Evening star., 1946-02-03
BY WILLIAM J. WHEATLEY.

America answered Japan's attack
on Pearl Harbor by an order for
total and unrestricted submarine
warfare against the enemy, and as
a result shortened the war and saved
thousands of lives, the Navy Depart
ment revealed last night.
In moral justification of this de-
cision, the Navy Department ex-
planned that Japanese Army and
Navy auXiliaries were indistinguish-
able from merchant ships. Conse-
quently, Immediately after Japan
opened the war, the Navy sent a
dispatch. to commanders at sea
saying:
Execute unrestricted air and sub
marine warfare against Japan
These facts were revealed by Navy
Department statements and an in
terview by Vice Admiral Charles A.
Lockwood, wartime commander OF
submarines in the Pacific, who has
just returned to service here.
Japs Had 81 Left.
Admiral Lockwood also explained
the Japs finished the war with only
81 submarines.
While the United States started
the war in the Pacific with 80 fleet
submarines and some of the older
classes. when the conflict was over
there were 240 submerSibles on duty,
1879 Of which were of the latest feet
type.
The Japs, however, had hun
dreds of midget subs" on the MAIN
land, but their operation also was
a futile gesture, Admiral Lockwood
said.
The American submarines were
deep into enemy waters when the
war began. The Swordfish drew
the first enemy blood on December
Is, 1941, when it sank the 1868 ton
Atsutasan Maru off Hainan Island
in the South China Sea.
Subs Sank 1914.
From then on they continued to
whittle down the feet of combat
ants and the ships engaged in sup
ply lines until, at the end of the
war, 1914 ships were sunk, includ-
ing 1874 naval vessels. These figures
do not include japanese wooden
merchant ships and certain classes
of Army and Navy special service
ships.
The total enemy dead, attributed
to submarine warfare, was 276, 900
which, broken down, gives 1000
Navy dead, 100, 900 Army and los 900
civilians. American losses in sub
marine activities were stated as
3,505, which represents one Amer
lean to 78 Japs.
Pointing out that it took moral
courage of the highest order to re-
lease the despatch, Execute unre-
stricted air and submarine war
fare against Japan" the Navy said
that "the conditions under which
Japan employed her so-called mer-
chant shipping were such that it
would be impossible to distinguish
between merchant ships and Jap
anese Army and Navy auxiliaries. ("
Took Hard Course
The Navy added that it would
have been the easy course to have
insisted on submarine warfare in
accordance with international trea-
ties, Shifting to other shoulders the
responsibility for the inevitable in
crease in the length of the war
and for the longer casualty lists
that would have resulted"
On this point, the Nays an
nouncement said that just before
the landings on Saipan, the SUBJ
marines Pintado and Shark got
into a Jap convoy carrying a divi-
sion of reinforcements for the
brewing fight there.
about half Of the division wal
drowned" the report said, "and the
remainder landed disorganized and
practically without weapons. For
the duration of this campaign,
therefore, the efforts of these two
ships were about equal to one in
fantry division. Reinforcements for
Okinawa were badly mauled in a
| similar fashion,"
Dace and Darter Praised.
The submarines Dace and Darter
gave the first flash of the move
ments of the japanese fleet into the
Philippines for what subsequently
became the battle for Leyte Gulf
They not only kept them under sur
veillance but while doing it they
sank the Japanese heavy cruisers
Atago and Maya and damaged a
third.
Another wolf pack, known as
"Blair's Blasters," the Pintado
Shark and Pilotfish, is credited with
saving thousands of American lives
by destroying nearly all ships oi
five Saipon-bound japanese con-