9-1 了解战争,防止战争

Understand War, Prevent War

Zhao Wei: As far as I know, you had traveled around the world, run companies in five countries, and experienced various adventures before you started writing. What does your writing benefit from those experiences?

James Bradley: I read an article years ago that said the quality of your life is related to the quality of your experiences. So you need to have many experiences to have different thoughts, different ways of looking at things. I like to go to different places in the world to understand. There is understanding from reading a book, and there is understanding from going to see people, to see the actual conditions. And my experience is what press writes, for example, what the American press writes about China, is very narrow and is not very accurate. And I find very different situation coming here. Probably the same for Chinese people, they will have a very different impression about America. Last year, when America was planning the war with Iraq, I gave many speeches in America. And many audiences asked me, “Mr.Bradley, what do you think about going to war with Iraq?” And my answer was that, “Please, everybody who’s been to Iraq, raise your hand.”

Nobody raised their hands. So we’ve no understanding about Iraq. It’s very difficult to have war with people you do not understand. So I encourage people to travel.

Zhao: Your father was once a soldier during the World War II, but he never told you about this unusual experience.And many other veterans1 of the World War II are also unwilling 1 to mention their war experiences. Do you know why?

James Bradley: Because of the horror they experienced. Many people think the veterans are modest. Maybe they are a little modest. But they think such terrible things that they just cannot talk about it. You know these experiences drive some people crazy. Some people have to kill themselves because of how terrible it is. My father was able to survive by putting them out of his mind.

Zhao: Two of your works, Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys, are so popular in the US that both of them are listed best sellers2 by the New York Times. Why are they so attractive as books on the theme of war? Is it because of the detailed 2 descriptions of ruthless 33 war?

James Bradley: Obviously, my books are about war. But I don’t think about them as war books. I think about them as about the human condition and how humans react under pressure. War means life and death, facing life and death. So I think my books sell well and they are interesting because I didn’t focus on the big stories of generals and presidents and things like that. It’s a small story about young people in very difficult circumstances.

Zhao: I was struck by the minute4 and vivid description of war in Flyboys. Why did you describe the details of war in your book?

James Bradley: I wanted to bring readers the terribleness of war, and make it very vivid, make it very clear. My hope is that people who read these books will not want to have war. These are books about war, but maybe they are anti-war books. I wondered why my father suffered all his life. He cried in the sleep for four years. Did you ever hear of someone crying in the sleep? My mother said tears came out of his eyes when he’d been sleeping for four years every night. So why did he suffer so badly? I wanted to find out, and I did the research and saw the pain of war. I wanted to make the reality come to the readers. We have to stop fighting, we have to stop war. What people read about war is distant. We read about statistics 45. We really don’t care. We don’t imagine people dying and the trouble it causes. You know, war kills more civilians 5 than it kills soldiers. Many more children die in the war than soldiers die in the war.

Zhao: To our disappointment, social progress and development fail to prevent or reduce war. It seems many areas in the world are facing the threat of war. What on earth6 should man do to prevent war and achieve an everlasting 67 world peace?

James Bradley: I’ m not sure, but I am making my own effort to prevent war and doing two things. Number 1, I’ m writing about it, so people know the truth. Number 2, I’ m taking money from my books, and getting scholarships8 for American students to go to school in China and Japan, hoping that their friendship can develop. When these children grow up and go into the government or into the business, maybe they can help us prevent war.

Zhao: Many of our readers are young people. They grow up in a peaceful environment and live a happy life. It seems that war is too far away from them. What’s the necessity9 for them to know something about war? What sort of attitude should they take toward war?

James Bradley: That’s a very good question, I mean, in English we have a saying: if you do not study history, history will repeat itself. So I like to look at history because I can understand today much better. How many Chinese died in World War II? An incredible 7 number. So how could we prevent these things in the future? I think it’ s important to study the past, see what happened, see why it happened, so that we can understand war and make more intelligent process for tomorrow.

注释:

1. veteran [5vetErEn] n. 老兵，老战士，退伍军人

2. best seller 畅销书，畅销商品

3. ruthless [5ru:Wlis] a. 无情的，冷酷的

4. minute [mai5nju:t] a. 微小的，仔细的，缜密的

5. statistics [stE5tistiks] n. [复] 统计，统计资料

6. on earth 究竟，到底

7. everlasting [7evE5lB:stiN] a. 永久的，永恒的

8. scholarship [5skClEFip]] n. 奖学金

9. necessity [ni5sesiti] n. 必要（性）

了解战争，防止战争

赵巍：据我所知，您在从事写作之前曾经周游世界，在5个国家开办公司，并经历过多种冒险。这些经历对您的写作有哪些益处呢？

詹姆斯·布雷德利：几年前，我看过的一篇文章上说，你生命的质量同你经历的质量有关。所以，你需要有很多的经历，使自己有不同的思想和看待事物的不同方式。我喜欢到世界各地去了解事物。了解事物可以通过读书，也可以通过观察人，观察实际情况。我的经验是，新闻报道，例如美国新闻媒体对中国的报道，是非常片面而且不很准确的。我到这儿之后发现情况相当不同。可能中国人也是如此，他们也会对美国有一个非常不同的印象。去年，正当美国在策划对伊拉克战争的时候，我在美国发表了很多演说。很多听众问我：“布雷德利先生，你对向伊拉克开战怎么看？”我的回答是：“请你们当中所有去过伊拉克的人举起手来。”没有人举手。那么就是说我们对伊拉克毫无了解。要跟你不了解的人打仗是很难的。因此，我鼓励人们去旅游。

赵：您父亲曾是二战中的一名军人，然而他却一直没有把他这段不寻常的经历告诉您。很多其他的二战老兵也都不愿意提及自己的战争经历。您知道这是为什么？

詹姆斯·布雷德利：是因为他们所经历的恐怖。很多人认为老兵谦虚，也许他们确实有点谦虚，但他们认为这是如此可怕的事情，因此就不能谈。要知道，这些经历使一些人精神崩溃，一些人因为它非常恐怖而自杀。我父亲能够活下来，靠的是不去想这些事情。

赵：您的两本小说，《我们前辈的旗帜》和《飞行员》在美国大受欢迎，都登上了《纽约时报》的畅销书排行榜。作为战争题材的书，它们为什么如此吸引人呢？是因为对残酷战争的详细描写吗？

詹姆斯·布雷德利：显然，我的书是关于战争的，但我不把它们当作战争的书，我认为它们是关于人类状况以及人在压力下如何反应的书。战争意味着生与死，面对生与死。所以我认为我的书之所以畅销，之所以有意思，是因为我没有着重描写有关将军或总统的大故事以及类似的事，我写的是关于年轻人在异常艰难的环境中的小故事。

赵：《飞行员》这本书对战争的描写非常详细、逼真，使我深感震撼。您为何在书中对战争做出如此详细的描写？

詹姆斯·布雷德利：我想把战争的恐怖带给读者，并把它描绘得非常生动，非常清晰。我的希望是，读过这些书的人不想再有战争。这些书是关于战争的，但它们或许是反对战争的书。我不知道我父亲为什么痛苦了一生。有4年，他在睡梦中哭泣。你有没有听说过有人在睡梦中哭泣？我母亲说，整整4年，每天晚上当父亲入睡时，他的眼睛都会流泪。他为什么如此痛苦呢？我想找到答案，于是我进行了调查，发现了战争的痛苦。我想让读者了解事实真相。我们必须停止打仗，停止战争。现在，人们所读到的战争是遥远的。我们读到一些统计数字。我们实际上并不关心。我们并未想像到人们的死亡以及它所引起的问题。要知道，战争杀害的平民比士兵多，战争中死亡的儿童要比士兵多得多。

赵：令我们失望的是，社会的进步和发展并没有阻止或减少战争。世界许多地区似乎正面临着战争威胁。人类究竟该怎样做才能避免战争，实现持久的世界和平呢？

詹姆斯·布雷德利：我不很清楚，但我在尽自己的力量避免战争。我所做的有两件事，第一，我描写战争，这样人们就能知道真相。第二，我从自己出书的钱中拿出一部分，为美国学生到中国和日本留学提供奖学金，希望他们的友谊能够发展。当这些孩子长大后进入政府或商界，他们也许可以帮助我们避免战争。

赵：我们的读者很多都是青少年。他们在和平的环境中长大，过着幸福的生活。战争对他们来说似乎太遥远了。对他们来讲，了解战争有什么必要性呢？他们应该以什么样的态度看待战争？

詹姆斯·布雷德利：这是个很好的问题。我的意思是，有一句英语谚语：如果你不学习历史，历史就会重演。因此，我喜欢研究历史，因为这样就能更好地理解今天。有多少中国人在二战中失去生命？这是个难以置信的数字。那么我们怎样才能在将来避免这些事情发生呢？我认为研习过去是很重要的，对过去发生的事情和发生的原因进行回顾，这样我们就能了解战争，并为明天采取更明智的步骤。