GINOWAN, Japan – Already 78 years old and in failing health, the Reverend Shigeaki Kinjo no longer wanted to talk about that fateful day 62 years ago toward the end of World War II when he beat to death his mother, younger brother and sister.
62年前，二戰接近尾聲，就在性命交關當天，金城成亮親手打死自己的母親和弟妹。如今當了牧師的金城成亮已屆78高齡，體力日衰，不願重提這段傷心往事。

Brainwashed by Japanese Imperial Army soldiers into believing that victorious American troops would rape all the local women and run over the men with their tanks, Mr. Kinjo and others in his village here in Okinawa thought that suicide was their only choice. A week before American troops landed and initiated the Battle of Okinawa in March 1945, Japanese soldiers stationed in his village gave the men two hand grenades each, with instructions to hurl one at the Americans and then to kill themselves with the other.
在日本皇軍的洗腦下，金城成亮和沖繩宜野灣的同村村民相信，戰勝的美軍把地方上的婦女全給強暴，用戰車輾死所有男丁，所以，自殺是他們唯一的選擇。1945年3月，美軍登陸，發動沖繩島戰役，駐守村莊的日軍早在一周前就發給村內男丁每人兩枚手榴彈，教他們一枚用來殺美軍，一枚用來和村民一起自殺。

Most of the grenades failed to explode. After watching a former district chief break off a tree branch and use it to kill his wife and children, Mr. Kinjo and his older brother followed suit.
那些手榴彈大部分沒有爆炸。金城和他哥哥目睹村長砍下樹枝，用來打死自己的老婆和孩子，也照著這麼做。

“My older brother and I struck to death the mother who had given birth to us,” Mr. Kinjo said in an interview at the Naha Central Church, where he is the senior minister. “I was wailing of course. We also struck to death our younger brother and sister.”
在那霸中央教會擔任主任牧師的金城接受訪問說：「我哥哥和我打死生養我們的媽媽。我當然哭得很傷心。我們還打死了弟弟和妹妹。」

Mr. Kinjo agreed to tell his story again because the Japanese government is now denying, in new high school textbooks, that Okinawans had been coerced by Imperial troops into committing mass suicide.
由於日本政府現在在新版高中教科書中，否認沖繩人民曾在皇軍脅迫下集體自殺的史實，金城牧師這才答應再一次追述這段往事。

The proposed changes – seemingly minor grammatical alterations – have led to swelling anger in the Okinawa islands in Japan, cresting recently in the biggest protest here in at least 35 years and stunning the Japanese government.
教科書內容擬議中的修訂，表面上只是措辭上小小的更動，卻令沖繩島居民憤怒的情緒不斷高漲，終於在日前爆發了規模之大至少35年未見的抗議活動，令日本政府震驚。

For the past quarter of a century, Japan’s high school textbooks had included the accepted historical fact that that Okinawans had been coerced into mass suicides by Imperial Army soldiers.
過去25年來，日本高中教科書一直記載著沖繩居民被皇軍強迫集體自殺，這個公認的史實。

But six months ago, the Education Ministry said that next year’s government-endorsed textbooks would eliminate all references to Japan’s soldiers. According to the revised passages, the Okinawans simply committed mass suicide or felt compelled to do so. But by whom?
但是，六個月前，文部科學省說，明年政府審定的教科書將刪除所有提到皇軍的字眼。根據審定的內容，沖繩居民只是集體自殺，或覺得受迫必須如此。但是受迫於何人？

“If Japanese soldiers had not been there, the mass suicides would have never occurred,” said Mr. Kinjo, who said he decided not to kill himself after he saw that Japanese soldiers were not committing suicide.
金城說：「如果皇軍不在那兒，村民就不會集體自殺。」他說，他看到皇軍士兵並沒有自殺後，決定不自殺。

The ministry said that it “is not clear that the Japanese Army coerced or ordered the mass suicides” but cited no fresh evidence to explain its change in policy.
文部科學省只表示，「皇軍曾否脅迫或命令當地人集體自殺」真相並不清楚，卻提不出足以支持政策更迭的新證據。

On Sept. 29, more than 110,000 people rallied in Ginowan against the textbook revisions. It was the biggest protest in Okinawa since it reverted to Japanese control in 1972.
9月29日，11萬餘民眾在宜野灣市集會，反對教科書此一修訂。這是沖繩1972年重新納入日本統治以來，規模最大的抗議集會。

Nobuhiko Yonahara, 65, and his wife, Misako, 65, both lost relatives in the Battle of Okinawa.
65歲的米原宣彥和他同齡的妻子美沙子，在沖繩島戰役中都失去了一些親人。

“My father told me about the mass suicides – how they were given hand grenades,” Mr. Yonahara said. “Distorting history is not good. You run the risk of committing the same mistakes.”
米原說：「我父親告訴我有關集體自殺的真相－皇軍如何把手榴彈發給他們。扭曲歷史很不好，有重蹈覆轍的危險。」

原文參照http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9905E0D6113DF934A35753C1A9619C8B63

2007-10-18/聯合報/C3版/教育 蔡繼光 原文請見10月15日紐時周報四版左