關於歷史戰爭的十個荒謬故事(3)

United States Entered World War II After Pearl Harbor

3.美國因爲珍珠港事件參加二戰

While it is true that the United States did not officially declare war on the Japanese—and by extension all of the Axis powers—until the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it had already been far from a neutral nation, and US actions essentially forced a Pearl Harbor scenario to play out. The Japanese were reliant on the United States for most of their oil, but they had gone to war against China, an ally of the United States.

珍珠港事件爆發前，美國並未向日本正式宣戰，也沒對軸心國宣戰。珍珠港事件爆發，迫使美國不再中立，它的行動皆因珍珠港事件而起。日本原本依賴美國提供給其大部分石油，但又去攻擊中國——美國的同盟國。

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered a freeze of Japanese assets because he was starting to worry about the possibility of war. Japanese traders would have to get licenses to export oil, a move that was meant to hurt them but not cause enough friction for war. Unfortunately, the man President Roosevelt put in charge of licensing decided that no one should be granted any licenses at all. He believed that the Japanese wouldn't dare attack the United States and wanted to cut off their resources. This led to the attack; the Japanese government knew that with the loss in resources, they had to move fast to gain new fuel sources, and they also had to cripple US naval capabilities.

富蘭克林·德拉諾·羅斯福總統（Franklin Delano Roosevelt）因擔憂戰爭可能爆發，下令凍結日本資產。日本貿易商在取得許可後，方能輸出石油——這一舉措，在某種程度上有損日本利益，但不至於引起戰爭。不幸的是，羅斯福總統又決定限制證件，使得沒人能得到許可。他自信地認爲，日本不敢襲擊美國，又想停止對他們的資源供應。這便是事件的導火索。日本政府清楚自己失去了資源，明白自己必須加緊步伐去得到新能源，且勢必要讓美國海軍吃吃苦頭!

There were also the many moves to fight the Axis powers behind the scenes, before they had even become the Axis powers formally. Roosevelt worked first to remove the Neutrality Act so that he could sell weapons to Allies, then he worked to pass the Lend-Lease Act, which allowed the US to lend or give arms to countries who would agree to pay for their use at a later date.

事實上，當時並未正式確定軸心國，美國卻已有反抗軸心國的衆多舉措。羅斯福總統首先放棄中立，這爲他向同盟國出售武器大開方便之門，之後又使租借法案通過，允許美國向其他國家借出或給予軍事支持，前提是這些國家必須承諾將來要支付酬勞。

There was also a controversial deal worked out by Roosevelt over the heads of Congress to give the British 50 old destroyers in exchange for some naval bases. These actions caused the Axis powers to state in their formal declaration that they would protect each other from attacks by the Americans—clearly our interference was already on their radar. While it was hard to convince the American public to go to war again after its demoralizing participation in World War I, the US was already fighting a shadow war against the Axis powers for years before Pearl Harbor.

且羅斯福總統也做出了一個頗有爭議的舉措，他無視國會爲英國提供50艘驅逐艦以換取西半球8個基地。這些舉動使得軸心國發布正式聲明，宣稱必須互相保護，以免受美國攻擊——很明顯我們的干擾他們一清二楚。儘管很難勸服一戰過後士氣低落的美國民衆再次參戰，美國對軸心國的戰爭，早在珍珠港事件之前便已展開，只是無形罷了。

Scottish Wore Kilts While Fighting The English

2.蘇格蘭士兵着短裙對戰英格蘭

The movie Braveheart has entrenched in our minds the idea of the medieval Scottish fighting the British while wearing colorful tartan kilts. In fact, most people likely believed this before the release of the popular film, as it has long been a popular way to denote Scottish heritage or lineage in cinema and other media—just have the men wear tartan kilts. While historians have known for a while that the tartan kilt thing wasn't very accurate (along with many other inaccuracies in Braveheart), in recent years they have done more to explain the misconception.

電影《勇敢的心》使得中世紀蘇格蘭人穿着顏色各異的格子呢短裙對戰英格蘭的形象，在大衆心中根深蒂固。事實上，男人着裙裝，是影視及其他媒體描述蘇格蘭風情特色的流行做法，可能大多數人在這部電影放映之前，就已經對此有所耳聞了。歷史學家考證得知，蘇格蘭士兵着格子呢短裙參加戰鬥，並非完全符合史實（《勇敢的心》中也有其他許多對蘇格蘭民俗的錯誤演繹）。近幾年來，他們爲消除人們對蘇格蘭文化的誤解做了很多努力。

One historian in particular, Fergus Cannan (who claims to be related to Robert the Bruce himself), spent years going through old records and came to the conclusion that the uniform worn by the medieval Scottish warriors was different than imagined. They wore tunics, which might be vaguely reminiscent of kilts but are an entirely different item of clothing. These tunics were not tartan, but dyed bright yellow, often with the use of urine. For better protection, a sleeveless vest made of leather would be worn over the top, and they usually also wore a leather belt around the waist. According to some records, the style was known as the “yellow war shirt” and was still remembered and respected hundreds of years after its popular use.

尤其是歷史學家費格斯·坎南（Fergus Cannan）（他自稱與羅伯特和布魯斯有親緣關係），他花費了幾年時間查找古籍資料並得出結論：中世紀蘇格蘭士兵所着戰袍與大衆所想並不一致。士兵所着束腰外衣，可能會讓人聯想起短裙，但兩者款式卻完全不同。製作這些束腰外衣的原材料並非格子呢，通常是用尿液染成嫩黃色的布料。士兵們在最外層會套件皮革製成的無袖背心，以作防護之用，此外，他們還繫着皮質腰帶。一些資料將這種裝束風格稱爲黃色戰袍，幾百年後的今天仍備受推崇。

Bombing Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki Was Unprecedented

1.廣島和長崎的原子彈爆炸絕無僅有

The bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki near the end of World War II was the first time nuclear bombs were dropped on civilian populations with the intent to annihilate. The question of whether these atomic bombs should have been used at all has been debated in academic and political circles ever since. Some proponents argue that such massive destruction is never justified, no matter what the aim is. Other people argue that if nothing had been done to frighten the Japanese into surrender, they would have fought to the last man; the body count on both sides would have been unthinkable. It's hard to say what is morally right in this case, but bombing civilians certainly isn't a choice most people would ever want to have to make.

第二次世界大戰末期，日本廣島（Hiroshima）和長崎（Nagasaki）的原子彈爆炸，是史上第一次以徹底摧毀爲目的的核爆炸。此後，關於究竟該如何使用這些原子彈，學術界和政壇都進行了激烈辯論。一些支持者認爲無論什麼原因，發生在哪裏，如此嚴重的破壞都是不合理的。而其他人堅信，當時如果沒有做點兒什麼來嚇嚇日本人，迫使他們乖乖投降的話，他們會戰鬥到最後一個人，這麼一來，戰爭雙方的傷亡人數將多到無法想象。道德層面上來講，我們很難說清怎樣纔是對的，但轟炸平民明顯不是大多數人所喜聞樂見的。

What isn't often acknowledged is that both the Allies and the Axis powers were doing it far before the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now, most people would say that bombing civilians is wrong in most or all cases and that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an unprecedented level of destruction in an extreme case to try to force the Japanese to surrender. However, not only had the United States been bombing civilians before those events, but some of its previous bombing runs were even more destructive than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

大多數人不知道的是，早在廣島和長崎遭原子彈轟炸前，同盟國（Allies）和軸心國（the Axis）就開始研發原子彈了。現在大多數人會覺得，在大多數情況下，或者說不管在什麼情況下，轟炸平民都是不對的，而廣島和長崎原子彈爆炸雖然造成了前所未有的的破壞，但卻是在極端情況下爲了迫使日本投降才做的決定。然而，美國在之前的戰爭中就曾向無辜百姓投彈轟炸，而且，有些爆炸所造成的破壞要遠遠大於廣島和長崎。

Before the United States bombed those two cities, it firebombed Tokyo not once, but twice with B-29 bombers. While it may not have been a single bomb, the destruction was horrendous. Roughly 100,000 people were killed in the first raid and 125,000 more in the second, and about 220 square kilometers (85 mi2) of city was effectively destroyed over the course of both raids. In comparison, the amount of land destroyed was about a quarter of that at Hiroshima, and the number of people killed was roughly 80,000. Nagasaki was a smaller city, so the bombing caused 45,000 casualties and an even smaller amount of destroyed city and land. This is not to say that what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not horrendous, but it was not the first time a bombing raid had caused such absurd destruction. Whether or not the use of the atomic bomb was warranted, the United States was already destroying scores of people and leveling cities without it.

美國轟炸這兩個城市之前就曾兩次用B-29炸彈炮轟東京，投下的炮彈可能不止一個，造成的破壞令人觸目驚心。第一次轟炸造成10萬人死亡，第二次更甚，又造成12.5萬人死亡，兩次轟炸共計將220平方公里左右（85平方英里）的城區夷爲平地。相比之下，廣島原子彈破壞面積是這兩次襲擊破壞面積的四分之一，爆炸當天罹難人數約爲8萬。長崎畢竟是個小城市，爆炸致使4.5萬人死亡，相比東京要少，摧毀的城區和土地就更少了。這並不是說長崎和廣島的遭遇不令人心痛，而是說那並非第一次摧毀性的原子彈爆炸慘劇。不管原子彈的使用有沒有得到授權許可，美國都確確實實殺害了大批無辜百姓，摧毀了大片城區土地。

審校：瑤瑤Yvonne 校對：丸子 編輯：Freya然