SQUALLS AHEAD IN THE PACIFIC

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 47, 12 February 1943, Page 4

SQUALLS AHEAD IN THE PACIFIC

IT is without parallel to see the withdrawal of the Japanese forces from Guadalcanar in the Solomons linked with the spineless admission of the Tokyo radio that after so much expenditure of lives and war material, the Japanese High Command has been forced to withdraw. What lies between this removal of men so unlike the Nipponese character so apart from the accepted rules laid down by the Imperial Cabinet? Fanatical defence to the last, supported by unlimited reinforcements and weight of war material —this is how we have come to understand the Japanese mind. To-day however unbelievable it may seem we 'have the picture of a straightout Japanese defeat and the: cultured voice of the Tokyo announcer admitting the fact and dismissing it in a few asides to the effect th&t 'the forces on Guadalcanar had achieved their purpose:.' If we know anything of Japanese cunning we can read between the lines the portents of new and greater activity in the Pacific than hitherto, based however upon altered strategy and bent towards a new and possibly easier objective. In other words the futility of attacking Australia by way of forces and supplies based on the Solomons Islands and New Guinea, has been recognised by Tojo and his War Cabinet. Other means will be found, if we know anything of the Japanese "face" complex, and after all the Imperial Navy has the whole vast sweep of the Pacific wherein to operate if it still desires to push forward its avowed conquest. This aspect should not be lost on New Zealand which has already fortified the outlying islands off its northern shores as outposts against a possible attempt at invasion. The alternative, that Japan has endured suffi' cient of the wastage engendered by her grandoise conquest of Australia and has actually had enough, will not stand inspection for a moment. The Island Empire of the Mikado has still the third most powerful navy in the world—weakened in one respect only, aircraft carriers. She is a nation which can and will when the time arrives maintain an army of 10,000,000 men in the field. The few thousands engaged in the South Pacific venture can be regarded therefore as a mere pin prick. The loss of the: whole force, even if it comprised 50,000 or 100,000 men is scarcely going to. deter her from her objectives, particularly when she has pledged herself to the world and her own people that the whole of the lands of the Pacific will be Japan's before the war is ended. No, the Guadalcanar incident cannot be regarded for an instant as signilising the close of the Pacific offensive. Rather it should serve to put us all the more acutely on our guard, so that we shall be in readiness for the next blow which is likely to fall from a cunning and a treacherous foeman. 0