A JAPANESE BLUNDER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25176, 17 March 1943, Page 3

A JAPANESE BLUNDER

FAILURE TO ATTACK FIJI VULNERABLE AT OUTBREAK. (Rec. 1.30 a.m.)' LONDON, Mar. 15. "The Japanese made a blundersecond only to their failure to follow up the Pearl Harbour assault when they did not attack Fiji early in 1942,” says the correspondent of the United Press, Mr J. M. Hedstrom, in a despatch from Suva. Before the Pacific war New Zealand had a small, well-trained, but poorly-equipped force there. It was increased after the beginning of hostilities, but the real stuff was a long time coming. The first air protection was provided by five Hudson bombers sent from New Zealand. When things looked very black their pilots frankly expected death within a few days or hours. “The Japanese, however, inexplicably stopped at the Solomons and the Gilberts, when a few boatloads of soldiers and a warship or two certainly could have taken, and probably held, Fiji. This would have presented a menace to New Zealand, and also to the American supply lines to Australia, and made the whole of the Allies’ Pacific strategy more difficult. Even if they were unable to hold the island, the Japanese could have used a fraction of the men and ships expended on Guadalcanar for destroying docks, warehouses and other facilities and making them useless for a military base for many months.

“ We were as vulnerable as a whale’s underside,” Mr Hedstrom added, “but remained unmolested, for which we, too, are thankful and seek an explanation. Now we can thumb our noses at the enemy, and say, ‘ Let them come; Britain and the Yanks are ready.’ ”