国际时事:未参拜靖国神社的安倍

Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister, sent an offering to a controversial war shrine but refrained from visiting himself, in a calibrated attempt to keep tense relations with China on an even keel.

日本首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)向有争议的靖国神社(Yasukuni shrine)奉献了祭祀费，但没有登门参拜，这是一个经过精心盘算的企图，目的是防止本已紧张的对华关系出现激化。

In a ceremony to mark the 68th anniversary of Japan's surrender at the end of the second world war on Thursday, he said Japan would “engrave deeply in our hearts the lessons that we should learn” from conflict. However, he did not explicitly mention Japan's wartime aggression as has become customary on such occasions, and he skipped a formulaic pledge that Japan would never again go to war.

周四，在纪念第二次世界大战结束，日本投降68周年的仪式上，安倍晋三表示，日本将“谦逊地面对历史，牢记应该汲取的教训”。不过，他没有循例提及日本在战时给别国带来的伤害与痛苦，也没有重复日本永不再战的誓言。

The prime minister has been critical of what Japanese conservatives contemptuously describe as Japan's “apology diplomacy”. He has argued that Tokyo should take more responsibility for its own defence, particularly in light of Beijing's increasingly muscular regional diplomacy.

对于被日本保守派贬称为日本“道歉外交”的政策，安倍晋三一贯持批评态度。他主张，日本政府应当承担更大的国防责任，尤其是在中国开展日渐强悍的地区外交的情况下。

Mr Abe, who has described his regret at not visiting the Yasukuni shrine when he was prime minister in 2006-07, had been urged by advisers not to make the pilgrimage. August 15, the date which marked the end of the second world war in 1945, is considered the most highly charged day in a region still haunted by history.

曾表示对2006-07年担任首相期间未曾参拜靖国神社感到遗憾的安倍晋三，这一次，他的顾问们强烈建议他不要参拜。8月15日作为1945年二战结束的纪念日，在仍对历史耿耿于怀的亚洲各国被视为最敏感的日期。

Two cabinet ministers visited the shrine on Thursday, but other senior members of the government including Taro Aso, finance minister, who went in April, were expected to stay away.

两名内阁部长级官员周四参拜了靖国神社，但其他政府高官，包括曾在4月份参拜靖国神社的财务大臣麻生太郎(Taro Aso)，预计都不会参拜。

Yasukuni, a Shinto shrine in central Tokyo, is considered a symbol of Japanese militarism by Japan's neighbours in northeast Asia. It contains the “souls”, though not the remains, of roughly 2.5m soldiers who died in various wars, including 14 wartime leaders convicted as Class-A war criminals by the Tokyo War Tribunal.

位于东京市中心的靖国神社，被日本在东北亚的邻国视为日本军国主义的一个象征。这个神社供奉着在历次战争中阵亡的大约250万军人的“亡灵”（尽管没有遗骸），包括当年被远东国际军事法庭判为甲级战犯的14名战时领导人。

Because of fears of upsetting China, no Japanese prime minister has visited Yasukuni since Junichiro Koizumi in 2006. Mr Abe, however, has expressed frustration at being unable to pay his respects to Japan's war dead at a shrine he considers to be the equivalent of Arlington National Cemetery, where US war dead are commemorated. Japan's neighbours liken Japanese leaders' visits to Yasukuni to laying a wreath at the tomb of Adolf Hitler.

由于担心惹恼中国，自小泉纯一郎(Junichiro Koizumi)在2006年参拜靖国神社之后，历届日本首相都没有参拜。不过，安倍曾对不能悼念日本的战死者表示郁闷，在他看来，靖国神社相当于美国的阿灵顿国家公墓(Arlington National Cemetery)；美国在那里纪念阵亡的军人。日本的邻国则把日本领导人参拜靖国神社比喻为向阿道夫•希特勒(Adolf Hitler)的墓敬献花圈。

“Consoling the souls of the war dead is a purely domestic issue,” Keiji Furuya, one of the cabinet ministers to visit on Thursday, told reporters. “It should not be something to be criticised or interfered with by foreign countries.”

周四参拜靖国神社的两名内阁部长级官员之一古屋圭司(Keiji Furuya)对记者表示，“以何种形式悼念阵亡者是日本的国内问题，不应受到其他国家的指指点点。”

Chinese leaders are likely to be pleased their pressure has dissuaded Mr Abe from visiting, though Xinhua news agency said that the cabinet ministers' pilgrimage to the “notorious” shrine would fuel mistrust. Beijing later summoned the Japanese ambassador to register a protest over the shrine visits by the ministers.

中国领导人很可能感到满意，因为他们的压力迫使安倍晋三放弃参拜，尽管新华社表示，内阁成员参拜“臭名昭著的”靖国神社将加剧不信任。随后，中国方面紧急召见日本驻华大使，就日本政府内阁成员参拜靖国神社表示强烈抗议。

Mr Abe has never promised Beijing he would not visit the shrine, but has maintained an ambiguity intended to be used as a bargaining chip. Tokyo has been seeking to restart high-level contacts with Beijing, which have broken down because of a dispute over the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, known as Diaoyu by China.

安倍晋三从未向北京方面承诺他不会参拜靖国神社，而是保持一定程度的模糊，将其用作谈判筹码。近期日方一直在寻求重启日中高层接触；自两国围绕日本管辖的尖阁诸岛(Senkaku Islands)——中国称为钓鱼岛及其附属岛屿——发生争端以来，日中高层接触一直处于中断状态。

Yoichi Funabashi, chairman of the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, said Mr Abe was a pragmatist, prepared to rein in his nationalist ideology in the national interest. By not going to Yasukuni, he said, “Abe can tell the Chinese and Koreans: ‘I'm a leader whom you can trust. I am different from Koizumi and I can restrain myself'.”

日本再建基金会(Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation)主席船桥洋一(Yoichi Funabashi)表示，安倍晋三是一个务实的人，愿意从国家利益出发，收敛自己的民族主义意识形态。“安倍可以对中国和韩国说：‘我是你们可以信任的领导人。我跟小泉不同，我能够克制自己'。”

Kiichi Fujiwara, professor of international politics at Tokyo University, said Mr Abe remained committed to revisionist causes, borne of his conviction that Japan had been singled out for vilification after the war. “They have a victim mentality,” he said of Mr Abe and his conservative supporters. “They think, ‘These guys keep on telling lies about Japan and we look bad because of those lies'.”

东京大学(Tokyo University)国际政治教授藤原归一(Kiichi Fujiwara)表示，安倍出于他的信念，即日本在战后被专门挑出来作为谴责对象，仍致力于修正主义事业。“他们有一种受害者心态，”他在谈到安倍和他的保守派支持者时表示。“他们认为：‘那些人一直在撒日本的谎，我们的形象不佳，就是因为有那些谎言。'”