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Show J Honolulu War Diary le followine article, published 1 in the "Honolulu Advertiser" under 5 the heading of "Honolulu War J Diary" gives us an idea of the im- porunce of the task facing the i United Nations in the war with f Japan as seen by a man who b i in : position to know the reol situ- i'llon in the Pacific. The column, jji written by I.nselle Oilman of the "Advertiser." glvrs a clear picture of what the ,eo:lf of the Pacific ,v expect to fa(e before Japan is con. I quered. J As the title indicates, this is pre- e is'imatly a diary of the war. and so S it lias Ixrn since December 7. 1941, , but lately there hasn't been much $ .,ib')Ut tlie war in it. Bv "the war" H we mean the war with Japan in the Pacific. When certain bigwigs j 3ti Washing ton. London and Algiers speak of "the war," they mean the war in Europe. They say: "The war will be over in 1944," or 1945 or j i948. The British are singing a little t:kty about how they are going to (jet all It up when the war Ls over ). Thats means when Hitler Ls licked. After the war with Hitler is over '.f urul the initial celebration has I worn down to a morning.after handover, a ureal many people are ; j;oing to come to and realize with an aching shock that the war Isn't : over' after all, because Japan is still ' i fighting confidently to gain mastic mast-ic riy of the world or at least of ., ; comparatively little attention to t Asia and the Pacific basin. The 4 "United Nations have thus far paid i Jtpan, aside from leaving it up to U. S. forces to try to hold them where they ate. Japan Is far away, nut! so Is the war we are fighting with her. To people in Russia and England and the United States, the battles we are waging out here have a slightly unreal quality, when ret.d about in the morning papers. In the past couple of weeks there has been a lot of fighting, though un n scale overshadowed by tne ! ; ntrnlc MrusclPs in Italy and on , i ihe steppes of Russia. We invaded Choiseul in the northern Solomons. . Jer instance, and then landed on ..j Bougainville. A night naval en gagement was (ought off Empress Augusta Bay. the longest naval engagement en-gagement the VS. Fleet has ever tought in this war. The marines Mormed ashore on Bougainville in a tiopical downpour augmented by a rain of iron from the stubborn Jaianese defenders, and after winning win-ning their beach head and being reii.forced by Army troops, proceeded pro-ceeded to buttle their way slowly inland through some of the strongest strong-est enemy positions, thickest JungU n:CL muddiest swamiw our fighting nun have ever had to face. The long-cautions Japanese fleet then beg!n to move out of Us den at Truk, persistently attempted to lemforce its bomb.battered garri-Rin garri-Rin at the great Rabaul base. It moved south in a series of con-vo's, con-vo's, which, as soon as spotted, we re subjected to a terrific aerial onslaught, both at sea anH in Rabaul harbor. Squadrons of heavy bombers thundered over the volcanoes vol-canoes rimming Rabaul day and n'.pht, and the devastation wr.s tremendous. Scores of . Jap planes uite shot down or smashed on the srot.nd; dozens of enemy warships, troop transports and freighters were sunk and their wreckage lit. lead the tropical beaches for miles. It was claimed at Allied headquar-. i,er in the Southwest Pacific that this blitz had doomed Japan's last tlnrice to the Solomons. Yet every morning, when our reconnaissance p In nes returned to the scene of destruction, they discovered new Jap fleet units had arrived. And despite our complete mastery of the air. the enemy succeeded in ferrying ferry-ing reinforcements to their defenders defend-ers at Bougainville. He also succeed -eil In raiding our advanced island bases at Nanumea and Funafuti. Tills ability of the Japs to de. fend themselvea and reinforce their garrisons and bases should in itself civc us some understanding of the strength and tenacity of the foe. Obviously they have plenty In restive, re-stive, and to spare. We have sunk thi-lr ships in sea battles and from the air, and our subs have sunk hem along their supply lanes, but they are still coming When It reems we have cleared out their last aerial resistance, new swarms of Zeroes rise to meet our squadrons. squad-rons. Their soldiers are slaughtered In the Jun?le and on the beach bv the hundreds, and thousands more npirar to take their places. If any of our Axis enemies Ls a hydra -beaded monster, It Ls Japan. After k!x venrs bogged down In the terrible China campaign, Japan is still capable of launching new oflensives. not only up the Yangtze nntf old battlegrounds, but along the P.uima Road across the Salween. We have ostensibly opened a drive Into Burma, thoimh we have not mcf. the main line of resistance y. I Cur sporadic bombing raids ober Burma and over the East Indies ate like mosquito attacks on a soldier advancing In the jungle: l.:vy annoy him very much, but o'iiprise him small damage, nii. they do f.pt make him retrpat. I Occasonnlly someone arises to j remind lis that we sadly underrate Japanese ability to replace lasses, ap'l underestimate their war production pro-duction caidiniy. A statesman here, ' n repatriate from Jap Internment c.nnps there, art ex-ambassador, a neutral traveler sometimes tpeaks out The other day It was, appropriately. appro-priately. Armistice Day Admiral Niiv.it z hlnueir said, at Pearl Harbor, Har-bor, that while the time for action mid attack had come with our gathering gath-ering strength there was still 1 much ' lonj and bloody fighting nhfnd. It would not be easy. ,Whm they hear. In Washington i aiul London, that "the war" Ls not i .v.iltc over with Hitler's defeat, it may be something of a rude awaken-! awaken-! Inn |