双语新闻：日本公然为西太平洋内小岛命名

2012-11-21 00:00:00来源：新东方网

　　Every day, near a group of uninhabited islands in the East ChinaSea that have become the heated focus of dueling claims byJapan and China, dozens of Japan coast guard boatsprominently patrol the waters, playing cat and mouse withChinese surveillance vessels.

　　在东海已成为日本与中国领土争端焦点的无人岛屿周边，每天都有数十艘日本海上保安厅的船只高调巡逻，跟中国海监船玩着猫鼠游戏。

　　Some 1,200 miles away, in a roomy office overlooking warehouses and the busy Tokyo harbor, Akinori Saito does his own part to protect the waters claimed by Japan.

　　大约1,200英里(合1,931公里)之外，在一间能够远眺众多仓库和繁忙的东京湾的宽敞办公室里，Akinori Saito也在为保护日本声称归其所有的海域贡献他的一份力量。

　　The coast guard hydrographer spends hours each day poring over navigation charts and satellitephotos, analyzing specks that appear on maps of the vast Western Pacific. His mission: authenticating several hundred of those specks as bona fide islands, before turning over the list toa bureaucrat whose job is to name the dots.

　　这位海上保安厅的水文专家每天花好几个小时盯着航图和卫星图片，分析广袤的西太平洋地图上出现的那些小点。他的任务是将几百个这样的小点鉴定为真正的岛屿，然后将清单提交给负责为这些小点命名的官员。

　　'I am very proud that the work I do is helping my colleagues on the front lines,' says Mr. Saito, whospent many years surveying Japan's coastlines before assuming his Tokyo desk job.

　　Akinori Saito说，我对于自己的工作能够帮到前线的同事非常自豪。他在东京从事案头工作之前曾在日本海岸线上考察多年。

　　The rationale behind Mr. Saito's project is this: In an age of increasing resource shortages, nationsare looking to the wealth of fish, minerals and oil found in their seas. Territorial waters, by definition, are those stretching within 12 miles of a country's land─whether that land is continent or island. Asan archipelago nation, Japan has a particular stake in cataloging the islands that help mark itsboundaries.

　　Akinori Saito负责的这个项目的原理是这样的：在能源短缺日渐严重的时代，各国都指望着自己海域里的水产、矿产和石油等财富。领海的定义是，距离一国陆地(无论大陆或岛屿)12英里(约19公里)范围内的水域。日本是一个群岛国家，收录能够帮助标志其领土边界的岛屿对该国来说关系尤其重大。

　　Yet, Japan, by its own recent admission, had been lax about accounting for the outer edges of itsborders. Japan has officially identified 6,852 islands within its boundaries, of which 421 areinhabited.

　　然而日本自己前不久也承认，其对国界外沿的统计已经松懈。日本官方已经确定了其国界范围内的6,852个岛屿，其中421个无人居住。

　　That number includes only islands with a circumference of at least 100 meters, or yards. Islandscan, in fact, be smaller. Japanese officials cite the United Nations Convention on the Law of theSea, which defines an island as 'a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which isabove water at high tide.'

　　这个数字只包括周长至少100米或100码的岛屿。事实上岛屿有可能更小。联合国海洋法公约(United Nations' Convention on the Law of the Sea)将岛屿定义为“岛屿是四面环水并在高潮时高于水面的自然形成的陆地区域”。日本官员援引了这一定义。

　　'When you go swimming in the ocean, you'll see some big rocks on the beach off to the side. Youcan assume some of those are islands,' says Mr. Saito. Asked the size of the smallest island he hasmeasured, he holds out his arms to form a circle, like hugging a tree. 'As long as the top staysabove the water when the tide goes up, it's an island.'

　　Akinori Saito说，在海里游泳时，你会看到有些对着海滩的大块岩石，其中一些可以认为是岛屿。被问及他测量过的最小岛屿的规模时，他伸出双臂形成一个圈，就像抱住一棵树的样子。他说，只要在高潮时顶端露出水面，就是岛屿。

　　Japan's no-island-left-behind campaign dates to 2007, when parliament passed a law promotingthe development of maritime resources. It was enacted in response to emerging tensions withChina, which was beginning to step up its own resource development in the region's vast andoften ambiguously claimed waters. In crafting projects to implement the law, officials launched theeffort to identify and name remote islands.

　　日本“一个岛屿也不放过”的行动始于2007年，日本议会通过了促进海洋资源开发的法律。这是为了应对与中国之间的紧张局势，当时中国开始在这一地区广阔且常常存在争议的水域加强资源开发。为了策划实施这部法律，日本官员发起了鉴别和命名偏远岛屿的行动。

　　The process isn't aimed at expanding Japan's internationally recognized territory, officials say. Itdoesn't add new islands to maps, they say; it just gives names to existing dots in the immediatevicinity of larger, named islands. The goal of the naming exercise, they say, is building up publicawareness of what is already under its control.

　　官员们说，这一行动的目的并非扩张国际公认的日本领土。他们说，这项行动并没有在地图上增添新的岛屿，只是为紧邻更大的已命名岛屿的现有小岛命名;命名行动的目标是让公众更多地了解已经在日本控制之下的地方。

本文关键字: 日本