Yanks will land in Japan, Radio Tokyo warns people
Creation of home guard in enemy homeland urged to meet American attack
WASHINGTON (UP) – Radio Tokyo told the Jap people today that they must expect an American invasion of their homeland.
The warning came as the Jap High Command formally acknowledged that U.S. troops were ashore on Iwo Island, 750 miles south of Tokyo, and the capital itself smoldered from the largest B-29 raid yet on Japan.
Landing possible
“We must now realize that it is not impossible for the enemy to attempt a landing on the homeland,” a Tokyo domestic broadcast said, quoting an editorial in the influential newspaper Mainichi.
The broadcast said:
In the fourth year since the outbreak of the war, the battlefront has gradually narrowed down from the gigantic and elastic defense structure that was won at the outset of the war until now the homeland has indeed become a fighting front. The intention of the enemy to take Iwo Jima is bitterly strong.
Enemy at gates
A German DNB dispatch from Tokyo said the people had come to realize that “the enemy is at the gates.” Jap newspapers, the dispatch said, were urgently demanding the establishment of a Jap home guard similar to the Nazi Volkssturm “in order to be able successfully to meet the United States attack against Japan herself.”
“The Japanese are fully aware that the recent air raids will be repeated on an even larger scale,” DNB said.