Evening star., 1944-12-07
Since Pearl Hurbor

American people were stunned by
Japan's surprise attack on our Pa
cific battle fleet peacefully moored
at its Hawaiian base of Pearl Har-
Dor. This record disaster in our his
tory, which gave Japan temporary
naval superiority in the Pacific,
conceded with declarations of war
against us by the European members
of the Berlin Rome Tokyo Axis thus
confronting us with tWo-front
conflict: and the Pacific situation
was rendered all the more perilouS
by the determination of our high
command to direct our main war
effort in conjunction with our new
Allies in Europe, rather than con-
centrating against the japanese foe.
This implied holding war in the
Pacific for the preliminary stages
of conflict wherein America had
not yet begun to hit its potential
stride.
Such an overall strategy was made
possible by the fact that Japan had
first directed it's major effort on the
conquest of the Far East. From
this larger angle, the air attack on
Pearl Harbor was an offensive
defensive operation designed to Grip
pie our sea power while Far Eastern
supremacy was being attained.
There is reason to believe that the
extent of that success took the
japanese high command by surprise,
and that 1t was either too COM
mltted or too unimaginative to
follow through with a swift attack
on Hawaii which might we'll have
succeeded. Not until the Philippines,
Malaga, the Dutch Indies and the
island approaches to Australia were
in their hands did the Tokyo war
lords launch a real offensive against
Hawaii, together with a subsidiary
move against Alaska. in the late
spring of 1912, which, If successful,
would have heralded an invasion of
the Western Hemisphere. aimed at
both the United States and Canada.
Even then. substantial parts of
japanese sea and air power were
simultaneously engaged in an often
sive aimed at Australia. to round
out their mastery of the Western
Pacific and deprive us of all future
bases there.
This was the moment OF maxi
mum peril. But it quickly passed.
The Japanese threat to Australia
was averted by the naval battle Of
the Coral Sea. wherein an Allied
American and Australian fleet
gained a clear-cut victory. The
japanese threat to Hawaii was ended
by the even greater victory of
Midway in June, while japanese
attempts at Alaska were confined
to the outer Aleutians. BY mid-1942,
therefore, the japanese tide of con-
quest had reached it's flood and had
been definitely held.
The beginning of the japanese
ebb tide was disclosed two months
later when our marines made their
surprise landing on Guadalcanal in
the Solomon Islands and held onto
this strategic key point despite des-
perate japanese attempts to dislodge
them. From then on, the strategic
Initiative in the Pacific passed to
our side. However, progress at first
was slow. More than a year was
consumed in preliminary operations,
conducted by limited forces chiefly
in the restricted area of New Guinea
and the Solomons. Behind this
localized activity. however. America
was building up it's latent power to
gigantic proportions. of which the
Pacific was at last getting a notable
share
Americas new offensive power was
first disclosed by the crushing at
tacks on TaraWa and Maxim Islands
in the Mid-Pacific Gilbert archi-
pelago, in late November, 1943. From
then on, our co-ordinated sea, air
and land might has smashed it's
way with titanic strides clear across
the greatest of oceans to the Phil
ippines and to the Marianas within
long-range bombing distance of ia
pan itself. During that memorable
tWelvemonth Japan's intricate island
defense screen in mid-Pacific has
been torn to shreds. it's battle fleet
fatally crippled, the cream of it's
air force skinned off, and fully
100000 of it's best soldiers killed or
hopeleSsly isolated. And the cumu-
lative momentum of our offensive
power continues unabated. Only in
China has Japan obtained partial
offsets to its Pacific disasters.
Yet Japan is far from beaten, and
our maximum effort against her
must await the end of the war in
Europe, which drags on disconcert-
ingly. But our first three years of
war in the Pacific have probably