TWO STEPPING STONES TO JAPAN
SEELY, Lt. Comdr. C. S.
Two Stepping Stones To Japan By LT. COMDR. C. S. SEELY EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second of two articles by Commander Seely on our problems in the Orient. NO MATTER what else we do in the Orient...
...NO MATTER what else we do in the Orient we must retake and practically rebuild from the ground up either Singapore or Hong Kong...
...We were simply asleep at Pearl Harbor, but the Singapore defenders were fully awake and aware of their danger months, if not years, before the blow struck...
...In fact, we must finally retake Hong Kong before we can seriously threaten Japan, and there is little sense in believing that Japan will surrender unconditionally until some time after we break into the Yellow Sea and land troops on the Shantung peninsula, Manchuria, and Korea...
...Nothing that has happened in this war has changed my opinion...
...Fifth Column At Singapore...
...If we do not do either we shall never be able to use our great battleships, large aircraft carriers, or even heavy cruisers effectively against Japan's main sea defense line, the line running between Shanghai and the southern end of Japan proper...
...The Singapore debacle was much more disastrous to our cause than was the Pearl Harbor disaster, which was certainly bad enough...
...However, under normal circumstances we should have Singapore long before we have Hong Kong, and it would be of value to us as a base of operations against Hong Kong...
...They, according to all reports, made little effort to defend the place...
...The Japanese certainly will completely wreck both places before they surrender them, but even so it will be easier to retake and rebuild these major naval bases than to build others somewhere else in the Orient...
...I think it should be by-passed...
...Base For Hong Kong Singapore, the only other major naval base in the Orient we have a chance to secure and use any time before almost the very end of the war against Japan, will be of little use to ships that must operate within the Yellow Sea or Sea of Japan...
...The opinions and assertions expressed above are the private ones of the writer and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the Navy Department or the naval service at large...
...The Japanese did it, but our side's part in that disaster smells to high heaven, and is not likely to be repeated by the Japanese...
...I believe history will reveal an inside (fifth column) job at Singapore...
...Hong Kong, being much closer to Japan than Singapore, would, of course, be the better base for us to occupy and use...
...It is too far away...
...Personally I do not favor an attempt to take Singapore by storm...
...I have been on Singapore twice—the last time in July, 1936—and have long believed that Singapore is the third strongest military stronghold in the world...
...I do not believe—even though I probably should not admit it—that we can take Singapore by storm...
Vol. 8 • May 1944 • No. 22
