网帖翻译

Jonathan Kurtzman
A large part of American history is German immigration. Until the Irish arrived in the 1840’s, the while population of the colonies and then the USA were almost exclusively British-descended. As in, Andrew Jackson was a British citizen until he was in his teens. The large exception was Germans, mostly in the mid-Atlantic. I’ve read that as late as the 1880’s, when Italians, Jews, etc. started to arrive in numbers, the American population was 75% from the British Isles (meaning including Ireland).
We don’t see many German restaurants these days, but they were common. I mean explicitly that German visibility dropped dramatically, much apparently because of WWII.

德国移民在美国历史上占据了重要地位。在19世纪40年代爱尔兰人大量涌入之前，美国殖民地以及后来的美国人口几乎全部是英国后裔。例如，安德鲁·杰克逊在十几岁之前一直是英国公民。一个显著的例外是德国移民，他们主要集中在中大西洋地区。我读到过，在19世纪80年代，当意大利人、犹太人等开始大量移民时，美国人口中有75%来自不列颠群岛（包括爱尔兰）。
如今，德国餐厅已不多见，但它们曾经很普遍。我是想明确指出，德国文化的可见度大幅下降了，这在很大程度上似乎是因为第二次世界大战。

But until we entered the war, the German-American population was mixed in their opinions. Not many wanted to believe Hitler was as evil as he turned out to be. This was, after all, before we knew about death camps and mass murders. And hatreds toward others was common then - or perhaps more open than it is now - so the hatred of the Nazi rulers against Jews didn’t necessarily stand out. Just look at the US with its Jim Crow laws.

在我们参战之前，德裔美国人的观点是多样化的。 很少有人愿意相信希特勒会像他最终表现出来的那样邪恶。毕竟，当时我们还不知道集中营和大屠杀。当时，对其他群体的仇恨很常见，或许比现在更公开，所以纳粹统治者对犹太人的仇恨并不一定显得格外突出。看看美国当时的吉姆·克劳法就知道了。

Rudolf Hess participated in setting up a friends of Germany organizations that were openly pro-Nazi. They spent a few years trying to control the German-American population’s public attitudes by taking over their newspapers and demanding pro-Nazi public stances. In 1936, the two main one - which were both small - became the German-American Bund. This may have been in response to a Congressional investigation into pro-Nazi activities. The Bund was much more successful. They claimed something like a million members, which I doubt, and they held very well attended mass rallies at places like Boston Garden and Madison Square Garden.

鲁道夫·赫斯参与建立了一个公开支持纳粹的德国之友组织。 他们花了几年时间试图通过接管报纸和要求亲纳粹的公开立场来控制德裔美国人的公众态度。1936年，两个主要的组织——它们都很小——合并成了德裔美国人联盟。这可能是对国会调查亲纳粹活动的回应。联盟更加成功。他们声称成员有大约一百万，我对此表示怀疑，但他们确实在波士顿花园和麦迪逊广场花园等地举行了大规模集会。

The Bund evaporated when we entered the war, and the Bund’s leader, Fritz Kuhn, spent years in prison before being deported.
My point is that the US is not some perfect moral actor or judge. It is a country made up of people from other places. And a lot of those are from Germany. In fact, the largest self-reported ancestry group in the USA is German, with more than 40 million.

联盟在我们参战后就瓦解了，联盟的领导人弗里茨·库恩在被驱逐出境前在监狱里待了好几年。
我的观点是，美国并非一个完美的道德典范或裁判。它是一个由来自不同地方的人组成的国家。其中很多人来自德国。事实上，美国最大的自我报告的祖先群体是德国人，人数超过4000万。事实上，美国自我报告的最大规模的祖先群体是德国人，超过4000万。

In 1939, before the death camps were known (before they generally existed), German-Americans were proud that Germany had recovered from defeat in WWI, and from the crippling Treaty of Versailles sanctions, and that Germany was now apparently prospering. Yes, the hate about the Jews bothered many, but they naturally focused on what they saw as the good parts. And like Jews, they likely thought the bad stuff would get better with time; they did not imagine the bad stuff would open the gates of hell.

1939年，在集中营被知晓之前（当时它们甚至还没有普遍存在），德裔美国人对德国从一战的失败和《凡尔赛条约》的严厉制裁中恢复过来，并且现在似乎正在繁荣发展感到自豪。 是的，对犹太人的仇恨让很多人感到不安，但他们自然地专注于他们认为是好的方面。就像犹太人一样，他们可能认为随着时间的推移，坏的事情会变好；他们没有想象到坏的事情会打开地狱之门。

To Americans in the 1930’s, Germany was as much a part of ‘our’ history as other countries in Europe. Yes, we were tied to Britain because we were a British colony, but it’s not like the British were our friends. That’s a fairly recent ‘invention’, one motivated mostly by Britain’s decline as a world power and thus its need to declare a ‘special relationship’ with the US. We fought the British. Twice. And the British almost supported the South in the Civil War - or at least didn’t exactly help the North win. Why should we leap to the aid of Poland? Why should we care about Britain? Because they oppressed Jews? Like the US didn’t oppress black people? I could leave it at that, but the US also had quotas and other restrictions for Jew, including many places refusing to allow Jews to live there. To be blunt, we look highly moral in WWII because the other side was that immoral, not because we were actually moral.

在20世纪30年代的美国人眼中，德国和欧洲其他国家一样，也是“我们”历史的一部分。 是的，我们与英国有关联，因为我们曾是英国殖民地，但这并不意味着英国人是我们的朋友。这种“特殊关系”是一个相对较新的“发明”，主要是由于英国作为世界大国的地位下降，因此需要宣布与美国建立“特殊关系”。我们与英国打过两次仗。而且在内战中，英国几乎支持南方——或者至少没有确切地帮助北方获胜。为什么我们要急于援助波兰？为什么我们要关心英国？因为他们压迫犹太人？难道美国没有压迫黑人吗？我可以就此打住，但美国也有针对犹太人的配额和其他限制，包括许多地方拒绝允许犹太人居住。直白地说，我们在二战中看起来很有道德，是因为对方那么不道德，而不是因为我们真的有道德。

Charles Fletcher
The US experience in in the first World War was a disaster. The US joined the allies and contributed to the win at the cost of over 100,000 soldiers lives and then saw every single thing used as a justification for the war thrown out by the allies when the war was over.
20 years later there's s new war with largely the same combatants. So, what's the argument for US direct involvement this time? Most of the US was of the mind, it's horrible, but, it's over there.

美国在第一次世界大战中的经历是一场灾难。 美国加入协约国，为胜利付出了超过10万名士兵的生命代价，然而战后，协约国却将所有用于战争的理由都抛诸脑后。
20年后，又爆发了一场新的战争，参战方大多与第一次世界大战相同。 那么，这次美国直接参与战争的理由是什么呢？大多数美国人认为，战争固然可怕，但它发生在遥远的地方。

Also I'd point out that only 2 countries in Europe declared war on Germany prior to their actually being invaded by Germany. They were Britain and France. The rest, in the questioner's words "dithered".

此外，我还要指出，在德国实际入侵之前，只有两个欧洲国家对德国宣战，那就是英国和法国。 其余国家，用提问者的话来说，都在“犹豫不决”。

EDIT:
Forgot to mention, along with the majority of European nations that DID NOT declare war on Germany until invaded, there were at least 2 that were significant suppliers to the German war machine - the USSR and Sweden. Oddly enough, the same people who given the US trouble for not joining in sooner seem to ignore those who actually aided the German war effort.

编辑：
差点忘了提，除了那些直到被入侵才对德国宣战的大多数欧洲国家外，至少还有两个国家是德国战争机器的重要供应者——苏联和瑞典。奇怪的是，那些批评美国没有早点参战的人，似乎对那些实际帮助德国发动战争的国家视而不见。

Straight talking truths ·
because the US supported the policy of isolation. and they were also afraid of a new great depression, because they had not fully recovered from the first one. but it turned out the opposite, the war has stimulated the economy

美国支持孤立主义政策，而且他们也担心新的经济大萧条，因为他们还没有从第一次大萧条中完全恢复过来。 但结果恰恰相反，战争反而刺激了经济。

Gary Stein
Why did America dither about joining the WW2?
The U.S. Did not dither, as soon as we were attacked by Japan we declared war on Japan and after Germany declared war on us we returned the favor. No other nation, except Germany and the other Axis powers, entered WW2 without first being attacked so we were neither late nor early based on that standard.
Prior to being attacked we supplied the U.K. And USSR with arms.

为什么美国在加入二战的问题上犹豫不决？
美国并没有犹豫不决，日本袭击我们后，我们立即对日本宣战，德国对我们宣战后，我们也予以回击。除了德国和其他轴心国，没有其他国家在被攻击之前就加入二战，所以按照这个标准，我们既不算晚，也不算早。
在被攻击之前，我们向英国和苏联供应武器。

Nor was anywhere near a majority of the American population pro-NAZI as one misguided answer to your question claims was the case. There was a tiny pro-Germany movement in the US during the period from Hitler's rise to power to his declaration of war on the US after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor known as the German-American Bund but its membership never exceeded 10,000 hardly the majority claimed. Yes some American industrialists supported Hitler during his early days in power but again this was a small minority.

而且，美国人口中支持纳粹绝对不是多数，就像对你的问题的一个错误回答所声称的那样。 在希特勒掌权到他在珍珠港事件后对美国宣战期间，美国有一个小的亲德运动，叫德裔美国人联盟，但其成员从未超过1万人，远非所声称的多数。是的，一些美国工业家在希特勒掌权初期支持他，但同样这只是少数。

Dave Wright
The U.K. And France declared war after Germany invaded Poland.

英国和法国是在德国入侵波兰后才宣战的。

Gary Stein
Yes and the UK and France had mutual defense treaties with Poland an attack on the poles was an attack on them. Also other then sporadic shelling across the French German border no real combat took place until Germany invaded France.

是的，英国和法国与波兰签订了共同防御条约，对波兰的攻击等同于对他们的攻击。除了偶尔的法德边境炮击外，直到德国入侵法国之前，都没有发生实质性的战斗。

Dave Wright
Norway?

挪威呢？

Gursimar Singh
Also dont forget the influence of concentration camps on the USA. The mistreatment of the jews also played a major role for the US to enter a war it had no business being in

也不要忘记集中营对美国的影响。对犹太人的虐待也在美国卷入一场它本不该卷入的战争中发挥了重要作用

Gary Stein
As far as the decision makers of the time thought, the mistreatment of the Euorpean Jewish population by the NAZIS was not a major reason to declare war on Germany.

在当时的决策者看来，纳粹对欧洲犹太人的迫害并不是对德国宣战的主要原因。

Kelly La Rue
Why did America dither about joining the WW2?
America has a history of not being especially interested in the politics of either Europe or Asia but after Wilson took us into WWI we became especially isolationist. Americans believed we lost a lot of young men in WWI helping sort out Europe's propensity for slaughtering one another in order to end all wars. What did we get?
Twenty years later they're at it again.

为什么美国在加入二战的问题上犹豫不决？
美国历来对欧洲或亚洲的政治不太感兴趣，但在威尔逊将我们卷入一战后，我们变得更加孤立主义。美国人认为，我们在第一次世界大战中失去了许多青年，帮助欧洲人解决他们互相残杀的倾向，以期结束所有战争。那么，我们到底得到了什么呢？
20年后，他们又开始了。

FDR believed we needed to be part of the conflict but the general public was completely against it. After Hitler invaded France an awareness we were likely to be pulled in began to surface but we still didn't want to go to war.
Japan made the decision for us with the brilliantly planned attack on Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately the Gods of war did not smile on Japan. Bad luck and a bumbled execution left us a force to be reckoned with.

罗斯福总统认为我们需要参与这场冲突，但公众完全反对。 希特勒入侵法国后，我们意识到可能会被卷入，但仍然不想参战。
日本通过精心策划的珍珠港袭击为我们做出了决定。 不幸的是，战争之神并没有对日本微笑，日军运气不佳和执行不力让我们成为了一支不可小觑的力量。

Dave Wright
Why did America dither about joining the WW2?
The US intervention in World War I was not only an a pragmatic response to unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmerman telegram it was also idealistic. German diplomacy was badly flawed. Promising Mexico parts of the US if they declared war on the US was pretty unwise. Publishing the Zimmerman telegram was probably the intelligence coup of the century. The assessment of senior German officers of the possible US contribution to the war was frankly dismissive. Thus Germany was prepared to provoke US intervention in World War I and did so.

为什么美国在加入第二次世界大战时犹豫不决？
美国参与第一次世界大战，不仅是对德国无限制潜艇战和齐默尔曼电报的务实回应，还带有理想主义色彩。德国的外交策略极为失败。德国向墨西哥承诺，若墨西哥对美宣战，德国将支持其夺取美国领土，这种做法也极为不明智。而齐默尔曼电报的曝光，无疑是20世纪最成功的间谍行动之一。坦率地说，德国高级军官对美国可能对战争做出的贡献的评估是不屑一顾的。因此，德国不惜冒险，最终引发了美国在第一次世界大战中的参战。

So the success of the Allies in World War I established the US as a major military power and made a nonsense of the suggestion that she could be ignored by major European powers. The US intervention could have been presented as a military success with the US claiming its place at the centre of the world stage. However, President Wilson had presented it as something much more. The US coming to the aid of democracies and fighting autocracy. He wished to break up the old Central European empires establish democracy and give the right of self determination to repressed ethnic groups. This was to prove more challenging than expected the Poles yes, the Czechs yes but what about the Kurds, the Irish or the Basques. He also proposed a League of Nations to curb aggression and promote peaceful dialogue. Here he would be thwarted by opposition in Congress, his own ill health and the attitude of his exhausted allies. The First World War was viewed by many Americans as American idealism frustrated by European cynicism, a simplistic but persuasive view.

第一次世界大战中，协约国的胜利确立了美国作为主要军事强国的地位，也让欧洲主要大国试图忽视美国的企图变得荒谬。美国的参战本可以被看作是一场军事上的胜利，美国借此在世界舞台上占据中心地位。然而，威尔逊总统却赋予了它更深远的意义：美国援助民主国家，对抗专制。他希望打破旧的中欧帝国，建立民主制度，并赋予受压迫的民族群体以自决权。然而，这一目标比预期更具挑战性：波兰人和捷克人或许可以实现自决，但库尔德人、爱尔兰人或巴斯克人呢？此外，威尔逊还提出了成立国际联盟的设想，以遏制侵略行为，促进和平对话。但他在这一问题上却遭遇了重重阻碍：国会的反对、自身健康状况不佳以及盟友们的疲惫与消极态度。第一次世界大战被许多美国人视为美国理想主义被欧洲犬儒主义挫败的象征，这种观点虽然简单，但却极具说服力。

In the UK and the US there was also a powerful "never again" movement with isolationist and pacifist overtones. American mothers played a powerful role in the isolationist movement between the wars. When war came in 1939 the Atlantic Ocean removed the threat of German invasion. Therefore especially in those parts of the US remote from the sea the war in Europe was geographically remote .... nothing we need to worry about. Of course there were Americans of German extraction but the majority of Americans did not want to see their soldiers die in a remote foreign war. FDR supported the British with armaments and eventually had US ships, one of which was sunk by a U boat, escorting convoys to the UK. The US dithered because it's people hated the idea of a war but also hated what the Nazis were doing. By providing supplies and finance via Lend Lease they kept the British in the war.

在英国和美国，还存在着一个强大的“不再重蹈覆辙”运动，带有孤立主义和和平主义的色彩。美国母亲在两次世界大战之间的孤立主义运动中发挥了重要作用。1939年战争爆发时，大西洋阻隔了德国入侵的威胁。因此，特别是在美国那些远离海洋的地区，欧洲的战争在地理上显得非常遥远，似乎与美国毫无关系。当然，也有德裔美国人，但大多数美国人并不希望看到他们的士兵在一场遥远的外国战争中丧生。罗斯福总统通过租借法案向英国提供武器装备，并最终派遣美国舰船护送前往英国的船队，其中一艘被德国潜艇击沉。美国之所以犹豫不决，是因为它的人民既讨厌战争的想法，又痛恨纳粹的所作所为。通过租借法案提供物资和财政支持，美国让英国得以继续留在战争中。

Dennis Weidner
Actually the economy by 1939-40 was finally improving. There was no huge cuts in the military budget. The Unites States had very low military budgets, except during the Civil War and World War I. After World War I, the United Stares simply returned to its traditional low levels of military spending. Actually President Roosevelt during the New Deal actually increased military spending with most of the money going to the Navy and Air Force. The three carriers that won the battle of Midway were part of New Deal naval spending bills.

实际上，到1939-1940年，美国经济终于开始好转。当时并没有对军事预算进行大幅削减。除了内战和第一次世界大战期间，美国的军事预算一直维持在较低水平。第一次世界大战之后，美国恢复了传统的低水平军事开支。实际上，在罗斯福总统推行新政期间，军事开支实际上是有所增加的，其中大部分资金都流向了海军和空军。赢得中途岛海战的三艘航空母舰正是新政期间海军开支计划的一部分。

And it is simply not true that the United States had no intention of getting involved with a war with Japan. We were much more advertise in the Pacific than Europe. The various actions taken against Japan were clearly leading to War. The oil embargo was a virtual declaration of war and the United States which had broken the Japanese diplomatic (purple) code knew it and were fully aware of Japanese intentions. . At the Time of Pearl Harbor, the Flying Tigers were already on the way to China.

而且，说美国没有意图与日本开战，这完全是不正确的。美国在太平洋的卷入程度远比在欧洲要深。美国针对日本采取的一系列行动，明显是在走向战争。石油禁运几乎等同于宣战，而美国已经破译了日本的外交密码（紫色密码），完全清楚日本的意图。在珍珠港事件发生时，“飞虎队”已经在前往中国的途中了。