Myth of Jap Super-soldier Gone Forever

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 221, 17 September 1943, Page 5

Myth of Jap Super-soldier Gone Forever

ALLIED MEN POUR TO ONE BETTER Received Thursday, 8.40 p.m. SOMEWHERE IN AUSTRALIA. The Japanese had no chance of winning in New Guinea and the Solomons and there were signs that the morale of their troops was cracking. This statement was made by MajorGeneral H. H. Fuller, commander of the United States Forty-first Division which has distinguished itself iu some of the hardest New Guinea fighting. “Man to man I would put the Australian and American as a four to one better soldier than the Japanese,” he declared. “Our men have greater flexibility of mind, they are more resourceful and ingenious and they are never in a rut. The individual ingenuity of the Allied soldier in meeting difficult situations will alone win battles for us. Our equipment is better and we have better gunners.”

General Fuller warned that although Japanese morale was not as high as earlier in the war there was a lot of fight left in him. 1 ‘However, the idea that the Japanese is a superman and something mysterious has gone forever. Our troops know how to combat him and this outlook quickly permeates new troops coming into the battle areas. The total defeat of the Japanese in New Guinea is only a matter of time. The enemy is now on the reverse end of what we faced at the beginning.”