Imperial Valley press., 1944-10-22
PROMISE WELL KEPT,
AS JAPS WILL LEARN


keep a pledge, and it will be a costly les
son. 1t is not taken from any of the
Nps' textbooks. 1t comes too late to do
them any good, for in this lesson comes
the beginning of the end of the power
and the deceit and the rnthlessness of
the Rising Sun empire
Macarthur has struck. He is back in
the Philippines, and not alone. With him
is every last man who left with him when
Bataan and Corregidor were doomed
and in the first dash, 250,000 vengeance
seeking American veterans of the Pacific.
And there are that many more waiting
and ready to join the Pacific Commander
to wrest the Philippines from the con-
querors and again that many more and
still more girding to carry MacArthur's
promise to full fruition-invasion and
complete destruction of the homeland
military.
1t has been a long road back. All the
way from Australia where Macarthur
began plans to return. After Bataan the
whole strategy in the Pacific was to turn
the Japs back before they took foothold
in Australia. That victory accomplished
Macarthur turned his face to the north
and in all these months since, he has been
boring along on the one purpose
When he set foot on land at Leyte this
week, the road has made the last turn
insofar as the first obi bjective is concerned.
There will be few more turns from Leyte
to Tokyo but these will be hard to nego-
tiate unless, as many observers contend,
the Japs are about licked. These observ-
ers believe still that Tokyo will under
take to negotiate peace short of total
surrender. This belief cites the Orient
ais doctrine of face saving" and in
this instance the Saving" process has in
mind wrangling at least part of the
hope for expansion to the west.
One key to what might compel an early
surrender at Tokyo, or speed the ami
hilation of the kingdom is HongkOng. In
the tremendous layout of the Pacific
campaign, this port has remained secure
in the hands of tie Japs. Britain-con-
trolled Chinese city, the British have
made no effort to regain it. The same
holds true of Singapore.
When the Japs decided to strike, the
fall of Hongkong was one of the fore
gone conclusions, but the crash of the
vaunted Singapore fortress left the Brit
ish at home stunned. But not residents
of Singapore. 1t was just considered an
impossibility for any foe to seize place
on which millions had been expended
and which was Britain's last word in de-
fenses, and so the Japs came from an
other direction while the guard slept.
Impossible as it seems, the Japs were
caught off guard at Leyte. This appears
all the more strange in that Macarthur
and Halsey hardly figured on that ad-
vantage with an armada of more than
GOO ships in the invasion vanguard. But
first reports of the landing and the i'm
mediate drive for an airfield indicates
that the enemy offered negligible resist
ance. Whether this is hint that they
NAV not make much of fight to retain
the islands, at this moment can't even
be guessed.
That the bulk of the japanese fleet,
including carriers is based in homeland
ports, there can be no doubt. Adding
these things together it might mean that
the Tokyo war lords plan final defense
of the timer fortress" similar to the
final struggles of Hitler going on now.
All are agreed that Macarthur is pre-
pared to carry on from Leyte; that he
has his strategy worked out, his forces
at hand and, of course, his mind made up
1t may be a hard task ahead, but it
will not be slow pace, henceforth. The
island hopping days are over.
The death knell is ringing for Hirohito.