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Show Hundreds of Islands in Pacific Lie In Path of Allies' March to Tokyo (Exclusive to Western Newspaper Union by the National Geographic Society.) v. and convenient gaps in the surrounding surround-ing reef, provides a perfect haven for the constant traffic of the Japanese Japa-nese fleet. Ponape, 130 square miles, is the largest single island of the Japanese Mandate. Still further across toward the funnel's fun-nel's eastern edge are the Marshalls, some 32 islands and innumerable reefs, many enclosing broad, well-sheltered well-sheltered lagoons. Closest to Honolulu Hono-lulu (2,300 miles to its southwest) they might have been the springboards spring-boards for the Pearl Harbor attack. Less than two months after Pearl Harbor, the United States navy made a brilliant surprise raid that damaged Japanese planes and ships at Jaluit, Wotje, Maloelap and Kwajalein in the Marshalls. M arshalls Menace Shipping Nearest to Panama and the Pacific Pacif-ic coast of America as well as to Hawaii, the Marshalls threaten the vital American supply line to Australia. Aus-tralia. From them America could threaten many strategic Japanese bases. Turning southeast across the line of the Japanese Mandate without leaving Micronesia, the armchair strategist finds Great Britain's Gilbert Gil-bert group 16 low, barren atolls-ribbons atolls-ribbons of coral rock from 10 to 50 miles long. Promptly after Pearl Harbor the Japanese seized the northern Gilberts and began the work of converting Makin atoll into a well-equipped base from which to launch seaplane raids on the shipping ship-ping lane from Hawaii to Australia. The subsequent attack by the United Unit-ed States navy on the Makin island construction brought the Gilberts their first world-wide notice. The 16 flat Gilbert atolls are over-populated. over-populated. Their 28,000 natives average 160 to the square mile of land good only for growing cocoa-nuts cocoa-nuts and pandanus palms. Fewer than 100 white people live there. Three-fourths of the natives are literate, lit-erate, while smallpox and other diseases dis-eases imported by whites have wreaked havoc to populations on many neighboring Pacific isles. Health on the Gilberts is good and births continue to exceed deaths. Today, from bases at Darwin and on Cape York, Australia's northern tips, and from Guadalcanal Flying Fortresses can range 1,500 miles toward Tokyo. Thus they can guard sea lanes and strike Japanese ships and bases anywhere in the Carolines, Marshalls and Gilberts. Within the area of the Japanese Mandate only Guam and the curving arc of Marianas Mari-anas to its north are beyond range of United Nations bases on Australia and Guadalcanal. The Marianas lie in the funnel's collector close to its junction with its tube. The armchair strategist, away from his war productioi Pacific ocean war theater, words of President Roosevel period of our defensive attrit He settles down to work out h the Pacific. How will the Unite Will the conquest be step by step backward through the Netherlands Indies, Malaya, Burma, the Philippines? Philip-pines? Will it be from interior China by way of the coast where Japan has been tightening her foothold foot-hold for five years? Will it be by way of Alaska and the Aleutians, or from Siberia? Can it be done across 2,500 miles of open ocean from Midway Mid-way at the western edge of the Hawaiian Islands? Will it perhaps be across more than 3,000 miles of island-studded but little-known Pacific Pa-cific from the present hard-held positions po-sitions on New Guinea and on Guadalcanal Guad-alcanal in the Solomons? First Part Scene of Battle Starting from New Guinea and Guadalcanal, the maze of small but strategic islands on a map resemble the outpouring of a giant pepper shaker in the hands of cartographers gone berserk. Starting the march, Malaita, Santa San-ta Isabel, Choiseul and the New Georgia group with its notorious Japanese air field at Munda, are neighbors of Guadalcanal in the British Protectorate portion of the Solomons. In the heart of Melanesia ("black islands"), these are large compared to their neighbors of Micronesia ("little islands") to the north. Their inhabitants are ebony-dark, ebony-dark, unresponsive to attempts at civilizing, still inclined to break out in spells of inter-tribal head hunting. First discovered in 1567, they were "lost" for 200 years before be-fore new exploration confirmed their existence. American fighting men, writing home from Guadalcanal, rave of the islands' lush, tropical beauty. The western portion of the first group belonged to Germany before the First World war and was mandated man-dated to Australia in post-war settlements. settle-ments. It includes large Bougainville Bougain-ville and little Buka, westernmost of the Solomons, each with a harbor that has sheltered Japanese ships gathering for attack farther east. It includes the sweeping arc of the Bismarck Archipelago New Britain with the captive base at Rabaul, New Ireland, New Hanover and the St. Matthias and Admiralty groups. It Includes the steaming, mountainous, mountain-ous, eastern half of gigantic New Guinea, with such new household place names as indomitable Port enjoying a few waking hours i job, scans a large map of the In his ears ring encouraging t to the 78th congress: "The ion in the Pacific is passing." lis own solution to the battle of :d Nations forces reach Tokyo? s Moresby, liberated Buna, captive Lae and Salamaua. Just across the Equator lies Micronesia, the middle stage of the "march." The 1,500 islets, mostly of coral formation, are scattere.d like star dust over an area the size of the United States. North of their center is Guam, and to their east are the Philippines. This entire region fell rather easily to the United States as part of its conquest in the Spanish-American war. Unprepared to defend all of it, America held on to the Philippines Philip-pines and Guam, but handed the rest back to Spain. Spain then handed hand-ed it to Germany for 4 million dollars. dol-lars. Japan seized it from her present pres-ent ally promptly with the start of war in 1914. At the peace table the Allies entrusted the islands to Japan, Ja-pan, stipulating that they should not be fortified. Thus America's Philippines Philip-pines and steppingstone island of Guam became surrounded by a Japanese Jap-anese controlled sea. Islands Fortified by Japs Key island groups in the Carolines, Caro-lines, the Marshalls and the Marianas Mari-anas were secretly fortified. Barred to foreign visitors, the islands remained re-mained unknown even to the seasoned sea-soned globe-trotters who hunted for island paradises and knew every corner of Honolulu, Pago Pago and Manila. From such strong bases .as those on the Palau and Truk islands, is-lands, Japan may have launched her attacks on Hawaii, the Philippines, the Netherlands Indies and the island is-land neighbors of Australia. From Rota and Saipan it was no surprising surpris-ing military coup to overwhelm and capture near-by unfortified Guam. The Palau group, nearest the Philippines, combines coral and volcanic vol-canic isles. It has been described as the Japanese Singapore, seat of the entire Japanese South Seas government, gov-ernment, hive of new industry and agriculture, magnificent fleet and air base. To the northeast Yap, despite a poor harbor, is a naval station. Many islets dot the 40-mile lagoon of Truk. Ideal for yachting, blessed with a wealth of natural color and the year-round even temperature of all Micronesia, Truk could be a paradise para-dise of international fame. Instead, its great lagoon, with deep water Last Leg of March to Tokyo And now the strategist enters the tube of the funnel, the third and last leg of his imaginary "march" on Tokyo. The course is through a sea where volcanic islands come and go and coral reefs are a threat to navigation. navi-gation. Kazan Retto, 800 miles from the Tokyo goal, is a group of volcanic vol-canic islands, units of which are shown on old charts by such names as "Sulphur Island" and "Submarine Volcano Island." |
