JAPANESE ARMY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24821, 18 February 1944, Page 3

JAPANESE ARMY

THE DECISIVE FACTOR GENERAL MacARTHUR'S VIEW (Rf-cd. 8.45 p.m.) SYDNEY. Feb. 17 Japan had become a great Continental Power, and could not be defeated through blockade and bombing alone, General Mac Arthur told war correspondents. He was discussing recent successes in the South-west _ Pacific, in which blockade and bombing played a great part. "Japan's greatest potential is on the land rather than on the sea or in the air," said General Mac Arthur. "Her strongest military element is the army, which must be defeated before success is assured. "Blockade and bombing alone are both powerful weapons, but in modern warfare decisive results can be achieved only by the combined forces of army, naval and air action. "It is useless and misleading to talk of short cuts. They do not exist. It is the teamwork of a united and wellbalanced command used as a unit, and not a preponderance of any one element, that is essential to victory. "Just as is the case with Germany," General Mac Arthur continued, "we must defeat Japan's army. Our strategy Inust devise ways and means to bring our ground forces into contact with the enemy at decisive points. "The old concept of Japan as predominantly a maritime nation, based upon her Island Empire, is no longer factual. With her immense holdings on the Asiatic Continent —Manchuria, Korea and Northern China, to say nothing of her southern mainland conquests—she has become intrinsically a Continental Power. Her outlying islands of the Pacific represent an outpost position, important it is true, but no longer decisive."