MARTIN FACKLER2025年7月29日 Ko Sasaki for The New York TimesKunshiro Kiyozumi is a small man with gray hair and a stooped back who lives alone and still pedals his bicycle to the supermarket. At 97, he cuts an unprepossessing figure to the younger shoppers busy texting while filling their carts, unaware his life contains a dramatic story shaped by history’s deadliest war.清住薰四郎（音）是一位身材瘦小的独居老人，头发花白，脊背佝偻，至今仍骑自行车去超市购物。97岁的他在那些忙着边购物边发信息的年轻顾客中显得毫不起眼。他们不知道，他的人生中藏着一段由史上最惨烈战争塑造的戏剧性故事。At age 15, Mr. Kiyozumi became the youngest sailor aboard the I-58, an attack submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy. In the closing days of World War II, it prowled the Pacific Ocean, torpedoing six Allied ships, including the heavy cruiser U.S.S. Indianapolis, which it sank.15岁时，清住成为日本帝国海军伊号第五十八攻击潜艇上最年轻的水兵。“二战”末期，这艘潜艇在太平洋活动，击沉了六艘盟军船只，其中包括重型巡洋舰“印第安纳波利斯”号。1946年，驻扎在佐世保的伊号第五十八攻击潜艇。该潜艇曾对盟军舰船发动鱼雷攻击，并击沉了美国的印第安纳波利斯号战列舰。He served in a military that committed atrocities in a march across Asia, as Japan fought in a brutal global conflict that was brought to an end with the atomic bombings of two of its cities. All told, World War II killed at least 60 million people worldwide.他服役的军队在横扫亚洲的过程中犯下了暴行，日本参与了这场残酷的全球战争，最终以两座城市遭原子弹轰炸而结束。据统计，“二战”在全球造成至少6000万人死亡。But the living veterans like Mr. Kiyozumi were not the admirals or generals who directed Japan’s imperial plans. They were young sailors and foot soldiers in a war that was not of their making. Most were still in their midteens when they were sent to far-flung battlefields from India to the South Pacific, where some were abandoned in jungles to starve or left bearing dark secrets when the empire fell.但像清住这样的在世老兵，并非那些主导日本帝国计划的海军或陆军将领。他们只是年轻的水兵和步兵，卷入了一场并非由他们发起的战争。大多数人在十五六岁时就被派往从印度到南太平洋的偏远战场，帝国覆灭时，有些人被遗弃在丛林中饿死，有些人活下来，但要背负黑暗的秘密。After Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, they returned to a defeated nation that showed little interest in their sacrifices, eager to put aside both painful memories and uncomfortable questions about its wartime aggression. Mr. Kiyozumi lived a quiet life, working at a utility company installing the electrical wires that helped power Japan’s reconstruction. Over time, his former crewmates died, but he rarely spoke about his wartime experiences.1945年8月15日日本投降后，他们回到了一个战败的国家。这个国家对他们的牺牲漠不关心，急于抛开战争期间侵略行为带来的痛苦记忆和尴尬问题。清住过着平静的生活，在一家公用事业公司工作，负责铺设电线，为日本的战后重建提供电力支持。随着时间的推移，他以前的船员战友们相继离世，但他很少谈及自己的战时经历。清住薰四郎前往松山市的一家餐厅吃午餐。他是伊号第五十八攻击潜艇最年轻的船员。“I am the last one left,” Mr. Kiyozumi said in his home, showing fading photographs of the sub and himself as a young sailor.“我是最后一个了，”清住在家中说，他展示了褪色的潜艇和他年轻时当水兵的照片。As the 80th anniversary of the war’s end approaches, the number of veterans still alive is rapidly dwindling. There were only 792 Japanese war veterans still collecting government pensions as of March, half the number of a year earlier.随着“二战”结束80周年临近，在世的老兵数量正迅速减少。截至3月，仍在领取政府养老金的日本“二战”老兵仅792人，是一年前的一半。Now in their upper 90s and 100s, they will take with them the last living memories of horrors and ordeals, but also of bravery and sacrifice — powerful accounts that hold extra meaning now, as Japan builds up its military after decades of pacifism. Here are some of their stories.如今他们已年过90多，甚至达到百岁，他们带走的将是关于恐惧与磨难，也包括勇气与牺牲的最后鲜活记忆。这些有力的叙述在当下更具特殊意义，因为日本在经历数十年和平主义后正在建立军事力量。以下是他们的部分故事。Starved in the Jungle丛林中的饥饿尾崎健一在家中。他15岁时应征入伍。 尾崎健一入伍时的照片。 Kenichi Ozaki was 15 when he enlisted in 1943, as most young men were expected to do as the tide of war turned against Japan. Told that it was a righteous cause, he joined the Imperial Army out of middle school in rural western Japan over his parents’ objections.1943年，15岁的尾崎健一（音）应征入伍，当时战争局势已经开始对日本不利，大多数年轻人都被期望参军。他被告知这是一项正义的事业，他不顾父母反对，从日本西部农村的一所中学毕业后加入了日本陆军。Less than halfway through his training to become a radio operator, Mr. Ozaki was rushed to the Philippines, where the Americans had arrived to try to reclaim their former colony from the Japanese. Poorly equipped and ill-prepared, the Japanese force was quickly routed.接受无线电操作员训练尚未过半，尾崎就被紧急派往菲律宾，当时美军已抵达那里，试图从日军手中夺回这块前殖民地。日军装备简陋、准备不足，很快溃败。1944年，美军在菲律宾的莱特岛攻击日军阵地。The demoralized survivors fled into the jungle, where they wandered for months. Mr. Ozaki watched those around him fall from attacks by Philippine guerrillas or starvation. While he survived on leaves and stolen crops, Mr. Ozaki saw soldiers eat what appeared to be the bodies of dead comrades.士气低落的幸存者逃进丛林，在那里游荡了数月。尾崎眼睁睁看着身边的人要么遭菲律宾游击队袭击身亡，要么饿死。他靠树叶和偷来的庄稼存活，却目睹士兵们似乎在食用阵亡战友的尸体。After the war he returned to Japan, where he made a career at a company making electrical parts, rising to executive. For half a century, he didn’t speak of the war. He broke his silence when he realized how few people knew what his fallen comrades had endured.战后回到日本，他在一家电器零件公司工作，后来升任高管。半个世纪里，他从未谈及战争经历。当意识到很少有人知道他牺牲的战友们所承受的苦难时，他才打破沉默。尾崎现在在家中进行日间交易。Now 97, Mr. Ozaki still dreams of those left behind, told they were dying for the glory of the empire, but sent into combat with no hope of victory.如今97岁的尾崎仍会梦到那些被留下的人，他们被告知要为帝国荣耀献身，却被派去打一场毫无胜算的仗。“In their last breaths, no one shouted for the long life of the Emperor,” said Mr. Ozaki, who lives in Kyoto with his son, also retired. “They called out for their mothers, whom they would never see again.”“他们生命的最后时刻，没人高呼‘天皇万岁’，”尾崎说，他和同样已经退休的儿子住在京都，“他们呼唤着自己的母亲，却再也见不到她了。”Kept a Dark Secret深藏的黑暗秘密清水英男曾是日军神秘的731部队的一员，战后他被告知永远不得提及此事。 For more than 70 years, Hideo Shimizu kept silent about the horrors that he experienced.70多年来，清水英男（音）对自己经历的恐怖一直守口如瓶。Born in the village of Miyata in mountainous central Japan, he didn’t know much about the war when he was forced to enlist in a youth brigade in 1945 at the age of 14. Because he was dexterous, a teacher recommended him for a special assignment.他出生在日本中部山区的宫田村，1945年14岁时被迫加入青年团，当时他对战争知之甚少。由于手巧，一位老师推荐他接受一项特殊任务。After days of travel by ship and train, Mr. Shimizu arrived in Harbin in Japanese-controlled Manchuria, where he learned he would be joining Unit 731, a secretive group developing new weapons.经过几天的舟车劳顿，清水抵达了日本控制的满洲地区的哈尔滨，在那里他得知自己将加入731部队——一个研发新式武器的秘密组织。二战结束后，哈尔滨附近仅存的731部队遗址。该设施曾是秘密进行生物和化学武器实验的人体实验基地。At first, Mr. Shimizu dissected rats. Then he was taken to see the unit’s real experiments. He never forgot the sight: Chinese civilians and captured Allied soldiers preserved in formaldehyde, their bodies flayed open or cut into pieces. They had been infected with bacteria and dissected alive to see the effects on living tissue.起初清水只是解剖老鼠。后来，他被带去观看部队真正的实验。那景象他永生难忘：中国平民和被俘的盟军士兵被泡在福尔马林里，身体被剥开或切成碎片。他们被感染细菌，然后被活体解剖，以观察细菌对活体组织的影响。When the war ended, his unit escaped the advancing Soviets by rushing back to Japan, where he was told never to speak again about their work. Despite constant nightmares, Mr. Shimizu obeyed as he started a new life running a small construction company.战争结束后，他所在的部队躲避推进的苏联军队仓皇逃回日本，并被告知此后不得再提及他们的工作。尽管饱受噩梦困扰，清水还是遵守命令，开始了新生活，经营一家小型建筑公司。清水在其位于宫田的家中。战争结束后数十年间，他一直遵照命令对所见到的惨状守口如瓶。In 2015, he accompanied a relative to a museum where a photograph of Unit 731’s base was displayed. When he started explaining the buildings in detail, the museum’s curator happened to overhear, and persuaded him to speak in public.2015年，他陪一位亲戚去博物馆，那里展出了一张731部队基地的照片。当他详细讲解那些建筑时，博物馆馆长恰好听到，说服他公开讲述。Now 95 years old, Mr. Shimizu tries to combat the denials proliferating online about atrocities committed by Unit 731.如今95岁的清水试图反驳网上泛滥的那些否认731部队暴行的言论。“Only the very youngest of us are left,” Mr. Shimizu said. “When we are gone, will people forget the terrible things that happened?”“我们中只剩下最年轻的几个人了，”清水说，“等我们都不在了，人们会忘记那些可怕的事情吗？”Marched into a Trap踏入陷阱的行军佐藤哲夫与他的儿媳久子。佐藤先生隶属于第31师团第58步兵联队。 Sitting in the living room of his wooden home in the rice-growing village of Osonogo in mountainous Niigata Prefecture, Tetsuo Sato, 105, still seethes with anger over a battle fought long ago.坐在新潟县山区种稻村落大曾根家中的木屋客厅里，多年前的一场战役仍然让105岁的佐藤哲夫怒火中烧。After growing up as one of 12 children who didn’t always have enough to eat, Mr. Sato left this village in 1940 to join the army. He ended up in Japanese-occupied Burma (now Myanmar) just as Japan was planning an offensive against the city of Imphal, across a mountain range in British-ruled India.佐藤有11个兄弟姐妹，从小经常吃不饱饭。1940年，他离开村庄参军，最终来到日本占领的缅甸，当时日本正计划进攻英属印度境内的因帕尔市，两地隔着一座山脉。佐藤居住在日本新潟县北部的一个村庄。Proclaiming that their soldier’s fighting spirit would prevail, the Japanese generals sent them without adequate weapons or supply lines, ordering them never to retreat. At first, the enemy troops appeared to flee, but it was a trap. When the British surrounded them, Mr. Sato escaped only because his commander disobeyed the orders and pulled back.将军们宣称士兵的武士精神将会压倒对方，却不给他们配备足够的武器和补给线，还下令绝不撤退。起初，敌军似乎在撤退，但这是个陷阱。当英军包围他们时，佐藤之所以能逃脱，是因为他的指挥官违抗命令撤退了。Even then, many died from starvation and disease as they fled back to Burma.即便如此，在撤回缅甸的途中，许多人死于饥饿和疾病。“They wasted our lives like pieces of scrap paper,” Mr. Sato said. “Never die for Emperor or country.”“他们像对待废纸一样浪费我们的生命，”佐藤说，“绝不要为天皇或国家而死。”佐藤家中一张日本天皇裕仁在的照片。他说：“绝不要为天皇或国家而死。”Enlisted at 1414岁入伍96岁的铃木忠信，以及他16岁时的照片。 Tadanori Suzuki was also keen to help his country when he enlisted in the Imperial Navy at age 14. He regretted it right away when the officers regularly struck the new recruits. The beatings stopped only when he was sent to the tropical island of Sulawesi, now in Indonesia, which the Japanese had seized from the Dutch.铃木忠信（音）14岁时也热切地想为国家效力，加入了日本帝国海军。但很快他就后悔了，因为军官经常殴打新兵。直到他被派往热带的苏拉威西岛（现属印度尼西亚，当时被日本从荷兰手中夺走），殴打才停止。1942年，印度尼西亚苏拉威西岛上的日本设施发生爆炸。There, he trained on a small torpedo boat, spending sleepy weeks in the heat and tasting bananas for the first time. The idyll ended when a U.S. destroyer was spotted.在那里，他在一艘小型鱼雷艇上接受训练，在酷暑中度过了慵懒的几周，还第一次吃到了香蕉。一艘美国驱逐舰的出现打破了这种宁静。His boat was one of eight sent to intercept it. As they sped toward the gray enemy vessel, Mr. Suzuki heard the “bam-bam-bam” of its guns. When he pulled a lever to launch a torpedo, he saw a pillar of flame rise from the American ship. “A hit! A hit!” he yelled. But three of the Japanese boats never returned.他所在的鱼雷艇是被派去拦截的八艘舰艇之一。当他们加速冲向那艘灰色的敌舰时，铃木听到了“砰砰砰”的枪声。他拉动操作杆发射鱼雷，看到美国军舰上升起一团火焰。“命中！命中！”他大喊。但有三艘日本舰艇再也没有回来。Lacking fuel and ammunition, his squadron never forayed out again. Captured at the war’s end, it took him six months to get home. When he knocked on his door, his mother burst into tears. “I thought you were dead,” she said, then prepared him a bath.由于缺乏燃料和弹药，他所在的中队再也没有出击过。他战争结束时被俘，六个月后才回到家。当他敲门时，母亲泪流满面：“我以为你死了。”然后为他准备了洗澡水。铃木在他位于东京的家中。如今，他告诫学生们不要参战。After retiring from his job as a carpenter, he started speaking to elementary schools near his home in Tokyo, warning them that there is no romanticism in war.从木匠岗位退休后，他开始到东京家附近的小学演讲，告诫孩子们战争中没有浪漫可言。“I tell the younger generations, ‘A long time ago, we did something really stupid,’” says Mr. Suzuki, now 96. “Don’t go to war. Stay home with your parents and families.”“我告诉年轻一代，‘很久以前，我们做了一件非常愚蠢的事情，’”现年96岁的铃木说。“不要去打仗。和父母家人待在家里。”Fought for the Empire为帝国而战吴正夫在战争期间是一名轰炸机无线电操作员。 One sunny April day, Masao Go, 97, was at a Buddhist temple near his home in Yokohama to watch placement of a stone with calligraphy etched into its face: “Taiwan our fatherland, Japan our motherland.”4月一个晴朗的日子，97岁的吴正夫（音）在横滨离家不远的一座寺庙里，看着一块刻有书法的石碑被安放好，上面写着：“台湾是父国，日本是母国。”Mr. Go was born in Taiwan when it was a Japanese colony. His parents sent him to school in Tokyo, where he learned to be a proud citizen of the Japanese empire. In 1944, he joined the Imperial Army, eager to fight for a cause that he embraced as his own.吴出生在当时还是日本殖民地的台湾。父母送他去东京上学，在那里他学会了以身为日本帝国公民为荣。1944年，他加入日本陆军，热切地为一项他视为己任的事业而战。工人们正在横滨放置一块刻有“台湾是我们的父国，日本是我们的母国”的纪念石。Trained as a radio operator on a bomber, he was assigned to an air base in Japanese-occupied Korea. His unit was told to prepare for a final attack against American forces on Okinawa, but Japan surrendered before the order came. Captured by Soviet troops, he was sent to a prison camp in Kazakhstan.接受轰炸机无线电操作员培训后，他被派往日据朝鲜的一座空军基地。他的部队接到命令，准备对冲绳的美军发动最后一次攻击，但日本在命令下达前就投降了。他被苏联军队俘虏并送往哈萨克斯坦的一座战俘营。By the time of his release two years later, Taiwan was part of China. Mr. Go went instead to Japan, where he became a banker in Yokohama’s vibrant Chinatown.两年后获释时，台湾已成为中国的一部分。吴转而前往日本，在横滨繁华的唐人街成为一名银行家。After hiding his military service for years, he now talks about it, concerned that Japan and Taiwan face a new threat, this time from China seeking to expand its dominance in Asia. He erected the stone, which honors the 30,000 Taiwanese who died fighting for Japan in World War II, to remind Japan of its connection to Taiwan, now a self-governing island that China vows to reclaim by force.在隐瞒军旅经历多年后，他如今开始谈论此事，担忧日本与台湾正面临新的威胁，此次威胁来自寻求在亚洲扩大主导地位的中国。他竖立这块石碑，是为了纪念在二战中为日本作战而牺牲的3万名台湾人，以此提醒日本与台湾的联系——如今台湾是一个自治岛屿，中国誓言要以武力收回。“A threat to Taiwan is a threat to Japan,” Mr. Go said. “We are bound by history.”“对台湾的威胁就是对日本的威胁，”吴说，“我们被历史所束缚。”Forgotten by His Nation被国家遗忘清住在家中。他是伊号第五十八攻击潜艇的水兵。 伊号第五十八攻击潜艇曾击沉美国海军印第安纳波利斯号战舰。 Mr. Kiyozumi, the youngest sailor aboard the I-58, still vividly remembers the day in July 1945 when the I-58’s lookouts spotted an approaching American warship. The submarine dove to fire its torpedoes. The captain watched through the periscope as the enemy vessel capsized and sank.伊号第五十八潜艇上最年轻的水兵清住仍清晰记得1945年7月的一天，潜艇瞭望员发现一艘驶来的美国军舰。潜艇下潜发射鱼雷。舰长通过潜望镜看到敌舰倾覆沉没。Years later, Mr. Kiyozumi learned their target had been the U.S.S. Indianapolis, which had just delivered parts of the atomic bombs to the island of Tinian for use against Japanese cities to end the war. Of the American ship’s 1,200 sailors, only 300 survived.多年后，清住才得知他们的目标是印第安纳波利斯号，该舰刚将原子弹部件运到提尼安岛，这些部件后来被用于轰炸日本城市以结束战争。这艘美国军舰上的1200名水兵中，仅300人幸存。“It was war,” Mr. Kiyozumi said, expressing sorrow but not regret. “We killed hundreds of theirs, but they had just transported the atomic bomb.”“那是战争，”清住说，他感到悲伤，但不后悔，“我们杀了他们几百人，但他们刚运送了原子弹。”清住在松山市的一家餐厅。While Mr. Kiyozumi once corresponded with a survivor of the American warship, he feels forgotten and alone. His wife died three decades ago; his best friend on the I-58 died in 2020. No one in his town asks about the war.清住曾与那艘美国军舰的一名幸存者通信，但他感到被遗忘和孤独。他的妻子30年前去世，他在伊号第五十八潜艇上最好的朋友于2020年离世。镇上没人问起战争的事。“Young people don’t know what we went through,” he said. “They are more interested in their smartphones.”“年轻人不知道我们经历了什么，”他说，“他们更感兴趣的是智能手机。”摄影：Ko SasakiHisako Ueno和Kiuko Notoya对本文有报道贡献。Martin Fackler是时报东京分社代理社长。翻译：晋其角点击查看本文英文版。