(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. American military planners had to make an important decision when the United States entered the Second World War at the end of nineteen forty-one. American forces could not fight effectively in Asia and Europe at the same time. The military planners decided to use most of their forces to defeat the German troops of Adolf Hitler. Only after victory over the Nazis was clear in Europe would they use all of America's strength to fight Japan in Asia and the Pacific. Because of this decision, Japan was able to win many of the early battles of the war in Asia. The fighting in the Pacific is the subject of program this week. Japanese planes bombed the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December seventh nineteen forty-one.
"We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin. The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by air, President Roosevelt has just announced. "We take you now to Washington. The attack was apparently made on all naval and military activities on the principal island of Oahu." The surprise raid marked the first of several major victories for the Japanese. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, imperial forces attacked American bases in the Philippines. And within days Japan captured the American island of Guam. Japanese troops landed in Thailand. They marched into Malaya, and they seized Hong Kong. The Japanese also moved into Indonesia and Burma. Even Hitler's troops in Europe had not moved so quickly or successfully. As one American historian wrote later, the Pacific Ocean looked like a Japanese lake. The United States tried to fight back. General Jimmy Doolittle led a group of sixteen American B-25 bombers that took off from an aircraft carrier and bombed Tokyo in a surprise raid. "The B-25 was selected because it was small, because it had the sufficient range to carry two thousand pounds of bombs, two thousand miles, and because it took off and handled very well."
It was a bold move. The B-25 had never been launched from an aircraft carrier before. And the demands on the planes -- and the pilots -- were even greater with the weight of a full load of bombs. Japan's leaders believed no army could stop them. So they expanded their goals and launched new campaigns. This was Japan's mistake. It stretched its forces too thin and too quickly. The military leaders in Tokyo believed that the United States could not resist because American forces was busy fighting the war in Europe. But no country could extend its communications and fighting ability over such a great distance and continue to win. The turning point came in June nineteen forty-two in the central Pacific in the great battle of Midway Island. Smoke rises from the Yorktown after a Japanese bomber hit the American aircraft carrier in the Battle of Midway in June 1942. Bursts of anti-aircraft fire fill the air. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto launched the battle. He wanted to meet and destroy the remaining ships in the American fleet before the United States could recover from the destruction at Pearl Harbor.
Yamamoto had one hundred sixty-two ships. The American admiral, Chester Nimitz, had just seventy-six. But the United States had discovered how to read the secret messages of the Japanese forces. For this reason, Nimitz and the Americans knew exactly where the Japanese ships would sail. And they put their own ships in the best positions to stop them. The fighting between the two sides was fierce. But when it ended, the Americans had won a great victory. Admiral Yamamoto was forced to call off his attack and sail home. For the first time, the Japanese navy had been defeated. The next big battle was at Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands in the southwestern Pacific. Guadalcanal's beaches were wide and flat. Japanese officers decided to build a military air base there. The United States learned of the plans. American commanders decided that they had to prevent Japan from establishing that base. United States Marines quickly landed on the island. They were joined by troops from Australia and New Zealand. But Japanese ships launched a surprise attack and destroyed many of the American ships in the harbor. Allied forces on the island were left without naval support and suffered heavy losses.
For six months, the two sides fought for control of the island. Historian and naval officer Samuel Eliot Morison described the fighting this way in his book "The Struggle for Guadalcanal": "For us who were there, or whose friends were there, Guadalcanal is not a name but an emotion, recalling desperate fights in the air, furious night naval battles, frantic work at supply or construction, savage fighting in the sodden jungle, nights broken by screaming bombs and deafening explosions of naval shells." The fighting continued, seemingly forever. But finally, in February, nineteen forty-three, the Japanese were forced to leave Guadalcanal. The battle was an important defeat for Japan. It opened the door for the American and other Allied forces to go on the attack after months of defensive fighting. But American military planners did not agree about the best way to launch such an attack. Admiral Nimitz of the Navy wanted to capture the small groups of Japanese-held islands in the Pacific, then seize Taiwan, and finally attack Japan itself. But General Douglas MacArthur of the Army thought it would be best to attack through New Guinea and the Philippines.
The American leadership finally decided to launch both attacks at once. Nimitz and MacArthur both succeeded. Nimitz and his naval forces moved quickly through the Marianas and other islands. General MacArthur's troops attacked through New Guinea and into the Philippines. American ships defeated Japanese naval forces in the battle for Leyte Gulf. Throughout the Pacific and East Asia, the fighting continued. Many of the fiercest battles were fought on tiny Pacific islands. Japanese troops captured the islands early in the war. And they quickly built strong defenses to prevent the Allies from invading. Allied military leaders found a way to defeat the Japanese plan. They simply avoided the islands where the Japanese were strong and attacked other islands. But sometimes the Allies could not avoid a battle. They had to land on some islands to seize airfields for American planes. The names of these islands became well-known: Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands. Truk in the Marshall Islands. Saipan in the Marianas, and other islands including Guam and Tinian. The two sides fought fiercely in the battle of Iwo Jima. And, on Okinawa, Japanese forces resisted for eighty-three days before finally being defeated by Allied troops.
After the defeat at Okinawa, many Japanese understood that the war was lost, even if Japan had not yet surrendered. Emperor Hirohito appointed a new prime minister and ordered him to explore the possibilities of peace. But both sides still expected the Allies to launch a final invasion into Japan itself. And everyone knew that the cost in human life would be great for both sides. But the invasion never came. For years, American scientists had been developing a secret weapon, the atomic bomb. The code-name was the Manhattan Project. President Harry S. Truman made the decision to use it against Japan. "The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. We won the race of discovery against the Germans. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans. We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan's power to make war." American planes dropped one of the bombs on Hiroshima on August sixth, nineteen forty-five, and another on Nagasaki three days later. Exactly how many people in those two cities died from the force and heat of the blasts or later from radiation may never be known. The Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Japan estimates that between one hundred fifty thousand and two hundred forty-six thousand died within two to four months of the bombings. Japan surrendered on August fifteenth, nineteen forty-five, six days after the Nagasaki bombing. Suddenly, sooner than expected, World War Two was over. More than twenty-five million people -- soldiers and civilians -- died during the six years of fighting. Germany and Japan were defeated. The Soviet Union was strong in much of eastern Europe. But the United States found itself the strongest military, economic and political power in the world. Our story continues next week.
重点解析
1.try to 设法；试图
One child shrinks away from me when I try to talk to him.
当我试图和一个孩子说话时，他避开了我。
2.take off 起飞；出去
We eventually took off at 11 o'clock and arrived in Venice at 1.30.
我们终于在11点起飞，1:30到达威尼斯。
3.call off 命令停止；放弃
He has called off the trip.
他已取消了这次行程。
4.in order to 为了；以便
In order to reach this limit a number of technical problems will have to be solved.
要达到这个限度，还有很多技术问题必须解决。
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。当美国在1941年底参加二战时，美国军事策划者不得不做出一个重要的决定。美国军队无法同时在亚洲和欧洲有效作战，军事策划者决定动用大部分兵力打败阿道夫·希特勒的德军。只有在欧洲对抗纳粹取得明显的胜利后，他们才会动用美国的全部力量在亚太地区与日本作战。正是因为这个决定，日本才得以赢得亚洲战争初期的许多战役。太平洋战争是本期节目的主题。1941年12月7日，日本飞机轰炸了位于夏威夷珍珠港的美国海军基地。
“我们中断节目，而要为你们带来一则特别的新闻简报：罗斯福总统刚刚宣布，日军已经空袭了夏威夷珍珠港。”“我们现在带你前往华盛顿，这次袭击显然是针对瓦胡岛上的所有海军和军事活动。”这次突袭标志着日本取得了几次重大胜利中的第一次。珍珠港事件后不久，帝国军队袭击了美国在菲律宾的基地。数日内，日本占领了美国的关岛。日军在泰国登陆，他们进军马来亚，占领香港，还进驻印尼和缅甸。甚至希特勒在欧洲的军队，行动也没有这么快或如此成功。正如一位美国历史学家后来写道，太平洋看起来像日本的一个湖泊。美国试图反击，吉米·杜立德将军率领16架美国B-25轰炸机从一艘航空母舰上起飞，在突袭中轰炸了东京。“之所以选择B-25，是因为它体积小，射程足以运载两千磅炸弹飞行两千英里，而且它起飞及操控都非常好。”
这是一个大胆的举动。以前从未从航空母舰上发射过B-25，满载炸弹的重量对飞机以及飞行员的要求都更高。日方领导人认为，没有军队能阻止他们。所以，他们扩大了目标并发起了新战役。这是日军犯下的错误，它把军力拉扯得过细过快。东京的军事领导人认为，美国无法进行抵抗，因为美军正忙于在欧洲打仗。但是，没有哪个国家能够把自己的通讯和作战能力扩展到如此遥远的距离，还能继续取得胜利。转折点出现在1942年6月的太平洋中部中途岛战役。1942年6月，一架日军轰炸机在中途岛战役中击中美国航空母舰，浓烟从约克城升起。防空炮火在空中弥漫。日本海军上将山本一郎发动了这场战斗，他想在美军从珍珠港遭遇破坏的事件中恢复过来之前，能遇到并摧毁美国舰队中剩余的船只。
山本有162艘船只，美国海军上将切斯特·尼米兹只有76只。但是，美军发现了破解日军秘密信息的方法。因此，尼米兹和美国人知道了日本船只准确的航向，他们把自己的船停置在最佳位置进行阻截。双方的战斗很激烈，但当它结束时，美军赢得了一场伟大的胜利。山本上将被迫停止进攻，乘船返回日本，这是日本海军第一次遭遇败仗。门群岛之一——瓜达尔卡纳尔岛，该岛海滩宽阔平坦。日军军官决定在此建立一个军事空军基地。美国获悉了该计划。美国指挥官决定，他们必须阻止日军建立该基地。美国海军陆战队很快登陆该岛，澳大利亚和新西兰军队加入到他们的行列。但是，日本船只发动突袭，摧毁了港口里的许多美国船只。盟军在岛上缺乏海军支援，损失惨重。
六个月来，双方一直在争夺该岛的控制权。历史学家兼海军军官塞缪尔·艾略特·莫里森在其著作《瓜达尔卡纳尔的斗争》中这样描述了这场战斗：“对我们这些亲临现场的人，或是朋友在那里的人来说，瓜达尔卡纳尔不是一个名字，而是一种情感，它让我们回忆起绝望的空战、激烈的夜间海战、供应或建筑方面疯狂地工作、在湿透丛林中的野蛮战斗、夜晚刺耳的声声炸弹以及海军炮弹震耳欲聋的爆炸。”战斗仍在继续，似乎永远都要持续下去。但最后，在1943年2月，日本人被迫离开瓜达尔卡纳尔。这场战斗是日军的一次重大失败，它为美国和其他盟军在数月的防御战斗后继续进攻打开了大门。但美国军事规划者对发动此类攻击的最佳方式并不认同，海军上将尼米兹想占领太平洋上日本控制的小岛，然后占领台湾，最后再攻击日军。但陆军的道格拉斯麦克阿瑟将军认为，最好是通过新几内亚和菲律宾发动进攻。
美国领导层最终决定同时发动两次袭击，尼米兹和麦克阿瑟都取得了成功。尼米兹和他的海军部队迅速穿过马里亚纳群岛和其他岛屿，麦克阿瑟将军的军队则通过新几内亚进攻菲律宾。美国舰艇在莱特湾战役中击败了日本海军。在整个太平洋和东亚地区，战斗仍在继续。许多最激烈的战斗都发生在太平洋小岛上。日军在战争初期占领了这些岛屿，他们迅速建立了强大的防御系统，以防止盟军入侵。盟军军事领导人找到了击败日军计划的方法，他们只要避开日军兵力强势的岛屿，攻击其他岛屿即可。但有时，盟军无法避免战争，他们不得不在一些岛屿上降落，为美国飞机夺取机场。这些岛屿的名字变得众所周知：吉尔伯特群岛的塔拉瓦，马绍尔群岛的特鲁克，位于马里亚纳群岛之中的塞班岛，以及包括关岛和天宁岛在内的其他岛屿。双方在硫磺岛战役中战斗激烈。在冲绳，日军进行了83天的抵抗，最后被盟军打败。
冲绳战败后，许多日本人明白，即使日军仍未投降，但战争还是失败了。裕仁天皇任命了一位新首相，并命令他探寻获得和平的可能性。但双方仍预计盟国将对日本发动最后一次入侵。每个人都知道，牺牲生命的代价对双方来说都太大了。但入侵并未发生。多年来，美国科学家一直在研发一种秘密武器，那就是原子弹，其代号是曼哈顿计划。杜鲁门总统决定用它来对付日本。“全世界都会注意到，第一颗原子弹是在广岛这个军事基地投下的。在与德国人的探索竞赛中，我们获胜了。我们使用该武器是为了缩短战争的痛苦，为了拯救成千上万美国年轻人的生命。我们将继续使用它，直到完全摧毁日军发动战争的力量。”1945年8月6日，美国飞机在广岛投下了一枚原子弹。三天后，在长崎投下了另一枚。这两个城市究竟有多少人死于爆炸的威力和热量，或者后来死于辐射，我们可能永远都无从知晓。日本辐射效应研究基金会估计，在爆炸发生后的2至4个月内，有15万至24万人死亡。日本于1945年8月15日，在长崎原子弹爆炸六天后投降。然之间，第二次世界大战就结束了，这比人们预期得快。包括士兵和平民在内超过2500万人，丧生于六年的战斗之中。德国和日本被打败了，苏联在欧洲东部大部分地区军事强大。但是，美国发现自己成为世界上最强大的军事、经济和政治强国。这将是我们下周要讲述的故事。
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