By Nick Squires
BBC, South Pacific
Sixty years on from World War II, an act of environmental vandalism is proving to be a valuable asset for the tiny South Pacific nation of Vanuatu.
二次世界大戰爆發的六十年後，這場對生態環境是謂浩劫的破壞行動如今卻儼然成了南太平洋小國萬那杜的貴重資產。
Scattered on the seabed is what looks like the shattered remains of a phantom army.
看起來像是被毀壞了的幽靈軍團的殘骸，散落在海床上。
Peering through my diver's mask at first I could make out little more than ghostly shapes.
起初，從我的潛水面鏡望去，只能依稀辨認出一些恐怖的形狀。
But as I descended deeper into the green-tinged gloom, a bizarre sight unfolded before me.
但是當我繼續往下潛到泛著些許綠色的幽暗深處時，一個奇異的景象呈現在我眼前。
Resting on the seabed were military trucks, up-ended jeeps, and powerful-looking army bulldozers.
軍用卡車、豎著的吉普車、看起來強而有力的軍用推土機被擱在海床上。
There were twisted metal girders and rubber tyres, their treads still clearly visible.
扭曲的金屬支架還有橡膠輪胎，上面的胎紋仍舊清晰可見。
Half buried in the sand I found a vintage Coca-Cola bottle. I dug it out and slipped it into my wetsuit as a souvenir.
我找到一個半掩在沙中、舊式的可口可樂瓶。我把它挖出來塞進我的潛水服裡留做紀念。
Strange story
This is Million Dollar Point, one of the world's most unusual diving spots.
這裡叫做Million Dollar Point，是世界上最獨特的幾個潛水勝地之一。
It is a vast undersea junkyard lying just a few metres off a pristine white beach on the island of Espiritu Santo in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. How it came to be here is one of the stranger stories of World War II.
南太平洋小國萬那杜所屬的一座島嶼Espiritu，在她純淨潔白的沙灘幾哩外不遠處，就有一個大型的海底廢物堆積場。這堆積場會出現在這裡則有一個發生在二次大戰期間較不為人知的故事。
Before independence Vanuatu was an obscure Anglo-French territory known as the New Hebrides.
萬那杜在獨立之前一直是個不明確的英法領地，也就是常聽過的新海布里地群島。
From 1942 it became the focus of a massive military build-up by the Americans.
自1942年開始，她成了美國大規模軍事集結的重要位置。
Half a million or more US troops poured into the tiny colony in preparation for the great counter-offensive against the Japanese.
五十萬名以上的美軍湧入這個小小的殖民地，準備對日本展開大反攻。
Coconut plantations were cleared, local men were recruited as porters, and the sleepy colonial outposts of Port Vila and Luganville were transformed into bustling military hubs.
椰子園紛紛被鏟除，當地人被雇來做為搬運工人，把Port Vila以及Luganville這兩個原本步調慵懶偏遠的殖民居住地轉變為活躍的軍事中心。
Once the war was won, the Americans were faced with the problem of what to do with all the military material they had accumulated.
戰爭一勝利，美國馬上就面臨了一個難題：所有堆積如山的軍事物資要如何處理。
The high cost of shipping made it too expensive to send back to the States.
高額的運費使得這些物資沒辦法送回美國。
So the Americans offered to sell much of the equipment to the French and British.
於是美國提議將大部份的裝備出售給英法兩國。
But the colonial authorities calculated that the Americans would have to leave everything behind anyway, so why pay for it?
但是殖民當局認為反正美國遲早還是會將這些東西留下來，又何必花錢買呢?
Their bluff failed in spectacular fashion.
他們打的如意算盤卻錯得離譜。
Watery junkyard
In a fit of pique, the Americans decided to dump immense quantities of supplies instead of giving them away for free.
美國一氣之下決定將堆積如山的補給品全部傾倒掉，也不願免費送給殖民當局。
Navy engineers known as Seabees built a jetty and simply drove the unwanted Jeeps, trucks, and bulldozers into the sea.
海軍工兵也就是美國海軍工程營的隊員，築了一道防波堤並將不要的吉普車、卡車和推土機通通丟到海裡去。
Sixty years on these weapons of war have become a remarkably rich artificial reef. The abandoned vehicles are encrusted with vivid red and yellow corals.
六十年的時間，這些戰爭武器已成為一座非常富饒的人工漁礁。在這些被棄置的車輛上，覆蓋長成了鮮紅色、黃色的珊瑚。
I swam idly past a bulldozer and noticed a pink and blue shrimp perched delicately on the driver's metal seat, where once a GI would have sat.
我懶懶的游過一輛推土機旁，發現一隻有著粉紅及藍顏色的蝦子優雅地棲息在金屬的駕駛座上，昔日美國大兵曾在上頭坐過。
The barrel of an enormous naval gun was inhabited by a cluster of clams.
一管海軍的大砲，如今被一群蛤蜊所佔據。
As a couple of flipper kicks took me ever deeper, a lionfish emerged from behind a rusted axle.
踢了踢蛙鞋幾下後，我潛到更深的地方，一尾獅子魚從生鏽的輪軸旁游了出來。
An enduring legacy of mankind's most deadly conflict, Million Dollar Point is now an asset to Vanuatu, attracting divers from all over the world.
人類最致命的衝突留下恆久的遺產，也是萬那杜現有的資產Million Dollar Point，吸引了世界各地的潛水愛好者。
Acclaimed wreck
Many of them take in an equally spectacular dive site a little way along the coast.
在沿岸不遠處也有很多同樣壯觀的潛水景點。
The USS President Coolidge was a luxury liner when it was converted into a troop ship at the outbreak of war.
USS President Coolidge曾是艘豪華的巨輪，在戰爭爆發的同時轉而成為一艘運輸艦。
In 1942 it was carrying 5,000 men when it accidentally hit two American mines.
1942年當她載運了五千名人員卻意外地觸碰到兩枚美國的水雷。
The quick-thinking captain managed to ground it on a reef, allowing all but two of its officers and men to wade ashore.
腦筋靈敏的船長設法將船擱淺在礁石上，因此除了兩名船員和幾個人之外，大部份的人得已涉水上岸。
An hour later, it slid beneath the waves and is now one of the most acclaimed wreck dives in the world.
一個小時之後，整艘船沒入波濤之下，現在，這可是世上數一數二讓人讚譽有加的沉船潛水地點。
Those who venture into its flooded decks and cargo holds encounter a weird mixture of civilian luxury - chandeliers, a tiled swimming pool - and raw military necessity, including gas masks and ammunition.
到淹沒在水中的甲板和貨艙去探險的人，見到大吊燈、鑲嵌華美瓷磚的游泳池等民間的奢華，還有防毒面具、彈藥等未經處理的軍需品，一種奇特的感覺必定油然而生。
It is not just Vanuatu that is benefiting from the detritus of war.
不只有萬那杜從戰爭的堆積物中得到好處。
In Papua New Guinea a guide led me into a patch of jungle which was once a Japanese military airfield.
在巴布新幾內亞，嚮導帶我前往叢林的一隅，那曾經是個日本的軍用機場。
Lying crumpled amid the luxuriant foliage was a Japanese bomber, its ribbed fuselage and skull-like nose cone resembling the skeleton of some great prehistoric beast. Bullet holes showed where it had been attacked by Allied fighter planes as it struggled to take off from the long-forgotten tropical airstrip.
一架日本轟炸機傾頹橫臥在濃密的枝葉之間，她稜紋的機身和顱骨般的頭錐宛如史前巨獸的遺骸。身上的彈孔顯示當時她試圖從這條被長久遺忘的熱帶機場升空時，被盟軍戰機攻擊的情形。
In the neighbouring Solomon Islands, one sea channel is so littered with sunken American and Japanese warships that it is known as Ironbottom Sound.
鄰近的所羅門群島，一條被稱做Ironbottom Sound的海溝佈滿了美國與日本籍沉沒的軍艦。
Hellcat fighter planes sit on the ocean floor, their machine guns silenced forever. Where once they were strafed by Japanese Zeros, now they are circled by sharks.
地獄貓戰鬥機棲息在海床上，戰機的機槍恆久地沉靜了下來。曾在此處遭到日本零式戰機的砲火猛烈轟擊的她們，如今卻是被鯊魚所環繞。
Machines designed to take life have instead spawned new life in the South Pacific.
當年設計來奪取生命的戰爭機械，如今在南太平洋被用來繁衍新生命。
Million Dollar Point may be an indictment of the appalling wastefulness of war. But it has become one of Vanuatu's best known attractions. As such it needs to be preserved just as it is.
Million Dollar Point可以是戰爭導致可怕揮霍的起訴書。但是她已然成了萬那杜其中一個知名度最高的旅遊勝地。無論就那一方面，她都需要被好好的保存下來。
As I shrugged off my air tank at the end of the dive, I reached into my wetsuit and threw that scavenged Coke bottle back into the sea. Keeping it just did not seem right.
潛水結束後，當我把我的氣瓶推到一邊去之後，我把手伸進我的潛水服，把撿來的可樂瓶扔回海裡。佔為己有似乎是不對的。
Even underwater junkyards deserve some respect.
即使是水下的廢物堆積場也應得到些許尊重。
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7219429.stm
Published: 2008/02/01 12:16:57 GMT
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