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Show Our Japanese Foes Are Proving Themselves to Be Original, Sly, Progressive and Fanatical Fighters , 1 I 4 ' i , I " 1 6 Vf'i 'A - - sxVjf JT , J Sons of Nippon Educated And Trained for New Typo Of War Now Being Waged liy WALTKK SIIF.AD WNU C ashinRltm Correspondent. WASHINGTON. When you read that "all organized resistance re-sistance has ended" on Leyte, Samar, Mindoro or any other of the thousands of islands in the Philippines or the Micro-nesian Micro-nesian or Melanesian archipelagos archi-pelagos in the Southwest Pacific, Pa-cific, you will know that General Gen-eral MacArthur's Yanks have met and beaten a well-trained, well equipped, fanatical foe that meets the American soldier sol-dier on equal terms in almost every fighting quality. These sons of Nippon are hardened hard-ened in endurance, trained in repression, re-pression, wild and cunning, steeped In militarism from early boyhood and brought up under a system of leudalism which has disciplined Jap fighters will tenaciously and fanatically hold on to a defensive position without thought of the cost in life. Here it was necessary to use a flame thrower on the Nips. Note the GI in the left foreground with rifle noised in knnrk nft fVio fircf no n,hn nnnc ,In tion that to die for their emperor is the highest duty of a good soldier. What the Japanese soldier lacks nd what the American soldier pos-lesses pos-lesses is resourcefulness and individual indi-vidual initiative. When the Japs are :ommittd to a plan, they always ollow it to the end . . . even if it Decomes apparent within a short lime after the fighting starts that lome other plan would be more effective. When an officer is killed, the initiative of the entire unit is Impaired unless some other officer Df equal rank appears to take his place. The system of feudalism which characterizes Japanese life would be Incomprehensible to most Americans. Amer-icans. His station in society and his every act are predetermined for dim. Contrary to the common fallacy fal-lacy that Japs are more stolid than ather persons, he is a highly emo- l i mi nese losses in killed alone since 1937 total approximately 850,000. More than 250.000 Jap soldiers are now isolated through action of General MacArthur and the Pacific fleet in island pockets, removed from battle, bat-tle, relief or rescue. The war department de-partment says that the Japs are nowhere near the bottom of the barrel bar-rel in fighting reserves, and can equip and train 2,000,000 more soldiers sol-diers without seriously affecting war production manpower reserves. This does not include the added millions who might be "recruited" from subject sub-ject nations. Comparison of the average Japanese Japa-nese soldier with the average American Amer-ican shows the Jap a much smaller man physically. He is 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 117 pounds. He can lift 150 pounds with his feet together, bringing the weight to his knees, to shoulder and then to his j back. The average American soldier sol-dier is about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 145 pounds. Military training of the Jap soldier begins at the age of eight years along with his regular education, edu-cation, if at that time he is mentally men-tally and physically fit. Educationally Educa-tionally the background of the typical Japanese professional soldier sol-dier Is as high as that of the typical typ-ical American fighting man. The regular professional Jap soldier has had the equivalent of two years of high school education, which equals the median level of the average American soldier in this war. , Able to read and write in Japan is 99.6 per cent of the adult population popula-tion and between 40 and 50 per cent of all Japanese soldiers have studied English, while between 20 and 25 per cent speak English efficiently. The cunning of the Japanese is indicated in-dicated in their employment of ruses in their operations. A few encountered encoun-tered to date include employment of lighted cigarettes, firecrackers, barking dogs and moving vehicles to lead defenders to believe the main attack would be made; use of the English language to confuse our soldiers; use of the name of certain individuals and when "the person addressed ad-dressed showed himself he was shot; use of booby traps on dead Allied and Japanese troops to detonate when the body was moved; placing a dead Allied soldier. in a conspicuous conspicu-ous place with an automatic weapon covering it. Thus when Allied troops attempted to remove the body, they were shot; when badly wounded, or apparently dead, Japanese troops have produced hand grenades from their clothing and attempted to kill medical personnel going to their aid; use of the white flag of truce to get close to Allied troops. Japanese Conscription Laws. Peacetime conscription of Japanese Japan-ese calls for two years of military service for all males between the ages of 17 and 40 except for physically phys-ically unfit and those guilty of certain cer-tain crimes. Military training begins be-gins with physically able-bodied children at the age of eight (third grade pupils) who get at least two hours of drill weekly. Army vouth afternoon, marching constantly without with-out rest periods. An entire battalion can march more than 20 miles a day. The principle of "no retreat" is a part of this training and a small detachment, caught in a tight place, cannot appeal for reinforcements. The officer in charge may make a report of his predicament, but the matter of insisting upon reinforcement reinforce-ment is beyond his prerogatives. The unwritten law of the Japanese Jap-anese army is that any soldier captured by the enemy must "atone" for his disgrace later by committing suicide. Rigid training of commissioned and noncommissioned officers is carried car-ried out at several army schools and although the system is narrow and arbitrary and inflexible in its system of indoctrination, it is progressive, pro-gressive, thorough and modern. However, its rigidity often has inhibited in-hibited originality in thought and action. ac-tion. The schools include the Military Mili-tary Academy, six military preparatory prepara-tory schools and four noncommissioned noncommis-sioned officers' schools. The Japanese constitution provides pro-vides that the emperor is commander-in-chief of the army and navy; that he determines their organization; organiza-tion; and that he declares war, makes peace and concludes treaties. He is advised by two military councils, coun-cils, the board of marshals and admirals, ad-mirals, and the supreme military council. To date a major Japanese weakness has been in artillery, especially in variety, concentration concentra-tion and marksmanship. Weapons Weap-ons over 47-mm. captured to date bear model numbers earlier ear-lier than 1936. Japan has had access to German designed weapons for some years and it may be assumed that guns embodying em-bodying German features may soon be encountered. Japanese engineers are well equipped and have shown outstanding outstand-ing ability both in construction and demolition of bridges. On the other hand, airfields and roads so far encountered en-countered have not been up to Allied standards in speed of construction or serviceability. Construction of field fortifications has been highly developed and even at remote points, Jap engineers have been successful suc-cessful in constructing first class defense de-fense positions from material immediately im-mediately available. Weight of the ration for Japanese soldiers as compared with Americans' Ameri-cans' is about two-thirds, or slightly over four pounds. The average ration ra-tion in active theaters is about 3y2 pounds and, because of supply failure, fail-ure, this ration has often been reduced re-duced to a half or a third of that amount. The standard or normal ration consists largely of rice and barley, fresh meat and fish, fresh vegetables, and various condiments and flavorings. Every American soldier has learned by experience that the Japs are hard, fanatical fighters and in defensive action will often hold out to the last man. They place a low value on human lifp an An Tlus uupturtrd Jap 70-mm. howuzer bears a model number prior to 1936. Nippon's major weakness is in its rtillery, especially In variety construction con-struction and In marksmanship of rew. This howitzer was used as ft booby trap. tional person, and this system of feudalism which trains him in repression re-pression accounts for bis tendency to "blow up" in tight places. It also iccounts, in part, for the futile death charges which seem to have become characteristic of the Japanese when they are admittedly beaten. The life-long repression and the resultant result-ant inhibitions also account for the arrogance of the Jap soldier in victory vic-tory and, conversely, for his tendency tenden-cy to fly to pieces in defeat. Hara-kiri is in no way a sign f cowardice on the part of the Jap soldier, for by this peculiarly peculiar-ly painful method of committing suicide, he is actually. In his own mind, telling his emperor, a semi-divine personage, that he has done all he can for him and is now presenting him with his own life. The most widely believed popular fallacy concerning the Japanese is that they' are an imitative rather than a creative people. Japanese inventiveness is considerable and is limited only by a scarcity of tech-Bitally tech-Bitally trained manpower and by machine power. The army endorses the viewpoint that the Jap soldier is a good fighting fight-ing man and the belief that he is a stupid, insensate peasant is, according ac-cording to the war department, completely com-pletely erroneous. Japanese Army Reduced. The Japanese army today numbers num-bers approximately 4.000.000 men. To date. American troops have killed almost 300.000 Japanese troops while sustaining about 25.000 casualties themselves. Total Japa- i soldiers. 14 and 15 years, begin an apprenticeship in military training and when they become of age they are rated by the army as superior privates. Later they are made into lance corporals and upon graduation gradua-tion from school, become corporals After six years' service the corporal may become a sergeant-major and upon ten years' service he is promoted pro-moted to warrant officer. One of the distinguishing characteristics charac-teristics of the Japanese soldier is his hardiness, and special patrols, starting at midnight, have been known to cover 60 miles by the next iiu, .UWH the loss in taking an objective. Our war with the Japs has further taught us that the Japs know of no such thing as impassable terrain, that speed is one of their cardinal tactical tac-tical principles. They take full advantage ad-vantage of natural cover and understand un-derstand thoroughly the importance of camouflage-One camouflage-One thing, however, although they believe strongly in sudden offensive action they often attack premature ly. and despite their extensive train ing and confidence in the bayonet they have not been outstanding in close combat. |
