Evening star., 1943-08-24
BY IRA WOLFERT.

NEW YORK, Aug. 24.-Whether
our bases in the Aleutians will ever
serve as anything but modest &C
cessory In our eventual blitz against
Japan is still classed as deba able
In naval quarters.
The evacuation of Kiska by the
japanese and the re-esta ablishment
of our control over the whole Aleu-
tian chain does not resolve the prob
lem.
There is nothing to prevent our
Aleutian- minded militarists from
using the islands against Japan
except what always has been there,
plane man-killing, sup
-wrecking weather and ship
ing seas. 1t was these things,
weather and the sea, that made the
Navy ignore the Aleutians in the
first place.
Our Navy for long time all but
forgot the Aleutians existed. 1t felt
that, just as we could not use them
against Japan, so Japan could not
use them against us. The Japanese
were the first to try the experiment
of putting the Aleutians to military
use.
Experiment Disastrous.
The experiment was disastrous for
them. Now we seem about to try the
experiment. We do not start as
handicapped as the japanese. We
have what the Japanese now noto-
riously lack-industrial resourse and
resourcefulness for making nature
give in to us at least a little ways.
The japanese apparently never
made any determined effort to COM
bat the weather and the seas and
used their occupied areas in the
Aleutians as bases of attack against
lis. Their aerial efforts were insig-
nificant. Their submarine base on
Kiska had little or no effect on the
movement OF our ships in northern
waters.
It's major value to the japanese
seemed to be to make its easier for
them to keep submarines operating
In the Eastern Pacif1c-oetween the
West Coast and the Hawaiian
Islands 1t is known that the Japa-
nese have kept submarines there
steadily, but obviously only for re-
connaissance, to spot the movements
of conveys and determine as far as
possible how much and what they
carried.
Japanese submarines have not
fired shot east of Honolulu in more
than year The reason seems plain.
They do not have the submarines to
spare for offensive operations in
the Eastern Pacific They wanted to
carry out what work they believed
desirable there with a minimum
expenditure and a minimum size
force.
Kiska, being so much nearer the
Eastern Pacific than Japan, un-
doubtedlv aided in this by serving
as a refueling point and base for
minor repairs.
Way Found to Outwit Japs.
Strategically, the significance of
the Kiska evacuation Is that it
shows We have discovered a way to
outwit the Japs in their current pol
Icy of trying to bleed us into firing
of the war against them before it
can be carried to the point of "un-
conditional surrender"
On Kiska and Attu in the North
and on New Georgia and Kolom-
bangara in the south, they took
stands in line with this policy of a
nation fighting on the defensive, not
for total victory, but for stalemate
out of which they could salvage por-
tions of what they have conquered.
All four positions were militarily un-
tenable for them and they main
tanned garrisonS there apparently
for the sole military purpose of di-
verting portion OF our hitting DOW
er from their currently tenable po-
sitions and to kill as many as pos
sible Of those Americans who came
within reach.
1t is interesting to note that both
In the Solomons and in the Aleu-
tians We worked strategicallv in eX-
actly the same way to outwit their
murder plot. Kiska. the main Jap
holding point in the Aleutians. had
an empty Amchitka on one side and
relatively light garrisoned Attu on
the other side. Kolombangara is the
main Jap holding point in the Cen
tral Solomons. 1t is believed to have
about twice as many men on it as
New Georgia had. So New Georgia
was Kolombangara's Attu and Vella
Lavells, which had no Jap garrison
on It, was Kolombangara's AM
chitka.
Process Reversed,
When we took Amchitka and Attu
We were in position to reverse the
bleeding Japan had prepared for us
on Kiska. Instead of allowing them
20 bleed us by invading Kiska, we
could merely stay where we were
end bleed them by hitting at ths
supply line they needed to maintain
their suicide garrison as a going en-.
terprise. Japan, although willing te