TOUGH FIGHTING AHEAD IN ASIA
SEELY, Lt. Comdr. C. S.
Tough Fighting Ahead In Asia By LT. COMM. C. S. SEELY FULLY 50.000 casualties—including 12,000 dead —may seem too high a price to pay for a small island like Okinawa, but in my opinion we are...
...BECAUSE we won such great victories with so little loss in Europe we may become too optimistic about the war in Asia...
...Japan has practically no "hidden" factories...
...We can hold an island base, as we control the sea, but we could not hold our land air bases on China proper, as the Japanese could get at us...
...We probably will have to land on the China coast before we can risk a landing attempt on Japan proper...
...This may be what we are to do, but apparently it was necessary to secure an island air base near Japan for our bombers...
...We know where her industrial plants are...
...All we need do is to bomb these plants until they are in ruins...
...This may not seem just to us, but it is a circumstance we must be prepared to face...
...The only way we can keep casualties down is to take plenty of time out to "soften up" Japan with air bombing...
...We must face the cruel fact that as we approach Japan the fighting becomes tougher—and Okinawa is near Japan...
...The reports which constantly crop up to the effect that-"Japan has 4,000,000 soldiers" are very misleading...
...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 Natty Department or the naval service at large...
...C. S. SEELY FULLY 50.000 casualties—including 12,000 dead —may seem too high a price to pay for a small island like Okinawa, but in my opinion we are lucky it was not higher...
...Japan has many more than 4,000.000 excellent first line troops which she must be expected to expend before she can be conquered...
...We should remember that we had a lot of help in Europe—Russia alone had around 400 divisions on her front near the end of the war—but we are not likely to get much help against Japan...
...That is, we did not bear the brunt of the fighting in Europe, but we certainly shall bear it in Asia...
...Britain and China must not be expected to give us much more than "token" help...
...This would seem the best possible tactics for us at least for the next 6 or 8 months—until we transfer enough force to the Western Pacific to insure success of a great landing operation on the China coast...
...Japan has an enormous army...
...I do not believe we shall be able to land on the Japanese mainland this year or next...
Vol. 9 • July 1945 • No. 27
