The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1945-06-22
JAPS' WEAK PUNCH in ACTIVITIES
- DEALING WITH SUICIDE PLANES
BY EEMoNT WAITE
tJdst Returned From aSYear On
z the Pacific War Fronts)

NEW YORK, June pa fast,
deadly Japanese torpedo plane
comes skimming in toward our
carriers through a literal picket
fence of anti-aircraft fire.
A Hellcat Navy fighter plane
swoops down for one quick pass
and the Jap plane winks into a
burst of flame and drops into the
sea.
1t has become a familiar scene
in the Pacific war, yet even Navy
officers still are surprised at the
lopsided scores our Navy pilots
ring up in aerial combat.
Many Army officers still are
surprised, too, at the tremendous
death toll our infantryrnehs take
Of Japan's land 'forcesAat rela-
lively light losses to the Ameri-
cans.
: -Japan's naval guhnery, too, has
not been spectacular in any way
in surface engagements to date. Il
There are sound reasons, of
course, for Japan's continuing
heavy losses in the air, on land
and at sea.
She loses most aerial combats
because, most of our admirals
agree, her pilots are not as well
trained as ours.
Their planes are good, although
in the past they have been less
adequately armored than ours,
but the filters do not comaare with
ours.
Japan's need for pilots always
has been urgent and now is be-
coming desperate. Throughout
the Pacific you hear stories of
their hasty, slipshod training
how young men are recruited of
adaptability, rushed along re-
CARELESS of their ability or lack
of it.
Only fatal crashes wash OUT
Japanese air cadets, you hear
And viewing some of the aerial
combats. you can believe all that
you have heard.
A Japanese pilot apparently is
simply a raw beginner who has
managed to live through hasty
training program. There are good
ones, of course; but the majority,
selected. by. such a process, can
not compare with, our own we'll
trained flyers. 49,.
On land, Japanese soldiers are
effective fighters with small
arms, machine guns and mortars.
Some of their snipers are excel
lent shots. Americans, however.
go into action with tremendous
firepower; they spray bullets like
water from fire hoses. The jap
anese cannot do' this; they lack
the weapons, the ammunition.
There is no comparison, either,
between American and Japanese
artillery. We have it. They, in
most spots thus far invaded, have
had relatively little of it.
Japan evidently can produce
small arms and light weapons but
she never has proved any, real
ability to produce either, heavy
weapons or heavy, machinery.
The bulldozer, for instance, has
helped win many an American
Victory in the Pacific, and still
helps Japan does not have such
machinery. - @'''' ~
There is some evidence, too
that major repairs to her naval
vessels have been much more diff
ficult than such tasks would be
in American shipyards.
Outside of carefully guarded
Navy Intelligence reports, there
is little evidence to explain infe-
riority in naval gunnery. Per-
haps both training and the quail
ity of her ships guns themselves
are at fault. Certainly the enc
my's performance in surface en-
gagements has not been spectacu-
lar.
But there still are millions OF
Japanese fighting men, with mil
lions of rifles and machine guns