Japan s Highway of Steel C

The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present the Pacific story. In the mounting jury 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 who has left the event stake in the Pacific War.

Here as another public servant is the tale of the war in the Pacific and its meaning to us and to the generations to come. Japan's highway of steel. On October 23rd and 25th, in the waters of the Philippines, the Japanese Navy suffered its most disastrous defeat in the history of the Empire.

24 Japanese warships were sunk. 24 out of the 60 Japanese ships in the battle. 34 were damaged. 34 knocked out of service for months. Only two Japanese warships escaped without harm. By this victory, the US Navy won control of thousands of square miles of the western Pacific. Also, there were other figures to report. We are thinking Japanese

shipping at the rate of 2 million tons a year, and Japan can build only 1 million tons a year. These were the cold facts. Japan is a maritime nation. To supply her far-flung troops, she must have ships. And to bring back raw materials from the land she has conquered, she must have ships. But the Japanese have long been preparing for the eventuality of being fluffled at sea.

Today, as the US forces draw the news tighter around her sea communications, Japan's inland strategy becomes clear. Japan is developing a railroad system, the stretch from Korea to Singapore. The development of this railroad system is linked with the basic thinking of the Japanese.