Today is exactly six months since the start of the war. The press published a partial list of the Japanese gains. A dispatch from Domei announced that the Imperial Japanese Forces had captured the following war booty:
Artillery guns…………………….. | 196 |
Cars………………………………… | 31,589 |
Machine guns…………………….. | 11,548 |
Airplanes………………………….. | 240 |
Rifles……………………………….. | 216,000 |
Trucks…………………………….. | 12,200 |
Ships………………………………… | 48 |
Landing barges…………………… | 299 |
We do not know the exact figure about the manpower of the contending armies. But according to the same dispatch from Domei, the number of troops fielded against the Japanese army and those killed or captured was:
Fielded Chinese troops……………………. | 1,830,000 |
Chinese captured………………………….. | 44,000 |
USAFFE troops in the Philippines………… | 100,000 |
British troops in the Dutch Indies…………. | 120,000 |
North American troops captured……………….. | 54,000 |
These figures are neither complete nor accurate. But they give us an idea, superficial though it may be, of the effort Japan had to put into the war to destroy, almost at the same time, all the enemy forces. We can conclude with certainty that the Allied troops had been recruited hurriedly and that Japan was in a position to field twice as many men as those actually drafted. Japan’s fighting power is tremendous.