Evening star., 1942-12-30

try, as yet unaware of the vaStneSs
of the job ahead, turn away from
it when the full outline of its mag
nitude begins to take shape.
Fear is evidenced that American
opinion, following substantial
satisfactory victory in Europe, will
heed the siren call of interests
willing to have a compromise peace
in Asia. Would-be appeasers of
Hitler were never aSsailed with half
the invective employed in condem-
nation of any suspected of being
willing to stop short of final, COM
plete and permanent conquest OF
Japan. This attitude is not based
on mere vindictiveness - though
most of our Pacific fighters hate the
Jap with implacable, revengeful
hatred Rather it is founded on
the conviction that unless we do
the job now we will be attacked
again in a few years in circum-
stances which will render us liable
to overwhelming defeat.
If one were attempting to sum
up the widely entertained views here
one might employ such words as
these.
Every one realizes tnat our pres
ent difficulties in the Pacific are
due to fragrant mistakes of the
fairly recent past We scrapped
our ships in the $50 deal back in
1922, when the Japs scrapped their
blue prints, We and the British
failed in 1881 to present against
the initial Jap thrust common
front which would have halted
Japan in her tracks and might have
prevented this whole war.
Mistake Unrealized.
But how many of our people
understand those mistakes. trivial
compared TO the mistake We would
make If we consented to some kind
of patched-up peace with Japan
short of the complete annihilation
of her military and naval power?
When the bills begin to come
in. the casualties roll up and we
see that Japan will not be licked
in six months, one year two years,
how much pressure will there be
for some kind of a deal whereby
the Jap is allowed to keep a sub
stantial part of his loot? Will our
people be strong and r-sighted
enough to bear up under war weari-
ness and hold out against a lure
of some kind of a businessman S
peace?
Can they be made to appreciate
the staggering capacities of the
Japs for war making If we give
them time to exploit the riches of
the Philippines and Indies, the agri-
cultural and mineral resources of
the mainland the limitless man.
power Of China, Burma. India and
the island peoples? Has not our
preoccupation with Hitler and the
Nazi menace precluded sober rec
ognition of the dynamic possibili-
ties involved in the complete ANAL
gamation Of the yellow races?
Future in the Pacific.
This is Americas war. Americas s
future is being decided in the Pa
ciflc in a deeper. more lasting sense
than anything that can come out
of Europe. And America is fight
ing this war so far almost single
handed. Furthermore. we are do
ing the job with merely part of the
half f-ocean Navy with which we en-.
tered this seven-ocean conflict
Sure, we have had successes. The
Japs have been obliging enough tc
fight this war of attrition our way
But we have had losses ourselves
and perhaps-it is always a posi-
bility-We have not hurt the Japs
as badly as we think We will know
better about that as we go along.
In any event. 1t will be 1947 be-
fore we hit the peak of our nava
power. We hope we are wrong
about the danger OF compromise
peace in the Pacific. We hope oul
people are too smart to fall for it
But the movement is almost sure
to develop
Having encountered this same at
titude so often in six months just
spent in the Aleutian- Alaskan area
your correspondent is not surprised
to find it current in Pearl Harbor
tCopyrisht, 1912. by Chicago Daily News