South Yorkshire Times, 28 October 1944
Japan’s Turn
Japan, looking on helplessly while the destruction of German militarism proceeds apace, is now gravely threatened in her turn. Allied air and naval power has grown by leaps and bounds during the period of preparation for the coup de grace in Europe.
The industrial organisation of Britain and America has been so complete that, allied to a growing mastery in the active spheres of conflict, it has created a vast pool of planes and ships from which enough and to spare can be drawn to deal with Germany and Japan at the same time. President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill long ago made it clear that the climaxes of the Western and the Eastern struggles would overlap.
The unenviable priority accorded to Germany was never meant to give Japan a breathing space. Largely through the enterprise of the American fleet, though with ready support from Australia and New Zealand, and a British fleet in the Indian Ocean to help to keep the ring, Japan’s outer bastion of island defences has been cleft. Now General MacArthur is back in the Philippines, as he promised he would be, and a challenge has been thrown down which Japan no longer dare ignore.
For a nation which sets such store by “loss of face,” the Japanese naval commanders have been singularly thick-skinned so far in avoiding a clash at close quarters with the American battle fleet. While their outer defences have been whittled away by a series of well-planned and audacious amphibious operations, they have steadfastly declined to commit themselves to a full-dress naval action. Now that the Americans are developing what may well prove a mortal blow aimed at the sea communications on which all Japan’s conquests depend the Japanese admirals, making a virtue of necessity, have thrown in an important part of their fleet in an attempt to stop the rot. And in a serious trial of strength, they seem to have been definitely worsted. The Japanese have been driven dangerously far back into the protective archipelago which they seized in the days of their early superiority, and at long last have been prodded into attempting a counter attack.
Probably the Philippines were long ago marked out by Japan as the limit of her strategic withdrawals. But if the great action which began this week is taking place roughly in a region of Japan’s choosing, nearer to her main bases than to those of the American fleet, it is taking place also at a spot precisely chosen by General MacArthur, and also at a time nominated by him. With such a preponderance of industrial power on their side, time has been the ally of America and Britain. While Japan has been reluctant to show her hand during the period of Allied infiltration, America has trebled her fleet and, with reduced commitments owing to the collapse of Italy and the driving back to German bases of the U-Boats. British warships have been able to turn East in force. The result is that the Allies can approach the coming fight to the death among the islands of the Pacific with confidence, if not with complacence.
It is at sea that Japan will finally be defeated, for her conquests can never be upheld saved by sea power. America has achieved wonderful things already in an arena whose wide spaces dwarf even the mighty sweep of the Russian campaign, and now in the Philippines, scene of the legendary stand at Bataan and the defiance defence of Corregidor, American Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen have auspiciously opened what may be the decisive battle in the defeat of Japan. It is a prize that will not be wrested from the erstwhile conquerors without the hardest fighting. There is a clear mutual recognition of what is here at stake.