One-Front War

Conversion, not reconversion, was the nation's task--conversion to a one-front war.

In Germany, there was an end to foxhole life. But the captives and the war criminals were still coming in. The homeless trudged down the endless roads. The task of occupation had just begun, and many felt that the job ahead in Germany was just as important as the job concluded.

At home, reconversion had started (see Transition), but the U.S. was still on a war economy. Only some of the froufrou had been restored.

The first handful of discharged soldiers returned to their homes, welcomed by families and friends, photographed by the press (see ARMY & NAVY). But eleven million were still in the armed forces and nine million of them would stay there. Other thousands would still be drafted.

Time & Tonnage. The task of redeployment to the Pacific was staggering (see BUSINESS). Now the Philippines would become the England of the war, the staging ground for attack. But the Philippines were not England. They were 1,900 miles away from Tokyo, and they had next to none of the necessary shipping facilities.

By best estimate, it would take six months to get the first U.S. ground troops from the European theater to the Pacific.

In the wait for strength, air power would get its second, and probably greatest, test. By last week the Army Air Forces had mined Tokyo harbor (see WORLD BATTLEFRONTS), and stepped up the Superfortress fire attacks on Japan's industry to 500-plane strength -- equivalent in bomb tonnage to all but a few of the heaviest air strikes against Germany. The attacks would grow heavier. If there was anything left of Tokyo or Nagasaki or Nagoya or of any of Japan's industrial plant by the time the U.S. Army and Marines moved in, it would not be through lack of attention from the Air Forces.

Policy & Prospect. There had been a few faint peace feelers, but none to which Washington gave even fleeting thought. Unconditional surrender was still the policy, and the fanatic followers of Hirohito, Son of Heaven (see FOREIGN NEWS), as yet showed no signs of breaking.

No one doubted that Japan was as thoroughly beaten right now as Germany was last summer. Neither did anyone have any good reason to expect a quick decision.

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