GIBRALTAR OF THE PACIFICBy KLAUS MEHNERT

Rarely in history has a single military event of a few hoUTS'duration exerc-ised so strong an influence upon the ezi8ting politicalsituaUon as has the Japanese attack on Hawaii in the early 'morning ofDecember 8. The los8es inflicted on the United States military machine,which are dealt with in the preceding article, have immediately begunto take effect on. the whole war situation..

Japan's repetition of her attack on Hawaii a few days later showsthat the event8 of December 8 cannot be taken for a solitary hit-and-runaffair. It i8 to be expected that Hawaii will from now on appear againand again in the news. We present in the fot/owing pages an essay onthe strategic importance and military posit'ion of Hawaii. Some of theideas to be found in tlds essay have been expressed by the author inearl-ier articles in "The Geographical Review," "Geopolitik," and otherpublications.

"We Americans could not have chosena better spot for the Hawaiian Islandsthan the Lord has done for us." Withthese words General Drum, one of themost able leaders of the US Army andformer commander in chief of Hawaii,has pertinently formulated the import­ance of the islands for the UnitedStates. Indeed, Hawaii is militarilythe most important group of islandsin the world, whose strategic radiusdominates an enormous part of thelargest ocean. No other naval basehas a controlling position over an equallyvast area.

With Hawaii intact at his rear, anyattack by an, Asiatic opponent on theAmerican West Coast, thousands ofmiles from the nearest of his ownnaval bases, would entail a heavyrisk. On the other hand a seriousattack by the American fleet on Asiawould be unthinkable without the Davalport of Pearl Harbor with its docksand supplies. The Stars and Stripesover a fortified Hawaii have shiftedthe western frontier of America fromCalifornia to the middle of the Pacific,to the advantage of the United Statesand the disadvantage of Asia. Hencethe beautiful islands have been foryears. although today more than ever.a focal point of international politics

and one of the deciding positions inworld strategy.

As if it had a foreboding of whatwas awaiting it when its existencebecame known to the world, Hawaiiremained hidden as long as possiblefrom the eyes of humanity. For tensof thousands of years.the little volcanicislands lay there in the middle of theendless Pacific without anyone. exceptfor a few Polynesians. aware of theirexistence. and for more than 250 yearsSpanish ships crossed and recrossedthe Pacific without suspecting the pres­ence of the archipelago. _

WINDS AND VOYAGES

In 1521. aided by the friendly tradewinds, Magellan with three ships madethe first crossing of the Pacific by aEuropean. Others followed him; andwhen, after many vain attempts bythe Spaniards to buck the east winds,Urdaneta discovered in 1565 a way torecross the Pacific by a northerlyroute, a regular service of "Manilagalleons" was inaugurated. Their yearlyvoyages passed only a few degrees tothe south of the Hawaiian chain, west­bound, and only a few degrees to thenorth, eastbound, but the prevailingwinds and the east-west elongation of

20 THE XXth CENTURY

the archipelago preserved the solitudeof Hawaii. (See Map I.)

The first south-north navigation ofthe Central Pacific, performed byCook, was intercepted by this islandnet that stretches over 23 degrees oflongitude. Toward the end of 1777Cook sailed from Tahiti in search ofthe Northwest Passage. On this histhird voyage of exploration, he notonly discovered Hawaii in 1778 (andpaid for it with his life) but alsocleared the way for a trade thatwithin a few years was to lure moreships than had crossed the Pacificbefore in a whole century - the furtrade between the American North­west and the eager markets of China.

FUR,SANDALWOOD,WHALE~

AND RELIGIONTo the sailing vessels that trans­

ported furs over one of the world'slongest sea routes, the Hawaiian Is­lands were an ideal port of call. Here.after months of hunting and dealingwith Indians on the fur coast, the menfound sunshine, rest, fresh food, friend­ly women, and, if the ships wereshorthanded, young Hawaiians readyto go to sea. Soon the skippers dis­covered one more reason for calling atthe islands: sandalwood was found andadded to the cargoes of China-boundships. So violent was the exploitationof the sandalwood of the islands thatby 1829 the supply was practically ex­hausted.

When the fur and sandalwood tradesdeclined, a new factor emerged tomake the islands a rendezvous for anincreasing number of ships - Pacificwhaling. In 1819 the first whalersappeared in Hawaii, and soon theyincreased from dozens to hundreds ayear. Whalers became the commercialmainstay of the islands, until thediscovery of petroleum, the AmericanCivil War. and the loss of a whalingfleet in the Arctic in 1871 combinedpractically to ruin the industry. Theyvisited the islands in spring and fall,for supplies. recruits. and repairs.Summers were spent in the North

Pacific, in the Japan, Okhotsk, andBering Seas. and in the Arctic. Winterfound them along the equator. Theystimulated commercial life and con­tributed to the decline of nativepeoples and customs. Later, one motivefor the forcible opening of Japan bythe United States was the plight ofshipwrecked American whalers.

Through a curious coincidence, thefirst missionaries. who were also toaffect the life of the islands in amost profound way, arrived almostsimultaneously with the first whalers.These two groups represented bitterlyconflicting principles and forces: de­vout New England Puritans, whocovered the native women with chaste"Mother Hubbards." opposed to lustysailors who yearned for whisky andgirls. Another coincidence favored themissionaries in their effort to in­troduce Christianity. Unknowingly theyhad arrived at the opportune momentwhen the Hawaiians, upset by thevigorously intruding West, had over­thrown their ancient gods and taboos.The missionaries acquired followersSlowly at first, but with increasingrapidity after the early years. In 1840the King of Hawaii ordered in theconstitution "that no law shall beenacted which is at variance with theword of the Lord Jehovah." Protes­tantism. as a historian of Hawaii hasably expressed it, had become the statereligion of the islands, until it waschallenged by the arrival of RomanCatholic missionaries.

ENGLANDAND THE RUSSIAN BEARAs a port of call on the fur route­

between America and China, as aproducer of foodstuffs and sandalwood,as a rendezvous for whaleboats, and'as a battleground of rival creeds, Ha­waii could not help being drawn, soonafter its discovery, into the greatgame of international politics playedby Great Britain, France. and the­United States.

For several decades England wasparamount in the islands. Her prestige

GIBRALTAR OF THE PACIFIC 21

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resulted not only from the discoveryby Cook but also from the three visitsof Vancouver, in 1792-1794, on hisvoyage to the American Northwest.During Vancouver's last stay in theislands there took place a "cession" ofthe island of Hawaii to Great Britain,which might have established a kindof protectorate. For a time the Ha­waiians referred to themselves aska/naka no Beritane (men of Britain)and counted on British protection. ButVancouver's independent action wasnever recognized by the British Govern­ment, which at that time did not wishto take on any commitments so faraway from home.

The first challenge to England's posi­tion in the islands came from herubiquitous rival of the nineteenthcentury-Russia. In quest of fur, Rus­sians had established themselves onthe northeastern shores of Asia and inthe Aleutian Islands and Alaska andwere reaching down the American coasttoward California. The complementaryrelationship of. fur-producing north

and food-producing south encouragedsuch expansion. Russia was thus thewhite power most directly concernedwith the North Pacific, and Russianadventurers dreamed of a North Pacificempire with Hawaii as a connectinglink. Scheffer, a physician in theservice of the Russian American Com­pany, gained a foothold on the Hawaiianisland of Kauai, the chief of whichdeclared himself, in 1816, a vassal ofTsar Alexander I. But the RussianGovernment refused to sanction eitherScheffer's action or several similarattempts by later adventurers. TheRussian rule on Kauai was only anepisode; and, after the sale of theRussian fort in California to Sutter andof Alaska to the United States, Rus­sian interest in the Hawaiian Islandswaned. (For details see the author'sThe Russians in Hawaii, 1804-1819,Honolulu, 1939.)

OTHERS ARE INTERESTED TOO

A new political rival soon appeared­France. The French lent their sup-

Map L Why Hawaii was not discovered until 257 years after Magellan's Pacific crossing.

22 THE XXth CENTURY

port to the Roman Catholic mission­aries, who had stubbornly tried toestablish themselves in the islands.The threatening guns of the frigateL'A1·temise forced the Hawaiian kingin 1839 to revoke his "Ordinance re~

jecting the Catholic religion." But noFrench annexation took place, andwhen a British naval officer, actingon his own, annexed the islands andruled them for several months, he wasofficially disavowed. The delicate balanceof power in these islands made thepowers watch one another narrowly,each hesitating to annex the islandsbut sufficiently interested to preventany other from doing so.

Notwithstanding the excitement of theFrench interventions, the most seriousrivals of the British were the Amer­icans. The Americans possessed onlyshadowy treaty rights in Hawaii; forthe "articles of arrangement" of 1826,although respected by the HawaiianGovernment, were never ratified bythe United States-evidence of a lackof interest in the Pacific not surprisingat that early date. Treaty or no, theAmerican position grew stronger fromone decade to the next, while Englishinfluence slowly declined.

Most of the whalers and Protestantmissionaries were Americans. TheAmericans, including the missionaries,came from a society in which changesof occupation were common, in contrastwith the consecrated Catholic priest­hood. Americans acquired the main shareof the general business of the islandsand led in the growing sugar industry.When the United States obtained itsPacific coast, when the gold rushbrought thousands of Americans toCalifornia, when transcontinental rail­roads were built, the islands were tiedto North America with bonds so closethat Hawaii became almost literallypart of it. Sugar, rice, and even citrusfruits were shippeg to California.Californian children were sent toHonolulu for schooling when the seavoyage to Hawaii was easier than themountain- and desert-crossing to theeastern states. On the second regularsteamer voyage from San Francisco,

Mark Twain arrived to pen a seriesof letters that helped establish bothhis and the islands' fame.

Last to enter the melee over Hawaiiwas Japan. The emergence of Japanas a modern nation in the second halfof the nineteenth century pla~ed a newweight on the Pacific balance of power.Sensing the situation, King Kalakauaof Hawaii visited Japan on his worldtour in 1881, diplomatically callinghimself an "Asiatic" and planning thebetrothal of a Hawaiian princess to aJapanese prince. Toward the end ofthe century Japan's Rising Sun playeda part in warming annexation sen·timent in the United States.

KING CANE AND THE ENDOF FREE HAWAIIIt was due to commercial and

strategic reasons that Hawaii finallylost its independence. Of many com­mercial crops tried in the islands,sugar cane was the first to achieveunqualified success. Although pineap­ples are now a good second, sugarretains its leadership in Hawaiianagriculture. The islands raise, on six:per cent of their 6,400 square miles,about three per cent of the world's sup­ply. This copious yield is by no meansnature's bounty but has been obtainedby unremitting scientific, technical,and-not least-political enterprise.

The fundamental political goal ofHawaiian sugar interests has beenaccess to the United States market.Reciprocal free trade with the UnitedStates was the great desire of theplanters under the Hawaiian kingdom.Attainment of this, in 1875, led to arapid growth in the industry. A clauseof the treaty is indicative of oneAmerican reason for signing: theHawaiian king pledged himself to leaseor alienate no land to other foreignpowers. Renewal of the treaty in1887 required the additional induce­ment of a concession on Pearl Harborfor an American naval base. Thisthin edge of the American wedge wasfeared, not without reason, by thefuture queen, Liliuokalani. An Amer-

GIBRALTAR OF THE PACIFIC 23

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jean-led revolution forced her to resign.Thus the dynasty of Kamehameha,which had ruled the islands for over acentury, came to an end. Shortlyafter­wards Hawaii lost its independence.The Spanish-American War had tippedthe scale. With Guam, taken fromSpain, and Wake and Midway, alreadyAmerican, Hawaii was to be a step­pingstone. It was annexed by the UnitedStates in the years 1897-1898.

rrENSION WI'l'H JAPANIt was at this point that serious

tension developed between Tokyo andWashington over the question of Hawaii.With 25,000 Japanese living in theislands in 1897, Japan, after her victoryover Cbina in 1895 the leading nationin Asia and a new world power, wasbitterly opposed to the annexationof Hawaii by the United States. In1897 about 1,000 Japanese immigrantswere refused admission to the islands,for which violation of her treatyrights Japan demanded an indemnityfrom the Hawaiian Government. TheJapanese envoy in Washington evenurged his governme.nt to dispatcha strong Japanese naval squadron toHawaii in order to prevent the annexa­tion.

But Japan was too much concernedwith her main rival in Eastern Asia,Russia, and eventually withdrew herprotest against annexation, receivingUS $75,000 from the Hawaiian Govern­ment to settle the immigrationcontroversy.

TRADE AND TRANSPORTEver since its discovery and up to

the outbreak of the present war Hawaiihas been a crossroads of Pacific navi­gation. Practically all lines operatingin the Pacific called at the islands.There was a steady coming and goingof magnificent luxury liners, of sturdyfreighters, and many an elegant privateyacht. Hawaii was the hub of awheel whose spokes were shippinglines in all direction of the compass.However, this wheel would have veryunequal spokes if they were drawn in

proportion to the value of the tradealong them. The spoke pointing to­ward the mainland of the United Stateswould be five thousand times as thickas that pointing toward Australia.Even the second most important spoke,that to Japan, would have but oneseventieth the thickness of the Amer­ican spoke. Of Hawaii's total overseacommerce all but two to four per centwas with the US mainland. In theoversea trade of the United States,Hawaii ranks high. Its sales to themainland States usually exceed thoseof such countries as Germany, France,Italy, and China, and its purchaseswere larger than those of Argentina,Italy, Brazil, and China.

TRANS-PACIFIC AVIATIONAND TELEGRAPHFor air travel Hawaii was still more

the hub of the Pacific. A trans-Pacificair line to Asia has completed over sixyears of service, and more recently aroute to the antipodes came into opera­tion. Until the dream of non-stopstratosphere flights becomes reality,Hawaii is indispensable to aviationacross the Central Pacific. Althoughit is far from the great-circle routebetween the United States and Asia,its location in the trade-wind belt pro­vides safer flying than the foggy andstormy north. The stops on the Asiaticroute were San Francisco, Pearl Harbor,Midway, Wake, Guam, Manila, andHongkong. The Hawaii-California legof about 2,100 nautical miles is by farthe longest, limiting pay loads andemphasizing the importance of theHawaiian steppingstone. The anti­podean line employs Canton Island~

Noumea in New Caledonia, and Auck­land as stops beyond Hawaii, withSuva in Fiji as a possible addition.Joint occupancy of Canton Island bythe United States and Great Britain(neither party renouncing its claims tothis ring of sand) and permission touse French New Caledonia have madepossible the abandonment of less satis­factory, though American, stepping­stones at landless Kingman Reef andmountain-locked Pago Pago. In its

24 'rHE XXth CENTURY

first four years the Asiatic line hasflown more than three million air milesand nearly twenty million passengermiles, an indication that trans-Pacificaviation has passed the experimentalstage.

At the close of the World War cablecommunications were important enoughto stir up a teacup tempest over theisland of Yap. Extraordinary improve­ment in radio has made the possessionof insular cable and wireless stationsless significant today. The Americancable to the Orient makes use of Oahu,Midway, and Guam. The British lineto the antipodes follows its flag fromCanada to Fanning Island, avoidingHawaii. Four commercial transoceanicwireless system have stations on Oahu,and there are navy. army, inter-island,and broadcasting stations in the archi­pelago.

A FORTY-NINTH STAR?

Annexation as a fully incorporatedterritory has not settled all politicalrelationships with the United States.The islands are in most matters ade facto forty-ninth state; yet thereare many points of misunderstanding.To the islanders, trade with the main­land is the great objective. To themainlanders, the islands are primarilya Pacific spearhead. On this latterpoint both imperialistic and isolationistmainland politicians agreed, thoughthey differed as to the purpose of thespear. The white-dominated mainlandmistrusts a territory that boasts ofits race mixture. To be sure, an im­mediate effect of annexation was theapplication of American laws stoppingChinese immigration, and immigrationfrom Japan was diminished by thegentlemen's agreement of 1907 andstopped by law in 1924. Yet almostforty per cent of the islands' populationis Japanese-a source of constant un­easiness to the naval and militaryauthorities. And these authorities be­came the real bosses of Hawaii whenit was decided to make the islands theAmerican Gibraltar of the Pacific.

PEARL HARBORThe Hawaiian Archipelago, which

takes its name from the largest andmost southern of its islands, Hawaii("the big island"), extends 1,500 milesin a northwesterly direction fromHawaii to Midway. In the wholearchipelago there is but a single har­oor that can be seriously consideredfor a navy, Pearl Harbor on the islandof Oahu, on which is also the city ofHonolulu. Hence military establish­ments are concentrated here. The otherislands have been left practicallydefenseless in the presumption thatthe fast bombers and fleet units ofOahu could always guarantee theirprotection.

The center of the Hawaiian navalbase, and in war time America's mostimportant sheet of water in the Pacific,are the roughly six square miles ofPearl Harbor. From the air the navalport looks like a tree. Its trunk is theonly entrance from the sea. Its bran­ches-West, Middle, and East Loch­are the protected inner parts of theharbor, large enough to shelter theentire US Fleet, and so spacious thateven with almost 150 warships in itit still looks empty. (See Map II.)

The Elysian security of this harbor,quiet even during the wildest storms,has two serious disadvantages. First,should the adversary succeed-and incase of war all posibilities must beallowed for-in destroying the onlyentrance to the harbor by bombs orthrough sabotage, Pearl Harbor wouldbe nothing but a huge trap for theAmerican fleet, and the latter wouldbe of no more use to Uncle Sam thana few thousand tons of scrap. Andsecondly, the movements of the fleetthrough the one narrow entrance takeconsiderable time. In spite of thegreatest possible speed the entry ofthe main body of the fleet during oneof the last maneuvers took more thanfive hours, much too long in an era ofblitzkrieg. Naval circles have for yearsdemanded the construction of a secondentrance channel. But their opiniondid not prevail.

GIBRALTAR OF THE PACIFIC 25

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The strategic position of Pearl Har­bor, 2,000 miles from the Californiancoast, indicates that its significance isnot to be seen only in its shelteringthe American fleet, but in the existenceof an efficient supply and repair base.About 300 million dollars have beenspent on its construction. Huge oiltanks, lately of the underground type,and large ammunition dumps in WestLoch of Pearl Harbor and in the valleyof Lualualei on the west coast of theisland have been built.

For a number of years the port hashad a dry dock large enough to hold, withits length of 1,000 feet and its widthof 138 feet, any American warshipwith the exception of the broad airplanecarriers and the new 35,000 ton bat­tleships. Lately new docks have probablybeen added, but exact data are notavailable owing to the veil of militarysecrecy surrounding them. The navalworkshops, covering a wide area in the

territory of Pearl Harbor and employingthousands of civilians, were equippedfor everything except the building ofships. For the army of employees andworkmen whole cities of bungalowshave mushroomed out of the groundduring the last year and a half.

ONE EIGHTHOF THE US ARMYThe island of Oahu is shaped roughly

like a parallelogram with two parallelmountain ranges and a valley betweenthem. (See Map II.) Originally the tworanges were two rows of volcanoesprojecting from the sea. They have,however, been so long extinct thatcraters can hardly be found now. Theydrop very steeply toward the outer sideand are separated from the sea onlyby a narrow coastal strip. The valleybetween them - formerly lying farunder the surface of the sea, butgradually filled up, first by the streams

Map lL

26 THE XXth CENTURY

of lava, later by erosion-is a shallowtrough. This inner part of the islandis like a wide corridor, open to thesea in the north and south and pro~

tected in the east and west by twomountain ranges rising up to 4,000feet.

In spite of the small area to bedefended in Oahu-598 square miIes­the military authorities responsible forHawaii did not deem it right to sur­round the island with a rigid concretering of fortifications, but have givenpreference to a system of mobiledefense. This explains the importanceof the 300 mile network of excellentand constantly improved roads - overboth mountain ranges lead roads visitedby all tourists because of their incompara­ble vistas; the position of the mainmilitary encampment, Schofield Bar~

racks, approximately in the center ofthe inner valley; and the surprisinglyextensive motorization of the troops.When during a parade of the Hawaiiandivision I saw only a part of theinfantry marching past on foot, whilethe rest came dashing along on trucks,on motorized guns, and in tanks, thisappeared to me, in view of the small­ness of the island, an exaggerated signof American comfort. Even the mostdistant points of the island are hardly30 miles away from Schofield. But themotorization is explained by the in­tention of being able, in case of thelanding of enemy troops, to opposethem at any point on Oahu.

Only the southern face of the island­where Pearl Harbor is located - isprotected by a chain of the mostpowerful fortifications with 12, 14, and16-inch coast artillery. The ammuni­tion dumps of the army have beenblasted in deep galleries into the rockof the extinct volcano Aliamanu at acost of two million dollars and containedammunition to the value of twentymillion dollars.

What is hidden in the crater ofDiamond Head, the beautiful landmarkof Waikiki, is kept secret. From theplane that flies daily between Honoluluand the island of Hawaii one can see

nothing but the crater and a fewbuildings. Amongst the non-initiatedopinions differ: some believe mightyfortifications to be there, while skepticsthink that the steep rocks containnothing but fortified observation poststo direct the fire of other forts.

Schofield Barracks and the variousforts probably form the most beautifultroop encampment in the world. Morelike health resorts than militHry posts,with wide lawns shaded by palms,they have spacious houses for officersand noncommissioned officers, one foreach family, and airy and comfortablyfurnished barracks for the men. Beforethe introduction of the draft a yearand a half ago the number of USArmy troops stationed in Oahu wasapproximately 20,000 men, at that timeone eighth of the entire US Army.

HAWAIl'S AIR FORCEDuring the last few years the air

arm has gained growing importance inthe defense system of Oahu. Unlike theGerman or British it is not a singleunit, but is partly under the com­mand of the navy and partly underthat of the army. Hawaii wasespecially proud of the naval air force.It was composed exclusively of quitenew models, the greater part ofwhich were flown from California to­Oahu. The Americans saw a proof forthe reliable efficiency of their air forcein the success of the group flights con~

stantly carried out during the last fewyears from the West Coast to Hawaii.

Of the three most important airportsthe oldest one (1918) is located on FordIsland in Pearl Harbor and is namedLuke Field after a flying officer whofell in the Great War. In 1922 theArmy's Wheeler Field (Wheeler was anair force major who had crashed there)was opened at the southern end ofSchofield Barracks, about six miles north­west of Pearl Harbor. And since 1935Hickam Field (named after a lieutenant­colonel who lost his life in 1934 in anairplane disaster) has been establishedon the east side of Pearl Harbor.Hickam Field was specially provided

GIBRALTAR OF THE PACIFIC 2'ii

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for bomber squadrons and became oneof the largest and best equipped mili­tary airports of the USA, with alanding field 800 by 4,000 feet in size.At various places in Oahu and theother islands secondary airports wereestablished.

HOW TO FEED HAWAII?On December 22 the US Navy

Department announced that the 5,645ton freighter Lahaina. of the MatsonNavigation Company was sunk elevendays before by a submarine while enroute to California. This news musthave been a severe shock to the peopleof Hawaii, not just because it was aHawaiian ship named after a Hawaiiantown, but because its loss conjures upa terrible possibility - Hawaii cut offfrom the mainland. Meanwhile Tokyodeclared that up to Christmas tenAmerican merchantmen totaling 70,000tons have been sunk off Hawaii and&nother 30,000 tons heavily damaged.How is Hawaii going to exist?

When Gener8l Drum was in commandof the troops stationed on Hawaii hestarted a campaign for economic self­sufficiency of the Hawaiian archipel­ago, especially the island of Oahu.Economic self-sufficiency is an ideaso foreign to the American - he isaccustomed to consider the Germanattempts at it as a disagreeable mix­ture of German stupidity and wicked­ness - that Drum at first foundlittle sympathy. But in the autumnof 1936 the great American shippingstrike, which cut off Hawaii formonths from the mainland, opened thepeople's eyes.

Drum's ideas, which have meanwhilebeen generally accepted as correct andnecessary, amounted to the following.A war in the Pacific will rendertransport facilities to and from Hawaiivery difficult, if they are not entirelydestroyed. On Oahu, the most denselypopulated island of the archipelago andthe center of its defense, there areroughly 220,000 civilians and 50,000members of the armed services. 85per cent of the foodstuffs necessaryfor their maintenance comes either

from the other islands or - andthat mainly - from the States. Whilethe army and navy can lay in (andprobably have laid in) enough suppliesto be able to feed their members fo1'"a lengthy period. the supplies available­for the civilian population at any giventime would be sufficient for about sixtydays.

To alleviate this possible emergencya number of measures have beencarried out. Hawaii consists almostexclusively of huge plantations of sugarcane and pineapple. Powerful concerns.the "Big Five," have gradually acquiredall good soil and hence made theexistence of small individual farmspractically impossible. Under theinfluence of Drum·s ideas and with the­support of the army, the number ofsmall farms has been slowly increasedduring the last few years.

A change-over from the almost­exclusive cultivation of sugar andpineapple ~ the production of variousfoodstuffs is necessary in time of war~

In close co-operation between planta­tions and army, extensive agriculturalexperiments have been carried out andstocks of seeds laid - in. On papereverything is cut and dried, down to>the instructions where celery is to begrown. If the plans have not remainedon paper, large areas were withdrawnon December 8 from the sole cultivationof sugar and pineapple and have beenplanted with the laid-in seed-stocks ofpotatoes, vegetables. rice, corn etc.With the speed at which everythinggrows in the climate of Hawaii, thefirst crops might be harvested aroundFebruary 1942.

HOW WAS IT POSSIBLE?

Aside from the food problem themilitary position of Hawaii seemedstrong beyond all doubt and equal toany possible attack-until the morningof December 8. Then came those stun­ning blows, almost impossible to conceive,which will go down in history as oneof the most important events of thepresent war.

How was it possible?

28 THE XXth CENTURY

The answer, it seems to us, isdear. It lies not so much in aninsufficient training of American sol­diers and sailors, nor in the warmaterial's quality, nor in the possi­bility that Hawaii had too few planesQr anti-aircraft guns. It lies above allin the spirit of America and of itsarmed forces. Once again it wasthat same Maginot spirit, which theopponents of the Axis powers have tothank for so many of their defeats up tonow. The Maginot spirit-that is theoverestimation of material and theunderestimation of man. Just as theinvestment of billions of French francsand the use of countless tons of con­crete in the Maginot Line proved tobe useless against the spirit of assault,the originality, the thoroughness, andthe enthusiasm of the German armies,the gigantic fortifications of Hawaii,built up over a period of years withAmeriCc1.'s wealth of money and ma­terial, failed against the boldness and;self-sacrificing spirit of Japanese sailorsand airmen. What are the finest ar­mored plates against human torpedoesand suicide bombers?

When considering in America todaythe bitter question, "How was it pos­sible?" one should study, in one of themany good American history books,the background and events of theRus~o-Japanese War and especially itsfirst twenty-four hours. One would·discover startling parallels. Both theRussia of Nicholas II and the Americaof Roosevelt attempted, as outsidepowers, to hinder the leading nation ofthe Far East in its growth. Both be­lieved that they were dealing with awholly inferior adversary, and bothhad similarly contemptuous expressionsfor their Japanese opponents. "We shallfinish them by throwing our caps overthem," said the Russians in 1904 ; "We.shall blast the Japanese Navy out ofthe Pacific," it was said in Americain 1941. Both Russia then and Amer­ica now believed that Japan was "justbluffing" and failed to take her asseriously as she deserved. The Amer-

ican historians of the Russo-JapaneseWar were with their sympathies almostall on the side of Japan and exposedwith utmost clarity the mistakes ofthe Tsarist policy. How are they go­ing to describe the road to the presentPacific war?

At bottom what we are witnessingbetween America and Japan today isa repetition of what took place betweenRussia and Japan nearly forty yearsago. And we remember, when readingabout the Japanese attack on Hawaii,that the Russo-Japanese War began bythe Japanese fleet unexpectedly attack~

ing the Russian fleet asleep off thefirst-class naval port of Port Arthurand dealing it a blow at the very start(2 out of 7 battleships and lout of 6cruisers were destroyed) from whichit never recovered.

• • •A friend from Hawaii once suggested

that the islands should be turned intoan international park, a sort of PacificSwitzerland, its neutrality sacred to all.This suggestion has not much chanceof being fulfilled. For it is the sternfate of those beautiful islands to lie ina focal point of tremendous strategicand political importance and thatin recent years they have become theoutpost of American imperialism.

At one time the fact that theylay in the center of the largest of alloceans was their blessing, for it enabledthem to carryon a peaceful existencehidden in its vastness. Since theirdiscovery this circumstance has becometheir misfortune, and today they' arecaught in the maelstrom of a giganticstruggle.

It is easy to say that both Americaand Asia would be better protected ifthe Hawaiian Islands did not exist andif unbroken ocean rolled from continentto continent. But here they are, andhere they are likely to remain. And.whoever is in possession of theislands will fill them with guns andplanes.