Evening star., 1942-12-06

Transports bearing Jap troops steamed
south toward the Philippines.
The Japanese moves of December Z
were obviously well planned, and Japan s
enemies were caught off guard. Japan
had great geographical advantages in
the war which the action of December 7
heightened. She owned the islands of
Micronesia spread out over a vast stretch
of the Pacific, which served as a pro-
tecting wall for the Japanese islands
against fleet that might move from
Hawaii, and which offered bases for
striking at the United States She had
taken over the use of China from
the weak Vichy government of France,
and Indo-China put Japan in easy strik-
ing distance of Malaga, the tin-rich
peninsula at whose tip lay Singapore.
Japan was used to war Her armies had
been fighting China more than four
years. japan had warlord Premier,
Gen. Hideki TOTO. He had assumed the
post six weeks before Pearl Harbor.
Americas Sixth War.
This is Americas sixth war since the
Declaration of independence. None of
the first five opened with such violent
surprise as the sixth. None so unified
American opinion. On December 8
President Roosevelt visited the Capitol
and asked for declaration of war. In 33
minutes he had the resolution. passed by
the Senate, 88 to 0, and by the House,
386 to /. Only Representative Jeannette
Rankin of Montana, who voted agains-
war in 1917, opposed the declaration. 1t
declared state of war in existence with
Japan, but the United States knew a
world war was here The Whi House
Oh the evening of December accused
Germany of doing all possible to push
Japan into war with us. Three days later
Germany and Italy had declared war on
us in fulfllment of the Axis pact, and
the House and Senate were unanimous
in resolving that we were at war wi h
italy and Germany. The planet was
in arms.
For almost three weeks the news
for America was a story only of bad
tidings. The Japs attacked Nichols
Field, Philippine Islands, and knocked
out the American air strength; they
thus opened the way for landing troops
from hundred transports on the island
of Luzon, and before December ended
Manila was almost in their grasp. They
took Hong Kong. They landed on
Borneo. They sized an airfield on
Sumatra. They began methodical
attack through the jungles Of Malaya,
sending tanks through places thought
impenetrable by men. In one day they
brought the feeble government of Thai
land to its knees. Off Malaga Jap planes
sank two British warships-the dread
naugh Prince of Wales and the battle
cruiser Resolute
The bad news of last December was
so bleak that the United States did
not try to digest 1t. The mood of the
country was mixture of anger, conf
dence and pride. The pride came from
acts of heroism like that of Capt, Colin
Kelly, who died when he flew over the
Japanese battleship Haruna off the
Philippines and bombed it. The pride
came from the sturdy gal.antry OF the
Marines who garrisoned Wake Island
far out in the Pacific. For II days
on Wake 378 Marines led by Maj. P S.
Devereaux held off the Japs, and with
IL fighter planes, sank one japanese
cruiser and three japanese destroyers.
Such magnificence overshadowed the
glum facts that Jap submarines were
off the Tinted Stafes' pacific Coast apd
the discovery by Secretary Knox that
Hawaii was a paradise for the fifth
column.