VICTORY IN 1944

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 December 1943, Page 3

VICTORY IN 1944

PREDICTED BY TOJO CONFERENCE OF. LEADERS CALLED. IN VIEW OF THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) NEW YORK, December 8. The Japanese Prime Minister, General Tojo, in a message to his people on the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbour, predicted victory in 1944, but warned that the war cannot be won easily. “We have already seen hardships,” he said. “Whether we taste hardships under British and American suppression depends on this war. We must pledge ourselves anfew to prosecute the war with every effort. The enemy wishes to crush us by means of crafty methods, but we must crush them with our real power. We must concentrate our effort to increase our fighting strength and must pledge ourselves to enter the third year of the war—which, will be our year—to win.” Tojo described the Cairo agreement to crush Japan as “dream talk.” It was announced that Tojo has summoned an extraordinary conference of Japanese leaders for December 22 in view of the “gravity of the present situation,”

/ An Imperial rescript claimed that Japanese naval and air forces destroyed the “bulk of the enemy fleet in the Gilbert area.” It added that the war situation in that area was continuing to grow in intensity.

AIR CONTROL LOST IN SOUTH PACIFIC. TOKIO RADIO ADMISSION. (By Telegraph-Press Association—Copyright) CHUNGKING. December 8. The Tokio official radio, broadcasting for home consumption the “true state of affairs,” said: “The Allied air strength is so great that our troops in the South Pacific after enemy air bombings look about and say in surprice, ‘Where have the Japanese planes gone?’ Once, twice, thrice and even four and five times enemy planes have attacked. At first our planes intercepted the Allies, but our petrol supplies and ammunition soon ran out, so our planes had to land and still the enemy kept attacking.” The broadcast specially 1 mentioned Bougainville, Guadalcanal, Rendova and New Georgia as places where “Japanese supply lines have been cut one after another, which has necessitated shifting our positions. That is regrettable, but as soon as we have enough planes we shall counter-at-tack.”

The commentator admitted that the Allies, by virtue of numerical strength, had established beach-heads where the Japanese defences were weak and then sent out planes in wave after wave cutting off supplies. “The Japanese have scored successes,” he said, “but have failed to dislodge the enemy after surprise landings because air control is in the hands of the side with the larger number of planes.”