被海嘯沖走的記憶 Memories,Washed Away
On Aug. 9, 1945, my great-uncle was out fishing in the Pacific, far enough away from Nagasaki, Japan, that he missed the immediate impact of the atomic bomb dropped by the Americans that day. My great-aunt was in their new house outside Nagasaki; the entire family had only a few days earlier fled the city because my great-uncle feared a repeat of the bombing of Hiroshima.
1945年8月9日，我的叔祖父正在太平洋上出海捕魚，因爲遠離日本長崎，僥倖躲過了美國人那天投下的那顆原子彈造成的直接傷害。我的叔祖母當時正在他們位於長崎市外的新房子中。他們全家幾天前纔剛剛搬出長崎市區，因爲我的叔祖父擔心廣島的原子彈轟炸會在長崎重演。I heard this story many times during my childhood. Back then, it made me feel that my great-uncle was a clever man. As an adult, I realized he was also very lucky, because cleverness alone cannot keep you safe.
這個故事我在兒時聽過許多次。那時，每回聽都讓我覺得叔祖父真是太聰明瞭。長大後我才明白，他同時還非常幸運，因爲光憑聰明並不能保你安然無恙。For 36 hours after the earthquake and tsunami that eviscerated the east coast of Japan on March 11th, 2011, I was unable to get any word from my relatives who oversee and live in our family’s Buddhist temple in Iwaki City, south of Sendai, the biggest city near the epicenter. I wondered if they too were lucky and smart.
2011年3月11日，地震和海嘯重創了日本的東海岸，之後的36小時，我一直無法與親人們取得任何聯繫。他們在震中附近最大的城市——仙台南部的磐城，住在我們家族的佛寺中，看護這座佛寺。我不知道他們這次是否也同樣幸運與聰明。
I wanted to know, and I did not want to know. I dipped into the world of the Internet, with its videos of water raging over the farmland and crushed ferries, and then quickly backed out. Not looking at the videos kept reality at bay, because the images of the coastline do not match the Japan that I know.
我很想知道，卻又害怕知道。我上網瀏覽，網上的那些視頻裏滔天大水狂暴地吞沒農田，擊碎渡船，然後又迅速退卻。如果不看這些視頻，就無法知道現實的殘忍，因爲畫面中出現的海岸景象與我記憶中的日本判若兩個世界。In the Japan that I know, I board the Joban Line train from Ueno station in Tokyo, and travel up the northeast coast to Iwaki City. If it’s spring, the bento stalls in the station sell cherry blossom-themed meals to eat on the train: pink cakes made of mochi rice paste are cut into flower shapes. The train will stop at Kairakuen, a park in Mito City that is famous for its plum blossoms. In the evening, the trees are illuminated from below, making neon pink froth against an indigo sky.
在我記憶中的日本，我常從東京上野車站乘坐常磐線，沿東北海岸北上，直到磐城。如果正值春季，火車站裏那些賣盒飯的小攤就會提供以櫻花爲主題的美食——將粉色糯米糰做成的糕餅都切成櫻花的形狀——讓旅客在火車上享用。火車會在偕樂園作短暫停留，偕樂園是水戶市一個以梅花著稱的公園。每到晚上，公園裏的樹都會被它們腳下的燈光照亮，在黛藍色夜空的映襯下，呈現出一片浮華的霓虹樣的粉紅。Not long after Kairakuen, the train curves and begins to hug the coast. Then I know that I have entered Tohoku, the northern region of Japan where the goddesses and demons of legend seem to be alive and seafood is sweet.
過了偕樂園不遠，火車便會轉彎，開始沿着海岸蜿蜒而行。這時，我就知道已經進入日本北部地區了。傳說中的女神和魔鬼們似乎還在這裏生活，這兒的海鮮非常鮮美。Often on this journey, I will switch to a local train to get off at Nakoso, a town famous for its inns and hot springs. My favorite spa, Sekinoyu, is just yards off the beach, a vegetation-thick cliff at its back. The waves of the North Pacific crash right outside the windows.
在這段旅程中，我經常會中途換乘當地的火車，然後在勿來下車。勿來是一個小鎮，以旅館和溫泉而聞名。我最喜歡的“關之湯”溫泉中心距海灘僅數步之遙，背靠草本繁茂的懸崖，北太平洋的海浪就在窗外恣肆喧騰。I do not see how the spa could have survived the tsunami. Its web site is eerily still online, with numerous photos of ocean views through the windows of baths and dining rooms; no status update is posted on its main page.
我覺得那個溫泉中心不可能逃過這場海嘯的浩劫。但它的網站卻還幽靈般地在線，那些通過浴室和餐廳的窗戶拍攝的許多海景照片還在網上。但網站主頁上卻沒有更新中心現在的狀況。The Joban train now does not run any further than Mito City; past this, the tsunami has battered train tracks and highways, making passage nearly impossible. A section of one train was found on its side just north of Iwaki City, the cars abandoned.
現在，常磐線列車走到水戶市就到頭了，水戶往前的鐵軌和公路已經被海嘯摧毀，要想通行幾乎是不可能的了。就在磐城北部，人們發現了一列火車的一部分車身側躺於路旁，車廂已被廢棄。The beach where I used to play at Oarai, a town whose name means “big washing” and which sounded romantic in happier times, is covered with sludge. Sendai is home to the most famous and romantic summer festival, Tanabata, when the stars Vega and Altair, who are in love but separated by the Milky Way, are reunited for one night. Sendai, site of many happy pilgrimages for me, has also been pummeled.
我過去常常來大洗町的海灘遊玩，這個鎮的名字是“大清洗”的意思。在幸福的時光裏，這個名字聽起來何其浪漫，但現在，這裏的海灘已經被淤泥覆蓋了。仙台是最爲著名和浪漫的一個夏季節日七夕節的故鄉。在七夕這一天，被銀河分隔兩岸的愛侶織女和牛郎才能相會，共度一個團圓之夜。我曾多次前往仙台旅行，度過了許多美好的時光，但如今，它也在海嘯中受到了嚴重衝擊。All this has happened even though Japan is arguably better prepared than any other country when it comes to earthquakes and other natural disasters.
應該說，相比其他國家，日本在應對地震和其他自然災害方面準備得更加充分。但即便如此，這一切還是發生了。When I was a child growing up in California, my Japanese mother would ask me, “How do you know a tsunami is coming?”
我在加利福尼亞長大，母親是日本人，小時候她總是問我：“你怎麼判斷海嘯要來了呀？”“When the ocean starts to disappear,” I would say.
“大海開始退潮時，海嘯就來了。”我說。“And then what do you do?”
“那你該怎麼辦呢？”“Drop everything and run up a hill.”
“丟下一切東西，跑到山上去。”The residents of Fukushima Prefecture would have been taught this as well, and yet most would have had only 15 minutes to understand they had just experienced an earthquake, to notice the sea was retreating, and escape.
福島縣的人們應該也學過這些知識，但他們大多數人也只有15分鐘的時間來完成所有事情：明白自己剛剛經歷的是一場地震，注意到海水正在退潮，然後拔足逃命。After 36 hours, I get through to my family at the temple in Iwaki. My relatives are unharmed, but there are new fears of a catastrophic meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, just 30 miles away. One of the family cars is full of gas, and they assure me that they can escape at a moment’s notice. Fuel is in short supply, so in this, they are lucky.
災難發生36個小時之後，我與磐城佛寺裏的親人們取得了聯繫。雖然他們都安然無恙，但是卻面臨着新的恐怖——離他們30英里外的福島第一核電站可能會發生災難性的核反應堆堆芯熔化事故。家裏的一輛車已經加滿了油，他們向我保證只要一聽到通告便可以立刻逃離。當下燃油非常短缺，從這點來看，他們還是幸運的。I would like them to leave right away, but they refuse to flee. The job of the keepers of a Buddhist temple, after all, is to help shepherd souls into and through the afterlife. Since they were children, my cousins have held wakes, chanted sutras over dead bodies, and anticipated the needs of those in mourning. Nuclear fallout or no nuclear fallout, their neighbors will need them.
我想讓他們立即撤離，但他們拒絕這樣做。畢竟，作爲佛寺看護，他們的工作就是爲逝者的靈魂進入並度過來世保駕護航。在我那些表親們還小的時候，他們就開始爲逝者守靈、誦經或爲居喪的人們提供所需幫助。無論是否發生核泄漏，鄉鄰們都需要他們。After 48 hours, the phone lines are not working again. I sit and wait.
災難發生48小時之後，電話又打不通了。我只能靜坐以待。
