The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-02-18
Pearl Harbor Avenged

Pearl Harbor has been avenged The debt te
Japan has been repaid by the fire and steel Of
American warplanes from the greatest nava
force ever assembled.
little over three years ago tho limited
States sat in stunned silence as newspapers
and radios carried the ominous news bulletins
which daily announced new defeats for our
forces.
Our fleet was crippled seriously in the at
tack of December 7, 1941. Our land forces
later were pushed into Bataan where they slow
ly died from incessant Japanese attacks and
from the jungle fevers which assaulted them.
Our air force then could not hope to compete
with the might of Japan in the Far Pacific.
At home, our first group of selectees were
completing their first year of military training.
AS yet none of them had experienced battle.
Our industries were gearing slowly to the all
out effort, essential at that time to mere protec-
ton of our shores-not for a concerted attack
on the enemy homeland.
Macarthur had just arrived in Australia
where he vowed that he would return to the
Philippines. Our young airmen, fresh from
flying schools, boosted that they would lick
hell out of the Japs'' when they got in combat
Many of them learned, before sudden death,
pilots in planes superior to ours in speed and
ability, had the upper hand.
The picture indeed was gloomy. 1t was
hard to see where our forces could hope to
accomplish more than a stalemate with the
enemy, for instead of one war on one 'front.'
Germany had forced us into a second conflict
which later developed into many fronts
In the summer of 1912, America started back.
Marines invaded Guadalcanal and Tulagi. The
fighting was hard and it required months to
drive the yellow men from their tenacious grip
on the Solomons. Yank troops, bolstered by
Australians, began pushing the japanese back
across the Owen Stanley range in New Guinea
another long and costly operation. Our air
power still had not reached it's peak and our
victories at Midway and the Coral Sea had
not neutralized the threat of the japanese navy
Then, early in 1943, Macarthur started back
The Marshalls began to shudder under Ameri-
can bombs and invasion soon became reality.
Tarawa proved that the Yanks could take an
island which had been made jap stronghold.
1914 saw Macarthur return. His troops
landed on Leyte and Samar and he established
a provisional Philippines government on Leyte.
In that year, the worlds greatest bombers. the
American Superfortresses, began their de-
vastating attacks the Japanese mainland
Tokyo radio screeched defiance but the bombs
rained down.
Friday of the past week brought American
sea power to its peak On that day, 200
carrler-based planes struck Tokyo
and its environs and on Saturday, 1900 more
followed up the attack This was the
day that American sailors had awaited since
Pearl Harbor; the day their fleet could sail
boldly almost to the shore of Japan and thunder
defiance with steel and explosive-the only
language the Sons of Heaven have been able
to understand in this war.
The Nipponese fleet apparently feels that tbe
opportunity for mass hari-kiri is entirely too
good and has gone into hiding from Admiral
Mitscher's task force. At any rate, we have
the knowledge that Tokyo is ablaze from our
bombs and that our soldiers are on the way
TO the Jap homeland while our own cities still
stand intact without an enemy soldiers foot
print on our SOIL
Pearl Harbor has been avengeA but the in
terest on the debt incurred on December r
1884, is heavy. With proper backing from the
nome front, our forces soon will bring the ac-
count to date