Evening star., 1945-04-29

Dv SOHStUV
No military man in Washington is
willing to predict exactly when Japan
will be in the same position as Ger
many is today, but there is an atmos-
phere Of confidence among the top
ranking admirals and generals who have
high hopes that we will reach all our
objectives in the Japanese Islands and
Asia this year.
Although there still remain a few
German pockets of resistance which
may require hard fighting before the
whole of the Reich lies PROSTATE and is
incapable of lifting its head again for
many generations, American troops are
already earmarked to be sent to Gen.
Macarthur.
While the opinion of the military men
is divided on whether we will be able to
defeat the Japanese with only limited
support from our British and Chinese
allies, the majority is convinced that
If the ground forces of Gen. Macarthur
and the aviation placed at the disposal
OF him and his naval colleague, Ad-
ened. the United States Army, Navy and
Air Forces can do most of the job alone
In Suicide Mood.
There will, OF course be a good deal
of hard fighting. Much more than the
Germans, the Japanese are in a sui
eide mood" So long as the Emperor
To To
der they will all prefer being killed to
giving up. But courage alone cannot
win battles. Modern wars require many
things besides courage and large
amount OF manpower What crushed the
resistance of the German on both
fronts was not any lack of willingness
to die for the fatherland or even skill
in military naaneuvers. Up to the last
minute the German generals handled
their forces ably It was the relent-
less American and British air raids over
the industrial centers of Germany which
caused the eventual collapse. The Ger
man factories had been razed and the
German armies no longer could be pro-
vlded with the necessary guns, tanks,
machine guns and planes to oppose the
Allied armies which had plenty of
everything.
This applies to Japan even more than
to the Reich Numerically, the Jap
anese Army is not as strong as the Ger
man Army was IL months ago. But
while since D day the German forces
were compressed in a relatively narrow
section between the Channel and the
Vistula River, the 100000 men the
japanese are reported to have are
strewn all over Japan and the Asiatic
mainland from the Amur River to the
Gulf OF Bengal. This means that the
same number of men the Germans had
in 1914 are spread over an area about
3la times larger than that defended by
the Wehrmacht. A superb network of
lines OF unication-railways high
ways and waterways-enabled the Ger
mans to transfer troops and war ma
terial from the remaining factories or
from their large stores to any section of
the front wherever needed.
Japan More Vulnerable.
The japanese do not have this ad-
vantage. In their homeland. which is
far narrower than the area occupied bv
the Germans, the factories are jammed
together and are being exposed to the
relentless bombardment of the Amer
lean aviation. Their lines of communi-
cation can be destroyed by our planes
with much greater ease and much more
rapidly than in Europe. The tunnels
connecting the various islands can
equally be destroyed by our planes
The three main islands of Japan can
be subjected to the murderous artillery
fire OF our naval guns. The japanese
fleet is as good as non-existent and
there is nothing but the swarms of
suicide planes which can hamper our
activities. These are being used in
large numbers at Okinawa and have
caused some damage to our light craft.
But there have been no reports that any
of our many heavy ships have suffered
more than temporary damage.
The Japanese aircraft plants are now
the main target of our air attacks.
These attacks will be substantially in
creased in the near future. The same
is expected to occur to the rest of ia
pans industrial plants soon after the
final conquest of Okinawa and some
other island bases. Japan can be ex-
pected to be submitted to the same
treatment as Germany when we gain
sufficient bases to fly our light and
heavy bombers from distances no farther
than 400 or 500 miles. The American
high command is expecting confidently
that before the end of this summer at
least 10 per cent of the japanese home
industries will be wrecked beyond repair.
Cut OFF From Supplies.
1t is true that the Tokyo government
has started to move some of its impor-
tant armament factories to the Chinese
mainland and specially to Manchuria
and Korea. Others have been recently
organized in the Shantung area, around
Shanghai and in Indo-China. But ac-
cording to the best available estimates
these new manufacturing centers can
not deliver as much as 80 per cent of
the total Japan produced up to 1943
There is a scarcity of adequate raw ma
terials and there is also a scarcity of
transportation. For instance, the rub
ber needed in war materials such as
planes and trucks has to come from
Malaga. The lines of communication
with that peninsula and with the Meth
erlands Indies have been drastically
curtailed by the American Navy and it