Evening star., 1945-05-20
Pacific Bases Raise
Serious Problems
Outposts Useless Unless Backed
by Will to Develop Them
BIZ John II. Cline

Outposts Useless Unless Backed
by Will to Develop Them
By John H. Cline.
In their present mood the American
people will welcome the assurance that
our delegation to the San Francisco
Conference is unalterably opposed to
any concept of "trusteeship" which
would interfere in the future with full
use by the United States of strategic
Pacific bases deemed essential for ma
tional defense. But the mood Of today,
when thousands of American boys are
dying to secure these bases from the
Japanese, may be quite a different
thing from the mood which will prevail
10 or 20 years hence.
There is distinction Of great i'm
portance between an island and base.
When the last Japanese soldier on Oki-
nawa, for example, has been killed, we
may grimly resolve that that island,
won at such terrible cost, will never
pass from our control. But from the
standpoint of national defense the mere
holding of Okinawa would be worthless,
and might well be exceedingly danger
Gus. If it's retention is to serve any
useful purpose it must be held, not as
which will continue to cost us a great
deal in terms of money and effort, and
the holding Of which will involve risks
that we understand and are prepared to
accept. Today, the lesson of Wake and
Guam is perfectly clear. In the mill
tary sense, they stand as monuments
to blind futility, testifying to the in
finite capacity of a peaceful people
to ignore the most obvious facts when
they do not want to face them. But
we can i'll afford repetition of our
experience with Guam and Wake. In
the future, If we propose to stake out
bases in the Pacific, we must be pre-
pared to make them bases in fact as
well as in name
Our record in this respect is not en-
couraging. The United States lost the
first round in the struggle for control
of strategic Pacific bases during the
Washington Disarmament Conference
in 1922. For Is years prior to that
meeting there had been periodic flare
ups between this country and Japan.
One naval writer attributes to the late
Franklin D. Roosevelt the statement
that for eight nervous days" during
the summer Of 1908 the United States
'hovered on the edge Of an ultimatum
from Japan" During the whole of this
period there was little or no effort to
educate the American people with re-
spect TO the danger in the Pacific and
the importance of bases in that vast
expanse of water Distrust by Navy
officials Of Japan was implicit. however,
in the organization in 1919 Of United
States Pacific feet, composed of our
strongest naval units; in preparations
for constructing great naval base at
Hawaii, and in agitation for strong
bases at Guam and Manila. But the
japanese had plans Of their own, and
when the delegates to the Disarmament
Conference sat down in Washington the
late Baron Kato, heading the delega-
ton from Japan, made a significant
move
The American plan, presumably in
line with the wishes of our Navy, dealt
only with a reduction in ships, but
Baron Kato, pointing out that bases
also were an important factor in naval
strength, said that Japan could not
agree to reduction of her naval forces
unless bases also were to be restricted.
And the United States, rather than risk
the failure of the conference, yielded,
with the result that we refrained from
fortifying our bases in the Far East.
The Japanese. however, went ahead
secretly with the fortifcation of their
own bases as we'll as those which they
acquired under League mandate, and
which they had agreed not to fortify.
For the next 10 years, despite occa-
sional complaints of japanese bad faith.
relations between the two countries
appeared to be good. The four-power
and nine-power treaties were nego-
tiated, further lulling American fears,
and it was not until 1881, when the
Japanese struck at Manchuria, that this
comprehension of the true state of
affairs in Asia. Within few more
years Japan had refused to renew the
naval treaty, had withdrawn from the
League and had made it clear that she
intended to do as she pleased with the
eli