TOKYO WARNING OF ATTACK FROM NORTH

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 152, 29 June 1945, Page 5

TOKYO WARNING OF ATTACK FROM NORTH

VS. FLEET PROWLING

Paratroops In Aleutian

Islands

N.Z. Press Association —Copyright Rec. 2 p.m. NEW YORK, June 28. Tokyo radio, warning the Japanese people- to be on their guard against an attack from the north, reported that the United States Ninth Fleet, under Vice-Admiral Frank Fletcher, is prowling in the North Pacific.

The radio, added tnat a United States mountain division awaited action at its base on Agattu Island, in the Aleutians, and also- warned that American paratroops were stationed throughout the northern region.

Tokyo radio also announced that Japan has placed all communications under Government control to cope with the conversion of the homeland into a battlefield and to maintain absolute efficiency in face of any situation such as the isolation of vital areas.

Japanese military commentators said the American plan, following the conquest of Okinawa, would probably be to cut up the Japanese mainland by air attacks on various cities and industrial areas and keep the pieces separate. It would also sever communications between Japan and the Asiatic continent to hamper the transport of fighting forces and supplies into the homeland. Rear-Admiral Forrest Sherman, Admiral Nimitz's deputy-chief of staff, at a Press conference estimated that the remaining Japanese surface ships available for action consist of two partially-converted battleships, the battleship Nagato commissioned in 1923, two other old battleships not in commission, a small number of carriers moored alongside wharves under camouflage, 30 destroyers and a few cruisers. The carrier strength included two or three fairly large ones not ready for service. He added that Pacific naval forces would like nothing better than for the remnants of the enemy fleet to attempt a suicide attack.