ENEMY WEAKNESS IN PACIFIC

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 3 September 1942, Page 5

ENEMY WEAKNESS IN PACIFIC

RESULT OF DISPERSAL New York, Sept. 1. The Japanese are not so strong as their early victories would indicate, declares Mr Joseph Harsch, the “Christian Science Monitor” correspondent. who has just returned from covering the war in the Pacific, but he adds that they are sufficiently strong to fight a long, hard war demanding the utmost exertion from the Allies. “The Allies’ defensive strategy, plus Tokio’s ability to use the same crack troops as the spearheads for successive drives, has given a misleading impression of the size and ability of the Japanese army,” Mr Harsch explains. Actually, Japan seems to possess a relatively small attacking force of first-line troops. She used the same men in Burma. Malaya, the Philippines, and the Netherlands East Indies.”

Mr Harsch makes the following contentions: First, the air battles in the Pacific have been trivial compared with those in Europe, as Japan does not possess a large air force according to modern standards. She also lacks the ability to make large-scale replacements. Secondly, the Japanese High Command shows a surprising mastery of modern strategy and tactics, but the junior officers have not succeeded in eliminating their mediaeval outlook. They are obsessed with a do-or-die determination and waste troops on impossible tasks. Thirdly, the Japanese have succeeded at many points by very narrow margins. Fourthly, the Japanese have weakened themselves by dispersing their strength over too many points. EYES ON AUSTRALIA “The Japanese are very serious in their intention and effort to take Australia,” declared Mr Otto Tolischus, “New York Times” correspondent, who recently returned from Tokio. The Japanese, he said, had always included Australia in their “greater co-prosperity programme, and the Japanese militarists felt that they must conquer Australia and Siberia in order to eliminate such bases for attack. It seemed that the frequent bombings of Darwin indicated that •Darwin and the rest of north Australia was the first objective of the Japanese as a base.

Mr Tolischus said, however, that the American occupation of the Solomon Islands had changed the whole outlook for the Japanese programme regarding Australia.—P.A.