Ｂｉｌｌ?。茫幔颍颍澹欤?/p>

譯/劉宇婷

有一天，在二戰(zhàn)剛剛結(jié)束的日本，身為駐日美軍的我和兩個(gè)戰(zhàn)友一起乘坐火車。落座之后，我發(fā)現(xiàn)一個(gè)奇怪的現(xiàn)象——車上所有的座位都被男人霸占著，而負(fù)著背包和孩子的女人們則抓著頭頂上的吊環(huán)，搖搖晃晃地保持著平衡。

這時(shí)，一個(gè)日本老太太拎著幾個(gè)沉重的包裹上了車，我連忙起身給她讓座。不料，還沒(méi)等她動(dòng)彈，一個(gè)小伙子就擠過(guò)來(lái)?yè)屜茸讼氯?。我不假思索地抓住那小子的衣領(lǐng)，把他拎了起來(lái)，然后扶著老太太的臂肘，引她坐到座位上。

這個(gè)小小的插曲更增添了我心中的不平之氣。我如法炮制徑直抓起離我最近的男人，強(qiáng)迫他把座位讓給了一名婦女。我們?nèi)齻€(gè)人你看著我，我看著你，都咧嘴樂(lè)了，然后不約而同地向第三個(gè)男人走去。可是他不待我們靠近便一躍而起。

突然，又有一個(gè)人站了起來(lái)，接著一個(gè)又一個(gè)，直到火車上所有的男人都站了起來(lái)，而所有的女人都坐了下去。每個(gè)人都表現(xiàn)得仿佛男人給女人讓座是世界上最天經(jīng)地義的事。沒(méi)有人說(shuō)話。一位高齡老者甚至把座位讓給了一個(gè)小姑娘。

40多年過(guò)去了，當(dāng)我在東京北部的一名基督教友家做客時(shí)，在火車上發(fā)生的那一幕早已被我淡忘。為了消磨時(shí)間，我聊起了自己在二戰(zhàn)時(shí)的經(jīng)歷，心想這也許是個(gè)有趣的話題。這位日本女士插言道，在戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)接近尾聲時(shí)，日本政府為了鼓舞士氣，警告國(guó)民說(shuō)，如果美國(guó)人占領(lǐng)了日本，他們會(huì)強(qiáng)奸所有的婦女！“但是有一天，”她說(shuō)，“三個(gè)美國(guó)兵上了一列火車，讓所有的男人都站起來(lái)給女人讓座。于是我們明白了，我們根本不必懼怕美國(guó)人?！?/p>

她的話令我瞠目結(jié)舌。

毫無(wú)疑問(wèn)，我就是那三個(gè)“鬧事”的美國(guó)兵之一，對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)，那是一場(chǎng)近乎任性的“胡作非為”，然而它卻給人們帶來(lái)了如此深遠(yuǎn)的影響……

One day in Japan, during the early days of the occupation following World War II, two of my friends and I boarded a train. After I sat down, I noticed that only the men were seated. All the women with all their baggage and babies on their backs were attempting to keep their balance by hanging onto the overhead straps.

When an older woman boarded with several heavy packages, I started to give her my seat. But before she could move, a young man pushed his way in and took the seat. Without thinking, I just grabbed him by the collar and hoisted him to his feet. Then I took the womans elbow and directed her to sit down.

As we say , I was “on a roll” and I simply reached for the next man.I assisted him to his feet also and gave his seat to a woman. We three looked at each other, grinned, and all together started for number three. But he did not wait, and jump to his feet,

Suddenly another stood up, then another and another, until every man on the train was standing and every woman was seated. Everyone acted as if it were the most natural thing in the world. No one spoke. One very old man gave his seat to a little girl.

Forty years later,the event on the train was far from my thoughts as we visited the home of a Christian lady in the northern part of Tokyo. To pass the time， I thought it might be interesting to tell some of our experiences from the great War. She explained that as the war was ending, the Japanese government, trying to sustain the will to fight, warned that if Americans invaded Japan they would rape all the women. “But one day,” she said, “three Americans got on a train and made all the men stand up and let the women sit down. We knew then that we had nothing to fear from the Americans.”

I was dumbfounded.

I felt certain I had been one of the perpetrators. Perhaps he was the one I had pulled to his feet. It had been almost a prank on my part. Yet it still affects people to this day.

《含英咀華》啟迪人生智慧，提升語(yǔ)言能力。歡迎譯者來(lái)稿。字?jǐn)?shù)以五百字為限。一經(jīng)刊用，每篇付稿酬400元/千字。來(lái)稿未經(jīng)采用，恕不退稿。郵寄地址請(qǐng)參見(jiàn)本期第二十二頁(yè)。