OCR Text |
Show 'Hirohito Now' Strategy Gains New Proponents New Line of Argument Developed in Favor Of Immediate Action Against -Japanese Empire. me J By BAUKHAGE Veujs Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1343 H Street. N-W, Washington, D. C. Some weeks ago the story of the real purpose of the visit to America of Madame Chiang Kai-shek was told in these columns. Since then it has been confirmed by unofficial statements credited to "Chinese quarters" that her mission was a show-down fight for an immediate offensive of-fensive against Japan. In the interim in-terim two things have taken place. The Chinese government has let it be known unofficially that it realizes that America is so occupied elsewhere else-where that a drive on Japan with China as a base cannot be expected at the moment. This would seem to be a retreat. It may be only a demarche, for suddenly, from several sev-eral other quarters including Australian Aus-tralian and Dutch with many American Amer-ican voices echoing in between, the demand for "Hirohito Now" action is being heard. It may be team work. The Chinese course so far is this: Chiang Kai-shek, discouraged because be-cause of the futility of his pleas for additional supplies and help and America's failure to replace certain supposedly unsympathetic American representatives in Chungking, he or- down the airplane's offensive power. First, there is the improvement of anti-aircraft guns and second, increased in-creased experience in anti-aircraft warfare. I talked to a British -naval officer who had been aboard two convoys which fought their way to Murmansk and three that weathered the fierce attacks in the Mediterranean Mediter-ranean taking supplies to Malta. He emphasized the fact that green gun crews could not meet the onslaught of the dive bomber. Trained crews could. I talked with an American naval officer who had been through Coral sea and the battles in the Solomons. He said that the anti-aircraft defense de-fense of our most modern warships was such that fighter plane defense was hardly necessary, that time and again it had been proved that this 'new equipment could raise a wall of fire which rendered air attack by the Japs futile. Now, how does this affect the "Hirohito now" argument? This way: We cannot leave Japan alone until we are quite ready and then expect to finish her off with an overwhelming airforce. As this is written, in spite of the constant and terrific bombing by Allied planes, the Japs have been able to complete and operate an airbase at Buna, the nearest Jap outpost to Guadalcanal. And further, the Allies, in spite ol mass raids, devastating to ordinary buildings, have not been able to destroy de-stroy the German submarine bases and submarine plants. Navy and Land Troops We must therefore depend on our navies and our land troops for the final destruction of Japan. And, it is argued, every day that Japan has to increase her fortifications, every day that she has to exploit the raw materials of her conquered territory, the harder it will be to beat her. It is further argued that Germany cannot be absolutely beaten without terrific losses on our side, once she retreats within her own borders, a tight area, and can operate on a consolidated con-solidated and shortened front. She can be starved out. Therefore the argument is: Continue to move in through the rim of occupied coun- f ' i Chiang Kai-shek. dered the Chinese military mission to the United States to come home. At the same time stories appeared to the effect that China felt that she was not being given a position of equality among the United Nations when it came to strategy and overall over-all planning. Polite Chinese Then the head of the Chinese mission mis-sion was called to the White House and it was explained that if he withdrew with-drew at this moment it would embarrass embar-rass the United States would he please take a nice long trip investigating investi-gating American war-plants until the disturbance blew over. Perhaps he had the promise of more of the products of these plants. But that has not been made public. In any case, the Chinese, noted for their politeness acquiesced. A little later Britain and the United States signed treaties with China relinquishing their extraterritorial rights there. But no sooner had this step been taken than suddenly voices, unofficial to be sure, but fairly strident, began asking if this "Hitler first" strategy was really sound? Couldn't Britain and the United States divide our efforts ef-forts and still conquer? By the time this reaches print there may be similar statements from official sources down under, or from the vitally concerned Dutch, but meanwhile, either self-generated or systematically inspired, continual calls for action in the Far East now are being hearti. Of course, this is not new. There were similar demands which had to be silenced by official utterances from Roosevelt and Churchill nearly a year ago which, if they had not sufficed alone, seemed effective when bolstered by the launching of the American and British expeditionary expedi-tionary forces in Africa. Airplane's Role By a change in the face of the war, I refer particularly to the role the airplane is to play. Aircraft is a vital factor in offensive and defensive de-fensive warfare, but it has been demonstrated dem-onstrated that airpower alone doesn't win and hold. vThis has been proved by the success of the convoys which have "gotten through" in the face of terrible onslaughts by the Luftwaffe. Two things have served to cut tries until an iron blockade is formed about the Reich, but meanwhile begin be-gin an all-out offensive in the Far East; first, with the capture of enough of Burma to' get an inlet to China, then, perhaps through the rest of Burma or Thailand move into China, re-arm, reinforce her, send in our own troops and attack Japan with China as a base. If that is not done now Japan may be able to isolate China, may be able with silver bullets to win some of her provinces to puppet independence and completely paralyze that valuable valu-able ally and block . off entrance through her territory, so it is argued by the "Hirohito now" advocates. War-Weary Europe The argument presented by the same proponents against waiting until un-til we have finished "Hitler first" ia two-fold: When Germany finally falls it will leave Europe and its people, , especially its fighting manpower, ; so war-weary that it will be hard to interest them in a war half way around the world. We may get less help than we need for the job. Second, the process of reaching into Japan island by island, is a slow process as we have found al Guadalcanal and on New Guinea. The northern half of New Guinea, a long-held Japanese stronghold, will be harder to conquer than the part now won back by MacArthur's men. We know that the Japs will not surrender. sur-render. We know that in some places, like the Netherlands Indies, where a large part of the population is at best indifferent, the Japs can live off the land. It would mean fighting every inch of the way against "no surrender" troops while the main Japanese armies were moving into China, fortifying for-tifying the gateways to the continent. Those are some of the arguments we may expect to hear frequently these days. Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Kai-shek, when she recovers, may find it easier to be insistent upon aid than her husband's unsuccessful military mil-itary men in Washington were. Meanwhile the going in Tunisia is tough and the military men are inclined in-clined to say, "one field, well tilled" is enough of a job for them at present |