Evening star., 1942-06-14
Jap AIeutian Landinq,
May Hint Early Move
Against Russia
Action Seen More Than
Effort to Sove Foce
After Defect in South
z, the Associated Press.

AAlodCll AL Vic llloto dllu olS>
tanceS OF the Northern Pacific,
an entirely new phase Of the
war appeared to be developing
yesterday with the japanese
striving to salvage from their
Coral Sea and Midway wreckage
a success which may be more
than face-saving.
Confronted with Washington and
London agreements with Russia
which seem to say new front will
be opened this year in Western
Europe, the Axis may already be
deep in the preliminary phases of
opening new front of its own-a
Japanese front against Russia.
Only little imagination is needed
to picture the intentness with which
Toxic warlords have judged the sig
nificance of the communiques which
have issued from Soviet Foreign
Commissar Vyacheslav Molotov's
dramatic conferences on two sides
Of the Atlantic.
They could not escape the sur
mise that Japan figured in those
conferences. even though she was
not mentioned in the communicates,
and 1t will not be surprising if
they already have concluded that
this event signalizes the complete
alignment of Russia with the United
Nations-against Japan as we'll as
Germany.
Base Of Future Operations"
Both sides agreed today that ac-
ton is far from concluded in the
cold foggy waters that wash the
Aleutians, the 1.000-mile chain of
stepping stones which reach within
TOO miles of Japan's nearest island
The United States Navy stood on
Its last communique of Friday which
said Army and Navy forces. pre-
sumably mostly aviation, we're con-
tinuing their efforts to dislodee the
japanese which gained a landing
on Attu Island, westernmost of the
Aleutians, and which made a naval
incursion into Kiska Harbor, 100
miles to the southeast.
A German broadcast OF a Toxic
dispatch said. "the statement In a
Japanese communique that opera
tions in the Aleutian Ilsands are still
continuing is generally interpreted
as meaning that the attack must be
regarded not as transient action,
but as heralding the occupat ton and
utilization OF the islands as a base
OF future Japanese operations
against the United States"
Midway Called Feint.
This broadcast said the japanese
press was playing up the action as
big news, and claimed that the Japa-
nese attack on Midway June 4 was
a highly successful feint by which
American attention had been di-
verted from the real thrust at the
Aleutians.
The difficulty that our forces have
in determining the enemy's inten-
tions, and the danger to the United
States, is strikingly displayed in the
fact that it was not until nine days
after the first bombing attack on
Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians on
May 3 that 1t was discovered the
Japanese had put forces ashore on
some of these islands-an accom-
plishment of which Toxic had
boaSted from the first.
The fogs that cover the area. the
reef-strewn waters and the rocky.
mountainous terrain of the islands
cause United States Navy and Army
authorities to feel confident the
Japanese have gained no bases of
value.
But it is to be borne in mind that
the Japanese have accomplished
seemingly impossible things in Ma
laya, Burma and elsewhere, and
their fishing activities may have