The Mighty Carolines Secret Stronghold of the Japanese

The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present the Pacific story. In the mounting fury of world conflict, events in the Pacific are taking on ever greater importance. Here is the story of the Pacific and the millions of people who live around this greatest sea.

The drama of the people whose destiny is at stake in the Pacific War. Here is another public service is the tale of the war in the Pacific and its meaning to us and to the generations to come.

The mighty Carolins, secret stronghold of the Japanese. Probably no one will ever know what happened to Hibbert. There are only a few men who ever penetrated the Japanese secrecy in the Carolin Islands.

But Hibbert did. Hibbert is not his real name, but he was a real man and American. He foresaw that the Japanese and the Carolin Islands could shut us off from the Philippines, that they could shut us off from the rubber and tin and oil of the Indies.

He foresaw that the Japanese and the Carolins could not only keep us away from Asia and Indonesia, but that from the Carolins they could strike us a crippling blow. And that's what happened. Hibbert came to me just after the Japanese went into Manchuria in 1931.

Now this attack of the Japanese and Mukgen, more than a local incident. Yes, it probably is. It's the first shot of the Japanese against us, against us. Why, we have no quarrel with Japan. Well, neither did Manchuria.

Well, you've been an observer of world affairs all your life. Yes, most of it. Look at Japan's movements in perspective. In 1894, she attacked China and took Formosa. Less than 10 years later, she attacked Russia.