Beyond the Wall

The Japanese last week set about placing themselves where they can try to take Australia or leave Australia alone.

Aussies used to think that they had a protecting screen in the islands which lie off Australia's northern and eastern shores: New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomons, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia. But in Japanese hands these islands could be either invasion steps toward Australia or walls between Australia and the U.S. If Australia is thoroughly walled in, the Japanese can take their time about invading it and turn against India or Russia (see p. 18).

Take It? From previously captured bases in the Bismarck Archipelago. Japanese bombers and cannonading fighters struck again & again at New Guinea's Port Moresby. Wary of anti-aircraft fire, they stayed high, did little damage. U.S. and Australian bombers knocked out 13 Jap troop and supply ships attempting a seaborne thrust at Port Moresby and its hill-ringed harbor. The R.A.A.F. and long-range U.S. bombers hammered the airdrome at Gasmata, Jap-occupied town on New Britain's southern coast, swept northeast to Rabaul to catch grounded Jap bombers with at least one direct hit. Jap bombers left their bloody calling cards at tiny isles in Torres Strait, between New Guinea and northern Australia. The Japs were blasting out their invasion road.

Japanese warships suddenly appeared in the Solomons, 400 miles east of New Guinea. Whether the Japs actually landed the small forces necessary to deal with the Solomons' indifferent natives and few, malarial whites was not clear early this week. But the object of such a move was very clear. From the Solomons the Japs could push southward to the New Hebrides and New Caledonia. They could then use the islands for basing raids against the vital U.S.-New Zealand supply route, or for a naval and air sweep against eastern Australia.

Leave It? A premature news dispatch (to the Chicago Sun) disclosed the arrival of U.S. troops in Australia. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson announced that air and ground forces were there "in considerable numbers." Difficult terrain, great sea distances, an aroused army and population--all these made Australia a tough target for the Japs. Nevertheless, one consideration could drive them to hazard invasion now: the conviction that, unless Australia is conquered or isolated, it will become a United Nations base for air, naval and land offensives to recapture the southwest Pacific.

Last week Japan's Premier Hideki Tojo gave the best possible indication that the Japs would rather leave Australia alone. Said he in Tokyo: "The Australians themselves must be fully aware of the fact that it is utterly impossible for Australia . . . to defend herself against the might of our invincible forces." Therefore, said General Tojo, let the Australians be sensible and perceive that Japan is their best friend.

Australia's Prime Minister John Curtin gave the only possible answer. Said he, broadcasting to the U.S. (see p. 27): "[Australia will] rock the enemy back on his heels" . . . though the cost may be "the end of much that we have painfully and slowly built in our 150 years of existence, but even though all of it go there will be Australians fighting on Australian soil."

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