Closing In

The war has closed in on Japan with a rapidity which, only a year ago, seemed inconceivable. Last week, as a great fleet of B-29s made the heaviest demolition attack on the Japanese heartland, Premier Kuniaki Koiso and his cronies (see FOREIGN NEWS) gibbered of invasion. Actually, Allied forces now have no base large enough, or close enough to Japan, to launch amphibious operations against the main islands. But they are moving ahead on an accelerated schedule, and this week, by Jap account, an amphibious force was off the Kerama Islands, within sight of Okinawa, within 400 miles of Kyushu. If confirmed, this was clearly a preliminary to the invasion of Okinawa itself--the seizure of a base which would really imperil Japan.

Of the three island chains which constitute steppingstones to Japan (see map), the Ryukyu line is the most inviting. Iwo, already serving as an advanced base for fighter bombers, is too small; the rocky Bonin and Izu Islands, which would be defended as savagely as Iwo, are also too small. The Kurils, extending northeast toward Russian Kamchatka, are not much larger, and are blanketed by weather almost as foul as that in the Aleutians.

As against these drawbacks, Okinawa (and, to a less extent, Amami, still closer to Japan) has plenty of room for airfields and ground-force installations, and has adequate harbors.

To fend off an assault on its inner fortress, Japan has an army probably as strong as it was on Dec. 7, 1941. But its navy has been reduced to impotence. And last week, U.S. Army and Navy airmen agreed that Japan's air force has been effectively defeated.

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