日本政客應放棄參拜靖國神社
Last week, on the first anniversary of his premiership, Shinzo Abe expressed “severe remorse” over Japan’s wartime actions and pledged that Japan would “never wage a war again”. Naturally no one paid much attention since on the very same day he undermined those words by visiting Yasukuni shrine, a memorial reviled throughout Asia for its association with Japanese aggression.
His visit ignited predictable, if stage-managed, fury in China and South Korea, two countries that suffered horrendously under Japan’s empire-building onslaught. Beijing said his actions “grossly trampled on the sentiment of the Chinese people” and proved that Mr Abe wanted to whitewash history.
安倍的參拜激起了中國和韓國可以預料的強烈憤慨，這兩個國家曾在日本建立帝國的鐵蹄下遭受令人髮指的苦難。中國政府表示，安倍的行爲“粗暴踐踏中國和其他亞洲戰爭受害國人民感情”，並證明其企圖美化歷史。It is a common accusation that Japan has never apologised for its wartime behaviour. This is demonstrably untrue. Over the years, a procession of Japanese prime ministers has expressed contrition for colonial rule and wartime aggression. What is questioned is the sincerity – or otherwise – of those apologies. Japan stands accused of covering up its history in school textbooks, most of which – though not all – mention Japanese wartime atrocities but do not go into great detail. Some of its politicians, including Mr Abe, have publicly debated elements of the official apology, including quibbling over the fact of Japan’s “invasion”.
一個常見的指責是，日本從未就其戰爭期間的行爲道歉。這顯然不符合事實。多年來，一屆又一屆日本首相就該國的殖民統治和戰爭侵略行爲表達了懺悔之意。受到質疑的是這些道歉的誠意（或者說是缺乏誠意）。日本還被指在教科書中掩蓋其歷史，許多教科書（雖然不是全部）提到日本戰爭期間的暴行，但不提細節。包括安倍在內的一些日本政客曾公開質疑官方道歉的某些細枝末節，包括對日本“侵略”的事實咬文嚼字。
Qin Gang, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, urged Japan to “repent”, not merely to apologise. In other words, what is required of Japanese leaders is to change not only what they say, but what they believe.
中國外交部新聞發言人秦剛敦促日本進行“反省”，而不僅僅是道歉。換句話說，對日本領導人的要求是，不僅要改變言論，還要改變信念。Beliefs are hard things to regulate. Japan would prefer to be judged by its postwar actions, for example the fact that it has not fired a shot in battle in seven decades. Sadly, for Japan, it is the victims, not the perpetrators, who determine when the perpetrator is sufficiently contrite. Still, it is worth looking at the wording of Japan’s official apology, best articulated by former prime minister Tomiichi Murayama. It includes the following: “Japan . . . through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations. I regard . . . these irrefutable facts of history, and express here once again my feelings of deep remorse and state my heartfelt apology.”
信念是難以規範的東西。日本更希望外界根據其戰後的行爲對其做出評價，比如70年來日本從未介入過戰爭，從未在戰場上放過一槍一彈。但不幸的是，對日本來說，評判肇事者何時纔算充分悔悟的人是受害者，而不是肇事者自己。不過，日本官方道歉的措辭仍值得關注，其中的最佳表述來自前首相村山富市(Tomiichi Murayama)。他的道歉包括以下措辭：“日本…殖民統治和侵略給許多國家，特別是亞洲各國人民帶來了巨大的傷害和痛苦。爲了避免以後發生錯誤，毫無疑問，我們應謙虛地接受歷史事實，並再次表示深刻的反省和由衷的歉意。”That statement may sound mealy mouthed to some, particularly when compared with the more stirring apologies issued by Germany. Those were backed by symbolic actions such as when, in 1970, then chancellor Willy Brandt fell to his knees before a monument to Jewish victims at the Warsaw ghetto. No serving Japanese prime minister, let alone the emperor, has ever prostrated before the memorial to the Nanjing massacre or the site of Unit 731 in Manchuria, where Japanese “scientists” performed lethal chemical and biological experiments on victims referred to as “logs” rather than as human beings.
有些人可能覺得，這份聲明聽上去還不夠直白坦誠，特別是與德國發表的更觸動人心的道歉相比。德國的道歉還得到了一些象徵性舉動的強化：例如1970年，時任德國總理的維利•勃蘭特(Willy Brandt)在華沙猶太區猶太受害者的紀念碑前下跪。沒有一位在職的日本首相（更不用說天皇了）曾在南京大屠殺的紀念碑或是在東北731部隊舊址前下跪。在當年的731部隊，日本“科學家”曾在受害者身上進行致命的生化實驗，受到非人對待的受害者被稱爲“圓木”。Nevertheless, Japan’s apologies compare pretty well with those of many other nations. Take a statement in 2013 by David Cameron, in which the UK prime minister called the 1919 Amritsar massacre “deeply shameful”. Yet Mr Cameron explicitly refused to apologise for an incident in which British troops fired for 10 minutes into an unarmed crowd, killing up to 1,000 Indian men, women and children. It would be inappropriate, he said, to say sorry for something that had happened before he was born – an excuse that presumably would not wash if uttered by a Japanese leader.
儘管如此，同其他很多國家相比，日本的道歉還是不錯的。拿2013年戴維•卡梅倫(David Cameron)的一個表態爲例。這位英國首相稱1919年的阿姆利澤屠殺事件“非常可恥”，但明確拒絕爲這起事件道歉。在阿姆利澤事件中，英國軍隊向手無寸鐵的人羣持續開火10分鐘，殺死1000名印度人，包括婦女和兒童。卡梅倫稱，爲在他出生前發生的一件事道歉是不合適的——這個藉口若出自一位日本領導人之口，恐怕會引發強烈反彈。Similarly, no US president has ever apologised for the Vietnam war, in which up to 3m Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians died. Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, recently articulated Washington’s attitude to statements of regret. “This country is the greatest country on earth. I would never apologise for America.”
與此類似，至今沒有一位美國總統爲越南戰爭道歉，這場戰爭造成多達300萬越南人、柬埔寨人和老撾人喪生。美國駐聯合國大使薩曼莎•鮑爾(Samantha Power)近日表述了美方對有關表達遺憾之聲明的態度：“美國是世界上最偉大的國家。我永遠不會爲美國道歉。”Japan is being held to higher standards. That could either be because its wartime behaviour was intrinsically more heinous than any other nation, or because its neighbours still do not feel properly assuaged. (Some Japanese would say the difference is that Japan lost.)
相比之下，外界以更高的標準來要求日本。這或許是因爲其戰時行爲在性質上比其他任何國家都更令人髮指，或是因爲其鄰國仍覺得自己的傷痛沒有得到妥善撫平。（有些日本人會說，區別僅在於日本輸了戰爭。）Can Japan do anything to convince China and South Korea that it is sincere? Seventy years after the war, at a time when many Japanese – to borrow historian Kenneth Pyle’s phrase – regard the Chinese more as rivals than victims, the answer is probably not. A wholesale national reappraisal of what went on before most Japanese were born seems implausible. But one thing it could do is ditch Yasukuni in favour of a secular memorial, where those who died in war could be properly and less controversially mourned. One such site, the Chidorigafuchi cemetery to unknown soldiers, exists in the heart of Tokyo.
那麼日本能不能做些事，令中韓相信它的誠意？那場戰爭已經過去70年了，在這個許多日本人把中國人更多地視爲競爭對手而不是受害者的時代——這裏借用了歷史學家肯尼斯•派爾(Kenneth Pyle)的措辭——答案很可能是否定的。對於多數日本人出生前發生的事，在國家層面開展徹底反思似乎是不太可行的。然而，日本可以做的一件事是放棄靖國神社，改用一個世俗的紀念場所，在那裏對戰爭的死難者進行恰當且少一些爭議的悼念。東京市中心紀念無名軍人的千鳥淵戰亡者墓園(Chidorigafuchi cemetery)是現成的此類場所之一。Plans have been floated to clean up Yasukuni by removing the “souls” of the 14 Class-A war criminals commemorated there among 2m other spirits who died for the emperor. (There are no physical remains at the shrine.) Yet Yasukuni is too tainted by its association with the militaristic and racist imperial cult to be redeemable. Having Japanese prime ministers shun Yasukuni in favour of Chidorigafuchi would not be enough to placate China and South Korea. At the very least, though, it would demonstrate a kind of sincerity.
有人提出了將14名甲級戰犯“亡靈”移出靖國神社，以淨化該神社的計劃。這些亡靈目前與其他200萬爲天皇喪生的亡魂一同供奉在神社內。（靖國神社內並無遺骸。）然而，與軍國主義和種族主義帝王崇拜的關聯，已給靖國神社打上太深烙印，使其難以得到救贖。日本首相捨棄靖國神社而去千鳥淵墓園，也許不足以撫慰中韓，但至少可以展現出某種誠意。
