THE AVENGERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 39, 12 January 1945, Page 4

THE AVENGERS

OVERWHELMING in numbers, sea-power and air mastery, the avenging armies of American Democracy are sweeping up the beaches of Luzon Island preparatory to initiating the all-out battle for Manila. Tojo's treacherous attack upon the Phillipines three years ago, has cost his country dear. In six hundred ships of varying tonnage, the invasion armada has returned to take vengeance for that stab in the back, which awoke Americans to the true realities of the war. So vast and devastating has been the preliminaries to tjje landing that General Mac Arthur, has been able to report that the first landings were effected without a single casualty. Japan, has at long last been permitted to appreciate something of the armed might of the powers she has challenged. # As division after fighting division is landed the Imperial Japanese War. Council, might well take stock of not merely the position as it rules in the Phillipines today, but also the ultimate outcome of the war .which it has provoked. The vision of the combined war resources of the Allied powers being flung against the Island Empire, is not a pleasant one. The 'Hope of Asia,' under Japanese domination as Tojo once described the Japanese Malayan offensive, shines but fitfully under the shadow of this new and mounting American war of redemption. What of the future! This latest Allied action can be taken only as a prelude to is bound to come later as the attack gathers weight and is consolidated. From a dozen neighbouring points ithe Japanese islands will be attacked from the air. Military and industrial targets will be* ceaselessly hammered, until the time is ripe for the invasion and finaj conquest of Japan herself. In spite of all the brave words from the Domei radio it is known that Japan's air force is but a shadow of its former self; that her navy has suffered grevious losses which dannot be replaced, and that her army has already lost most of its' first line troops. These facts to any European nation would appear disastrous' but we must not forget the glib statement of Japanese spokesman in 1941: "We are prepared to sacrifice, ten million men in this war, in which Japan must emerge as the dominant power of the world." The Allies are therefore, still faced with the serious prospect of a war of extermination in which will %ure: the fanatical little yellow warrior by the million.