THE WAR AHEAD: We Can Imagine ...

The target now was Tokyo. All the ships, planes, tanks, trucks, all the guns, rockets, bombs could be turned on Japan.

In Tokyo a newspaper editor implored his readers to renew their determination to fight "a life and death struggle for our very existence."

For the U.S. and Allies it would be no easy task. Before their full strength could be brought to bear, troops and supplies must be moved from Europe (16,000 miles via the Panama Canal, 13,000 miles by ship and train via New York and San Francisco). Even more difficult than moving would be the job of finding places to base them. The Philippines, most convenient and adequate staging area, are 1,350 miles from the Japanese homeland.

The theater was watery and vast, extending from the Kurils to Jap-held Java, from the Carolines to central China. The job was vast. Thailand, Indo-China, Malaya and The Netherlands East Indies—a world in themselves—had to be cleared. China had to be freed. Before victory, Japan had to be brought to the same terms as the other Axis partner: unconditional surrender.

Said Premier Suzuki: "I am determined to fight through this war with all I have."

The biggest burden of the war will be on the U.S.

Britain, which has already sent most of its fleet, will send more troops. Canada will send some volunteers. Australian forces already have their hands full cleaning up the Solomons and New Guinea, boring into Borneo.

The Dutch can contribute little. Their navy was virtually destroyed three years ago. The French, concerned with Indo-China, nevertheless can send little more than a token force.

China, at war since 1937, still lacked the kind of army—or the kind of industry—to do more than hold its own, continue to tie up a sizable number of Japs.

The other interested Pacific nation had not yet revealed its plans. Russia may have 800.000 men along the borders of Manchuria. Russia's intentions were Russia's secret.

But the U.S., the greatest naval and air power in the world, ready to commit an army of almost 7,000,000 men to winding up in the Pacific, could handle the job alone. There could be no doubt of the outcome. Against the U.S. forces and the potential forces of its Allies stood the remnants of a Japanese navy—now little more than a task force—and an army of 4,000,000 (plus reserves and service troops) thinly spread around the stolen empire.

Said a Tokyo newspaper sadly: "We can imagine what the future will be."