Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-11-13

Jul aho
disasters have been twisted into
being announced at the time as
successes and victories for our
forces, thus grossly misleading
the American public.
"FOr Instance, one naval
battle was and still IL public
acclaimed as n great American
victory when, In fact, our losses
were greater and far more
serious than those Of the Japs.
The Japs knew this, of course,
Mt the time.
"Misrepre sentation OF the
facts was not 10 deny valuable
information 10 the Japs, the
knowledge OF which. might have
aided them. In this case they
were well aware OF all the
details.
FALSE OPTIMISM
THE only effect OF misrepre-
senting our losses and the out
come Of the engagement was To
foot the Americans and thereby
give them a false sense of
optimism.
Another illustration Is the
naval disaster on the night Of
August In the Solomons, when
four navy cruisers were sunk
by the Japs, three American and
one Australian.
Even though our forces had
warning many hours In advance,
we still were caught totally un-
prepared. We suffered a disaster
that night second only to Pearl
HarbOr, but worse In one sense,
since. this time. we had advance
warning In time to have been
prepared.
THE laps struck that terrible
night with almost unequaled dar-
Ing and with perfect precision,
inflicting major damage on our
naval forces In Tulagi Harbor.
FLEET CAUGHT ASLEEP
"The Japs. with only three
cruisers and several destroyers,
struck In the middle Of the
night. caught our fleet literally
asleep, opened up with their
deadly attack, and were gone out
OF range Of our guns without
ever even being fired upon by
our ships.
The whole thing was over In
eight minutes, leaving thousands
Of men helpless In the cold
waters OF Tulagi Harbor, an un-
beIievably large number dead or
wounded. IL was hours later be-
fore the last survivors were
picked up.
I'm few minutes, our we'll
started campaign In the Solo
mons turned from brilliant
offensive cOunter-invasi of Jap
into hard, bitter,
long -drawn-o defensive opera
ton.
VICTORY CLAIMED
"What could and should have
been the opening Of n blitz at
tack on the whole system Of Jap
island bases became. I'm few
a desperate struggle
Of defense, at times becoming
almost a second Bataan.
"Yet. 10 days after that major
the announcement was
made from Washington that our
navy had won n major naval
from Japan, dispensing
their fleet with but slight dam
age 10 one of our cruisers.
THE American public was
cruelty misled and given the inn
preston that we had the Jap
navy on the run. There was no
purpose served by 40
falsely interpreting the events Of
that night.
1.-THE laps knew that we
hadn't dispersed their feet and
hadn't even fred upon them.
They knew that three Of their
cruisers had successfully at
tackled a vastly superior Ameri-
can naval force.
JAPS KNEW FACTS
"The excuse for calling this
disaster victory was not to
conceal the facts from the Japs.
They knew the facts.
when our losses are ad-
mitted, II IL long after they
occur and. whether by design or
mere repeated coincidence, such
losses are almost always made
public cOincident with the an
nouncement OF some current
success, or at least optimistic
prediction from Washington,
thus softening the blow.
Maybe officials In Washing
ton conceal or twist the truth
out OF fear OF the effect on
public morale. m they do. II
shows that such officials just
don't understand Americans.
We can take u. In fact,
believe that we can take II a
lot better than these officials.
REFORMS FEARED
Possibly. the motive for this
policy Of mishandling war facts
IL TO keep from stirring up the
people and Congress, In the fear
that the people. through Con-