評論
打印
The "American Century" has become the "American Crisis," and that happened in just twenty-five years.
“美國世紀”已經成為“美國危機”，而這僅在短短25年間發生了。
That's the theme of David Halberstam's latest book called The Reckoning.
這就是大衛·哈伯斯坦新書《思忖》的主題。
It's the story of the Ford Motor Company and the story of Nissan, a Japanese car maker since the late 1930s.
這本書講以福特汽車公司為背景，講述了日本車企尼桑自上世紀30年代以來的故事。
It is now a very successful importer to the US.
這本書現在在美國十分暢銷。
Basically Halberstam believes the American automobile industry, Detroit since the Second World War, Became a shared defact monopoly
哈伯斯坦認為，美國的汽車行業自二戰后就成了壟斷行業，
failing to listen to Congress, failing to notice Japan, and mostly failing, he says,
不聽國會的指揮，沒有注意到日本的崛起，從而導致一蹶不振，他如是說道，
because the car companies came under the control of the financial people rather than the car people.
因為汽車公司都是由金融領域的人掌控的，而非專業搞汽車的人士。
David Halberstam talks with us now about one very important year in auto biz, 1964,
交談中，大衛·哈伯斯坦提到了汽車行業非常重要的一年，即1964年，
and about several important people, beginning with Yutaca Catayama of Nissan.
他也提到了一些關鍵人士，比如尼桑公司的豐片山。
Catayama, who is a kind of exuberant, somewhat aristocratic man, was very frustrated.
豐片山總是容光煥發，很有貴族氣質，但當時的他感到灰心喪氣。
At home in Tokyo, there seemed to be no place for him in the company.
在他的家鄉東京，似乎自己在公司也沒有容身之地。
He loved making cars. He was on the wrong side politically, and that's a very political company.
他熱愛制造汽車。但他在政治上站錯了隊，而他所在的公司卻恰好是一家重視政治手腕的公司。
And so he was almost exiled to America on the assumption that selling cars in America would be a sure place:
他也因此差點被放逐到了每周，坐實的罪名是在美國賣車。
if you wanted someone to fail, that's what you would do. And he came here, and he loved America.
欲加之罪，何患無辭呢，所以他來到了美國，他很熱愛這里。
I mean, he was more at home, oddly enough, in America than he was in Japan.
這里比起東京更有家的感覺，雖然聽起來會很奇怪。
In the beginning he would almost, I mean, sell cars hand by hand.
一開始，他會親自賣車。
He would go to the Japanese gardeners in Los Angeles and sell these little pick-up trucks and he found these,
他會去洛杉磯的日本園藝大師那里賣輕運貨車。然后他結實了一些二手車經銷商，
you know, almost used car dealers whom he convinced to be Nissan dealers, and he would hand ...
并說服這些經銷商成為尼桑的經銷商，然后再手把手教他們。
he'd drive the cars down to their lots, and he got to know the business, and just it began to surface in 64.
他會把車開到場地，逐漸了解業務，并在1964年嶄露頭角。
That's a very important demarcation point, 1964.
1964年是一個分界點。
You mention the pick-up trucks they were trying to sell on the west coast.
您提到他們想辦法在西海岸賣輕運貨車。
It is funny the correspondence back and forth between the west coast and Tokyo
有趣的是，雖然西海岸和東京之間一直有通訊的交互，
that the Japanese in Tokyo don't believe that Americans should be riding in pick-up trucks
但東京人認為，美國人不會騎輕運貨車的，
as passenger vehicles and refuse to accommodate some design changes.
因為客車都拒絕在設計上做變動。
Well, factories in those days were not very technologically advanced.
當時的很多工廠技術都不夠先進。
I mean, they have this wonderful work force, and they have this enormous ambition and this willingness as to pay a high price.
我是說，他們的勞動力和野心都很強大，也愿意出高價購買。
But their cars were very primitive really, like American cars in the 30s.
但他們的車其實很原始，就像美國30年代的車。
But the truck they were building was like a small tank and was very inexpensive, and they started selling on the west coast.
但他們建造的卡車就像小型坦克一樣，價格非常低廉，就這樣開始在西海岸出售了。
And for the first couple years, the little truck was what carried the company.
開始的幾年里，這種輕運火車成了該公司的主打產品。
I mean that's where they made their inroads.
讓他們能夠打入市場。
And Catayama kept saying, You know, you don't under...to the home-office.
而豐片山總是跟總部強調“你們并不....”。
You don't understand Americans. They drive the truck, I mean, pick-up truck.
你們并不了解美國人，他們是開卡車的，就是輕運貨車。
That's a car for them, I mean, they'll work in it, and they'll play in it;
對于他們來說，輕運貨車就是汽車，他們可以在里面工作和娛樂。
they'll go to the bank in it; they'll go to a drive-in movie in it.
他們去銀行也會開著這種車，去免下車電影院也是。
Can we put some air conditioner? Can we make it more comfortable? Can we put in a radio?'
我們能安個空調嗎？能讓環境更舒適些嗎？能安個收音機嗎？
And Tokyo kept saying, you know, No, no, no, no. It should not be used for those things.
而東京方面卻一直表示，“不不不，輕型貨車不應該這么用。”
We want the Americans just to drive it as a truck.
我們希望美國人把它當成貨車來用。
You know Catayama just had a feeling that they were losing all these sales.
豐片山有一種感覺，他們的生意要搞砸了。
He mostly did not win the battle on the truck, but he won a lot other battles.
他在貨車的戰場上就從來沒贏過，但他贏得了很多其他的勝利。
Talking about '64, just about the time the Japanese car workers had begun
說到1964年，那時候，很多日本汽車行業的工人
to be able to afford the Japanese car and much earlier in your book,
剛剛有點能力買車（或許時間在史書上記載得更早一些）。
writing about the original Henry Ford, you talk about the time that Ford decided to pay his employees five dollars a day,
史書里也會記載到亨利·福特，那時候，福特給工人們一天5美元的工資，
as been an incredibly revolutionary time in American labor history.
這是美國勞動史上不可思議的變革時期。
I think that he revolutionized the economy and the idea of the worker as the consumer.
我覺得他變革了當時的經濟，將工人也視為消費者。
I mean if there is a thing called the American Century, it is also a thing called the Oil Century.
我覺得，如果“美國世紀”當真存在的話，它應該叫“石油世紀”更為準確。
The two are the same, and the coming of the first Henry Ford with the Model T at the very beginning of the century,
這兩個時期是同一個時期，那是世紀之初，福特推出了T型發動機小汽車
at the very same time when you have these huge oil gushers down in the Southwest,
而與此同時，西南部油耗量大的車型，
its spindle top which supplies the inexpensive energy, you begin to get the oil culture.
銷售量在不斷減少，這種新車型的推出可以減少昂貴能源的消耗，這就是石油文化。
And then very quickly you have small gas engines, and you have items which are consumer items.
然后很快就又有了小型內燃機，有了商業化的版本。
What Henry Ford did was bring mass production and finally create a cycle in which,
而亨利·福特選擇引入大規模生產，并創造了一個循環，
for the first time, in the industrial world, the worker was also a consumer.
讓工人首次成為工業界的消費者。
And when he paid for the first time five dollars a day,
而當他每天支付5美元的時候，
everybody else in the industrial sector jumped on his back, you know ,and said, he was ruining us.
工業界的每個人都會批評他，說他毀了大家。
This would, you know cause all kinds of social chaos, that workers couldn't handle that much money.
這就會引發各種社會動亂，因為工人不知道該怎么處理這樣的巨款。
But he was very skillfully creating this cycle, and he knew that he could build this many cars,
他很有技巧，能創造這樣一個循環，他也知道自己能造出這么多的車，
but there's no sense in building them if people couldn't buy them. And the worker became the consumer.
但如果沒有人買的話，造再多也沒意義，于是工人也變成了消費者。
Let me ask you for an explanation of this man. His name is Kadsundo Kohamu.
我想聽您介紹一下這個人。他就是威廉。
That is a Japanese name given ....taken by an American.
威廉其實是英語里的叫法，但他的本名是日本的名字。
Yes, his name...well, that means Willian the Conqueror, I believe, in rough translation.
沒錯，他名字的意思是征服者威廉，這是人們根據大意翻譯的。
His real name, he was born, I suppose, well, in the other century, is a man named William Reagan Gorham.
他的真名，鑒于他并非生在日本，叫做威廉·里根·戈勒姆。
And he was a wonderful tinkerer that the kind that we were producing in the very beginning of the twentieth century,
他很喜歡研究各種小玩意，尤其是我們20世紀之初生產的那些小玩意，
men who just loved this moment of explosion of machinery.
他喜歡新出現的各類機器。
He was like a Henry Ford, who came along a few years after Ford.
他就像另一個福特，只是比福特晚生了幾年。
In fact, the original Henry Ford was his God.
實際上，亨利·福特是他的偶像。
And he was trying to... and he invented everything; he could do almost everything.
是他效仿的榜樣，他發明了很多東西，他在威廉的眼中是無所不能的。
And frustrated in America, because there seemed to be no place for him, he went over to Japan to ...
在美國受挫之后，他覺得自己沒有容身之地了，就來到了日本，
originally to design airplanes during World War I.
那時候正值一戰，他的工作是設計飛機。
Loved it there. Became kind of a, a sort of industrial or mechanical missionary there.
他很喜歡那里的生活，成了那里機械工業界數一數二的人物。
And he would invent motorized little vehicles.
他會設計出機械化的小車型。
He invented the diesel engines, airplanes, and finally, he really was, in all respects, the inventor of the first Datsun car.
他發明了柴油機、飛機，還發明了第一輛日產Datsun車。
I mean, the intriguing thing that this American,
我覺得有趣的是：
because the Japanese are so good at absorbing other people's knowledge, he invented the first Datsun.
本來日本人向來擅長吸取其他文化之精髓的，但卻是一個美國人發明了第一輛日產Datsun車。
He came to love Japan. I mean, for him, it was a country loved many of the values,
他對日本的愛是逐漸加深的，他認同日本的很多價值觀、
systems of the respect for work, the cleanliness, whatever the country.
日本人對工作的尊重、日本人的愛干凈，一切的一切。
And he was honored there. He was never interested in making very much money.
他在日本備受尊崇，但他從不癡迷于賺錢。
As World War II began to approach, he became very melancholy, because he saw his adopted country and his native country about to go to war.
隨著二戰的來臨，他開始變得郁郁寡歡，因為他看到自己的第一故鄉和第二故鄉要走上戰場了。
He argued, without very much success, on both sides to... in ways that would sort of cut off the growing confrontation.
他曾向雙方聲嘶力竭地吶喊過，但卻毫無成效，雖然他的方式是可以緩解對峙情況的。
And on the very eve, he took up Japanese citizenship, this name and told his then colleague sons to go back to America before it was too late.
就在開戰的前一頁，他以日本市民的身份，用自己的日本的名字告訴自己同事的孩子們，回到美國去，不要釀成大錯。
And he is buried there. It is an extraordinary life.
他的尸骨也埋在了那里，他的一生是如此傳奇。
David Halberstam. His book is called The Reckoning.
大衛·哈伯斯坦，他的著作名叫《思忖》。
