STIFF JAPANESE DEFENCE

Southland Times, Issue 25643, 10 April 1945, Page 5

STIFF JAPANESE DEFENCE

MORE U.S. GAINS ON OKINAWA WASHINGTON, April S. The 24th Army Corps on Okinawa yesterday drove into the heavily defended terrain in the south and captured the villages of Uchitomari and Kaniku, says Admiral Nimitz’s communique. The enemy resisted stubbornly from numerous pillboxes and blockhouses. The 24th Corps today made small gains. The enemy used heavy artillery all day and all night. In the northern sector Marines today moved forward 3000 to 4000 yards westward along the Motobu peninsula.

American aircraft are now using captured airfields. Four enemy aircraft appeared over the Okinawa area yesterday and all were shot down. Nine more were destroyed today. Thirty thousand civilians are now under the care of the military government.

The communique adds that carrier aircraft today attacked shipping and installations in the Amami group. A small freighter was set on fire and a lugger destroyed.

The battle for southern Okinawa has developed into a full-scale engagement, reports the correspondent of the Associated Press on the island. American carrier planes, ships’ heavy guns and heavy artillery are supporting the ground forces. Aircraft are strafing and bombing the enemy strongpoints on the Motobu peninsula where the Marines are advancing. The Motobu peninsula is about 10 miles long with about 50 square miles of territory. The terrain is rugged.

BITTER STRUGGLE ON LUZON

Battle Compared With Cassino WASHINGTON, April 9. Tired doughboys passed the 82nd day on the Balete battleline as this decisive fight for north-east Luzon raged bitterly in the Caraballo Mountains, reports the correspondent of the Associated Press of America. Daily gains are measured in yards across the rug T ged mile-high battle ground which the Japanese have cleverly chosen to fortify. After months of battling up the narrow artillery rocked valley, the 25th Divisions’s forward elements are now approximately three miles south of Balete Pass —the only entrance from the south of Cagayan Valley, which is Japan’s Bataan. , Major-General Mullins, commander of the division said that this battle should be compared with Cassino. “We are making the same desperate struggle against the. terrain from which tire enemy cannot be blasted from the air or by artillery, but must be dug out,” he said. PATRIofIF SPIRIT WANTED Admiral Suzuki’s Appeal To Japanese (Rec. 10 p.m.) NEW YORK, April 9. “The present situation was fully foreseen when we were coerced to strike America at Pearl Harbour,” said Admiral Baron Kantaro Suzuki, the new Japanese Prime Minister, in a broadcast speech preceding his assumption to office. “Soon our efforts must be solely for the protection of our homes from invaders.” Admiral Suzuki declared that, despite the loss of Iwojima, the' Japanese had won the battle because of the spiritual blow dealt to the enemy. He admitted that Japan was in a momentous crisis, with the war developments not warranting optimism. He appealed for the people to forget their differences and throw all efforts into the war so that a burning patriotic spirit would break through the crisis confronting the nation.

Tokyo radio said that America, as she always does during Cabinet changes, is spreading rumours that Japan may be Rending out peace feelers, but the Suzuki Cabinet was more powerful than General Kuniaki Koiso’s. The New York Times in an editorial says that if there is any suspicion that the new Japanese Cabinet might genuinely devote itself to seeking peace, that suspicion has been dispelled both by the composition and its first acts. While shunting the more reckless, but incompetent, militarists into the background, the new Cabinet is really a Cabinet of national concentration, formed for tiie purpose of qn even more vigorous prosecution of the war.