钓鱼岛争端今日登上纽约时报头条
http://www.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/worldlook/1/577669.shtml
SENKAKU/DIAOYU ISLANDS — The voyage to these remote islands at the center of one of Asia’s most dangerous territorial disputes is a bone-jarring seven-hour boat ride from one of Japan’s southernmost ports, a long enough journey that the fishermen who brave the often stormy seas regularly sail in pairs for safety. The trip from the mainland of China, which also lays claim to the islands, is even longer.
It remains unclear how far the longstanding territorial conflict over the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, could escalate now that it has flared again. China has in recent days tamped down protests that were seeming to slip beyond its control, and the two countries share deep economic ties that make the stakes of further escalation clear. But popular opinion in China has been unwilling to let the issue die, and a small group of nationalists in Japan has so far seemed unwilling to let go of an issue that helps define it.
Japan has also shown itself to be uncharacteristically strong-willed in pushing back at China’s vocal claims for the island chain long under Japanese control. While Japan’s pacifist tendencies since World War II have led it to generally avoid confrontations, China’s rising territorial ambitions appear to have changed the calculations of the country’s leaders, at least somewhat. In unusually strong remarks last month, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Japan had an “unwavering resolve to defend its territorial lands and waters.” Japanese leaders also increased Coast Guard patrols around the islands as China has dispatched more of its own boats.
日本近日显示出不寻常的强势态度声明对列岛的实际控制，以对抗中国的口头抗议。尽管日本从二战以来奉行和平主义避免冲突，然而中国日益膨胀的领土野心在某种程度上影响了其领导人的决策。日本首相野田佳彦上月发表不寻常的强硬表态称日本：“又捍卫其领土和海域毫不动摇的决心”。日本同样派出更多的海上安保用以对抗中国最近发往列岛不断增多的船只。
On Thursday, at least a half-dozen armed Japanese Coast Guard cutters were visible patrolling waters around the islands, some of them sailing around Uotsuri.
Somewhere over the horizon, 16 Chinese surveillance ships — the largest number yet to gather nearby — had assembled to challenge Japan’s claim to the islands, according to the Japanese Coast Guard. In recent weeks, the two countries’ ships have been playing an almost cold war-style game of cat-and-mouse, with Chinese boats sometimes darting past the maritime boundary, pursued by the coast guard.
While Japan’s Coast Guard is committed to intercepting the Chinese patrols, it is also vigilant about preventing an episode that might further provoke China. Japanese nationals are barred from landing, for fear they might be photographed waving Japanese flags, as happened last month when nationalists swam from boats to Uotsuri without permission. (Their landing followed an earlier landing by Chinese nationalists.)
日本海岸警卫船舶在努力拦截中国船只的同时，也十分小心翼翼地避免进一步激怒中国。日本地民族主义分子被禁止登岛，因为害怕其挥舞日本国旗的场景被拍下，出现像上月因为一些民族主义分子非经许可登上“鱼钓岛”。（此举引起中国的保钓人士登岛）
The coast guard’s anxiety was apparent on Thursday, when a fishing boat from the island of Ishigaki, south of Okinawa, carrying three members of a small Japanese ultraconservative group and two journalists prepared to leave for a privately chartered trip to the islands. Even before the boat left, the passengers were summoned to a coast guard office to figure out their intentions.
“We have your promise, man-to-man, that you won’t go ashore, right?” one official asked, with a stern gaze, adding a warning about sharks circling the islands.
“Everyone’s really on edge because of the Chinese ships,” said the boat’s captain, Zensho Naka, 54, who said fishing charters to the islands were once common, and raised much less fuss.
“每个人都因为中国船只而紧张，” 这艘船的船长说道，Zensho Naka，54岁，声称以前想获得在列岛附近海域的渔业许可十分容易。
Those tensions seemed to reach a new peak last week, as the coast guard braced for the arrival of 1,000 Chinese fishing boats that the Chinese news media had reported were on their way to stage a mass protest. The armada never materialized and appeared to be the creation of news media that hyped a routine departure of fishing boats.
The current tensions began earlier this year when the nationalist governor of Tokyo suddenly announced he wanted to buy three of the islands from their owner, a Japanese citizen living in suburban Tokyo, because he felt the government was not doing enough to defend the chain. That prompted the central government to buy them instead, which officials said was to prevent them from falling into radical hands.
这次的风波源于今年年初，东京都一名名族主义议员宣布希望购下钓鱼岛列岛中的三座岛屿，因为现居住在东京郊区的岛主曾觉得政府并未努力保护列岛。这反而促使了中央政府出面购下该列岛，官方宣称是为了保护岛屿不落入激进分子的手中。
But the decision to purchase was seen in China as a Japanese effort to firm up its control, setting off a week of violent anti-Japanese street demonstrations in dozens of Chinese cities. That is a lot of commotion over islands that until recently seemed a forgotten backwater. Even before World War II, there were few economic activities on the islands. A small factory on Uotsuri made dried bonito shavings, a favorite Japanese food, and hunters gathered albatross feathers for European fashion boutiques.
At that time, the factory owner had bought four of the five islands from the government, which showed little interest in them. After the factory closed in 1940, the factory owner’s son held onto the islands until the 1970s and early 1980s, when, aging and childless, he sold them off one by one to a family friend, Kunioki Kurihara, who recently sold three of them to the government. His family still owns one that it rents to the national government. That island, and the fifth one already owned by the national government, were both used for bombing practice by the United States military until 1978.
在那段时间内，这个工厂的厂主从政府手中购买了列岛五座岛屿中的四座，后者当时对列岛并没有表现出太大兴趣。工厂在1940年关闭之后，厂主的儿子保留了岛屿的所有权直到七十年代，八十年代初期，因为年老无子，他将岛屿一座一座地转卖给一位家族友人栗原弘行，后者近期将列岛中的三座卖给了政府。他的家族将剩下的一座岛屿租给国家政府，加上政府本来拥有的一座岛屿，这五座岛屿被美军用作靶场直到1978年。
Interest in the islands rose in the late 1960s, when scientists began saying the nearby seafloor could hold oil deposits.
The current rise in tensions was evident during the recent trip to the islands, when a coast guard ship trailed the ship carrying the journalists and nationalists, even after extracting promises that no one would make a break for the islands. As the ships were about three miles from Uotsuri, the coast guard demanded the charter go no further.
The three nationalists said they planned to make their point about the need to defend the islands against China by posting a short documentary of their trip on YouTube. “We must draw the line with the Chinese here,” said the leader, Hissho Yanai, 50, who heads the 80-member Association to Protect Our Children’s Future from Chinese Intimidation based in Saitama, just north of Tokyo. “If we let them have the Senkaku Islands, they’ll come after all of Okinawa next.”
船上的三名民族主义人士说他们计划通过把登岛过程拍成一个纪录短片并上传至Youtube网站，以此对抗中国。“我们必须给中国再这里划一条线，” 50岁的Hissho Yanai说道。这名八十名会员的协会会长说他们要保护日本儿童在将来不受中国恐吓，这个协会位于东京北部的琦玉县。“如果我们让他们得到尖阁列岛，他们会想要整个冲绳。”
After the coast guard stopped the ship, the three men stepped on deck to perform a ceremony. With the island looming in front of them, one man held the Japanese flag while Mr. Yanai read a warning against invading the islands addressed to the man expected to be China’s next leader, Xi Jinping. The third member filmed the performance.
Mr. Yanai finished with a deep bow toward the island. The man holding the flag then faced the watching coast guard crew, clipped his heels together and crisply saluted in the style of Japan’s prewar military.
“Thank you very much!” yelled the man, Hideto Sato, 51. “Please continue the tough job of protecting the Senkaku Islands!”
