Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-04-22
Those Pacific Islands

The Pacific poses a problem in
postwar reconstruction which is
simple in principle but complex in
practice. The aim is to render i'm
possible the use of the islands which
stud that vasteSt of oceans as bases
for aggression, and it is generally
agreed that Japan must be deprived
of all its insular holdings outside its
historic home archipelago. The diff
ficulty arises over the disposition of
those holdings, which fall under
two distinct categories.
The first of these consists of the
island groups or chains which Japan
acquired between it's emergence
from voluntary isolation ninety
years ago and the outbreak of the
First World War in 1914. BY that
time Japan had gained the Ryukyu
chain to the southwark, plus For
mosa, the Kurile chain to the north
ward, the BONN and Volcano groups
to the SoutheaStWard and one or
two isolated islands, such as Marcus,
well out toward mid-Pacific. These
were acquired in full sovereignty.
The second category of Japanese
holdings arose out of the division of
former German possessions in the
Pacific between Japan and Britain
or its dominions. This division took
the form of mandates from the
League of Nations, the dividing line
running along the Equator. This
gave Japan control of a huge rec
tangular block in mid-Pacific,
broken only by the American en-
clave of Guam, in the Marianas.
Though obligated under the terms
of the mandate not to fortify nor
deny commercial access to the island
groups thus assigned to it, Japan
flagrantly evaded its agreement, as
we have learned to our cost. The
enormous strategic Importance of
even small islands as naval and air
bases has been so wildly demon
strated that we cannot take the
chance of their being again used
against us. And it is equally obvi-
Gus that the peace of the Pacific
must be maintained basically by
ourselves.
Experience has amply demon
strated that the only way whereby
power and responsibility can be i'm
plemented is through effective con-
troll. This practically rules out the
method of joint administration
legally known as a "condominium,
which has never worked we'll. The
remaining alternatives thus boil
down to whether Japan's Pacific
possessions shall pass to America in
full sovereignty, be divided among
the victorious great powers or be
controlled by one or more of such
powers under some form of trustee
ship similar to the League man
dates. 1t is virtually certain that
American public opinion will insist
on our control of Japan's entire
mid-Pacific League mandate, to-
gether with the Volcanoes, Bonins,
Marcus and other mid-Pacific Japa-
nese holdings. Our sacrifices in
conquering the Ryukyus tend to es-
tablish similar claims to them, and
the same might be true of costly
conquest of the KurileS, though
there Soviet Russia would doubtless
have much to say. Prewar British
and French Pacific holdings will
doubtless be confirmed by the peace
settlement, though perhaps with
the proviso recently suggested by
Admiral Yarnell that all Pacific
holdings be frozen" by an Amer
lean veto on transfers of sovereignty
akin to that on European holdings
in the Western Hemisphere under
the Monroe Doctrine.