美国老兵出书讲述在朝鲜被押经历

BEIJING — In his 36th-floor hotel room overlooking Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, Merrill Newman developed a routine. He woke at 7:15, ate breakfast at 8 — eggs, toast and two cups of coffee — and then he waited.

北京——在可以俯瞰朝鲜首都平壤的酒店36层的房间里，梅里尔·纽曼(Merrill Newman)养成了自己的生活习惯。他7点15分醒来，8点吃早饭——鸡蛋、烤面包和两杯咖啡——然后开始等待。

A nurse and a doctor visited four times a day to take the temperature and blood pressure of the 85-year-old Californian. The interrogator, who sometimes shouted at him, called him a liar and told him to stop acting like a 3-year-old, came less frequently.

护士和医生每天来四次，为来自加利福尼亚州的他测量体温和血压。那名审讯员来的则没这么频繁。审讯员有时会朝他大喊大叫，说他是骗子，让85岁的他不要再表现得像个三岁的孩子。

A year after he was released by North Korea, Mr. Newman, a Korean War veteran who ran afoul of the North Korean authorities on a trip there last year, has finally told the story of his detention in an e-book, “The Last P.O.W.” by Mike Chinoy, released this week.

去年，身为朝鲜战争老兵的纽曼去朝鲜后，与该国当局发生冲突。被朝鲜释放一年后，他终于在一本名为《最后的战俘》(The Last P.O.W.)的电子书中，讲述了自己被扣押的故事。该书由迈克·奇诺伊(Mike Chinoy)撰写，已于本周发布。

A former United States Army intelligence officer who fought in the Korean War, Mr. Newman was detained by North Korea for more than a month and accused of war crimes.

参加朝鲜战争期间，纽曼是美国陆军的一名情报人员。他被朝鲜被关押了一个多月，并被控犯有战争罪。

The narrative, based on interviews by Mr. Chinoy, a journalist, portrays the event as the unfortunate result of a collision between a naive 85-year-old and a paranoid state, worried that an elderly, ailing war veteran might be part of some American plot to reignite a 60-year-old conflict.

故事以记者奇诺伊对纽曼进行的采访为基础，称该事件是一名天真的85岁老人与一个多疑的国家之间发生冲突而造成的。朝鲜担心，这位老人可能是美国某种阴谋的一部分，以重新点燃60年前已经结束的那场战争。

Mr. Newman acknowledges in the book that his war service and his desire to meet relatives of the anti-Communist guerrillas he had helped train were his undoing.

纽曼在书中承认，他被扣留的原因是参加过那场战争，并且想与当初他曾帮助训练的反共游击队员的亲属会面。

Two tour guides who escorted Mr. Newman and an American friend on their sightseeing reported that desire to their superiors, he says in the book.

他在书中说，陪同他和一名美国友人观光的两名导游，向上级汇报了他的愿望。

“It was clearly my error to indicate I’d like to make contact with any North Korean survivors” from the war, Mr. Chinoy quotes him saying.

奇诺伊援引纽曼的话说，“显然是我的错，我不该表示想和”那场战争中“幸存下来的任何朝鲜人接触”。

The North Koreans detained him at the last moment, escorting him off the plane he had boarded for the flight home. They took him to the Yanggakdo Hotel, a 1,000-room tower on a small island in the center of the capital, where he was held in a guarded suite.

朝鲜在最后一刻扣留了他，将他从回家的航班上带走了。他们把他带去了羊角岛国际酒店(Yanggakdo Hotel)。那栋高楼位于首都中心地区的一座小岛上，内有1000间客房。在那里，他被关在一间有人把守的套房里。

The interrogations began the next day, Mr. Chinoy writes.

奇诺伊写道，审讯是第二天开始的。

The most explicit piece of evidence against Mr. Newman, in the interrogator’s view, was an e-mail Mr. Newman had sent to some of the veterans of the guerrilla brigade who now live in South Korea.

在那名审讯员看来，最明显的一则对纽曼不利的证据，是他发给现居韩国的一些游击队老兵的一封电子邮件。

Mr. Newman had asked them if they knew of any colleagues who had stayed behind in North Korea, and whether he could find them. He had shown the email to his two guides.

纽曼问他们知不知道有哪个战友留在了朝鲜，以及自己能否找到他们。他让两个导游看了这封邮件。

The interrogator, a short, stocky man his 40s, said the email proved Mr. Newman was a spy and accused him of using the tour as a cover, Mr. Chinoy writes.

奇诺伊写道，审讯员是一名40多岁的矮壮男子，他说这封邮件证明纽曼是一名间谍，并指责纽曼以旅行作为掩护。

Two weeks after his arrest, he was given a confession to read, a rambling statement with grammatical errors that recounted how he had been involved in killing civilians and destroying “strategic objects.”

纽曼被捕的两周后，他被要求宣读一份认罪书。这份杂乱无章、充满语法错误的声明里，描述了他怎样参与了杀害平民和破坏“战略目标”的行动。

“You make a confession because you don’t have any choice,” Mr. Newman said in the account.

“认罪是因为你别无选择，”纽曼后来说。

The confession was posted online and a week later Mr. Newman was awakened at 6 a.m. and told to get dressed and prepare for his release. His iPad, cellphone and camera were returned. At the airport, he was given a pair of dark glasses to wear to make him less conspicuous.

这份认罪书被发布在了网上。一周后的一天，有人在清晨6点把纽曼叫醒，并要求他穿好衣服，准备离开。他拿回了自己的iPad、手机和相机。在机场，他被要求戴上一副墨镜，好不那么惹人注意。

“People really hate you here,” an interpreter who accompanied him said. “You’d better wear these glasses for the whole trip.”

“这里的人真的很恨你，”陪同他的一名翻译说。“你最好一路上都戴着这副墨镜。”

Mr. Newman failed to understand that for the North Koreans the 1950-53 war against the United States had not finished, Mr. Chinoy writes. An armistice remains in place; a formal peace treaty has not been signed.

奇诺伊写道，纽曼当时并不明白，对于朝鲜人来说，1950年到1953年的抗美战争仍然没有结束。目前是停战状态，正式的和平协议从未签署。

Further, the former intelligence officer was not aware, he says, of the “visceral hatred” the government felt for the Kuwol regiment guerrillas he had helped train and equip, and who are considered as traitors in North Korea.

此外，他说，这名前情报人员也没有意识到，政府对他帮助训练并提供装备的九月山游击队(Kuwol regiment)，以及那些被朝鲜认为是卖国贼的人，怀有“发自心底的仇恨”。

“It seems really stupid now, even having opened that door,” Mr. Newman says in the book. “But at the time it didn’t seem so.”

“即使说当时的做法打开了一扇门，现在看来也是相当愚蠢的，”纽曼在书中说。“但当时却没觉得。”

After his release, the North Korean news agency said Mr. Newman had been freed because of his confession, and his “advanced age and health condition.”

在纽曼被释放之后，朝鲜的新闻机构称，纽曼获释是因为他的“高龄和健康状况”。

Soon after he returned, the United States State Department called. North Korea had submitted a bill for $3,241 to the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang for the cost of his hotel room, meals, a $23 phone call to his wife and $3 for a lost plate.

他回国后不久，美国国务院打来了电话。朝鲜向瑞典驻平壤大使馆开了一张3241美元的账单，包括他酒店房间和餐饮的费用，给他妻子打电话花费的23美元，以及弄丢一个盘子需要赔偿的3美元。

Mr. Newman asked if the payment would help free other Americans detained in North Korea. Informed that it would not, Mr. Newman said he declined to pay.

纽曼问，如果自己付了钱，是否有助于解救其他被扣在朝鲜的美国人。在得到否定的答复后，纽曼表示拒绝付款。