World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF THE PACIFIC: A Letter to Tojo

Cagey as a boxer readying a blow or parrying a punch, Japan shifted its weight in the South Pacific. On the eastern side of New Guinea, the Japs had been pushed back. Now fresh troops and supplies were being pushed forward into bases farther west — Timor, Amboina, the Aru Islands and New Guinea’s western shore.

Bombers manned by U.S., Australian and Dutch crews struck at three transports off the Aru Islands, two other convoys near western New Guinea. Timor and Amboina were raided.

It was too soon to plumb the Japanese mind. But as South Pacific fighting went into its second spring, one paradox grew plain: though the Allied position in the past year had improved infinitely, Japan’s position was not correspondingly worse. The fighting had only taken up the slack in battle lines. Now each adversary had a firm foothold. The next blow would be to the other’s body. The race to assemble the requisite sea and air power probably would determine where and when that blow would fall.

All-Out Move. Not since its covering action in the Guadalcanal offensive had the U.S. Navy seen action in the South Pacific. In the Battle of the Bismarck Sea (TIME, March 15), unassisted Army air power had finished off 22 Jap ships. The Navy had not been heard from, but last week A.P. Correspondent J. Norman Lodge, attached to Admiral William F. Halsey’s South Pacific Command, sent this dispatch through naval censorship:

“The day is not far off … when a Halsey-commanded force will steam directly into enemy bases to carry the offensive in an all-out thrust. But Admiral Halsey is not the type to rush headlong into battle. Every move is being planned. He will make no move at sea toward an all-out battle until he knows he has at least a 70-30 chance of victory. . . .

“Security prevents surmise, but I think I could seal a letter now naming the time and place.”

On New Year’s Day Admiral Halsey had predicted to Correspondent Lodge a complete victory over Japan in 1943. Most people smiled when they read the prediction, judged that the Admiral was taking a day off. According to Correspondent Lodge, Admiral Halsey meant what he said.