Evening star., 1942-03-22
Offensive Against Japan Itself
May Follow KuriIe Pathway
Nippon's Northern Islands Offer Route
For Eventual United Stotes Attack

vinces; the strengthening Of de-
fenses all along the broken, island
flecked coasts Of British Columbia
and Alaska.
But for many years the Japanese
side of the island bridge across the
Northern Sea has been as COM
pletely hidden from alien eyes as
the Japanese could arrange.
Trail Blazed 18 Years Ago.
However, it is not altogether un-
known to us. The sky trail that the
flying vanguards Of an American
armada moving on Japan from the
northeast would travel was first
blazed l8 years ago this spring by
three planes of the United States
Army, commanded by Capt. Lowell
H. Smith
That f1ight-an con. as aviation
history counts time, before the 5000
mile range bombers of today-has
almost been forgotten. But it was
the first flight around the world,
an heroic achievement in its day.
Capt. Smith and his five compan-
ions took off from Attu May IS,
1924, made an unlimited halt that
night at Soviet RuSsia's Roman
dorskie Islands.
Next day they crossed the inter-
national date line, making it May
II, and alighted in a sheltered bay
of Paramushiro Island, next to
Shumshu in the Kuriles. They were
welcomed by two American destroy
ers which had ridden out of month
of gales, billiards and fogs to be on
hand with fuel and supplies. They
were the John D. Ford and the
Pope. the latter now Of heroic men,
ory, one of the Allied losses In tiae
battle of the Java Sea.
From Paramushiro the Americans
few down to Toxic. where they re.
ceived a heroes welcome.
Many Flights Failed.
In the next seven years many
airmen-Japanese, Argentines, Brit
ons, Americans, Frenchmen-tried
the northern crossing, but none sue
CCCuCo 1901, W1lCll ~ was Az
complished three times-by the late
Wiley Post and his Australian navi-
gator, Harold Gatty. over the far
northern Alaska-Sibe route; Col.
and Mrs. Charles A. Lindbergh via
the Aleutian-Kuriles route, and
Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Hern-
don. The last pair made the first
nonstop crossing of the Pacific
from Japan proper to the United
States after having been detained
and fined in Japan for flying over
the forbidden zone" Of southern
Hokkaido.
The Lindbergh flight was chron-
icled in Mrs. Lindbergh's book,
North to the Orient" a slogan that
has not been forgotten by American
military planners. Fog compelled the
colonel to make three stops in the
Kuriles before reaching Hokkaido
on August %, 1881.
The Lindberghs probably were less
interested in the military aspects OF
the northern airways than any who
have travelled them, yet ironically 1t
was their flight that quickened
japanese awareness of the posi-
bilities of the north.
Kuriles Closed to White Men.
In 1884 Admiral Nobumasa Suyet-
sugu, commander in chief of Japan's
battle fleet, guardedly charged in a
magazine article that Lindbergh's
mission was espionage.
Il may be mistaken, but I think
they were spying in those islands
(the Kuriles)," wrote the admiral.
who still has a powerful voice in
Tokio's war councils. "Lindbergh
stayed in the Kuriles over a week
(actually three days. on the excuse
of bad weather. That is grounds for
suspicion. Today the Americans are
surveying the Aleutians on a great
scale. think this means an Amer
ican policy to surround Japan by
all means in the event OF war"
Since then the Kuriles have been
a closed preserve to white men. But
non-Japanese authorities have rea-
son for believing that the japanese
have established there bases for
both flying boats and land planes,
naval stations with docking and
repair facilities for small warcraft
and an extensive system of weather
and radio stations, including radio
locaters to warn of approaching
planes.
IS Larger Islands.
The Kuriles, drifting in a gentle
1.O0O-m mile arc down from Russian
Kamchatka to Hokkaido. northern
most of Japan's home islands, in
clude 18 sizable islands and scores
of smaller pinpoints. The japanese
call the archipelago Chishima. the
thousand islands. but the English
name comes from the Russian word
for smoky. The Kuriles were made
by volcanic action. which still goes
on, and their curving line down the
northwestern edge of the Pacific is
marked by the glow of scores Of vol
canoes that no blackout could dim.
From the American military point
Of view, they might be the stepping.
stones to conquest Of the japanese
homeland BY the 4le42 method Of