(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. In recent programs, we talked about how the rise of Fascist leaders in Europe threatened American neutrality in the nineteen thirties. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany created the most obvious threat. But there was also Benito Mussolini in Italy and Francisco Franco in Spain. These leaders challenged both the idea of democracy and the security of some of America's closest allies. Hitler's invasion of Poland and the spread of war in Europe in nineteen thirty-nine made Americans wonder if they could remain neutral much longer. The United States would finally go to war against Hitler and the other Axis nations. But its first battle would not be in Europe at all. Instead, the United States would enter World War Two following a surprise attack by Japan on the large American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Relations between the United States and Japan had grown steadily worse throughout the nineteen thirties. Both nations were important industrial powers. But they had very different ideas about the economic and political future of East Asia, especially China. Until the late eighteen hundreds, Japan had been a nation with ancient political traditions and little contact with the Western world. Visits by Commodore Matthew Perry and American warships helped open Japan to trade with the United States and other nations in the eighteen fifties. And in the years that followed, Japan took major steps toward becoming a modern industrial nation. By the nineteen twenties and thirties, Japan was a strong country. But it lacked oil, rubber and other natural resources of its own. For this reason, Japanese political leaders looked with envy at the Dutch, French and British colonies across Southeast Asia and the Pacific. And Japanese business leaders saw huge markets for their products in nearby countries like Korea and China. Japan's desire to use East Asia to gain natural resources and sell manufactured products was in direct conflict with American plans for Asia. This was especially true concerning China. Washington created an "Open Door" policy toward China.
It wanted to keep China's natural resources and markets free from control by Japan or any other nation. For this reason, Americans were very concerned when Japanese forces invaded the Manchuria area of China in nineteen thirty-one. And they watched with great interest the efforts of Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek to oppose the Japanese invaders. The United States was also very concerned about protecting its imports of oil, tin and rubber from Southeast Asia. This area of the world was a major supplier of these resources in the nineteen thirties. The Middle East had not yet become a leading producer of oil. In these ways, the United States and Japan were competing for the same resources and Asian markets. However, there also was a good deal of trade between the two nations. In fact, Japan depended on the United States for most of its metal, copper and oil. This trade with Tokyo became a major concern for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Congress in nineteen thirty-seven. In the summer of that year, more Japanese troops moved into China. They quickly captured much of the Chinese coast. Much of the metal, oil, and other materials that Japan used for its war effort in China came from the United States.
Americans did not like selling Japan materials to use against China. But the trade was legal because of a nineteen eleven agreement between Tokyo and Washington. However, the American government told Japan in nineteen thirty-nine that it would end the earlier agreement. It would no longer sell Japan materials that could be used for war. Washington's decision made the Japanese government think again about its expansionist plans. And the announcement a month later of a non-aggression treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union gave Tokyo even more cause for concern. The Soviet Union could be a major opponent of Japanese expansion in East Asia. And it appeared free from the threat of war in Europe. These two events helped moderates in the Japanese government to gain more influence over foreign policy. A moderate government took power in January nineteen-forty. However, this period of moderation in Tokyo did not last long. In the spring of nineteen forty, Germany launched its blitzkrieg, or lightning invasion, of Europe. The Nazis captured Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and finally France. Extremists in the Japanese government saw the German victory as their chance to launch their own attack on European colonies in Asia. They quickly began negotiations with Hitler to form a new alliance. And within months, militant leaders overthrew the moderate government in Tokyo.
The new Japanese government was headed by a moderate, Prince Konoye. But the minister of war was an expansionist, General Tojo. Tokyo wasted no time in taking action. It forced France to give Japan permission to occupy northern Indochina. And Tokyo also demanded that Britain close the Burma Road to the Chinese city then known as Chungking. The Burma Road was a major route by which the United States was supplying China with munitions as part of the Lend-Lease Act. These events caused relations between Tokyo and Washington to become even worse. In the second half of nineteen forty, President Roosevelt banned the export of metal and oil products to Japan. His administration also lent money to China. America began to supply Chiang Kai Shek's government with a fleet of P-40 fighter airplanes with volunteer pilots, led by Army aviator Claire Chennault, to train Chinese pilots. The squadron became known as the Flying Tigers. American representatives quietly began to meet with British and Dutch officials, to discuss joint defense plans for possible Japanese attacks in the western Pacific.
Washington and Tokyo held long negotiations in nineteen forty-one. The American officials hoped the negotiations might delay Japan from launching an attack to the south. They also thought that a delay might give more moderate leaders in Japan a chance to gain more influence. And for a time, the American plan worked. Japan did not make new acts of aggression. Again, events in Europe caused this situation to change. Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in the middle of nineteen forty-one. This prevented Moscow from doing any fighting on its eastern borders. So Japanese troops were free to invade southern Indochina. President Roosevelt reacted to Japan's invasion of Indochina by taking three major steps. First, he took control of all Japanese money in the United States. Second, he brought the armed forces of the Philippines under American command. And, third, he closed the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping. Once again, a conflict developed between moderates and extremists in the Japanese government.
More moderate leaders such as Prime Minister Konoye urged one more effort to reach an agreement with the United States. But the Japanese army and navy believed that the time had come to go to war to end American and European power in East Asia forever. Negotiations between Japan and the United States continued through the final months of nineteen forty-one. But the two nations were on the edge of war. They were as close to hostilities as Washington was with the Nazi government in Berlin. American military officials captured secret messages from Japan during this time. They learned that Tokyo was planning an attack of some kind unless the United States suddenly changed its policies. However, the American officials could not discover exactly where or how the attack would be made. Almost everyone in Washington expected that the Japanese would attack south of Japan. They were wrong. The military leaders in Tokyo were planning a surprise attack on America's main Pacific military base, at Pearl Harbor. That will be our story next week.
重点解析
1.a good deal of 许多；大量
I am in a position to save you a good deal of time.
我能够为你节省许多时间。
2.in fact 实际上；其实
In fact, those people have been promoted.
事实上，那些人已经升职了。
3.known as 被称为；以…而闻名
She is known as a great beauty.
她是出了名的大美女。
4.once again 再次；又一次
Once again I breathed as a free man.
我又能像个自由人一样呼吸了。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目，我是史蒂夫·恩伯。我们在最近的节目中谈到了20世纪30年代，欧洲法西斯领导人的崛起如何对美国的中立立场造成了威胁。希特勒和德国纳粹党是最明显的威胁，但还有意大利的贝尼托·墨索里尼，和西班牙的弗朗西斯科·佛朗哥。这些领导人既挑战民主的理念，也挑战美国一些最亲密盟友的安全。希特勒入侵波兰和1939年战争在欧洲的蔓延，使美国人怀疑他们是否可以更长久地保持中立立场。美国最终将对希特勒和其他轴心国发动战争，但它的第一场战斗根本没发生在欧洲。而是在日本突袭位于夏威夷珍珠港的美国大型海军基地之后，美国将卷入第二次世界大战。
美国和日本的关系在整个30年代逐步恶化，两国都是重要的工业强国，但他们对东亚，特别是中国的经济和政治前景有着截然不同的看法。直到18世纪末，日本一直是一个有着古老政治传统，且很少与西方世界接触的国家。马修·佩里准将和美国军舰的访问，帮助日本在18世纪50年代开放了日本与美国、及其他国家的贸易。在随后的几年里，日本朝着成为一个现代工业国家的方向迈出了重要的一步。到20世纪20、30年代，日本成为一个强国。但它自身缺乏石油、橡胶和其他自然资源。因此，日本的政治领导人羡慕地看着荷兰、法国和英国在东南亚和太平洋地区割据殖民地。日本商界领袖也看到其产品在韩国和中国等周边国家的巨大市场。日本利用东亚获取自然资源和销售制成品的愿望，与美国的亚洲计划直接冲突，在中国尤其如此。华盛顿对中国制定了“开放”政策。
它希望中国的自然资源和市场不受日本或任何其他国家的控制。因此，1931年日本军队入侵中国满洲地区时，美国人非常担心。他们饶有兴趣地注视着中国领导人蒋介石为反对日本侵略者所作的努力。美国也非常关注保护从东南亚进口的石油、锡和橡胶。在20世纪30年代，该地区是这些资源的主要供应地，中东尚未成为主要的石油生产国。在这些方面，美国和日本正在争夺同样的资源和亚洲市场。然而，两国之间也有大量的贸易往来。事实上，日本的大部分金属、铜和石油都依赖美国。1937年，与东京的贸易成为富兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福总统与国会的主要关注点。那年夏天，更多的日本军队进驻中国，他们迅速占领了中国的大部分海岸。日本在中国发动的战争中使用的金属、石油和其他材料大部分来自美国。
美国人不喜欢向日本销售材料，来对付中国。但由于东京和华盛顿在1911年达成协议，使这项贸易合法化。然而，美国政府在1939年告诉日本，它将终结早先签订的协议，不再向日本出售可用于战争的材料。华盛顿的决定使日本政府重新考虑其扩张计划，一个月后，德国和苏联宣布了互不侵犯条约，这让东京感到更加担忧。苏维埃联盟可能成为日本在东亚扩张的主要对手，在欧洲似乎没有遇到战争的威胁。这两件事帮助日本政府的温和派在外交政策上获得了更多的影响力，一个温和的政府于1940年1月掌权。然而，东京此时的缓和期并未持续太久。1940年春天，德国对欧洲发动了闪电战。纳粹占领了丹麦、挪威、荷兰、比利时、卢森堡，最后占领了法国。日本政府的极端分子认为，德国的胜利是他们在亚洲对欧洲殖民地发动进攻的机会。他们很快开始与希特勒谈判，组成新联盟。几个月内，激进的领导人推翻了东京的温和派政府。
日本新政府由一位温和派河野亲王领导，但是战争大臣是一个扩张主义者，东条英机将军。东京政府没有浪费时间采取行动，它迫使法国允许日本占领印度支那北部。此外，东京还要求英国关闭缅甸公路，这条路通往当时被称为重庆的中国城市。缅甸公路是美国根据《租借法》向中国提供军火的主要途径。这些事件使东京和华盛顿之间的关系变得更糟糕。1940年下半年，罗斯福总统禁止向日本出口金属和石油产品，他的政府也向中国借钱。美国开始向蒋介石政府提供一支P-40战斗机机队，由陆军飞行员陈纳德（Claire Chennault）率领志愿飞行员训练中国飞行员，这个中队被称为飞虎队。美国代表悄悄地开始与英国和荷兰官员会面，讨论日本可能在西太平洋发动袭击的联合防御计划。
华盛顿和东京在1941年举行了长期的谈判，美国官员希望谈判能够推迟日本对南部发动攻击的时间。他们还认为，拖延可能会给日本更多温和派领导人提供获得更多影响力的机会。美国的计划在一段时间内奏效了，日本没有采取新的侵略行动。欧洲的事件再次导致了这种情况的改变，纳粹德国在1941年中期袭击了苏联，这阻止了莫斯科在东部边境上的任何战斗，所以日本军队可以自由入侵印度支那南部。罗斯福总统对日本入侵印度支那采取了三个主要步骤。首先，他控制了日本在美国的所有资金。第二，他把菲律宾的武装部队置于美国的指挥之下。第三，他关闭了巴拿马运河，禁止日本航运。日本政府中的温和派和极端分子再次发生冲突。
更温和的领导人，如科诺伊总理，敦促再次努力与美国达成协议。但日本陆军和海军认为，是时候发动战争，永远结束美国和欧洲在东亚的势力了。日美之间的谈判一直持续到1941年的最后几个月，但是这两个国家处于战争的边缘。他们之间的关系，与华盛顿和柏林纳粹政府的敌对状态相近。美国军方官员在这段时间，捕获了来自日本的秘密信息。他们得知，除非美国突然改变政策，否则东京正计划发动某种袭击。然而，美国官员无法确切地知道袭击地点和方式。华盛顿几乎所有人都料想，日本人会袭击日本南部，他们错了。东京的军事领导人正计划对美军在珍珠港的主要太平洋军事基地发动突袭，这将是我们下周要讲述的故事。
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