The Wilmington morning star., 1943-06-17
interpreting
The War
By GLENN BARR

the unslghtly patches in Japar',
recent war record and current Sa,'
look. However, it is doubtful y,,og os''
er his speech, despite its wboIas, -sI''
distortion of the military sit,.S'e
did much to raise the spirit,
his compatriots.
He had to tell them abont Z.
appearance of a new air pow.. s
China, partly American ,s... "a
Chinese, and warn them thass.g ss.g
must expect their homeland =
ralded. He had to admit that g,., W.
Allied attacks-counteroffensjys,s
he called them-were in the NJ.
ing. That is another way d % ,a~
ing that Japan has been throw =.
the defensive. It is interes-ina vi a
speculate on how that adniTsio,uo
will affect people whose ent,rS;
asm for war has been fed T..
years on promises of world cor
quest.
The premier-War minister sboa
almost no light on the military IL,
uation but his selection and en
phasis of his subject matter CAV.
some striking indications Of Rs
current trend of his regimes tbinh
ing and planning. The speech show
ed that a major part of its hone,
for victory-or at least stall,
mate that would permit the reter,
ton of a considerable share Of t1s
war booty-rests upon the vast IN.
dertaking which TOTO called III.
reconstruction of greater East
Asia"
This has two phases, the effort
to convert the resources Of The
conquered lands to Japan's war
purposes and the political cam.
paign to win the support Of the
populations of those lands for ia.
pans new Asiatic order. Much
has been said and written about
the former. TOTO said yesterday
that "the vast resources of that
region greater East Asia are
rapidly being converted into our
fighting power" Many Allied au,
thorities have been preaching that
one of the greatest perils facing
the United Nations is the poSSibili.
ty that Japan, if given time enough
will so use the great wealth in
rubber, tin, oil, iron and other Vi.
tai materials which she won in
the first six months of the Pa,
cific war to make herself impreg
uab1e.
But perhaps that is the less dan.
gerous half of the japanese pro-
gram. There are definite limits 70
Japan's capacity to achieve that
program. She lacks shipping and
all those materials must be car.
ried back to her homeland indus.
trial centers for processing. She
lacks trained, intelligent techni.
clans and skilled manpower. Al.
though it is obvious that she is
making Herculean efforts 10 eX.
pand war production-the current
Diet session is largely concerned
with that problem - the chances
are that the economic industrial
phase of the greater East Asia
program will fall far short Of its
goals.
The failure of the political pro-
gram can not be taken for granted.
! The japanese are working might
ly to line up other Asialc races
in a common front against the o.
cidental peoples. by terror, COM
pulsion, persuasion, bribery. T0k'
yo's propaganda insists that such
solidarity is becoming a realF
TOTO oo oted a great part OF 4
speech to this theme.
He promised the Philippines IN
dependence" before the end OF 'AS
year. He repeated a previous
pledge of freedom to Burma. ne
declared that the puppet state Of
Manchukuo and Marking emma
were freely and nightly supporting
Japan. Similarly he paid his ls'
spects to the people OF Ihallana'
Indo-China, the Dutch East lndlgs'
In all these lands, he insisted "a
pan has been welcomed as me
liberator. He promised lnd5a .ls:a ntlP
in shaking off the yoke OF BIl'as. tn.
A few hours after Toto spoke u,
Tokyo radio was filing 'ne .ort o+
with alleged messages OF SIoss SupUoa,
from Filipino, Burmese OAil'''
and other leaders. md
Now this picture is obvious Dr m
blatant propaganda. But We ~ nAf IN.
too little of the real situation n,s NJ
side the conquered lands to asSums .rs
that it is entirely untrue o,,. l,,s
undoubtedly has been some il.Io rons.
ure of collaboration with 'ne 5.sabIs Ua[
nese. There we're coilSlUL'{ts
groups in each country " n ''o E,
hated their European rulers ..5y
thoroughly that they were AKA ,,o
to welcome the japanese AN N
the conquerors have been aOIs sc,.
enlist corrupt, ambitious 0.
ricious natives as their assar-
Any success tn e !aps,i s,irs
achieve in this program y ~ sri
to make history in the Pacli,. sor5s.
East Asia just that much m..4o- t,+' as
for the Allies. And one 1ac'o. Law,
sisting the japanese is tns +, ta.
ness Of the United Nations 5,.i- N n.
mulating and announcing Il1+ II he
tentions respecting that par u