THE JAPANESE SOLDIER

Evening Star, Issue 24296, 10 September 1942, Page 4

THE JAPANESE SOLDIER

NO EASY ENEMY GENERAL MACARTHOR'S ADVICE TO TROOPS (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) (Roc. 12.55 p.m.) SYDNEY. Sept. 10. The Japanese soldier was no easy enemy, General Mac Arthur told a United States army unit on service somewhere in Australia. Ho was a fighter who did not ask quarter, nor did he give any. He fought courageously and intelligently. Good troops, however, could stop the Japanese. His Philippine army had proved that. By pushing on instead of falling back, his forces had confused: and upset the Japanese. General MaeArthnr exhorted the unit never to let the Japanese attack. When the Japanese attacked he did so to a preconceived plan, and the co-ordination and co-operation between bis forces was excellent. When attacked, however, the enemy did not show to the same advantage. The Japanese soldier had an extraordinary capacity to fight to the end. He never stopped. T)io Japanese had no use for quitters. Japanese tactics, said General MacArtlnir, were to disperse rapidly along the enemy’s lines in groups of never more than 1,000, and keep pushing until the enemy’s weakness was found, then hit hard. The Japanese were the greatest exploiters of their opponent’s inefficiency the world had over seen. Any weakness in confronting them was fatal. Expressing confidence in the fighting ability of the troops he was addressing, General MaeArthnr said all he asked them when they went into action was for each man to kill ono Japanese. If they did that they would win. but if when hard pressed they began to look for a position in the rear or began to think it beyond human endurance to continue the fight they would be destroyed physically as well as losing their reputation" in the eyes of their friends and country. They would find that frequently they would have to fight with local odds against them, but if they fought as sturdily as the Japanese eventually the enemy would be defeated. Always the man who won was the one who fought to the end, whose nerves did not go back on him, and who never thought of anything but the will to victory.