BEFORE WE LAND ON JAPAN
SEELY, Lt. Comdr. C. S.
Before We Land On Japan By LT. COMDR. C. S. SEELY PROBABLY three-fourths of all of Japan's war manufacturing plants are concentrated on the island of Honshu, mainly in Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya,...
...The cost in men of such an attempt now would be too high a price to pay for any advantage we could gain by securing a foot-hold there...
...This will be a tough job, as all of those cities are nearer fireproof than any other cities in the world...
...The only inflammable buildings I ever saw in Japan were in the lower class working peoples' districts...
...Because of this reports of "great" fires in any of the cities of Japan are at least open to some question...
...THE Japanese in the south apparently intend soon to move their major forces to the north of the Yangtse river...
...This can be done by air bombing from bases in China, and other bases we now have, such as Okinawa...
...Many buildings there are made of wood and other inflammable material, and can be burned down easily, but the time and effort necessary to do this could better be spent destroying installations of strictly military importance...
...The opinions and assertions expressed above are the private ones of the writer and are not to he construed as official or reflecting the views of the Navy Department or the naval service at large...
...They are built mainly of stone, tile, cement, and other fire-proof materials...
...This would seem good strategy for them, as they are now spread too thin over a vast amount of territory which they cannot hope to hold much longer...
...Not much wood or other inflammable material is used in buildings of military importance in Japan...
...This will make our task of beating them harder, and we must realize this unfortunate fact...
...C. S. SEELY PROBABLY three-fourths of all of Japan's war manufacturing plants are concentrated on the island of Honshu, mainly in Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyote, Osaka, Okayama, Hiroshima, Kure, and Shimonoseki...
...No doubt they will leave small holding forces wherever such forces will seriously impede our progress, but they almost certainly will not sacrifice a great part of their manpower a long way from home—as the Germans did...
...You cannot very well set off a "great" fire in a stone and concrete building which is covered with tile...
...The Japanese have profited by Nazi mistakes...
...We now seem to be approaching Kyushu, the southernmost of the main Japanese islands, but I do not believe we intend to land on it in the near future...
...I was in all of these cities just before the war, and can report that we must wreck the manufacturing areas of them before we can conquer Japan...
...And it seems clear that we simply must destroy Japan's war manufacturing plants before we attempt to land on any of the 4 islands of Japan proper...
Vol. 9 • July 1945 • No. 28
