DRIVE IN PACIFIC

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 229, 27 September 1943, Page 4

DRIVE IN PACIFIC

"TEAR JAPAN APART"

AMERICA'S MOUNTING POWER (O C.) SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 6. Lieutenant-General John L. de Witt, back in San Francisco from a ; reconquest of the Aleutians that saw the last Japanese soldier on American continental soil run without firing a shot, made a forecast of sweeping American offensive operations in the Pacific. The Western Defence Command's three-starred chief received the Oak Leaf Cluster in lieu of a second Distinguished Service Medal for "outstanding leadership" in expelling the "invading Japanese from American soil" immediately after concluding his first Press conference of the war following his arrival in San Francisco. Declaring the enemy now occupies "the position we occupied at the beginning of the war," General de Witt said: "The initiative is in our hands now—and we can decide where we want to strike next." As a result of the recapture of the Aleutians, climaxed by the surprising bloodless occupation of Kiska, the United States to-day has airfields as close to the Mikado's home islands as was the aircraft Hornet when the Shangri-La bombing of Tokyo was launched in April, 1942, the general declared.

Still Danger oi" Jap. Raid His optimism over the Allied position for offensive blows in the Pacific was tempered, however, with the waiting that the Pacific Coast is not immune to attack from the enemy. The Japanese—if they want to lose an aircraft-carrier—can strike at this coast now, de Witt pointed out. "They can always run it through for a suicide or token raid on the West Coast," General de Witt explained. He added there still is danger of enemy submarine raids on Pacific Coast shipping, and the ever-present possibility of the landing of Japanese saboteurs by submarine still exists. Of the impending action in the Pacific, the general declared: "The whole situation in the Pacific is changed as a result of General MacArthur's operations in the south and the operations in the Aleutians in the north. We have shifted conditions from the strategic defensive to the strategic offensive." He said the United States should press the attack against the Japanese now. "It is up to us to increase the pressure," he said. "Full Offensive Fury" In another interview General de Witt, after an inspection of the western end of his command at Attu, warned that "we must carry the war to the Japanese; we must wade in and tear Japan apart, and dynamite and gut her with incendiaries." He said Japan must be hit with the full offensive fury of the United Nations—and quickly. "Our future—yours, mine and every other American's—is first upon the Pacific," he declared in a quiet, determined voice. "Japan is our mortal foe." Bold and determined fighting, he said, won for Japan most of her early war objectives. "Since then," he continued, "she has had a year to pour concrete into her gun positions, which cover all the beach landings. She is to-day training armies from over-run peoples. She is pillaging the richest empire in the world to make guns and bullets to fight us. To-day we have only Japan to fight. If we wait for Japan to organise the countries she has over-run, we will be fighting the most heavily manpowered nation in the world, and one of the most resourceful.

"We must not allow Japan time to indoctrinate these conquered peoples. We must not let her dip deeper into her rich treasures. Alaska is the base from which to launch an offensive," he asserted. "To-day we have a chain of bases extending from San Francisco to Attu to carry out Tokyo's ultimate destruction." He contended the Philippines should be recaptured to cut asunder the Japanese supply lines while aid is speeded up to China. By such a multiple-pronged offensive against Japan, the general predicted, "We can smoke out her fleet and force her ships to fight. We can chase their tincan Zeros into the air, or we will wreck them in their revetments."

Referring to the approximate distance between American Aleutian bases and Japan's northernmost base, at Paramushiro, the general said: "Successful bombing cannot be done when you are still 750 miles from your target and your planes must fly 1500 miles. One heavy bomber based within 250 miles of a target is worth five bombers 750 miles away. To bomb Japan's homeland bases effectively, we must wrench base after base from the Japanese." He estimated that one gun aimed at the Japanese to-day is worth five guns two years hence; 50,000 troops storming a Japanese beach are worth 100,000 a year from to-day, and 100 heavy bombers raining destruction on Paramushiro today are worth 1000 two years from to-day.