JAPANESE LOSSES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 56, 16 March 1943, Page 7

JAPANESE LOSSES

ALL THEATRES OF WAR

AN AMERICAN ESTIMATE

American Intelligence officers had estimated that Japan had lost in all theatres of Avar since the, Pearl Harbour attack 2,">0,000 men killed or permanently injured, the United States Secretary of the Navy, Colonel Knox, told the annual convention of the National Association of Manufacturers early in December. Of these approximately H7,()(*() were naval men, a number equivalent to 10 per cent, of the Japanese naval personnel. United States naval losses Avere about one per cent of personnel and. the estimated cohiparatiive losses of ships and aircraft were equally encouraging, "Wo have a larger and more powerful navy, measured in tonnage, air power, or anything else, than the day before Pearl Harbour —or after Pearl Harbour,'' Colonel Knox said. He acknowledged that. America in her war effort had displaj r ed "timidity, hesitancy, inefficiency, confusion. waste and all the other things the critics said," but added: "We also have converted the greatest peaceful plant, into the. greatest arsenal in history. "We have maintained the four freedoms and solvency at home, have equipped armies in the South Pacific, Britain and Africa, and have our Navy on all the seas —-and it lias no apologies for its performance to date. ">We have mounted offensives in two hemispheres. As long as we overlook our failures, there is not.lv-. ing immoral in takiing a little comfort. from our success so far. This has been America's best run of the war." On the debit side, Colonc 1 Knox cited 50,0DD Americans, killed or missing since Pearl Harbour. A further staggering total of 46,000,000,000 dollars had been spent so far in 1942 on munitions and war construction.