JAPANESE STILL SANGUINE

Evening Star, Issue 25400, 3 February 1945, Page 8

JAPANESE STILL SANGUINE

HOPEFUL OF RETAINING SPOILS NEW YORK, February 1. A Spanish missionary who has just arrived here after seven years in Japan, Formosa, and Manchuria was interviewed, and expressed the opinion that Japan will not collapse suddenly, says the Stockholm correspondent of the ' New York Times.' The Japanese, remembering the Wehrmacht's inability to invade England, are convinced that it,will be far harder for the Americans successfully to tackle the Japanese islands, which have been systematically fortified for years. The Japanese do not feel that already they have virtually lost the war. They admit that the 1941 / plunge was a miscalculated gamble, because they believed the German propaganda about the time in which the Russians would be annihilated and the German claims that the United States . was not interested in Europe and was degenerate and unprepared. The Japanese still think they can get away with most of the spoils,' the missionary added. The Japanese are convinced that air power will be unable to knock out Japan. They are bolstering the rice _ supplies with potatoes, < and, in addition, have stored enough rice to last for years. A birth rate of 2,000,000 a year is adding 1,000,000 troops annually.) Japan's most serious losses have been in shipping and steel, for which reason all steel telegraph poles and girders from modern houses, and even elevators from hotels and apartment houses, have 'been requisitioned.