Viewing page 71 of 86

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

and prospects are that the US as the standard-bearer for democracy and personal liberty faces a long, hard pull before lasting and enduring security is achieved in the Far East.

Let's take a closer look at how things stack up on a more localized basis:

HAWAII

The Hawaiian Islands, though not a part of the Far East, cannot be overlooked in study of the Far Eastern picture because they constitute a staging area and central Pacific reserve of manpower and materiel in direct support of virtually all of the outposts in Orient, Indonesia and the South Pacific.

Defense is the biggest business in Hawaii - bigger than tourism, sugar or pineapples. Military personnel and their dependents constitute nearly 30 per cent of the total population. More than one out of every four in the Territory, and two out of every five on Oahu, are directly dependent on defense activity for their livelihood.

Military expenditures in Hawaii, currently about $300 million a year, exceed the total of all Hawaiian exports and dominate the entire economic life of the islands. Long before World War II the Hawaiian Islands were important strategically as a forward area and the gateway to the Far East. With the acquisition of bases at Guam, Japan, Okinawa and the Philippines, the role of the islands in the defense picture has altered somewhat, but in nowise lessened in importance.

Here, for instance, are located the Navy's famed Pearl Harbor, Barber's Point Naval Air Station, a huge submarine base, shipyards and other Naval facilities; the Air Force's Hickam, Wheeler and Bellows Air Force Bases, and the Army's Fort Shafter and Schofield Barracks, not to mention major Marine Corps and Coast Guard installations, military hospitals and a variety of new and unique facilities about which the Defense Department is being very quiet.

Here also is located the headquarters of Admiral Felix Stump, commander in chief of combined Pacific operations; the Pacific Air Force headed by Maj. Gen. Sory Smith, the Pacific Division of Military Air Transport Service. By recent Pentagon dictum, Smith's PCAP will be combined with the Far East Air Force when the latter moves from Fuchu, Japan, to Hickam, and the MATS headquarters will be moved to Parks Air Force Base in California to make headquarters facilities available to FEAF at Hickam.

Probably nowhere in the world is there a bit of real estate of comparable size that is as heavily fortified, or represents a greater concentration of military power, than the Island of Oahu.

JAPAN

It is an astonishing fact that this once predominantly militaristic nation has done a complete right-about-face and is now almost fanatically pacifistic. As one US public information officer so aptly characterized the situation, Japan realizes its own strategic position and importance in the Cold War, and recognizes the need for adequate defense, but nevertheless "would like to live in a vacuum of neutrality."

Japan is especially jittery about any mention of atomic or other weapons not strictly defensive. The Japanese attitude seems to be that the presence in Japan of any planes or weapons not entirely defensive invites attack by the Communist bloc. The fact that Japan currently is negotiating peace and economic treaties with Russia no doubt has an effect on this attitude. Generally speaking, the ruling Liberal-Democratic party of Premier Ichiro Hatoyama is in accord with the US policy to maintain a strong defense in Japan, and also for the build-up of the Japaness Self Defense Forces, which now number nearly 200,000 members. Opposition to both comes from the Socialist party, which made substantial inroads and narrowed the majority of the Liberal-Democrats in the Diet (Parliament) elections this past summer. It is from the Socialist ranks that periodically are heard acrimonious cries of "Yankees, go home."

Until the JSDF attains sufficient manpower, training and equipment to take over the defense of Japan, it is foregone conclusion that American military strength in the Far East will be most concentrated in Japan.

Under the terms of the 1945 surrender, and the Japanese constitution adopted subsequently, the organization of a Japanese military force was specifically prohibited. It was not until August 10, 1950, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur issued an order authorizing the formation of the National Police Reserve Force, that Japanese men could again take up arms and go into uniform. The Force, however, was designed only to maintain domestic order in the face of active Communist political agitation.

In 1952, with the enrollment numbering 75,000, the NPFR became the National Safety Force, and at the same time the Maritime Safety Force was formed. NSF strength was increased to 110,000, and the maritime force numbered 7,590. The latest change came in 1954, when the Japan Self Defense Forces were officially formed from the old Safety Forces, and the manpower quota again was raised by the Diet. Today, JSDF ground units

[[image - black & white photograph of an airfield]]
[[caption]] Airmen pitch tents and service their C-119 Flying Boxcars out in open during mobility exercises in war-ravaged Korea [[/caption]]

[[image - black & white photograph of a serviceman and Madame Chiang Kai-shek]]
[[caption]] Madame Chiang Kai-shek at US service club in Taiwan [[/caption]]

Page 3

Transcription Notes:
Reviewed