As Japan Sees It
The words which General Tojo addressed to the Japanese people last Sunday betrayed his clear realisation of the fact that the days of easy triumphs 'for Japan are over. The "real war is starting now," he said to a people who have been at war with China for five and a half years ; and his review of the operations in the Solomons, in Burma, in China, and in Japan, where "units are engaged day and night in providing against air raids," had a frankness which can scarcely have allayed uneasiness. He made no attempt to disguise the difficulties, and admitted certain advantages which now lie with the Allies. It is the latter in the main who are now on the offensive. American forces have dealt smashing blows at the Japanese fleet, and are strongly established at Guadalcanal. The Americans and Australians together threaten the Japanese force -at Buna with extermination, and the key port of Rabaul has suffered severe damage from bombing. The British, now strong in India, are advancing towards Akyab—a movement with limited objectives, but a sign of the fact that the Japanese will not very long be unmolested in their possession of the approaches to the Burma Road. The Japanese position may look well on the map, as Hitler's still does, in spite of recent losses ; but the "real war" for Japan, in which her scattered forces will have to defend what they have seized, has started in earnest.
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