亚洲—广岛遗迹

The Legacy¹ of Hiroshima

广岛遗迹

 

August 6, 1945 . . . a B-29 bomber² carrying a single weapon changed, perhaps forever, the way we think about war and peace. Sixty years ago, the United States became the first -- and so far only -- nation to use an atomic bomb against an enemy.

 

Paul Tibbets: It was a sight that really defied description, because of the fact that where there had been a city, there was nothing there but something that appeared to be a big, black, boiling mass.

 

In an instant, the Japanese city of Hiroshima all but vanished in a fiery³ blast hotter than the core of the sun. Again Paul Tibbets flew the plane that dropped the atom bomb.

 

Paul Tibbets: My immediate⁴ thought was that if we are successful in the deployment⁵ of this weapon, there's nobody in the world who can stand up to it and we will see an end to this war. It is the principle that we wanted to save lives. And I've had Japanese since [the end of World War II] tell me that we saved their lives, too, because the invasion would have been nothing but bloodshed. It would have been terrible.

 

According to political scientist Kenneth Waltz of Columbia University, most U.S. war planners feared that an island-by-island invasion of Japan could take months and cost a million allied⁶ lives.

 

Kenneth Waltz: In taking Okinawa, 200,000 people were killed, that was a quarter of the population of Okinawa. So if the Japanese had accepted 200,000 deaths in Okinawa and 100,000 deaths by firebombing in Tokyo without surrendering, what were we to do?

 

On August 9, 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese city of Nagasaki was destroyed in a second nuclear blast. Estimates vary widely, but at least 115,000 people were killed instantly and another 100,000 were injured by the two bombs that ended World War II.

 

Soon, what defense⁷ analysts⁸ often called "the winning weapon" became the centerpiece of American military strategy as a deterrent⁹ to a conventional attack against Western Europe by the Soviet¹⁰ Union. But with the development of Moscow's atomic arsenal¹¹, the face of war changed.

 

Richard Rhodes: The discovery of how to release nuclear energy has basically put an end to world-scale war.

 

Historian Richard Rhodes, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Making of the Atomic Bomb:

 

Richard Rhodes: It's remarkable¹², when you think about it, that a nation as powerful as the United States was prepared to lose a war against a small, Third World country, North Vietnam, rather than risk using nuclear weapons when Vietnam was a client of a nuclear power, the Soviet Union. Clearly, something very different was going on than was going on during the First World War and the Second World War. And I think that difference had to do with the unacceptable risk of damage to an entire nation from these terribly destructive weapons.

 

Since the dawn of the nuclear age, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, France and the United Kingdom, as well as the United States, have built atomic arsenals¹³. And there's near universal agreement among experts that Israel and North Korea also possess nuclear weapons.

 

But according to nuclear strategist and former U.S. arms control negotiator William Van Cleave¹⁴, the politics of nuclear arms are just as important as the number of states that have them.

 

William Van Cleave: Our general interest is in no further nuclear proliferation, but having nuclear weapons does not make an enemy of a friend and not having them does not necessarily make a friend of an enemy. So we can't leave out the political factor. Nuclear weapons in the possession of the United Kingdom are not a threat to the United States. So it does matter who possesses nuclear weapons, for what purposes.

 

Many scholars warn that unlike during the Cold War, deterrence¹⁵ today may not prevent what could be the next use of these deadly weapons.

 

Although the possibility of a terrorist nuclear attack may be remote, Scott Sagan, Co-Director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, notes that such an attack is difficult to prevent.

 

Scott Sagan: You have to know against whom and where to retaliate¹⁶ for deterrence to have even a plausible¹⁷ chance of success. Secondly¹⁸, a terrorist organization, which may well desire martyrdom or may feel that retaliation¹⁹ would create social revolution or anti-Americanism, may actually want retaliation. They certainly may not be deterred²⁰ by it.

 

As the world enters what's often called a "second nuclear age", an era marked not by a superpower standoff, but by weapons proliferation and the threat of a rogue²¹ state or terrorist attack, many analysts say the United States should be prepared to use atomic weapons again, either in response to an attack or as part of a pre-emptive strike. Among them is nuclear strategist William Van Cleave.

 

William Van Cleave: We have security interests abroad that need to be protected, we have U.S. forces abroad that need to be protected. We still need some weapons that are low yield, special effect -- the types that could destroy underground facilities for weapons of mass destruction without causing a lot of civilian²² deaths and destruction.

 

Nuclear weapons have been a mixed blessing²³. For six decades, they've been the greatest peacekeeping force the world has ever known.

 

But in sufficient numbers, their ability to destroy all life on our planet has made them the most dangerous weapons in history. And that, most observers say, is the best reason for peoples of the world to redouble their efforts in search of lasting²⁴ peace.

 

Perhaps that's the most enduring legacy of Hiroshima.

 

注释：

atomic bomb 原子弹

defy [di5fai] vt. 使……难于

boiling [5bCiliN] adj. 沸腾的

Hiroshima [7hirE5Fi:mE] n. 广岛（日本本州岛西南岸港市）

invasion [in5veiVEn] n. 入侵

Okinawa [7Euki5nB:wE] n. 冲绳（岛）

Nagasaki [7nA^E5sB:ki] n. 长崎（日本九州岛西岸港市）

deterrent [di5tE:rEnt] n. 威慑

arsenal [5B:sEnEl] n. 兵工厂；武器库

leave out 不考虑

plausible [5plC:zib(E)l] adj. 似乎合理的；似乎可能的

martyrdom [5mB:tEdEm] n. 牺牲，殉难

1 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

2 bomber   

n.轰炸机，投弹手，投掷炸弹者

参考例句：

• He flew a bomber during the war.他在战时驾驶轰炸机。
• Detectives hunting the London bombers will be keen to interview him.追查伦敦爆炸案凶犯的侦探们急于对他进行讯问。

3 fiery   

adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的

参考例句：

• She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
• His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。

4 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

5 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

6 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

7 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

8 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

9 deterrent   

n.阻碍物，制止物；adj.威慑的，遏制的

参考例句：

• Large fines act as a deterrent to motorists.高额罚款是对开车的人的制约。
• I put a net over my strawberries as a deterrent to the birds.我在草莓上罩了网，免得鸟歇上去。

10 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

11 arsenal   

n.兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Even the workers at the arsenal have got a secret organization.兵工厂工人暗中也有组织。
• We must be the great arsenal of democracy.我们必须成为民主的大军火库。

12 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

13 arsenals   

n.兵工厂，军火库( arsenal的名词复数 )；任何事物的集成

参考例句：

• We possess-each of us-nuclear arsenals capable of annihilating humanity. 我们两国都拥有能够毁灭全人类的核武库。 来自辞典例句
• Arsenals are factories that produce weapons. 军工厂是生产武器的工厂。 来自互联网

14 cleave   

v．(clave；cleaved)粘着，粘住；坚持；依恋

参考例句：

• It examines how the decision to quit gold or to cleave to it affected trade policies.论文分析了放弃或坚持金本位是如何影响贸易政策的。
• Those who cleave to the latter view include many conservative American politicians.坚持后一种观点的大多是美国的保守派政客。

15 deterrence   

威慑，制止； 制止物，制止因素； 挽留的事物； 核威慑

参考例句：

• An extreme school of "disarmers" pronounced stable deterrence was a dangerous deception. “裁军论者”中的极端派声称，稳定的威摄是一种危险的骗局。
• Escalation is thus an aspect of deterrence and of crisis management. 因此逐步升级是威慑和危机处理的一个方面。

16 retaliate   

v.报复，反击

参考例句：

• He sought every opportunity to retaliate against his enemy.他找机会向他的敌人反击。
• It is strictly forbidden to retaliate against the quality inspectors.严禁对质量检验人员进行打击报复。

17 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。

18 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

19 retaliation   

n.报复，反击

参考例句：

• retaliation against UN workers 对联合国工作人员的报复
• He never said a single word in retaliation. 他从未说过一句反击的话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 deterred   

v.阻止，制止( deter的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I told him I wasn't interested, but he wasn't deterred. 我已告诉他我不感兴趣，可他却不罢休。
• Jeremy was not deterred by this criticism. 杰里米没有因这一批评而却步。 来自辞典例句

21 rogue   

n.流氓；v.游手好闲

参考例句：

• The little rogue had his grandpa's glasses on.这淘气鬼带上了他祖父的眼镜。
• They defined him as a rogue.他们确定他为骗子。

22 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

23 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。

24 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。