"FLABBY WHITE MAN"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 206, 1 September 1942, Page 3

"FLABBY WHITE MAN"

Japanese Attitude In War Of Conquest EX-AMBASSADOR'S WARNING Rec. 2 p.m. WASHINGTON, Aug. 31. The former U.S. Ambassador at Tok y °, Mr. Joseph Grew, in a broadcast address, said: "There is not sufficient room in the Pacific for peaceful American and peace-loving United JaMn nS Th an T the sw ashbuckling anH Ja P a ? ese military caste j military system, whose crueltv and brutality have caused this war niust be crushed. No one should eneYen momentarily the idea uiat the Japanese Army's failure in A discouraged the Japanese people. On the contrary, ft has steeled them to greater sacrifices Furthermore, the Japanese High Command has relied on the white man s flabbiness. They regard us as constitutional weaklings unwillinj? to make sacrifices for victory against a machine which has been prepared and trained to spartan simplicity. When Japan struck she left no road for retreat."

, Mr. Grew expressed confidence that the United Nations could defeat the Japanese, but victory would be remote unless they realised thev were fighting a powerful war machine and people whose morale could not be broken by economic hardship, but only by complete physical defeat and physical expulsion from the areas temporarily conquered, also by the progressive attrition of their naval power and merchant marine and the resultant cutting off of their homeland from all the outlying areas. Mr. Grew's emphasis on the long and difficult road ahead of the United Nations conforms with the statement on Friday by a high Government official cautioning the country against over-emphasising the importance of the Solomons actions. Influential members of the Government are said to feel that the American people, who for years have underestimated Japanese strength, do not yet realise what the Allies are confronting. The New York Times adds that Mr. Grew's warning is the beginning of a new Government effort to arouse the United States to accept the sacrifices necessary to overcome a powerful and dangerous foe.