纽约时报的社论说，人人都希望他们能为自己国家所有的历史感到自豪，但诚实的人知道这并不可能，明智的人会看到承认自己国家所犯罪行以及从这些罪行中吸收教训的积极价值，然而，日本外相麻生太郎则既不诚实，也不明智。
社论指出，麻生太郎的言行除了激怒日本所需的盟友与贸易伙伴外，还激怒了他一直试图取悦的日本民众。今天的日本民众大多出生在“二战”之后，但是日本国内的公开讨论以及学校的现代史课程从来没有触及日本应该承担的战争罪行责任，比如逼迫朝鲜妇女充当“慰安妇”，在中国城市以及无助战俘的身上进行化学武器试验，以及杀害数十万中国平民的“南京大屠杀”事件。
纽约时报说，这就是为什么许多亚洲国家对麻生太郎去年秋天以来的言行感到愤怒的原因。麻生太郎最近两次让人愤怒的言论包括建议日本天皇参拜供有14名日本战犯的靖国神社，以及声称中国台湾地区的高教育水平得益于日本对该地区的50年殖民统治。麻生太郎后来对自己言论的澄清没能改变这些言论产生的恶劣效果。
社论最后说，此外，麻生太郎还“不遗余力”地给本就艰难的中日关系“火上浇油”。他称中国的军队建设对日本是“重大威胁”。然而世界人民都知道，自近代以来，中国从未有过威胁日本的记录，事实恰恰和麻生太郎所说的相反（日本倒是常常威胁中国）。由此，麻生太郎先生的外交观与他的历史观一样令人诧异。
----------------------------------------------------------------------
附原文：
NY Times 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.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/o...n/Editorials and Op-Ed/Editorials&oref=slogin
社论指出，麻生太郎的言行除了激怒日本所需的盟友与贸易伙伴外，还激怒了他一直试图取悦的日本民众。今天的日本民众大多出生在“二战”之后，但是日本国内的公开讨论以及学校的现代史课程从来没有触及日本应该承担的战争罪行责任，比如逼迫朝鲜妇女充当“慰安妇”，在中国城市以及无助战俘的身上进行化学武器试验，以及杀害数十万中国平民的“南京大屠杀”事件。
纽约时报说，这就是为什么许多亚洲国家对麻生太郎去年秋天以来的言行感到愤怒的原因。麻生太郎最近两次让人愤怒的言论包括建议日本天皇参拜供有14名日本战犯的靖国神社，以及声称中国台湾地区的高教育水平得益于日本对该地区的50年殖民统治。麻生太郎后来对自己言论的澄清没能改变这些言论产生的恶劣效果。
社论最后说，此外，麻生太郎还“不遗余力”地给本就艰难的中日关系“火上浇油”。他称中国的军队建设对日本是“重大威胁”。然而世界人民都知道，自近代以来，中国从未有过威胁日本的记录，事实恰恰和麻生太郎所说的相反（日本倒是常常威胁中国）。由此，麻生太郎先生的外交观与他的历史观一样令人诧异。
----------------------------------------------------------------------
附原文：
NY Times 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.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/o...n/Editorials and Op-Ed/Editorials&oref=slogin
