拉——这个游击队员曾经反抗俄罗斯和波兰占领目前乌克兰这片地区，并得到了纳粹的支持。

莫斯科的批判者说，真正的法西斯主义就潜伏在刺激普京的新帝国主义意识形态中。

被遗忘的中亚

上周，乌兹别克斯坦城市安格连当局拆除了一座高高的、像教堂尖顶一样的苏联士兵扛枪雕像。这座雕像建成于1970年，是为了纪念苏联二战胜利25周年。乌兹别克政府并不像俄罗斯人对战争历史那么狂热，数万名乌兹别克士兵被强征入伍，远离家乡与敌人作战，大部分人死在战场。苏联虽然为正面抗议纳粹入侵做出了巨大的贡献，但东欧和中亚的很多国家依然记得它是一个侵略强权。

据欧洲自由之声广播电台报道，乌兹别克独裁领导人伊斯兰•卡里莫夫把标志战争结束的5月9日假期，从俄罗斯以前命名的“胜利日”改为“回忆日”。官方媒体被禁止使用前苏联普遍使用的“伟大卫国战争”这个词。

东亚无休止的纠纷


2015年3月9日，日本首相安倍晋三在东京一次新闻发布会上讲话。

在日本、中国和韩国之间，每次有日本领导人参访颇富争议的靖国神社时，似乎都会出现冲突的迹象。这其中供奉的是日本战争期间的死者，包括14名在1948年审判时被判战争罪名成立的战犯。北京和首尔经常对日本学校历史教科书中的修正主义倾向大发牢骚，其中淡化了日本军方在占领亚洲期间的暴行，还包括为日本士兵服务的“慰安妇”事件。

周边国家期待日本鹰派首相安倍晋三所准备的二战演讲稿中可以表达日本对战争“忏悔”的态度，因此几个月来该地区的关系持续紧张。中国国有媒体新华社在本周的一篇评论员文章，谴责安倍“试图淡化和否认”日本的战争罪行，在近期的岛屿纠纷过程中，中国人的怨气难以遏制。

新华社说：“作为一个负责任的领导人，安倍应当主动回避这样的行为，因为如果不吸取教训，历史必将重现。”发飙结束。

专访莫斯科

5月9日，莫斯科将会举办庆祝胜利日的盛大军事活动，并邀请国际显贵人士参加。鉴于目前莫斯科与国际社会的紧张关系，包括奥巴马总统在内的一些领导人恐怕不会参加至少有26个国家领导人接到邀请的这次活动。

那么谁会参加呢？依旧在冷战中封闭、隐匿、停滞的朝鲜胖子暴君金正恩或许会。

《华盛顿邮报》曾经报道过，目前尚不了解金是否会亲临莫斯科，或者是安排政府高层官员代表出席。如果他亲自驾临，那么这是丹尼斯•罗德曼的朝鲜好友在登基三年后的首次正式外交出访。



原文：

2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, but, in some ways, the epochal conflict is far from over. A host of commemorations are opening up old wounds in parts of the world, or have become staging grounds for current geopolitical disagreements. Here's how the global legacy of World War II remains very much a source of tension. (Not unlike the war seven decades ago, Russia plays a big part in the story now.)

A demand for German reparations

Greece's economic woes, which include a crippling $300 billion debt, are very much a problem of the present, but their new leftist government has decided one solution lies in seeking redress for the past. Greece's justice minister recently said he'd be willing to allow authorities to seize millions of dollars in German assets in Greece in compensation for war crimes carried out in World War II. Germany already paid reparations to Greece as part of an agreement in 1960, as WorldViews outlined here, but Greeks contend that the millions paid did not account for all the damage the Greek state incurred during the Nazi occupation.

As the main engine of the European economy and a bulwark of the E.U., Germany has played a prominent role in the international project to keep Greece in the eurozone, and is blamed by many Greeks for foisting destructive policies of austerity on Athens.

"It's not a material matter, it's a moral issue," said Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, at a meeting Monday with German officials.

Putin avoids the Auschwitz commemoration

On Jan. 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered what was left of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Its soldiers were the first to encounter the horrors of the facility, where more than 1 million people, mostly Jews, had been killed by the Nazis. Yet when world leaders staged a memorial earlier this year, Moscow's top politician was nowhere to be seen. The absence of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the event in Poland was a consequence of Russia's power play in Ukraine, which has led to a severe deterioration of relations with other Baltic and Eastern European countries wary of Putin's ambitions, including Poland.

Nationalists hold torches during a march in Kiev on January 1, 2014, as they mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of Stepan Bandera.(SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images)

The specter of fascism in Ukraine

And what about Ukraine? Ever since a political crisis exploded a year ago, the legacy of World War II has cast a huge shadow. After Moscow annexed Crimea, Putin repeatedly grandstanded on the sacrifices Soviet soldiers made defending the strategic Black Sea peninsula from invading Nazi forces. Some 27 million people in total from the Soviet republics perished during the war.

Meanwhile, Russian media and politicians have frequently accused the newish government in Kiev of harboring neo-fascists and Nazi sympathizers. That's because a segment of Ukraine's nationalist right-wing, active in anti-Moscow street protests a year ago, embraces controversial Ukrainian heroes such as Stepan Bandera, a guerrilla who fought the Russian and Polish occupation of what's now Ukraine and won Nazi patronage.

Moscow's critics say the real fascism lies in the neo-imperial ideology supposedly motivating Putin.

Forgotten in Central Asia

Last week, authorities in the city of Angren, Uzbekistan, demolished a tall, spire-like statue of a Soviet soldier bearing a rifle. It had been erected in 1970, to mark the 25th anniversary of the Soviet victory in World War II. Uzbek authorities aren't as sanguine about the war's history as their Russian counterparts appear to be -- tens of thousands of Uzbek soldiers were drafted to fight and die in battles far from their homeland. The Soviet Union may have been in the frontlines of the war against the Nazis, but it is still remembered as an occupying power by many in countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

According to Radio Free Europe, authoritarian Uzbek leader Islam Karimov changed the name of the May 9 holiday that marks the war's end -- known as "Victory Day" in Russia -- to the Day of Remembrance. Official media have been discouraged from referring to the conflict as the Great Patriotic War, the term used in other parts of the former Soviet Union.

Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, March 9, 2015. (Kiyoshi Ota/Pool via Bloomberg)

East Asia's endless disputes

For Japanese, Chinese and Koreans, the war bubbles up each time a Japanese leader visits the controversial Yasukuni shrine, which honors Japan's war dead, including 14 individuals convicted of war crimes by an Allied tribunal in 1948. Beijing and Seoul frequently fume about the supposed revisionism found in some Japanese school history textbooks, which downplay the atrocities carried out by Japan's military during its occupations of parts of Asia. This includes the widespread use of "comfort women," or sex slaves forced to serve Japanese soldiers.

The planned World War II speech of hawkish Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is expected to express "remorse" over the conflict, has been the source of months of scrutiny in the region. A commentary published by China's state news agency Xinhua this week condemned Abe's "attempts to mitigate or deny" Japan's war guilt -- a longstanding Chinese grievance that surfaces during far more current territorial disputes.

"To be a responsible political leader," Xinhua advises, "[Abe] should at least resist the urge to do so as history may repeat itself unless lessons are learned." Anger over

A special visitor in Moscow

On May 9, Moscow will mark Victory Day with a grand military parade, attended by a host of international dignitaries. Its current acrimonious relationship means that a number of prominent leaders, including President Obama, will not count among the at least 26 heads of state expected to attend.

A more likely guest? Kim Jong Un, portly despot of North Korea, a closed, hidden land still frozen in the Cold War.

As WorldViews reported earlier, it's not totally clear Kim himself will arrive in Moscow or, instead, may be represented by a top figure within his regime. If so, it will be the first official foreign visit Dennis Rodman's North Korean best friend has made in the three strange years since he came to power.