Dickenson County herald. [volume] (Clintwood, Va.) 1939-195?, 1945-05-31
PACIFIC:
Victory Pattern


no set-up, Americas tremendous
material resources and Japan's
comparative skinny means prom
ises to bring about the enemy's col
lapse much in the manner of Ger
many's.
Flying 500 at a time, BIG Super
forts were setting the pattern for
Japan's defeat even as U. S. army
and marine forces rooted the enemy
from his heavily fortified Little
Siegfried line" on Okinawa, with the
big bomb ers showering thousands
of tons of gasoline-jelly incendi-
aries on the big industrial center
Of Nagoya.
Extent of the destruction of Ma
goya was all the greater because
of the establishment of shops in
small buildings and homes for the
production of different parts for
main assembly. With one-time
population of 1928, O83, the city was
the site of the famed Mitsibushi air.
craft factory and railway, ma
chinery and metal works.
Leveling of Nagoya suggested the
same treatment of other great Japa-
nese cities within the same area in
the effort to paralyze the enemy's
industrial capability and thus bring
his formidable land army to its
knees
With her vital industries
packed in the Tokyo, Kobe
Osaka and Nagoya districts in
total area less than that of
Nebraska, and with 100000 of
her 100000 population crowd
ed in those vicinities, Japan's
whole war making potential
stands as particularly vulner-
able target for the great fleets of
U. S. bombers which will oper-
ate with increasing force now
that the European war has
ended.
Furthermore, U. S. mastery Of the
sea threatens to virtually isolate
the enemy from the Asiatic main
land and Pacific islands upon which
he has depended for substantial
quantities of food, raw material
and supplies.
Against this bright picture, how
ever, stands the record of fanatical
Japanese resistance against impos-
sible odds wherever he has fought
in the Pacific. Best recent ex-
arnples are Two Jima and Okinawa,
where Nipponese garrisons have
withstood the most grueling pre-
ponderance of u. S. material and
troop superiority to hold out to the
last dying gasp from strongly forti-
fed subterranean positions hewed
from rugged terrain.
With Jap engineers showing sur
prising skill in preparing such de-
lenses, u. S. infantrymen, supported
by tanks and fame throwers,
have been compelled to move in
close to root out the entrenched
enemy after heavy air, sea and
ground bombardment failed to
wholly wipe out various strong
points.
Just 325 miles from Tokyo,
Okinawa has been bitterly de-
Tended by the enemy seeking to
prevent another island air base
from falling into the hands of
u. S. forces. Victory in the
Marianas furnished site for
B-29 stations for the increasing
raids on the enemy mainland,
and Two Jima also yielded
strategic air strips. Thus, the
Japs have stood bitterly on
Okinawa, inflicting over $4,000
casualties on American land,
sea and air forces at cost of
over $4,000 dead to themselves.
Secondary though potentially i'm
portant aspect of the whole Pacific
picture is the part China might play
in the enenny's strategy. with the
comparatively undeveloped state of
the country and the vulnerability of
any positions to attack from Rus
STA on the north and the U. S.