日本種島的戰略意圖 Japan grows an island to check China's territorial ambitions

China’s artificial islands are fuelling a new struggle for control of Asia’s oceans, but while the regional superpower dredges military bases out of the ocean, Japan is growing an island in a bathtub.

中國的人工島正引燃一場爭奪亞洲海洋控制權的新鬥爭。然而，在這個地區超級大國在海上吹填出軍事基地的同時，日本正在水槽中“種植”一個島。

The island is called Okinotorishima, or “distant bird island”; a remote, storm-wracked coral atoll in the Philippine Sea, where two small outcrops protrude at high tide. Japan regards the atoll as its southernmost point; China says it is no island, merely a rock.

日本稱這個島爲“衝之鳥島”（Okinotorishima，意爲遙遠的鳥島，中國稱爲“衝之鳥礁”——譯者注），位於菲律賓海(Philippine Sea)，是一個遙遠的、風暴肆虐的珊瑚環礁，在漲潮後只有兩塊岩石露出水面。日本將這個環礁視爲日本的最南端；中國則稱它並不是島，只是礁石。

For millennia, as the land beneath it sunk, layers of coral grew on top and kept the atoll’s head above water. But now Okinotorishima is dying. Climate change is raising the sea level and killing the coral. Typhoons bite at what remains.

幾千年來，隨着環礁下方的土地下沉，層層珊瑚在頂上生長，使環礁的頂端一直保持在水面之上。但現在衝之鳥正在走向死亡。氣候變化正在擡高海平面，並殺死珊瑚。颱風則侵蝕着剩下的部分。

Japan is therefore on a desperate quest to regrow the reef. The results will decide the fate of a strategic redoubt, with legal repercussions in the South China Sea, and could offer hope to other atolls threatened by climate change.

因此，日本竭力尋求讓珊瑚礁重新生長。其結果將決定一個戰略性據點的命運，給南中國海(South China Sea)帶來法律上的影響，還可能會給其他受氣候變化威脅的環礁帶來希望。

The bathtub, full of baby coral growing on iron plates, sits in a greenhouse at the Deep Seawater Research Institute on the island of Kumejima. Workers explain how they brought coral from Okinotorishima and harvested eggs. They will grow the baby corals in this laboratory for a year then transplant them back to the atoll.

上文所提的水槽位於久米島(Kumejima)上的沖繩縣海洋深層水研究所(Deep Seawater Research Institute)的一間溫室裏，水槽中全都是在鐵片上生長的珊瑚幼蟲。工作人員解釋了他們如何從衝之鳥帶回珊瑚並收集珊瑚蟲卵。他們將在這間實驗室裏培育珊瑚幼蟲一年，然後將它們移植回該環礁上。

For the scientists working on the project it is a battle with the ocean. They have successfully cultivated coral from the reef and transplanted it back to the island, but it is not enough. “The next technology … is keeping up with the rising sea by coral growth and accumulation of coral gravels and sand,” says Hajime Kayanne, a professor at the University of Tokyo.

對於參與該項目的科學家而言，這是一場與大海的戰鬥。他們已經成功從珊瑚礁上培育珊瑚並移植回該島礁上，但這還不夠。“下一項技術……是使珊瑚的生長以及珊瑚骨和砂礫的累積趕上海平面的上升，”東京大學(University of Tokyo)教授茅根創(Hajime Kayanne)表示。

“Our experiments with planting coral on Okinotorishima are ongoing,” says Makoto Omori, emeritus professor at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. “We’ve made progress in expanding the area of coral planted, but the death rate of the transplanted coral is high, so we can’t yet say the amount of coral on the island is increasing.”

“我們在衝之鳥上種植珊瑚的實驗正在進行當中，”東京海洋大學(Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology)名譽教授大森信(Makoto Omori)表示，“我們在擴展珊瑚種植面積方面取得了進展，但移植的珊瑚死亡率很高，因此我們還不能說島上的珊瑚數量正在增加。”

No amount of transplantation can revive a reef by itself, says Mr Omori. Rather, the goal is for the transplants to spread across the atoll. Working in such a remote place is challenging because it is hard to monitor the coral.

大森表示，移植再多也無法使珊瑚礁自行恢復生長。實際上，這項工作的目標是讓移植的珊瑚分佈在整個環礁上。在如此遙遠的地方從事這樣的工作具有挑戰性，因爲難以對珊瑚進行監測。

For the scientists, rescuing Okinotorishima means saving the world’s coral, and the many islands that exist because of it. In the past four decades, 40 per cent of the world’s reefs have died.

對這些科學家而言，拯救衝之鳥意味着拯救全世界的珊瑚，以及許多因珊瑚而存在的島嶼。過去40年，全世界有40%的珊瑚礁已經死亡。

“The ecotechnology established in Okinotorishima can be applied to all the small atoll islands in the Pacific and Indian Ocean,” says Mr Kayanne. “We have almost 500 atolls in the world, and some island countries such as the Marshalls, Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Maldives are completely formed of atolls.”

“在衝之鳥開創的生態技術可以用於太平洋和印度洋上的所有小型環礁島，”茅根表示，“世界上有近500個珊瑚環礁，馬紹爾羣島，圖瓦盧，基里巴斯和馬爾代夫等島國完全是由環礁形成的。”

Japan’s generous funding has baser motives, however — the tiny reef looms large in the minds of military planners. Strategists talk of the two island chains separating China from the Pacific: the first running through the main Japanese islands, to Okinawa and Taiwan; the second through Japan’s Ogasawara Islands to the Marianas and the US submarine base at Guam.

不過，日本慷慨的資金支持具有更根本的動機——在軍事規劃人員心中，這個彈丸大小的珊瑚礁意義重大。戰略家提到了將中國與太平洋分隔開來的兩個島鏈：第一島鏈穿過日本本土的主要島嶼，連至沖繩和臺灣；第二島鏈則穿過日本的小笠原羣島(Ogasawara Islands)，一直到馬里亞納羣島和美國在關島的潛艇基地。

In a hypothetical future conflict between the US and China, their navies would collide in the ocean between the two chains — and Okinotorishima is the only speck of land in those waters.

在假想的美中未來衝突情景中，兩國海軍將在這兩個島鏈之間的海域發生衝突，而衝之鳥是該海域內僅有的一小塊陸地。

Hideaki Kaneda, a retired vice-admiral now at the Okazaki Institute, points out three ways in which the location matters to Japan’s security. First, he says, it would be a crucial theatre “for the Chinese military to deny access to reinforcements coming from the east”.

目前在岡崎研究所(Okazaki Institute)任職的退役海軍中將金田秀昭(Hideaki Kaneda)指出，從三個方面來說，衝之鳥的位置對日本安全十分重要。他說，首先，衝之鳥將是“中國軍隊拒止來自東面的增援部隊”的關鍵戰場。

Second, Okinotorishima sits on the route Chinese nuclear submarines would take out into the Pacific, towards patrolling positions against the US. Third, it lies close to the sea lanes on which raw materials flow to Japan from northern and western Australian ports.

其次，衝之鳥坐落在中國核潛艇進入太平洋前往防美巡邏崗位的航道上。第三，它的位置靠近原材料從澳大利亞北部和西部港口流入日本的海上通道。

That makes a 200-mile exclusive economic zone around Okinotorishima, and thus greater control of those waters, a strategic asset beyond even the natural resources that might lie beneath the surface.

因此，假如衝之鳥擁有200海里專屬經濟區、並由此獲得對該水域的更大控制權，它將成爲一項戰略資產，其價值甚至比該區域海平面下可能蘊含的自然資源還要寶貴。

Only an island can generate an exclusive economic zone, however, not a rock — which is the other reason why Japan is trying to regrow the coral, rather than mirroring China by laying down a few thousand tonnes of sand and concrete.

不過，只有島嶼才擁有專屬經濟區，礁石則不能。這也是日本試圖讓珊瑚在衝之鳥恢復生長、而不是照搬中國的辦法、在這裏傾卸成千上萬噸沙子和混凝土的另一個原因。

Article 121 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea defines an island as a “naturally formed area of land” which is “above water at high tide”. It excludes “rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own”.

按照《聯合國海洋法公約》(UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, UNCLOS)第121條的定義，島嶼是“在高潮時高於水面的自然形成的陸地區域”。這一定義排除了“不能維持人類居住或者本身的經濟生活的礁石”。

China’s new islands in the South China Sea are artificial. If Japan revives the coral on Okinotorishima, however, it can argue the feature is “naturally formed”. At the same time, the very activity of farming coral is part of Japan’s effort to show the atoll has an economic life, and support its more dubious contention that Okinotorishima is not a “rock”.

中國在南中國海的新島嶼是人造的。然而，如果日本令衝之鳥的珊瑚得以恢復生長，它可以辯稱這一地貌是“自然形成的”。與此同時，種植珊瑚的活動本身，也是日本想要證明該珊瑚礁有經濟生活的努力的一部分，從而支持其不太站得住腳的衝之鳥不是“礁石”的論點。

“There is no clear definition of rocks in UNCLOS — this is the government of Japan’s stance,” says Mr Kaneda. “Historically, Japan has sustained the ‘economic life’ of the island.”

金田表示：“日本政府的立場是，《聯合國海洋法公約》中沒有對礁石的明確定義。從歷史的角度來說，日本一直維持着該島的‘經濟生活’。”

By taking this position, Japan hopes to claim Okinotorishima as an island with its own EEZ, while still opposing China’s reclamation in the South China Sea. Some scholars argue it would be wiser to give up the claim — the better to assert China’s island-building is illegitimate — but the military value of Okinotorishima makes that unlikely.

通過採取這種立場，日本政府希望能在繼續反對中國在南中國海填海造島行爲的同時，主張衝之鳥是一個擁有專屬經濟區的島嶼。部分學者辯稱，更明智的做法是放棄這一主張（這麼做更有利於聲稱中國的造島行爲非法），但衝之鳥的軍事價值使得日本政府不太可能這麼做。

Legal wrangles will not matter if the atoll erodes away, however. “We’ve had various problems and failures along the way, but next year we expect to plant three hectares of coral,” says Mr Omori. “A three hectare plantation will be a world first.”

不過，如果該環礁被一點點侵蝕殆盡，法律上的爭執將變得毫無意義。“我們遭遇了各種各樣的問題和失敗，但明年我們預計會種植3公頃珊瑚。”大森表示，“3公頃的珊瑚種植將是世界上的首例。”