Japan's First Defeat

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 98, 16 August 1945, Page 5

Japan's First Defeat

DISASTER OF FIRST MAGNITUDE TIME-HONOURED TRADITION SHATTERED On the outbreak of war and •-shortly alter the world had been shocked by the bomb-shell of Pearl Harbour the lean spare figure of the Emperor Mikado* of Japan bowed low before the shrines of his seeking the support and connivance of those of his predecessors who had been elevated to the position of national gods. The an,swer ( according to the Tokio broadcasts was strongly in the and the Sumarai (governing military caste) called confidently and joyously to the nation, to join in the new crusade which could not fail as it Jhad J:he divine sanction of the gods. For nearly two years it looked as though the Nippone.se dieties might have been right, Th'e Japanese as a people have been victory-minded for for in their long stormy iiistory they have been singularly •successful in all their military undertakings with a few minor exceptions. The great Russian Empire was heavily defeated in 1904. China has been the victim for untold centuries, and her misery has been mainly responsible for the growing arrogance of hier insular aggressors. The sudden turn of the title last reached its climax exactly a week ago, when the first atomic bomb pulverised Horoshiuia ' and simultaneously war was declarer! by her traditional foe Soviet Russia. ' J broken, and -with im- 1 minent destruction awaiting her the unbelievable has occurred for the Japanese people—her Government sued for peace—unconditional peace anything that would, halt the deadly fate approaching th'e island home of sixty million children of the SunGoddess. Today, the. nation that could nnis"ter fighting men, held 'fourth position in the world's naval Tower t and boasted an air force of crafty lies broken and thoroughly beaten for the first time in her history.