NIPPON'S DILEMMA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 57, 25 May 1942, Page 4

NIPPON'S DILEMMA

SOUTH China coast is now the new scene of fevered Japanese action! Just what nature the comprehensive plan of action the Japanese War Lords are hatching: is hard to devine. Intensive invasion of Burma, from which there is now no re* treat; occupation of the Malay States, and the whole of the Dutch East Indies; and a further mindful conquest south of New Guinea; surely these undertakings are sufficient for any isolated nation such as Japan, with a single home base to shoulder at the one time. Let us endeavour to take the broad view by putting ourselves in Nipponese shoes. So far so good—but in spite of magnificent achievements —up and down the Pacific shores, any further drive south must mean severe mauling—as witness the recent attempt which culminated in the Battle of the Coral Seas. Annies of occupation have yet to effect a semblance of order over populations numbering 150,,000,000. But perhaps the most pressing cause for the Japanese halt is the growing certainty of having backed the wrong horse:. Hitler's dispositions in Russia in spite of the coming of spring are no real improvement upon his winLer emplacements. Instead of aligning herself with a conquering European despot who had but to overthrow a weakened Soviet and a palsied Britain and allow her complete domination in the Pacific, Japan now beholds an ally who may call upon her at any moment to stage a divertionary action on Eastern Siberia. The feint upon the South China coast becomes therefore understandable in the natural reticence of the Japanese commanders to spread their forces too far afield, while there remains' a chance of urgent emergency on Russia's eastern frontiers. The more her forces become consolidated in China, tV.e greater her chances of rendering effectual aid to Hitler by creating a .distraction in the East. Japan knows full well that with Hitler's fall her own. is inevitable. She is therefore faced with the quandary of holding her forces in temporary check, until the outcome of the: Nazi Soviet offensive is more apparant. The; chances of Britain opening up a second front in Europe must therefore give General Togo almost as great a headache as it does Adolf Hitler and his satellites.