Word: leas
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...East Asia. "The Philippine Islands," wrote Lea, "bear the same strategic relationship to the Southern Asian coast as the Japanese islands do to the Northern. . . . Without the Philippines, Japan's dominion in Asian seas will be no more than tentative, and her eventual domination or destruction will depend upon who holds these islands." Considering U.S. unpreparedness in the Philippines as of the time he was writing, Homer Lea said the islands could be captured by Japanese as easily as the U.S. took Cuba from Spain. In 1941 U.S. preparedness had begun to be more formidable. But only...
...Central Pacific. "Hawaii . . . can be considered the most important position in the Pacific." Hawaii, Lea thought, would be assaulted from within by the 1909 version of a fifth column. He asserted that there were more Japanese "immigrants" in the Hawaiian Islands with army experience than there were soldiers in the entire field army...
...Victory. But Homer Lea thought that assaults on the Philippines and Hawaii would be only a beginning. He wrote in 1909 (in 1941 he would probably add air battles wherever he referred to naval battles): "The advocates of naval expansion have . . . given a wrong impression to the public, not as to the necessity of a navy, but as to the accomplishment of enterprises beyond its sphere. Neither now nor in the future will international conflicts be determined by naval engagements. In some instances naval victories may produce conditions that will tend to hasten the conclusion...
Triple Assault. Homer Lea dragged his sick little hunchbacked body up "down the U.S. Pacific coast, exploring for himself the beaches, the bays, the gaps and the passes through which landings might be established. His conclusions: > The first Japanese landings would be established in Washington and Oregon. Their focus would be the rocky, grey, low land around Grays Harbor, where the Wynoochee, Chehalis, Wishkah and Humptulips Rivers have scooped out the best natural pass inland. Centering on Centralia and Chehalis, the invaders would throw their left flank toward Seattle, their right toward Portland. They would seize the passes...
...within range of naval guns (and therefore their invasion might take the air-land-sea character of British attacks in Libya). After seizing Los Angeles they would strike out for Saugus, Cajon and San Jacinto Passes, sealing the coastal strip, and again hold tight. (Development, since Homer Lea wrote, of the San Diego base would suggest the necessity of a flanking attack, perhaps through Lower California...