Chapter 637: Great Northeast Strategy - Northeast Asian Theater

Roosevelt and others did not expect that the American troops on Bataan Island would be treated so cruelly, which was unacceptable to the Americans who boasted of being excessively sensitive, and for a time, the vast majority of the members of the US House of Lords and the House of Representatives of the House of Commons demanded that the government come up with a feasible plan to rescue the poor soldiers.

Under the strong protest of all American citizens, the vast majority of cities in the United States set off huge anti-Japanese demonstrations, and there were even incidents such as smashing up Japanese American shops.

As the scale of the anti-Japanese demonstrations grew, the Roosevelt administration immediately lodged a formal protest with Japan, expressing great indignation at the barbaric and cruel treatment of the American prisoners of war by the Japanese soldiers. At the same time, there is a growing call from the top of the government for the treatment of Japanese Americans.

On 9 October, the U.S. intelligence community presented Roosevelt with a piece of information that believed that a large number of Japanese Americans were serving the Japanese government, that their tentacles had penetrated into all aspects of American society, and that the headquarters of the "Fifth Column," which was composed entirely of Japanese Americans, was located on the U.S. mainland. Therefore, the intelligence department recommended that the government immediately imprison all Japanese Americans.

On October 10, 1941, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, designating certain areas of the United States as "war zones" and imposing any necessary restrictions on people living in "war zones" and even excluding them from the "war zones." He also exiled 120,000 Japanese on the West Coast to the interior of the United States as enemy aliens.

On the president's directive, General DeWitt first imposed a "curfew" on all residents of Japanese descent in the West Coast states, citing the invasion of Japanese troops and the "threat of subversion." A forced resettlement operation followed, and the government demanded that Japanese in the United States sell their homes and businesses and report to a designated location. About 110,000 Japanese-Americans in the United States were sent to 10 specially built camps in the Midwest to await resettlement.

Japanese-Americans who report to designated locations are temporarily detained, and each adult is limited to 150 pounds of luggage, including bedding, cosmetics, and seasonal clothing. Each child can carry up to 75 pounds. There is a tag for each person and each piece of luggage. They no longer have names, but only personal numbers. He was told not to bring pets, money, jewelry, cameras, radios, weapons, or any metal objects. The government will provide warehouses for bulky items. For example, refrigerators, washing machines, large furniture, pianos, etc. are stored in a unified manner. And then. The means of transport are arranged by the government. These Japanese-Americans were sent to concentration camps.

The protest of the US government has no legal effect on the Japanese government, and after receiving the protest from the US government, the Japanese government only informed the base camp. Let them send a report to the Japanese troops on Bataan Island, so that they can be a little more restrained.

After receiving the telegram from the base camp, Lieutenant General Masaharu Honma was a little depressed, in fact, he did not know much about the disappointment of the large number of prisoners, and all matters about the prisoners were handled by the field transportation commander, Major General Yoshiken Kawane.

However, Honma Masaharu did not know, he thought that he could capture up to 25,000 prisoners, so he instructed Major General Yoshiken Kawane to formulate a logistics plan based on 25,000 people, but in fact, the Japanese captured a total of nearly 70,000 American and Filipino troops on Bataan Island, and the biggest problem arose here.

The U.S. prisoners were to be fed the same as the Japanese in the U.S. prisoners' escort plan, and the Japanese had established several field hospitals in Baranga and San Fernando, with medical stations, first-aid stations, and "rest stops" every few miles along the way.

Sadly, however, this plan was based on miscalculations, and Wainwright's army had long since been weakened by hunger and malaria, so that the total number of prisoners exceeded 70,000, not 25,000.

The total number of prisoners exceeded the Japanese army's estimates, and exceeded the Japanese army's transportation plan, which was one of the reasons for the Japanese army's mistreatment and massacre of American prisoners, and another reason was that Tsuji Masanobu arrived in Bataan.

Who is this Masanobu Tsuji, as I have already explained before, this person graduated from the 43rd session of the Japanese University of the Army. He successively served as the squadron leader of the 7th Infantry Wing, a member of the establishment squad of the General Staff Headquarters, a staff officer of the North China Front, an operational staff officer of the Kwantung Army, a member of the 11th Army Headquarters, a member of the General Headquarters of the China Dispatch Army, and a staff officer of the 25th Army. Masanobu Tsuji, along with Ishihara Waner and Seshima Ryuzo, is known as the "Showa Three Staff Officers" and is known as the "Jackal Staff Officers".

Tsuji had traveled from Singapore to Manila a few days earlier, where 5,000 Chinese had been massacred on charges of "supporting" British colonialism, largely on his mind. Tsuji carried Honma behind his back and persuaded several officers in Honma's staff who admired him: "This war is a race war, so all the captives captured in the Philippines must be executed, the Americans because they are white colonialists, and the Filipinos because they have betrayed the Asian peoples." ”

So a secret order came out of Honma Masaharu's headquarters: "Kill all the captives and kill all those who surrender." "That's why the U.S. military suffered in Bataan.

Although Masaharu Honma strictly forbade the slaughter of American prisoners at will due to Chen Feng's intervention, more than 10,000 people had died before that.

Since then, a large number of photos have been sent to Washington every day, and each one is more bloody and cruel than the other, and each photo is challenging the bottom line of the American people and the top brassips.

On 13 October, at the same time that Chen Feng's unit had completely annihilated the Japanese Eighth Theater in Tongliao, Roosevelt and Churchill sent a joint telegram to the Nationalist Government, believing that it was necessary to establish a sub-theater in the Asian theater, that is, the Northeast Asian Theater or the Far East Theater, which included the Soviet Union's Far East, China's Northeast, the Korean Peninsula, and the United States' Alaska.

Of course, Chiang nodded in agreement, but Chiang hoped that his confidant Tang Enbo or Hu Zongnan would be the commander-in-chief of the Northeast Asian Theater, but this request was vetoed by Roosevelt, because Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed that General Chen Feng, commander-in-chief of China's Eighth Theater, was the most suitable for this commander-in-chief.

After communicating with Chen Feng, China, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union formally announced the establishment of the Northeast Asian Theater, with Chen Feng as the commander-in-chief of the theater and General Ivanov, commander-in-chief of the Soviet Far East Front, as chief of staff.

However, in this way, China and the Soviet Union suffered relatively large losses, especially the Soviet Union, which had already reached a neutrality agreement with Japan, and both sides agreed that neither would invade anyone at such a critical moment, which was very beneficial to the Soviet Union, which was fighting against Germany. However, if the Northeast Asian Theater of Operations against Japan is established by the four countries, then Japan will inevitably be forced to declare war on the Soviet Union, and the United States and Britain will hardly have any combat troops in Northeast Asia, and the only infantry division is still far away in Alaska, and it is still an infantry division that is not fully staffed, and the whole division has only about 6,000 men, which will not play much role at all.

Therefore, if the United States and Britain do what they think, Chen Feng and Stalin will really become the big wrongdoers, and the United States and Britain will become the biggest beneficiaries.

No one is a fool, and if there is no benefit, no one will do such a loss-making transaction. In return, the United States promised to provide the Soviet Union with a $3 billion free loan and 50 divisions of weapons and equipment.

The United States did not treat another major patron who contributed to work and efforts, and agreed to unconditionally support Chen Feng's department in carrying out industrialization in order to make up for the losses of Chen Feng's department. In addition, China, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to open a new route from the east coast of the United States to the Far East of the Soviet Union to transport the necessary supplies. And all this was done in secret, and the Japanese army knew nothing about it.

When China, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union were planning the Northeast Asian theater in the city, problems arose within the Japanese army. The Japanese army won one brilliant victory after another in the Pacific theater, and this victory came too easily, but the victory brought to the Japanese high command not unity, but discord.

The original war plan was to seize the raw materials of Southeast Asia; After the territory is occupied, it should be turned into a fortress, where a group of strategic bases capable of long-term operations of the armed navy should be established. The Army still believes that the only sensible course of action is to make the base group strong enough to force the United States to finally accept some kind of peace.

However, the Navy was on its toes after successive victories, and it was no longer willing to play such a limited, defensive role. Why can't you launch an offensive against Australia, Hawaii and India? Attacking these places necessitated naval battles, and at that time, the best of which was the battle of Java, was sure to destroy the enemy. Until now, in the process of conquering the whole of Southeast Asia, the navy has lost less than 25,000 tons of ships, and the largest warship sunk is nothing more than a destroyer.

The Navy began to put pressure on the Army, coming up with a series of plans that went far beyond the original objectives, one of which was to destroy the British fleet in the Indian Ocean and join forces with the Germans. There is also an even more ambitious plan for the United States – cutting off supply lines between Australia and the United States. If U.S. warships dared to attack the blockade line, the Japanese Navy was confident that all invading U.S. warships would be sent into the Pacific. (To be continued......)