The Wilmington morning star., 1943-09-02

The War
BY WILLIAM 7. PFACoor

Japan appears to have tb
tiers as a result Of the weII 1,e 1T
used Anglo-American prepar, tse'
for heating and inflaminI1e"' loN,
Winston Churchill put it-rbs IL :,
against her. '"e Wag
Nervous anxiety is cIear,
Elected in the Tokyo radios y n
ed declaration that American T~Vsk
and air forces which bon6aa Ssa
shelled Marcus island, l2oo ~ "a, aad
southeast of Tokyo, could h a snl
raided the japanese majn1ana' "
self just as well. 10 Ii
That is a far cry from tho h,..
Tokyo used to voice that tho 'T''N
nese homeland was safe FROM oala
tack-a boast which was '' b,' y
broadcast at the very moment VI.
General Jimmy Doolittle's raid a's'
came Winging over Is months s
The quick reference to tha n' asu'
land IS another symptom too ''' :,
Japan's haunting fear. repes st, u
manifest since the Doolittle rsi5 y
that American bombers will ye ,olu'
to her cities. N''IA
The depth of that fear ~.
pressed in the execution n ~ go Ca
of the American filters wbo oV', @
into Japan's hands and in tb -,
slaughter and destruction in r,I
nese villages which sheltered s VII
ers Of the airmen. '"''
Many of the far-flunp isl,,,
which Japan has occupied ".au.
seized not for their riches b,t ', ~
keep American air power ren,o. "
In this light, it is probabls ,bs.
neither the Marcus island dan,a ,''
stration of American sespower W.T.
the frank talk from Quebec Inv ,.
don and Washington of an esrIr
large-scale campaign in Burma !,
as omlnous news for Tohyos war;
lords as the word from Cpnor.,
Henry H. Arnold that new .nd
revolutionary bomber will be- IN
use in the near future.
The chief of the Army Air For,
es described battleships of the Al,
capable of carrying half a car,
load of bombs and with ayno
range for a round trip to Emons
To that may be added Nem
General John L. DeWitts esH.
mate. given to press conference
in San Francisco, that the matter
of supplying bases in China and
the Aleutians is the only major
problem to be solved before shut.
tle-trip bombing of Japan will be
possible.
This country. Dewitt observed
now has airfields as close to ia.
pans home islands as was The
aircraft carrier Hornet when Doo.
Titles men took off for their bomb.
ing raid. That would be about
300 miles.
Presumably, his reference was
to the bases on Attu and Kska in
relation to Paramushiro at the
north end of the japanese island
chain. But his calcula ton Of pos
sible shuttle bombing was basel
on the performance of the Libcr
ators and Flying Fortresses nov
in use.
Attu lies about 1000 miles from
Tokyo with Chinese bases lOo
miles or so bcyond-a distance
only a little more than America,
bombers covered in the round ry
flight to bomb Rumania's Ploest
oil fields.
Putting aside the problem d
supplying Chinese bases. ttl
bombers Arnold tells US are
the way could fly the round t.
from Attu to Tokyo and retur
That might be, in fact, no mor
than half the operating range Of
a plane able to carry a bomb load
from United States shores 10 El'
rope and return.
And there can be no question
of Army-Navy ability TO supply
the Attu base which was wrestet
from the enemy.
1t is not an isolated raid from
sea-borne aircraft such as hit Mar
Gus island that Tokyo has to fear,
but sustained air attack from land
based planes.
And that, we may judge from
Arnold's statements, is in store
for the early future.