Show 0 U W washington D 0 STRATE GY AGAINST JAPAN back in 1937 38 adm william leahy now chief of 0 staff to the he white house d devised ed a strategy straten against japan wi which aich it if pu put t in into to effect might have hav prevented pearl Harb harbor arand and even eve world war 11 II today the old leahy strategy is being dusted off especially on capitol hill as the best means of finishing the war with japan it would save ave thousands of american lives its proponents claim and would serve as an example of how wars war can be won or prevented by naval blockade the proposals made b by 1 admiral leahy constitute one of 0 th the e most important and unwritten chapters in the history h of what happened shortly before the war began leahy then chief ot of nav naval al operations and one of the best strategists the navy has hai seen in years saw an too clearly what wha t was coming coining both in europe and asia at that time 1937 japan had just begun bee tin her full scale invasion of china and it was leaphys idea to make an example of nippon which would show hitler and L then feeling their oats that the united states meant business and would stand foursquare four square behind the peace machinery of the world therefore Itie he proposed to roosevelt a naval blockade of japan in with the british fleet using the peace machinery of 0 the league of nations and the nine power pact which guarantees the tha sovereignty ot of china leahy argued that by keeping th the e U S N navy avy in the philippines and the british fleet at singapore we could cut off all oil scrap iron copper cotton and other war materials from japan without these he be argued the japanese war machine would be powerless and would fold up in six months leahy figured that the united states would lose its gunboats gun boats on the yangtze river but that aside from this the main U S fleet would not have to fire a single shot british start blockade loc k a d e bt president roosevelt rooseve s agreed g r e e d so did the british and in the late summer of 1937 the british actually de tailed 6 battleships 12 cruisers and 20 destro destroyer to leave british home waters for singapore just at that moment however the axis capitals apparently got wind of what was happening and mussolini started his unofficial submarine campaign off the coast of spain which detained the british fleet at gibraltar the panay incident at any rate the plan to blockade japan following the failure ot of the brussels conference in october 1937 was dropped but admiral leahy revived it again a year lat later er when in december 1938 the japs sank the U S gunboat panay and the british gunboat ladybird leahy recognized this for what it was a deliberate attempt by the jap war lords to test out how much insult the united states would take and to make britain and the USA lose face ace with the chinese accordingly he rushed to the state department and all fae one sunday afternoon december 16 13 1938 one day after the sinking of the panay he urged cordell hull to seize this thi s psychological moment to put the blockade ot of japan into effect the british were also willing to cooperate and leahy pointed out in another year war inevitably breaking out in europe would tie up the british fleet and they could not possibly help us in the pacific russia he also pointed out had bad 60 submarines at vladivostok ready to help us cut off all scrap iron all oil all cotton and copper from japan without these he argued the japanese war machine would be paralyzed pacing the floor ot of hulls office with leahy was hugh wilson ex ambassador to germany and one of 0 the state departments foremost ap pea sers he opposed leahy at every turn finally convinced cautious cordell hull that leahy was too vig orous ordus that it was best to appease japan less than one year later hitler had invaded poland the british fleet was wa desperately needed tp defend british home waters and the fat was in the fire from that point on there was no possible way the united states could blockade ja japan pan though many people have never understood why we went to the opposite extreme and increased our shipments of oil and scrap iron to japan so that she laid in tremendous reserves before pearl harbor japan can be starved but beginning with VE V E day the th possibility of blockading japan for foi the first time since 1839 1939 was completely reversed since VE V E D day ay the th british fleet Is entirely tree free to 0 oper ate in the pacific so are russian bub submarines marines so is the whole might of the U S navy now no longer needed to watch for submarines in the caribbean or the atlantic today it Is possible to throw up ul such a naval blockade around the main jap islands augmented by a ai patrols that hardly a ton ol of ra raw materials could reach jap factories |