Evening star., 1942-12-06

The tremendous importance OF
the Japanese conception of "loss
OF face" must be taken into account
in every military estimate of the
situation where the Japanese are
involved. We have at the moment
three striking examples of this ten
dency before our eyes-in the Sol
omon Islands, in New Guinea and
in the Aleutians.
BY any normal calculations the
situation of the japanese garrison
on Guadalcanal is quite hopeless.
They can gain time by further re-
sistance, but unless they are gain
ing time which the Japanese high
command can put to some specific
offensive use, there is no point in
wasting ships and aircraft in futile
attempt to reinforce them.
In all its attempts to retake Quad
alcanal, the Japanese high COM
mand has consistently underesti-
mated the resistance to be encoun-
tered. On four separate occasions,
to use homely idiom. they sent
boys to do mans work They
suffered mounting scale of losses
which has decimated their power
and has probably shifted in our
favor the balance of naval power
in the Pacific.
Efforts Bring No Gains.
AS against these losses, they have
nothing to show on the credit side
of the ledger. They have not re-
covered Guadalcanal and their only
chance of doing so would now ap-
pear to be a major operation in
volving the risk of their main battle
fleet in these distant waters.
Yet they keep on trying to re-
inforce their luckless troops. They
lost nine ships in their latest at
tempt. No doubt they will make
more attempts until battle and
famine have finally finished of
their garrison on the island. Mean
while our own offensive strength is
growing and we ought soon to be
able to push forward to new bases
and new opportunities.
In New Guinea the story has been
much the same. Beginning with a
frantic confidence, the Jap
anese advanced over the mountains
and were within 30 miles of Port
Moresby before they were stopped.
They could not-as common sense
must have told them they could not
maintain at such a distance from
their home bases line of communi-
cations enabling them to meet on
the farther side of the mountains
the full weight of American and
Australian land power based near
at hand in the Australian continent.
Foe Thrown Back.
That weight has been sufficient to
throw the Japanese back across the
mountains and down to the beaches
on the northern coast. where the
remnants of their expeditionary
force are now confined in two small
areas, closely besieged and heavily
battered by superior Allied air
power. Again here is situation
which is all but hopeless. Yet the
japanese keep on losing ship after
ship in attempts to throw in REIN
forcements and supplies by sea:
even submarines are pressed into
service for this purpose. and when
sea communications fail the attempt
is made to put in supplies by air.
In the Aleutians the japanese
losses in attempting to maintain
their positions at Kiska and Attu
have been very heavy and continue
to be heavy. In all these places the
japanese have acted as though they
were deliberately helping us to
wage our war of attrition against
their navy. their merchant marine
and their air power during a period
when our inferiority at sea COM
PEELED us to the attrition policy as
the only means available to us of
restoring the balance. They have
acted as though they had mex
haustible supplies of ships and air.