FACTS ABOUT JAPAN
SEELY, Lt. Comdr. C. S.
Facts About Japan BY LT. COMDR. C. S. SEELY THE spectacular headlines which have resulted from the shelling of Japan by our warships apparently ha^ given many Americans the idea that Japan is...
...Even though our warships are now sailing along the shores of Japan and wrecking coastal cities, there is no possibility that we shall be able to make a successful landing for many months...
...They can attack only very poorly defended land areas...
...We do not yet have anything like enough force in the Western Pacific to warrant an attempt at landing on Japan proper...
...Therefore the areas which our naval guns recently attacked could not be very important to Japan...
...assertions expressed ahove 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...
...Our losses shall be high in any case, but air bombing will save more lives than any other method now available to us...
...This will finally so weaken Japan's will to resist that finally we shall be able to land on Japan with a minimum of casualties...
...The opinions and...
...We must make full use of it...
...The guns of modern warships, even the most powerful ones, are not designed to engage modern land fortifications...
...IT is necessary that we realize that practically none—certainly less than 5 per cent— of Japan's war factories are even within range of our longest range naval guns...
...Clearly the general public expects a landing on Japan any day now, and that the war is nearly over...
...All we need do is keep up this bombing...
...The critical areas of Japan are so heavily defended by long range heavy guns that no fleet, no matter how strong, could successfully attack them with gunfire...
...We must conserve the lives of our men by using methods of warfare that are the least costly in American lives...
...C. S. SEELY THE spectacular headlines which have resulted from the shelling of Japan by our warships apparently ha^ given many Americans the idea that Japan is about at the end of her rope...
...We have not yet even landed on China, and we can land there infinitely easier than we can on Japan...
...But, barring a great political change, the war is not nearing its end...
...Air bombers only can reach them, and certainly our bombers are now wrecking-^-slowly but surely—all of them which are on Japan proper...
...If they were they would be fortified and our ships could not get near them...
...The stock market had its worst break in nearly 2 years on the day the most glaring headlines appeared, indicating that Wall Street felt that the war was about over, and that the "good" times brought about by the war were about to end...
Vol. 9 • July 1945 • No. 31
