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Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 234, 30 June 1944, Page 5

JAPAN NEXT

Harder U.S. Blows Westward

WHEN SAIPAN FALLS (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received June 29, 7.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, June 28.

“The Japanese mainland, the Philippines, and the greater part of the Dutch East Indies will be our next targets following the complete occupation of Saipan,” said the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Forrestal, who made this prediction in outlining the steady westward advance of American troops since the reoccupation of the Aleutians and the capture of the Solomons a year ago. “That advance,” he said, “has isolated pockets of enemy troops totalling 200,000 men, who are practically out of range of help from their homeland. These groups are in the Marshals, the Gilberts, and the Carolines. “The latest offensive blow against the Mariannes, aimed at the control of Saipan, has already permitted our air and surface fleets to strike still harder westward.”

Mr. Forrestal said that the two great turning pointe in the Pacific war were the battle of. Midway and the conquest of Guadalcanal. He added: “The defeat of the Japanese carrier air forces in. the battle of the eastern Philippines last week benefited the United States greatly. With his fleet aircraft practically annihilated, plus a number of his combatant .ships sunk and damaged, the enemy had no choice than to give up, at least for the time being, his effort to use his fleet to interfere with our operations in the Mariannes.”