Evening star., 1943-12-02
Repatriafes Predict
Long Pacific Struggle
As They Head Home
~, the Associated Press.

~, the Associated Press.
JERSEY CITY, Dec. 2.-Americau
repatriates from the Far East headed
for their homes throughout the Ma
ton today with grim feeling that
4 long, hard struggle lies ahead in
the Pacific.
One after another said on stepping
from the Swedish exchange liner
0ripsholm to American soil that the
morale Of the Japanese people still
was high, whatever doubts might as
sail the warlords. =, =
At 1880 o'clock last night, 13
hours after the ship had docked, all
but 200 OF 1,494 passengers had dis
embarked. Government officials,
who continued questioning them to-
day. said they hoped to have all
cleared by noon.
att is going to be a long story be-
fore the war In the Pacific is over
declared DR.. John Calvin Ferguson,
n, of Newton, Mass, resident of
China for Sc years.
He said Japan went into the war
with full confidence in victory and
that "the japanese still think they
can win"
- Sees 5-Year Fight Ahead.
Russell Brines of the Associated
Press Bureau of Manila, who for
merly worked in the Toxic bureau,
said on leaving the ship:
II think the Japanese will keep on
fighting at least five more years as
things are going now. The vital ele-
ment in the situation is their ability
to continue communications and
production"
DR.. T. B. Dunn of San Francisco,
vice chairman of the American Red
Cross in China, who arrived here
with his wife and three children,
expressed belief 1t would take at
least two years to win the Pacific
war.
Happy as the repatriates were to
zee the Statue of Liberty and their
homeland again, they expressed con-
Germ over the estimated 5000 Ameri-
cans, many Of them children, still
held in Japanese internment camps
For Gods sake, get them out of
there exclaimed John J. Brenne
man of Philadelphia, for so years
an exporter in Shanghai.
Get the Americans and other in
ternees in Manila home, or they will
be a lost tribe" commented Mrs.
Jessie Mann, consular service en-
ploye She said food and clothing
were major problems to the in
ternees
Fears Winters Effect.
Mrs. Francis K. Stillwell, of a
ally-prominent Chicago family,
said the coming winter may be
difficult for the internees because of
a coal shortage resulting from
transportation difficulties.
Belief that the Japanese are OBJ
tanning large quantities of coal and
some iron in North China was ex-
pressed by Walter w. Davis, a for
mer instructor in mathematics and
geology at Yenching University in
Peiping.
The Japanese no longer discuss
when the war will be over, said
Thomas Harvey Koerner of Balti-
more, Shanghai manager of Haskins
d. Sells, accountants He arrived
with his wife and their 3-year-old
daughter.
The Koefners count themselves
lucky to have escaped internment,
from which they were exempted on
three different occasions. The first
resulted when Ann came down with
chickenpox, on the second occasion
Mrs. Koerner was i'll, and the third
time Mr. Koerner was recovering
from knee operation. They re-
manned in their home in Shanghais
French Concession.
Japs Called Pessimistic.
Arnold Dewar Of San Francisco,
Shanghai manager of the West
Coast Life Insurance Co., asserted
that "the japanese are pessimistic,
now"
He added. however, that the Japa-
nese "are tough people, and will
fight long time with fanatical
fervor."
Some of the returning Americans
told of losing up to As pounds while
IN Japanese custody, and Of gaining
back up to 20 pounds aboard the
Gripsholm.
When the repatriates sailed from
Japan, II were carried aboard ship,
but only five were carried from the
Gripsholm.
Two died en- route-the Rev.
James Hillcoat Arthur, 58-year-old
Presbyterian missionary, and Ar
thur Wood Turner, S. a Shanghai
representative of the General Elec-
tric Co.
The 10 others walked down the
gangplank. All had suffered chief
1V from m q 1nI1tritio opd ,,lcore