亚洲历史
HISTORY.com (https://www.history.com/articles/nanjing-massacre)
Published: November 09, 2009
Last Updated: February 27, 2025
2009年11月9日发表
2025年2月27日编辑
In late 1937, over a period of six weeks, Imperial Japanese Army forces brutally murdered hundreds of thousands of people—including both soldiers and civilians—in the Chinese city of Nanjing (or Nanking). The horrific events are known as the Nanjing Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing, as tens of thousands of women and girls were sexually assaulted. Nanjing, then the capital of Nationalist China, was left in ruins, and it would take decades for the city and its citizens to recover from the savage attacks.
1937年底，侵华日军在为期六周的时间里，在南京残忍屠杀了数十万人，其中不仅有军人，还有大量平民百姓。这就是惨绝人寰的南京大屠杀，英文语境也称南京大奸杀（Rape of Nanjing），因为有数万名妇女和女童遭到性侵。当时，中华民国首都南京，沦为一片废墟，用了几十年的时间，这座城市和人民才从野蛮侵略中缓过劲来。
During the early years of World War II, and following a bloody victory in Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese turned their attention towards the capital city of Nanjing.
在第二次世界大战早期，侵华日军在淞沪会战中取得血腥胜利攻占上海之后，将目标转向了中华民国的首都南京。
Fearful of losing his military forces in battle, China’s Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek ordered the removal of nearly all official Chinese troops from the city, leaving it defended by untrained auxiliary troops.
为了保存实力，国民政府领导人蒋介石下令撤走南京几乎全部正规军，只留下未经训练的杂牌部队守城。
Chiang also ordered the city held at any cost, and forbade the official evacuation of its citizens. Many ignored this order and fled, but the rest were left to the mercy of the approaching enemy.
蒋介石还命令要不惜代价坚守南京，严禁市民撤离。虽然有不少人抗命逃走了，但依然有很多市民留下，命运如何，全凭敌人予夺。
Did you know?Once one of China’s most prosperous cities and industrial centers, Nanjing took decades to recover from the devastation it experienced in the Rape of Nanjing. Abandoned as the national capital in 1949 for Beijing, it later grew into a modern industrial city during the communist period and today is home to many of China’s largest state-owned firms.
你知道吗？ 南京历史上是中国最繁荣的城市和工业中心，却因南京大屠杀的浩劫元气大伤，数十年才得以恢复。1949年，中华人民共和国定都北京，南京成为旧都。在共产党执政时期，南京逐渐发展成为一座现代化工业城市，如今成为了众多中国大型国有企业的所在地。
A small group of Western businessmen and missionaries, the International Committee for the Nanjing Safety Zone, attempted to set up a neutral area of the city that would provide refuge for Nanjing’s civilians. The safety zone, opened in November 1937, was roughly the size of New York’s Central Park and consisted of more than a dozen small refugee camps.
一小群西方商人和传教士成立了南京安全区国际委员会，希望在城内划出一块中立区，为南京市民提供避难所。这个安全区于1937年11月启用，面积大约相当于纽约中央公园，有十多个小型难民营。
On December 1, the Chinese government abandoned Nanjing, leaving the International Committee in charge. All remaining citizens were ordered into the safety zone for their protection.
12月1日，国民政府撤离南京，将城市管理权移交给国际委员会。所有滞留在城内的市民都被命令进入安全区以获得保护。
On December 13, the first troops of Japan’s Central China Front Army, commanded by General Matsui Iwane, entered the city. Even before their arrival, word had begun spreading of the numerous atrocities they had committed on their way through China, including killing contests, arson and pillaging. Chinese soldiers were hunted down and killed by the thousands, and left in mass graves.
12月13日，原日本陆军大将松井石根指挥的华中方面军进入南京城。到南京之前，他们在中国各地犯下各种暴行的消息就已经不胫而走，这些暴行包括杀人比赛、纵火和抢掠。中国士兵被大批搜捕屠杀，尸体被弃于万人坑中。
Entire families were massacred, and even the elderly and infants were targeted for execution, while tens of thousands of women were raped. Bodies littered the streets for months after the attack. Determined to destroy the city, the Japanese looted and burned at least one-third of Nanjing’s buildings.
在南京，日军整家整家地屠杀一家老小，老人和婴儿也不例外，数万名妇女被强奸。屠杀结束后，尸体在街头堆积如山，长达数月之久。侵华日军下定了决心要摧毁南京，洗劫焚烧了至少三分之一的南京建筑。
According to numerous eyewitness reports and later analyses, between 20,000 and 80,000 women were brutally raped and tortured, including young girls and elderly women. Many of them—including victims of gang rapes—were mutilated and killed after being assaulted.
根据众多目击者的报告和后续分析，遭到残忍强奸和折磨的女性高达2到8万名，其中包括年幼女童和年迈老妇。许多受害者——包括被轮奸的女性——在遭受性侵后还被肢解和杀害。
Though the Japanese initially agreed to respect the Nanjing Safety Zone, ultimately even these refugees were not safe from vicious attacks. In January 1938, the Japanese declared that order had been restored in the city, and dismantled the safety zone—but killings continued until the first week of February. A puppet government was installed, which would rule Nanjing until the end of World War II.
即使日军一开始答应认可南京安全区地位，但后来安全区的难民也未能幸免于难，受到残忍攻击。1938年1月，日军对外宣称，南京城内已经恢复秩序，并撤销了安全区——但屠杀行为一直持续到2月第一周。日军还在南京扶植了一个傀儡政府，统治南京直到第二次世界大战结束。
There are no official numbers for the death toll in the Nanjing Massacre, though estimates range from 200,000 to 300,000 people. Soon after the end of the war, Matsui and his lieutenant Tani Hisao were tried and convicted for war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East—both men were soon executed.
南京大屠杀的受难人数没有确切统计，不过据估计约有20万到30万人丧生。战后不久，松井石根及其副手谷寿夫被远东国际军事法庭以战争罪审判定罪——两人随后被处决。
Anger over the events at Nanjing continues to color Sino-Japanese relations to this day. The true nature of the massacre has been disputed and exploited for propaganda purposes by historical revisionists, apologists and Japanese nationalists. Some claim the numbers of deaths have been inflated, while others have denied that any massacre occurred.
南京大屠杀的悲剧至今仍影响着中日关系。大屠杀的真相不断被历史修正主义者、辩解者和日本民族主义分子否认，并利用作为宣传工具。一些人宣称死亡人数被夸大，而另一些人则完全否认曾经发生过大屠杀。
Today, the victims of the Rape of Nanjing are memorialized at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall in Nanjing, located near a mass grave known as the “pit of ten thousand corpses.” UNESCO, a United Nations agency, added the Nanjing Massacre Memorial’s historical documents to its Memory of the World Register.
如今，南京大屠杀的遇难者在南京大屠杀遇难同胞纪念馆受纪念和祭奠，纪念馆的馆址就在“万人坑”旁边。联合国教科文组织（UNESCO）已将南京大屠杀纪念馆的历史文献收录进“世界记忆名录”。
单词短语
assault
v. to attack someone violently 殴打；袭击，攻击
He had attempted to sexually assault the women.
他试图性侵该妇女。
n. a violent attack 殴打；袭击，攻击
He was charged with sexual assault.
他被指控性侵。
auxiliary
adj. giving help or support, especially to a more important person or thing 辅助的
auxiliary staff 辅助人员
leave to the mercy
without any protection from (someone or something one cannot control) 面对无法控制的人或事物时，缺乏任何防护或庇护
He had to leave his boat to the mercy of the storm.
他只得让自己的船听凭风暴的摆布。
devastation
n. damage and destruction 毁灭性，极大的破坏
If disease is allowed to spread, it will cause widespread devastation.
如果疾病蔓延开来，将造成大范围的灾难性后果。
atrocity
n. [Countable] an extremely cruel, violent, or shocking act （可数）凶恶的行为，残暴的行为
They are on trial for committing atrocities against the civilian population.
他们因残害平民的暴行而受到审判。
n. [Uncountable] the fact of something being extremely cruel, violent, or shocking （不可数）凶恶，残暴
These people are guilty of acts of appalling atrocity (=cruelty).
这些人犯下了令人发指的残忍罪行。
arson
n. the crime of intentionally starting a fire in order to damage or destroy something, especially a building （尤指针对建筑物的）纵火（罪），放火（罪）
A cinema was burned out in north London last night. Police suspect arson.
昨晚伦敦北部一家电影院被焚毁，警方怀疑有人纵火。
pillage
v. to steal something from a place or a person by using violence, especially during war （尤指在战争中）掠夺，抢劫，劫掠
Works of art were pillaged from many countries in the dark days of the Empire.
在该帝国一手遮天的黑暗时期，许多国家的艺术品被肆意掠夺。
execution
n. the legal punishment of killing someone （依法进行的）处决，处死
Hanging was the usual form of execution practised in Britain.
绞刑曾是英国常见的死刑执行方式。
n. the act of doing or performing something, especially in a planned way （尤指有计划地）实行，履行
Although the original idea was good, its execution has been disappointing.
尽管最初的想法很好，但真正做起来却令人失望。
litter
v. to spread across an area or place untidily 四处乱扔，到处乱丢
Dirty clothes littered on the floor of her bedroom.
她卧室地板上到处都是脏衣服。
n. small pieces of rubbish that have been left lying on the ground in public places （散落在公共场所的）小块垃圾，废弃物
About two percent of fast-food packaging ends up as litter.
约有2%的快餐包装会被人当做垃圾随手扔掉。
n. a group of animals that are born at the same time and have the same mother 一窝幼崽
a litter of kittens 一窝小猫
loot
v. (usually of large numbers of people during a violent event) to steal from shops and houses （通常指在暴力事件中集体）抢劫，洗劫
The shops were looted and cars damaged or set on fire.
商店遭到洗劫，汽车被砸坏或烧毁。
n. money and valuable objects that have been stolen, especially by an army from a defeated enemy or by thieves （尤指军队的）战利品，掠夺品
dismantle
v. to take a machine apart or to come apart into separate pieces 拆开，拆卸
She dismantled the washing machine to see what the problem was, but couldn’t put it back together again.
她拆开洗衣机想看看出了什么问题，但是却装不起来了。
v. to get rid of a system or organization, usually over a period of time （逐渐地）废除，取消；解散
Over the next three years, we will be gradually dismantling the company and selling off the profitable units.
在未来的三年内，我们将逐步解散公司并出售盈利部门。
puppet
n. a toy in the shape of a person or animal that you can move with strings or by putting your hand inside 木偶
We took the children to a puppet show.
我们带孩子去看了木偶剧。
n. a person or group whose action are controlled by someone else. 傀儡
Western powers have been accused of trying to establish a puppet regime in the divided country.
西方列强被指责企图在这个分裂的国家建立傀儡政府。
revisionist
n. someone who examines and tries to change existing beliefs about how events happened or what their importance or meaning is 修正主义者
历史修正主义（Historical Revisionism）是20世纪80年代于西方学术界兴起的一股史学思潮。它试图通过对历史记录的重新诠释撼动甚至推翻某个在学术上、政治上和社会上已经得到公认且正值流行的历史观点，用自己的观点取而代之，从而赢得对某段历史的“解释权”。
放到战后日本的语境下，其一，蓄意修改的历史内容不仅包括对1931年至1945年间日本战争责任的官方认定，还涉及日本自1952年恢复主权国家地位后的国家定位；其二，其目标不仅限于对既有观点的否定，更侧重于新史观的建构，即在意图重塑战后日本历史认识的同时，改变战后日本的和平发展道路，构筑新的国家定位。随着日本社会总体保守化和政治右倾化特征日益显著，历史修正主义也从最初社会及政坛上少数人的主张逐步被渲染成一种具有民族主义意涵的政治氛围和社会思潮，且呈甚嚣尘上之势。
历史修正主义的研究结论通常和社会的集体记忆相冲突，它对历史的解释往往具有某种或显或隐的政治或意识形态目标，因而有别于一般意义上的历史研究创新，是一种具有政治动机的历史编纂思想。
apologist
a person who supports a particular belief or political system, especially an unpopular one, and speaks or writes in defence of it （尤指不受欢迎的政治信仰或制度的）辩护者，辩解者
There are few apologists for the old system.
很少有人为旧制度辩护。
Sources
- Nanjing Massacre. USC Shoah Foundation, University of Southern California.
- Thoughts on the Nanjing Massacre. Brookings Institution.
- Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall - The Memory of the World War II. China Discovery.
- Tokyo slams UNESCO in row over Nanjing massacre documents. CNN.
精读精讲——单词短语
threshold
n. the level of point at which you start to experience something, or at which something starts to happen 阈值，界限；七点
e.g. I have a low boredom threshold (=i do feel bored easily.)
我很容易感到厌倦。
aerobically
adv. in an aerobic manner: "with oxygen" or relating to processes that require the presence of free oxygen to occur. 有氧地，需氧地
（形容词形式为aerobic）
e.g. When you work out aerobically, your body burns calories (and fat) in three specific ways.
taper
v. (shape or form) to become progressively smaller or narrower at one end.
e.g. The spire of the building tapers to a point.
v. (athletics and training) to gradually reduce the volume or intensity of a workout routine before a major competition (like a marathon) to allow the body to rest.
e.g. Runners typically taper their mileage in the final two weeks before the race day.
v. (finance and economics) a gradual reduction in the amount of stimulus or central bank actions (like quantitative easing) provided to the economy,
e.g. The Federal Reserve’s decision to taper its bond-buying program caused ripples in the stock market.
v. (healthcare) the act of slowly and gradually reducing a medication or dosage rather than stopping abruptly (”cold turkey”) to safely wean the body off it.
e.g. It is important to taper antidepressants to avoid withdrawal symptoms.
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