Word: jap
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Early this week they had fought their way clear across the lower end of the island, had seized Aslito Airfield. U.S. air forces held control of the sky, bombed in stallations, showered Jap civilians and sol diers with invitations to surrender. But no one doubted that the soldiers of Nippon would fight...
...critical point in the battle when the Japs hoped to drive through to Pearl Harbor and a decisive victory, U.S. task forces lost contact with the enemy. Then 15 planes of Torpedo Squadron Eight suddenly came out of the overcast and saw spread out below them three Jap carriers and their escorts...
Torpedo Eight attacked, kept Jap fighters occupied until other U.S. squadrons could get to the scene. All 15 planes were shot down. Only one of Torpedo Eight's 30 airmen survived. But Spruance's decision and Torpedo Eight's courageous assault paved the way for the devastation visited on the Japs before the end of that...
Spruance has since been criticized by some venturesome tacticians for not chasing down the scattered Jap survivors. The record will some day show whether the criticism is justified. The Japs were spread to the four winds over a wide and smoky ocean. A reckless excursion into enemy waters might have undone the victory. The defense of the whole Pacific depended then on the handful of ships in Spruance's command. He had to preserve them, and he did. Right or wrong, that was the way he calculated when he retired...
Father and son were both on missions at sea when the Japs struck on Dec. 7, 1941. They met in Pearl Harbor the following day. Edward said with brash confidence: "We'll blast the Jap Navy out of the Pacific in a week." Spruance unrolled a map, gave his son a lecture from which Edward retired a sobered young man. Edward, a lieutenant commander and a good officer, last week was awaiting his own submarine command...