参考译文：
日本偷袭珍珠港将美国拖入第二次世界大战
历史的进程通常是缓慢的，然而，一些特殊事件的发生却能急速地改变历史。拿破伦在滑铁卢(Waterloo)之败就是这样的事件；同样，怀特兄弟驾驶第一架飞机飞上天空时，是这样的事件；而西班牙探险者与蒙特祖玛(Montezuma)国王阿兹特克(Aztec)会面也是这样的历史事件。所有这些事件都急速地改变着历史的进程。同样，当日本于
广播新闻：“我们现在打断正常的节目，向您播放一条特别新闻。日本刚刚向夏威夷珍珠港发动空袭，罗斯福总统正在发表讲话。日本还向瓦胡岛(Oahu)的海军基地和军事设施发动攻击。我们现在把你带到华盛顿，关于此次攻击的细节还不清楚，一会儿才能知道。白宫正在发表声明。这次日本的空袭，很明显意在摧毁瓦胡岛的海军基地和军事设施。由总统的秘书斯蒂芬.厄尔利(Stephen Early)起草的总统声明主要内容已经成型。日本对夏威夷珍珠港的进攻，很自然意味着战争的开始，这样的进攻很自然会遭到反击，很明显，针对日本的这种敌对行动，总统将向国会要求对日宣战。”
日本对美国夏威夷珍珠港重要的海军基地发动突然袭击，对于日本而言是一次重大的军事胜利，而且这一偷袭远不止是一次军事进攻，它迫使美国投入到第二次世界大战之中。更为重要的是，这次偷袭迫使美国更好地认识自己作为世界最强大的国家所处的位置。在以后的几周里，我们将向你讲述二战中的军事和政治事件，但今天，我们将回过头来，看看美国在投入二战之前都发生了些什么，即在1918年至1941年日本偷袭珍珠港这23年的时间里，美国的政治、文化和传统都发生了些什么变化。
我们先回顾这些年来美国的政治变迁。
在上世纪二十年代，美国人选择共和党人沃伦.哈丁为总统，美国人已经厌倦了民主党总统伍德罗.威尔逊的激进的政策，他们特别厌倦威尔逊希望美国在国际联盟中担当重要角色的想法。哈丁是一位保守的共和党人，在他此后的两任总统加尔文.柯立奇和休伯特.胡佛也都是保守的共和党人。这三位保守的共和党总统通常都采取保守的经济政策，而且他们在国际事务上也不积极。在1930年，美国人抛弃了共和党转而将选票投向了民主党，他们选举富兰克林.罗斯福为总统，四年后，又再次选举他为总统。因此，上世纪二十年代美国保守的经济政策开始向上世纪三十年代的积极的经济政策转变，而这一转变主要是由于经济大萧条引起的。
上世纪二十年代是美国经济实力快速增长的年代，加尔文.柯立奇说，在他的任内，“美国人的首要任务是发展经济。”这同样是其他两位总统沃伦.哈丁和休伯特.胡佛的观点。这是有非常充分理由的，在上世纪二十年代，美国经济迅速发展，许多美国人从股票市场上赚到了好多钱，而且工人们的工资上涨也很快。
然而，美国经济的快速发展在1929年10月因股票市场的崩盘而突然终结，在这个月，美国许多行业的龙头公司的股票急速下跌，并在此后的几个月里，持续下跌。许多美国人因此而损失大量的财富，公众开始对经济失去信心，不久，美国经济崩溃，企业关门。胡佛总统试图解决当时的经济危机，但他又不愿意采取结束这一危机所需要采取的有效措施。随着时间的过去，许多美国人开始因经济大萧条而指责胡佛总统。民主党人富兰克林.罗斯福当选的一个重要原因就是因为他许诺要采取有效措施结束经济大萧条。
富兰克林.罗斯福：“我们这个伟大的祖国曾经历经磨难，今后仍将经受考验，但必将会得到恢复，会再次繁荣。所以，首先请允许我坚定我的信念：我们惟一该恐惧的是恐惧的本身，是那种难以名状的、盲目的、和毫无根据的恐惧，这种恐惧阻碍我们了前进的努力。”
在他当选总统后不久，他发表了旨在解决经济危机的一系列经济政策。
富兰克林.罗斯福：“我们的首要任务是给人们工作。只要我们明智而勇敢地对待它，这并不是无法解决的问题。这个任务通过政府直接征募人员可以得到部分完成、就像我们应付战时紧急状态那样、同时通过雇用这些人员来完成急需工程，以促进和改革 我们对自然资源的利用。 与此同时，我们必须坦率地承认，我们的那些工业中心已人口过剩；应在全国范围调整人口布局，尽力把土地提供给最善于耕种的人，使土地得到更好的利用。为了帮助这项任务的完成，要采取具体措施提高农产品价格，从而提高对 我们城市产品的购买力。要从现实出发制止对小房产和农场取消抵押品赎回权所造成的日趋严重的悲惨损失。要坚持由联邦、各州和地方政府立即按大幅度削减费用的要求采取行动。”
罗斯福的政策让许多美国人减轻了由于经济大萧条所带来的痛苦，但美国经济大萧条的终结却是由于美国加入第二次世界大战。1932年罗斯福当选总统还改变了美国的政治平衡，罗斯福把许多新型政治势力带入到政治权力之中，如工会领导人、天主教徒(Roman Catholics)、犹太人和黑人。那些来自意大利、爱尔兰和俄罗斯的家庭，他们以给予民主党选票的方式回报罗斯福的政策。
上世纪二、三十年代也是美国人在解决他们的社会和经济问题方面所持的基本立场发生变化的时期。在上世纪二十年代，正是美国经济快速发展的时期，美国政府很少干预人们的日常生活。但到上世纪三十年代，由于经济的大萧条，罗斯福和联邦政府深度采取一些新的政策，政府开始在帮助穷人生活方面承担一些角色，它开始向穷人提供食品或补助，并为失业者提供就业岗位。
政府还通过其他方式影响人们的生活。它在农业方面推出许多重点工程项目，为股票市场建立规章制度，它还修建大坝、道路和飞机场。美国政府发现，在二次世界大战期间要解决这一经济危机，所采取的手段，与经济危机开始时有着很大的不同。政府变得越来越庞大，地位也越来越重要，它解决人们的生活问题要比以前任何时候都多。
上世纪二、三十年代，美国社会的抗议声日益高涨，一些黑人开始对他们所遭受的不公平的法律和社会待遇积极地发出诉求。黑人开始大规模地从南方向中北部城市转移。在上世纪二、三十年代，也是美国妇女地位发生重要变化的时期。妇女们开始穿一些不太保守的衣服。洗衣机和其他一些发明，使得妇女做家务的时间减少了。至少在大城市，妇女可以在公共场合抽烟和喝酒。而且有许多妇女有工作。当然，妇女运动并不是从现在开始的。长期以来，一些妇女运动领导人，如伊丽莎白.卡蒂.斯坦顿(Elizabeth Cady Stanton)和苏珊.安东尼(Susan B. Anthony)在1920年为美国妇女赢得选举的宪法权利中立下不朽之功。
上世纪二、三十年代，还是美国艺术发展的重要时期，乔治.格什温(George Gershwin)创作的蓝色狂想曲(Rhapsody in Blue)起初是为钢琴和爵士乐队创作的，后来则成为交响乐的经典。
在文学创作方面，像欧内斯特.海明威(Ernest Hemingway)、威廉.福克纳(William Faulkner)、尤金.奥尼尔(Eugene O'Neill)和其他著名作家的创作使得这一时期成为美国文学创作的“黄金时期”。而弗兰克.劳埃德.赖特(Frank Lloyd Wright)和其他著名的建筑师设计出许多伟大的作品。像克拉克.盖博(Clark Gable)这样的电影演员和杰克.班尼(Jack Benny)这样的广播演员则赚取了许多美国人的欢笑和眼泪。同时，这些人还为美国的团结做出了贡献，因为无数的美国人在同一时间收听或观看同一节目。在上世纪二、三十年代要，对于美国人来说，无论是政治、经济，还是社会传统和艺术都发生了很大的变化。
然而，对于世界其他地方而言，美国的变化，最具有意义的变化是日本对珍珠港偷袭所带来的变化。美国现代历史的开端，美国作为世界超级大国的开始，就是始于日本的这一偷袭。对于漫长的历史长河而言，日本的偷袭只是一个突然的事件，但却是美国这个年轻的国家突然成长的一个标志性的一天。
欲知后事如何，请看下周分解
简评：
有人说：
美国是日本当时最大的经济来源，美国为了遏制日本的发展,断绝了与日本的战略资源贸易，冻结了日本在美的资产。为了占领东南亚，必然会触及美国利益，想的是先把美国主力消灭在珍珠港，这样以后就简单多了。日本在亚洲的侵略，那时没怎么太大的进度，一直在那里停滞不前，资源来开始越来越少 在这样下去 飞机坦克都会严重缺乏燃料 在占领地又不能很好的开挖汽油 容易被偷袭 只由去抢新的地方获取资源 最理想的新地方就是由美国控制的地方 所以为咯资源 冒险与美国开战 如果不去抢美国的资源 那只有等死。天皇认为，美国的中立正在向盟军倾斜。日美之间战争难以避免。再有就是日本陆军在日本军管理层的盲目自大的领导 既然日美之间早晚有一战，还不先下手为强，后下手遭殃。
不过，我觉得以上说法虽有一定道理，但并不完全。
因为，从资源角度来说，最不应该做的就是偷袭美国。当时，日本在中国和东南亚，甚至澳大利亚占据大片土地，已经从这些占领区获得充分的资源补充，完全没有必要为了资源而冒险与美国开战。
我想最根本的原因是日本对美国的无知，它可能从一开始就认为，美国不可能在遭受偷袭后，会与日本真正开战，毕竟两国相距太远。而夏威夷又离美国本土太远。因此，日本偷袭美国，既为自己下一步扩大在太平洋的战争做好准备，也断了美国干预日本进攻的想法(因为夏威夷海军基地将在日本的偷袭后不复存在，可没想到偷袭实际并不成功，美国夏威夷海军基地的主力，如航空母舰都没有受到伤害)。
也就是说，日本的愚蠢最终害了它们自己。日本人吸取教训了吗？没有，日本还是日本，它将还会犯同样的错误。
Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor Pulls US Into War
The USS California after being struck by a torpedo and a bomb during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941
History is usually a process of slow change. However, certain events also can change the course of history. Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo was such an event. So was the first airplane flight by the Wright brothers. Or the meeting between the Spanish explorer Cortez and the Aztec king Montezuma. All these events were moments that changed history. And so it was, too, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty-one.
NEWS BULLETIN: "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. The attack also was made on all naval and military facilities on the principal island of Oahu. We take you now to Washington. The details are not available. They will be in a few minutes. The White house is now giving out a statement. The attack was apparently made on all naval and military activities on the principal island of Oahu. The president's brief statement was read to reporters by Stephen Early, the president's secretary. A Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor naturally would mean war. Such an attack would naturally bring a counterattack. And hostilities of this kind would naturally mean that the president would ask Congress for a declaration of war."
The surprise attack on America's large naval base in Hawaii was a great military success for Japan. However, the attack on Pearl Harbor had more than a military meaning. The attack would force Americans to enter World War Two. More importantly, it would also make them better recognize their position as one of the most powerful nations in the world. In future weeks, we will discuss the military and political events of World War Two. But today, we look back at the years before the United States entered that war. The period between the end of World War One and the attack on Pearl Harbor lasted only twenty-three years, from nineteen eighteen to nineteen forty-one. But those years were filled with important changes in American politics, culture and traditions.
We start our review of these years with politics.
In nineteen twenty, Americans elected Republican Warren Harding to the presidency. The voters were tired of the progressive policies of Democratic president Woodrow Wilson. They were especially tired of Wilson's desire for the United States to play an active role in the new League of Nations. Harding was a conservative Republican. And so were the two presidents who followed him, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. All three of these presidents generally followed conservative economic policies. And they did not take an active part in world affairs. Americans turned away from Republican rule in the election of nineteen thirty-two. They elected the Democratic presidential candidate, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And they continued to re-elect him. In this way, the conservative Republican policies of the nineteen twenties changed to the more progressive policies of Roosevelt in the nineteen thirties. This change happened mainly because of economic troubles.
The nineteen twenties were a time of growth and business strength. President Calvin Coolidge said during his term that the "chief business of the American people is business." This generally was the same belief of the other Republican presidents during the period, Warren Harding and Herbert Hoover. There was a good reason for this. The economy expanded greatly during the nineteen twenties. Many Americans made a great deal of money on the stock market. And wages for workers increased as well.
However, economic growth ended suddenly with the stock market crash of October nineteen twenty-nine. In that month, the stocks for many leading companies fell sharply. And they continued to fall in the months that followed. Many Americans lost great amounts of money. And the public at large lost faith in the economy. Soon, the economy was in ruins, and businesses were closing their doors. President Hoover tried to solve the crisis. But he was not willing to take the strong actions that were needed to end it. As time passed, many Americans began to blame Hoover for the terrible economic depression. Democrat Franklin Roosevelt was elected mainly because he promised to try new solutions to end the Great Depression.
FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: "This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
Soon after he was elected, Roosevelt launched a number of imaginative economic policies to solve the crisis.
FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: "Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our great natural resources. Hand in hand with that, we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers. And by engaging, on a national scale, in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. Yes, the task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products, and with this, the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the federal, the state, and the local governments act forthwith on the demands that their costs be drastically reduced."
Roosevelt's policies helped to reduce the amount of human suffering. But the Great Depression finally ended only with America's entry into World War Two. Roosevelt's victory in nineteen thirty-two also helped change the balance of power in American politics. Roosevelt brought new kinds of Americans to positions of power: Labor union leaders. Roman Catholics. Jews. Blacks. Americans from families that had come from places such as Italy, Ireland and Russia. These Americans repaid Roosevelt by giving the Democratic Party their votes.
The nineteen twenties and thirties also brought basic changes in how Americans dealt with many of their social and economic problems. The nineteen twenties generally were a period of economic growth with little government intervention in the day-to-day lives of the people. But the terrible conditions of the Great Depression during the nineteen thirties forced Roosevelt and the federal government to experiment with new policies. The government began to take an active role in offering relief to the poor. It started programs to give food and money to poor people. And it created jobs for workers.
The government grew in other ways. It created major programs for farmers. It set regulations for the stock market. It built dams, roads and airports. American government looked much different at the end of this period between the world wars than it did at the beginning. Government had become larger and more important. It dealt with many more issues in people's lives than it ever had before.
Social protest increased during the nineteen twenties and thirties. Some black Americans began to speak out more actively about unfair laws and customs. Blacks in great numbers moved from the southern part of the country to northern and central cities. The nineteen twenties and thirties also were a time of change for women. Women began to wear less conservative kinds of clothes. Washing machines and other inventions allowed them to spend less time doing housework. Women could smoke or drink in public, at least in large cities. And many women held jobs. Of course, the women's movement was not new. Long years of work by such women's leaders as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony had helped women win the constitutional right to vote in nineteen twenty.
The nineteen twenties and thirties also were important periods in the arts. George Gershwin wrote his "Rhapsody in Blue" originally for piano and jazz band. It later went on to become a symphony concert favorite.
George Gershwin 乔治.格什温
Writers such as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill and others made this what many called the "Golden Age" of American writing. Frank Lloyd Wright and other architects designed great buildings. Film actors like Clark Gable, and radio entertainers like Jack Benny did more than make Americans laugh or cry. They also helped unite the country. Millions of Americans could watch or listen to the same show at the same time. Politics. The economy. Social traditions. Art. All these changed for Americans during the nineteen twenties and thirties. And many of these changes also had effects in countries beyond America's borders.
However, the change that had the most meaning for the rest of the world was the change produced by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. America's modern history as a great superpower begins with its reaction to that attack. It was a sudden event in the flow of history. It was a day on which a young land suddenly became fully grown.
Our story continues next week.
http://www.21voa.com/path.asp?url=/201105/se-nation-189-synopsis-19may11.mp3
苍海一笑
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