The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 1 (archived PDF)

T H E A R M Y A I R F O R C E S I N W O R L D W A R I 1
highest councils: where were they to draw the final perimeter with
its outermost line of defenses? The question was of vital importance,
for it determined in large part the locale of the initial clashes with
U.S. forces as soon as the inevitable counterattacks began. Generally,
it was the imperial navy which stressed the advantages of establishing
a perimeter at the maximum possible distance from the industrial heart
of the empire; for not only would this plan provide additional time
and space in which to fend off American assaults which were sure to
come, but it served Admiral Yamamoto’s strong conviction that his
only hope of success lay in bringing about an early full-dress naval
engagement with American forces. The aggressive commander of the
Japanese Combined Fleet favored this decisive fleet action at the
earliest possible date, because he realized that with the passage of
time American production would outstrip that of Japan, thereby
creating a fatal disparity between the two naval establishment^.^^ The
Japanese army, on the other hand, seems to have opposed this tend-
ency toward overexpansion in the Pacific, stressing the advantages of
maintaining a tight, compact empire operating along interior lines,
fed by the resources of the Netherlands East Indies and defended on
the east by a naval force whose commitments were more nearly in
proportion to its strength. The latter plan did not prevail. It was the
navy’s theory which gradually gained ascendency, and by March and
April both army and navy were examining their outposts in the east
and south with a view to strengthening them.
If the Japanese in their planning conducted prior to the war had
hesitated to rush too far afield in fixing the limits of empire, the
results of the first four months of fighting indicated that their initial
calculations and timetables had been exceeded; the victories had come
easily, the cost had been inconsiderable, and Allied resistance had
proved unexpectedly light.5oThis very ease and rapidity of conquest
seems to have been a strong factor in influencing the Japanese navy
toward fresh ventures in the spring of 1 9 4 2 . ~ ~The first step occurred
in connection with the defense of Rabaul, the strategic base located
at the junction of New Britain and the upper Solomons which the
navy had marked out as one of its goals prior to the outbreak of the
war. The place had been taken on 23 January, together with Kavieng
on New Ireland, but there was a difference of opinion as to how it
should be strengthened; the question was not whether the Rabaul
base should have its own advance posts, but how many and at what
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