World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF THE PACIFIC: Empire Afire

The alarm bells of history clanged last week for more than Tokyo. While the air attack on the Empire’s capital was going on, the impatient Americans in Luzon were rushing back onto Bataan and Corregidor. Other Americans swarmed ashore on Iwo Jima—an island as menacingly close to Japan’s heart as Bermuda is to New York. The war-worn Chinese rallied to take back a section of the hard-won Canton-Hankow railway line. A jungle-trekking British force popped up to menace the conquered oil-field district of Burma. There were more fires than fire brigades, around the Empire; and the alarm bells still clanged.