美国国家公共电台 NPR 'The Jersey Brothers' Highlights The Enduring Legacy Of World War II

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

World War II ended more than 70 years ago, but the stories of those who fought in it continue to fascinate us. If you search on Amazon for books about World War II, you'll find over 600 books published just this year. This Memorial Day, NPR's Glen Weldon looks back at one book out this month that sheds light on the enduring legacy¹ of that war. It's called "The Jersey² Brothers."

GLEN WELDON, BYLINE³: To tell the story of the war's impact on her family, author Sally Mott Freeman consulted hundreds of sources, but she kept the focus very personal. In fact, the book begins with an early memory of visiting her grandmother in New Jersey. She was outside playing with her cousins. It was early evening when the bats come out, and the adults were drinking cocktails⁵ on the porch.

SALLY MOTT FREEMAN: And we could hear voices rise. We could hear a glass break. And my mother was crying and, you know, we were doing our best to eavesdrop⁶ to find out what the problem was. And we did hear the name Barton and what happened to him and why.

WELDON: Barton Cross was Freeman's uncle. As for what happened to him...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Nipponese planes began bombing Manila in early December.

WELDON: The family found out later that Barton was injured in the early days of the war when the Japanese attacked Cavite Navy base in the Philippines. He was loading supplies onto a submarine when planes reduced the dock he'd been standing⁷ on to flaming splinters.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: The air attacks continued as the invading ground forces grew closer to the Philippine capital.

WELDON: The family got news he became a prisoner of war after the Japanese seized the hospital he was being treated in. But Barton's name never showed up on any prisoner manifests, and he never came home. His ultimate fate remained a mystery, one that would spark that cocktail⁴ hour argument years later and fuel endless debate among the cousins.

FREEMAN: We continued to talk about this as teenagers, young adults and so forth⁸. It was sort of a parlor⁹ game we played. What did happen to him? Well, dad said - well, but my cousin said - well, Aunt Rosemary always said that - and it never came to a satisfactory resolution.

WELDON: Many decades later, Freeman got that resolution. She pored over her father's wartime correspondence, her grandmother's diaries. She combed the National Archives. She even went to the Philippines to look for medical records. They told a grim story. Barton and thousands of other Allied¹⁰ prisoners had been packed into a succession of Japanese transport ships and moved from prison camp to prison camp.

FREEMAN: You cram¹¹ them in the hull¹² of a ship where there is no light and there's no air. And they sit there, sometimes for weeks on end without food or water. I think many of them became their basest selves.

WELDON: Norman Matthews was a survivor¹³ of what came to be known as the hell ships. He spoke¹⁴ to The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in 2008 about that truly horrifying¹⁵ experience.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

NORMAN MATTHEWS: Some of them went crazy - killing¹⁶ each other, eating each other's blood.

WELDON: And then, somehow things got even worse.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Ship after ship is pounded by explosive shells, poured into them in fiery¹⁷ streams of destruction.

WELDON: The Japanese Navy didn't mark these ships as prisoner transports, so they often came under attack by Allied bombers¹⁸ and battleships.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: A transport gets a direct hit.

(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)

WELDON: More than 20,000 Allied prisoners of war died on the hell ships, and like Barton, every one of them had a story. And the only reason we know Barton's story is that his niece, Sally Mott Freeman, spent nearly 10 years researching it - a process of fits and starts.

FREEMAN: As my research grew - and it wasn't anything but linear - I would find somebody who led me to another person who led me to an archive or a cache of letters or a set of diaries.

WELDON: She's got some advice for anyone who, like her, is obsessed¹⁹ with preserving these stories for future generations. Your search might take you far away to chase down some key document or government record, but your most important resource is probably a lot closer.

FREEMAN: Collect every single archive that you've got under roof now. If these relatives are living or if those who spent a lot of time with people who fought in World War II, get it down either in audio or on paper because it starts at home.

WELDON: Glen Weldon, NPR News.

1 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

2 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

5 cocktails   

n.鸡尾酒( cocktail的名词复数 )；餐前开胃菜；混合物

参考例句：

• Come about 4 o'clock. We'll have cocktails and grill steaks. 请四点钟左右来，我们喝鸡尾酒，吃烤牛排。 来自辞典例句
• Cocktails were a nasty American habit. 喝鸡尾酒是讨厌的美国习惯。 来自辞典例句

6 eavesdrop   

v.偷听，倾听

参考例句：

• He ensconced himself in the closet in order to eavesdrop.他藏在壁橱里，以便偷听。
• It is not polite to eavesdrop on the conversation of other people.偷听他人说话是很不礼貌的。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

9 parlor   

n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅

参考例句：

• She was lying on a small settee in the parlor.她躺在客厅的一张小长椅上。
• Is there a pizza parlor in the neighborhood?附近有没有比萨店？

10 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

11 cram   

v.填塞，塞满，临时抱佛脚，为考试而学习

参考例句：

• There was such a cram in the church.教堂里拥挤得要命。
• The room's full,we can't cram any more people in.屋里满满的，再也挤不进去人了。

12 hull   

n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳

参考例句：

• The outer surface of ship's hull is very hard.船体的外表面非常坚硬。
• The boat's hull has been staved in by the tremendous seas.小船壳让巨浪打穿了。

13 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

14 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

15 horrifying   

a.令人震惊的，使人毛骨悚然的

参考例句：

• He went to great pains to show how horrifying the war was. 他极力指出战争是多么的恐怖。
• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate. 战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。

16 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

17 fiery   

adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的

参考例句：

• She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
• His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。

18 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。