“NOT LICKED YET”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25941, 6 September 1945, Page 5

“NOT LICKED YET”

JAPANESE WAR LORDS AN ADMIRAL’S OPINION (Rec. 8.50 p.m.) ’TOKIO, Sept. 5. Vice-admiral McCain* commander of Task Force 38, after his return from Pearl Harbour from the surrender ceremony on board the Missouri, told the press: “The Japanese war lords are not half licked yet. They will take a lot more killing in the future. I do not like the look in their eyes.” When asked why, Admiral McCain barked: “Listen, baby, they were just measuring us—just as you measure a man when you are going to hit him the next minute. They do not know they are licked yet. They do not know we are better men than they are.” Admiral McCain said he approved of Admiral Halsey’s expressed- desire to kick the Japanese generals in the face, “except it was not in the face that he thought about kicking them.” He described the surrender ceremoney as “quite a pageant. It had colour, drama, and everything. No movie actor could have played the part of General MacArthur better than General MacArthur himself played it. He is just a right, rough, tough guy, and that is what the job needed, and still needs.” Admiral McCain said he was not over-worried about the atomic bomb changing the future of the military methods over-drastically. “You give me enough fast cruisers, let me run them, and they can have the atomic bombs.”