经济学人下载:美国驻日军队,又一年的迷失

American forces in Japan
美国驻日军队

Another lost year
又一年的迷失

Some unspoken truths about Japan’s security relationship with America
日本与美国安全关系方面几个不言而喻的真相

May 26th 2011 | TOKYO | from the print edition

LESS than a month after a new government took office in Japan in September 2009, American officials talked their Japanese counterparts through a longstanding frustration: stalled plans to build a new airbase for American marines on the southern island of Okinawa. According to confidential minutes of the meeting sent to Washington, DC by the American embassy in Tokyo, leaked by WikiLeaks, Kurt Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, said a new airstrip was necessary because of China’s growing military strength. But that could not be discussed publicly, “for obvious reasons”.

2009年9月日本新政府走马上任，在此后不到一个月的时间里，美国官员与他们的日本同行讨论了这个持续已久的麻烦事——美国海军要在冲绳岛（Okinawa）南侧修建新空军基地的计划陷入僵局。会议的秘密记录从东京的美国大使馆送到了华盛顿特区，但是被维基解密泄露出来，根据这份记录，美国国务卿的助理柯特??坎贝尔（Kurt Campbell）认为：由于中国军事力量日益强大，修建新的空军基地势在必行。但是“由于某些明显原因”，这种话题显然不能拿到桌子上谈。

A few months later Mr Campbell went further, according to another cable. Because of potential threats from North Korea, China and elsewhere, America and Japan faced “the most challenging security environment” in 50 years. However, he said the messages to the public often glossed over that reality. Presumably that too was to avoid offending China, even though it would have helped Okinawans to understand why the new facility is deemed so important.

根据另一份报告，坎贝尔进一步的提出。由于朝鲜、中国和其他地方存在着潜在威胁，美国和日本在未来50年里面临“最严峻的安全环境”。但是，他认为对公众透露的信息总会掩盖事实真相。这也被推测为避免冒犯中国，尽管这有助于冲绳岛居民了解为何新空军基地举足轻重的地位。