JAP. ENIGMA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 35, 11 February 1943, Page 5

JAP. ENIGMA

NEXT PACIFIC MOVE Building Great Airfield In New Georgia N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright (Rec. 10 a.m.) SYDNEY, this day. The announcement made by the Prime Minister of Japan, Tojo, of the Japanese evacuation of Guadalcanar has sent a wave of speculation rippling over the Allied world. Military experts are asking whether the move is a feint rather than an admission of defeat, and if so where the indefatigable Japanese will strike next.

So far there is no indication that the enemy intends to surrender the strategically important Northern Solomons area—though the possibility of such a move is reported to have been mentioned by the United States Secretary for the Navy, Colonel Knox.

"The inscrutable Japanese have never been a greater enigma than at present," says an Australian military writer. "While he has been withdrawing from Guadalcanar he has been busy building a great new airfield at Munda, New Georgia, only 140 miles away. His Central and South Pacific bases are crammed with men and equipment." A New York message states that the Associated Press estimated that the Japanese lost 50,000 men and 800 planes in the Guadalcanar campaign, and 57 Japanese naval and merchant ships sunk, compared with 29 American ships reported sunk to date. The report states that over 100 Japanese ships have been damaged, and that some of them will require many weeks for repairs. The Navy Department lists an additional seven as probably sunk