Editorial
Japan's Offensive Foreign Minister
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/opinion/13mon3.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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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令人厌恶的日本外相
世界各国的人们都希望能为自己国家的每一篇历史感到自豪。但是诚实的人们明白这是不
可能的，而明智的人们则能意识到承认令人难堪的历史罪行真相并从中吸取教训所具有的
正面意义。而日本新外相麻生太郎，他的关于带来巨大灾难的日本军国主义和殖民政策时
代以及导致第二次世界大战的日本战争罪行的一系列令人愤慨的讲话却既不诚实也不明智
。
除了激怒日本需要结为盟友和贸易伙伴的邻国之外，他也损害了自己试图奉迎的人们。第
二次世界大战在今天的大多数日本人出生以前便已结束，然而日本社会的公开议论和日本
学校的现代历史课却从未恰当地承担起该国对那些可怕的历史事件所负有的责任。这些事
件例如：大批绑架韩国年轻妇女并强迫她们做性奴隶，在中国城市中以及手无寸铁的中国
战俘身上做生物战试验，在南京残暴虐杀数十万中国平民。
这就是为什么会有那么多亚洲人被麻生自去年秋天被任命为外相以来所发表的一连串骇人
听闻的言论激怒。比如最近两次：一、他建议日本天皇参拜供奉着包括14名日本战犯在内
的充满军国主义气息的靖国神社。二、他声称台湾的教育水平很高，应该归功于日本占领
期间的政策。1895年日本从中国掠夺了台湾作为战利品，继而占领了50年。后来麻生蹩脚
地试图澄清自己的话，却没有任何收效。
麻生还不厌其烦地给已经很困难的中日关系火上浇油，把中国的长期军事建设说成是对日
本的“相当大的威胁”。中国近来并无威胁日本的记录；除日本外的整个世界都知道，情
况恰恰相反。麻生对外交的领悟和他对历史的领悟一样，令人不可理喻。
Japan's Offensive Foreign Minister
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/opinion/13mon3.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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.
――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
令人厌恶的日本外相
世界各国的人们都希望能为自己国家的每一篇历史感到自豪。但是诚实的人们明白这是不
可能的，而明智的人们则能意识到承认令人难堪的历史罪行真相并从中吸取教训所具有的
正面意义。而日本新外相麻生太郎，他的关于带来巨大灾难的日本军国主义和殖民政策时
代以及导致第二次世界大战的日本战争罪行的一系列令人愤慨的讲话却既不诚实也不明智
。
除了激怒日本需要结为盟友和贸易伙伴的邻国之外，他也损害了自己试图奉迎的人们。第
二次世界大战在今天的大多数日本人出生以前便已结束，然而日本社会的公开议论和日本
学校的现代历史课却从未恰当地承担起该国对那些可怕的历史事件所负有的责任。这些事
件例如：大批绑架韩国年轻妇女并强迫她们做性奴隶，在中国城市中以及手无寸铁的中国
战俘身上做生物战试验，在南京残暴虐杀数十万中国平民。
这就是为什么会有那么多亚洲人被麻生自去年秋天被任命为外相以来所发表的一连串骇人
听闻的言论激怒。比如最近两次：一、他建议日本天皇参拜供奉着包括14名日本战犯在内
的充满军国主义气息的靖国神社。二、他声称台湾的教育水平很高，应该归功于日本占领
期间的政策。1895年日本从中国掠夺了台湾作为战利品，继而占领了50年。后来麻生蹩脚
地试图澄清自己的话，却没有任何收效。
麻生还不厌其烦地给已经很困难的中日关系火上浇油，把中国的长期军事建设说成是对日
本的“相当大的威胁”。中国近来并无威胁日本的记录；除日本外的整个世界都知道，情
况恰恰相反。麻生对外交的领悟和他对历史的领悟一样，令人不可理喻。
