EARLY ONE MORNING . . . .

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 200, 7 January 1942, Page 4

EARLY ONE MORNING . . . .

JAPAN'S hour of triumph is now. Each new engagement, be it instigated by treachery or not, in the eyes of her people adds laurels to the sacred cause of the unbeaten Children of the Sun Goddess. The news of the successive falls of Thailand, of Hongkong, of Manila, have served to. strengthen their belief in the justice of their cause and the invincible nature of their armies. On the sea the sinking of two of Britain's mightiest ships have further served to swell the glow of superiority felt by the average Japanese for the: pale faced foreigners. All this is food for the inflated idea,, of which she is a chronic sufferer, that nothing can stand in her path, or seriously challenge her strength, without risk of annihilation. The initial victories of her new venture have led to a spirit of intoxication which has endorsed the old beliefs one hundredfold. Blind will she be to the gathering storm in America, to the new armies gathering their legions from India, from the Pacific,, and from the Indies. By swift treacherous action, she has gained temporary command of the sea in the, Eastern waters. Undisputed was her passage of troops to the Philippines. No challenge of any major nature has yet been forthcoming. But, early one morning must come the great news of the American counter blow, of the concerted movement of the British froces under the unified command of the strategist of the first Libyan campaign—General WaveU, and of the forward thrust of the gallant Chinese under the patriot Chiang Kai Chek. All this has yet to come, and it will come as sure as the sun rises. Japan has flung down the gauntlet by inviting a struggle which for her will spell either complete domination in the Pacific or else the elimination of herself as a nation. There can be no half measures, for the nature of her opening hostilities left no room to doubt that hers will be no 'gentleman's war.' Japan is engaged, in a life and death struggle, formented by the militarist Government which took office at the moment when American-Japanese relations were almost at breaking point. For her there can be no turning back and she will not hesitate to employ all the ghastly methods a,t her disposal before finally admitting defeat. The war in the Pacific will therefore be a long and bitter one, but the tide must turn. To the anxious peoples of Australasia must inevitably come news in the near future of the first combined and co-ordinated a,ction by land,, sea and air against the third member of the hated Axis powers. Behind this offensive will be the driving power of the twenty-six nations who are the signatories to the Anti-Axis pact.