Evening star., 1945-06-02
Trumun's S Words Seen
SqueIching Jap Hopes
Only $50 u. S. War Production
Used in Far East, Says Writer
BY Davfd Laurence

President Truman has taken cog
nizance of the possibility that Japan
may be deriving comfort from the war
weariness or slackening of effort in the
United States.
The message sent to Congress-one OF
the longest in recent Misrepresentation
to tell the American people, as well as
the Japanese, that the war in the Far
East is to be prosecuted relentlessly. 1t
gives enough details of the program to
assure anybody that whatever curtail-
ments in production there may be will
be relatively small.
In reality the munitions production
will be larger by many times over so far
as the Pacific is concerned. The United
States has enough industrial capacity to
increase MANIFOLD the supplies to the
Pacific and still permit some production
of civilian goods.
The best indication of what is hap
pening is to be found in the S54 ,00O.-
100000 munitions production which Mr..
Truman says will be the rate for the
balance of this year. That figure is
nine-tenths of 1914 and about equal
to l943 and certainly both those years
were characterized by a far greater
percentage of absorption of our fac
tory facilities in total war than ever
before.
Only 25Te Used Thus Far.
The truth is the United States prob
ably never used more than 25 per cent
OF her war production in the Pacific
prior to We day. Even if that figure
were trebled it would still permit of
some leeway for civilian goods.
So far as economic readjustments are
concerned, it is evident now that the
curtailment in war contracts will have
gradual rather than a demoralizing
effect on employment.
The thing which the President and
his advisers are cautioning against is
any feeling that workers can abandon
the war plants and seek other jobs. The
situation on the West Coast in the
Navy Yards is serious. Employees have
left work to get other jobs and there
are not enough men to repair battle
damage quickly. This is but another
way of saying that our Navy's strength
/ has been crippled and that relief for
/ ships in the battle line will have to be
postponed, putting a bigger strain on
! the Navy than was anticipated
| The United States has a big enough
| feet to take care of any contingency in
| the Pacific but if the repairing of war
| ships gets behind schedule it merely
| means that our naval operations will
| be slowed up and the end of the Japa-
! nese war postponed more and more each
/ day.
/ The 30day period since We day was
/ bound to be critical one. President
Truman evidently waited to see lust
what would be the effect of the termina-
ton OF the war in Europe on war plants,
and apparently the message just sent
to Congress was carefully prepared after
t consultation with the joint chiefs of
staff and the heads of the War and
/ Navy Departments
| To Squelch Jap Hopes.
| 1t means that a decision was reached
| to squelch promptly any hope the Japa-
nese war lords might have had that war
WEAKNESS and the popular demand for
demoblllzatlon of our troops in Europe
would throw us off balance and give
! the Tokyo government a chance for
negotiated peace or a stalemate.
The answer given by President Tru-
/ man is unequivocal. If the japanese
| businessmen want to see their plants
/ and manufacturing facilities DESTROYED
/ and their country reduced to shambles,
( they can do so by letting the war dra O
on. There will be no chance for Japan
to rise again because she will lack the
ships, the resources and the manufac-
turing facilities. The air power of the
United States is about to be exerted in
bombing barrage such as no nation has
ever suffered, not even Germany at the
most concentrated period of the All.
! attacks
Japan must make up her mind soon.
Whatever she expected to get out of the
attitude of the people of the United
States after We day, she must have
been disappointed. For even the diff
Guilty in keeping war workers at their
jobs on the West Coast is, relatively
speaking, small in relation to the mo-
mentum of the war effort as a whole,
which has been stepped up instead of
being diminished
Mr.. Trumans message will aid our
bureaus of psychological warfare in
oroadcastlng to the Japanese that they
might as we'll surrender unconditionallv
now and save something out of the
| wreckage