Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-03-24
Jitters in Japan
BY Joseph Ne1Un1an
tWNU Feature-Through special arrangement
with The American Magazine.)

Japan is getting the filters. We
have it on no less an authority than
Emperor Hirohito and his No. l war
lord, General Hideki TOTO. Hiro-
hlto has told his pugnacious people
that the outlook for Japan is now
truly grave" and TOTO underscored
the divine insight of the god-emperor
by adding that the war situation is
very complicated"
This, in the customary Japanese
manner of speaking by indirection,
is another way of saying: 1.-The
Yanks are coming"
And the Japanese man in the
street, whether he shuffles along in
his wooden clogs and traditional XII
mono or wears the pinching leather
shoes and tight-fitting sack coats
copied from his occidental enemies,
knows what that means. 1t means
that the despised Yankees are on
their way to the heart of the Japa-
nese Empire-and that they're COM
ing with skyfuls of bombs for the
industrial nerve center from which
stems the terror and destruction
spread by the Japanese throughout
Asia and the Pacific.
The japanese, far better than their
enemies, know just how vulnerable
they are. They know that once their
outer rim of defense is cracked, the
heart Of the empire will be exposed
to a deathblow. That's why the
Japanese, in their opening stroke Of
rrrShnH h nd Co
they could go to the north, south,
east, and west, SO as to shove the
Americans from all bombing bases
within reach of the main home
islands.
And that's why, now that the outer
rim is crumbling, Hirohito, TOTO, and
the shutting Japanese man in the
street are very unhappy. They have
heard what round-the-clockb bombing
has done to Berlin, Hamburg, Essen,
Frankfort and other industrial CEN
tiers of their retreating German part
ner. They know, as do Americans
who have lived in Japan for any
length of time, that the six key in
dustrial cities of Japan will burn as
fast as-if not faster and more furi-
ously than-their Nazi equivalents in
Germany
Most Vulnerable Country.
The six key centers are Tokyo,
Osaka, Nagoya. Kyoto, Yokohama,
and Kobe. l have had a good look
at all of them-the industrial Ruhr of
Japan-and I was often impressed
by the thought of how quickly Japan
could be snuffed out as a world
power by igniting the huge, sprawl
ing fire-trapS from the air. A good,
stiff wind, which invariably blew
over these coastal centers from the
sea. strengthened this thought and
suggested how nature, combined
with feverish, careless construction
of these cities served to make Japan
the most vulnerable country in the
world
The construction was careless be-
cause the japanese had neither the
time nor the money nor the desire
to change the basic layout of their
cities from feudal to a modern
one.
Thus there was mushroom
growth of sprawling factories among
the fiimsy, wooden, boxlike houses
packed tightly together in areas
through which there are often only
dirt alleys or footpaths instead of
paved streets. After the devastat-
ing earthquake and fire of 1923 some
streets were enlarged and some
modern innovations were introduced.
But this was limited to the business
sections of Tokyo and Yokohama.
The layout and structure of the
greater part of the Japanese capital
and the keyteastern port of the coun-
try are about as primitive as they
were 2,6O3 years ago.
In Nagoya, Kyoto. Kobe and Osaka
conditions are similar to those of
Tokyo and Yokohama. The down.
town business areas are full of con-
crete and steel, but the larger sec
tions of the cities, where most of
the homes and many of the factories
are located, are covered with for
est of wooden boxes, which millions
call home. So that even the fire.
proof structures are trapped in the
forests of wood and paper houses
which, when touched off by Amer
lean bombs, will turn into infernos.
The heavy concentration of indus
try and other military detectives in
the six leading cities provides some
thing of bomber's dream.
Plenty of Targets.
If he comes in from the east and
flies westward over the main island
of Honshu toward China, as the Doc
little raiders did, the first target he
will find in his bombsights will be
Yok ohama. Here the principal tar
gets are the harbor, one of the two
largest in the country, shipbuild-
ing yards, warehouses, metal, ma
chine-tool, and chemical plants, tex
tile and rubber mills, and an auto
mobile factory. The 18-mile strip
between Yokohama and Tokyo is
packed solid with industries turning
off m a chimes and machine fnolc