 The Pacific story, Pacific and its people of the peaceful sea and the lands and lives it touches and their meaning to us and to the generations to come. The National Broadcasting Company presents the second in a new series of programs dedicated to a fuller understanding of the vast Pacific Basin. This new broadcast series, another feature of the Inter-American University of the Air, will deal with a different aspect of the Pacific each week with drama of the past and present and commentary by Owen Lathamore, authority on the Pacific and director of the Walter Heinz Page School of International Relations Johns Hopkins University. Alaska, America's new frontier. Hey Sergeant, what are those planes up there? Huh? Oh, those transports? Yes. I've been seeing them go over every day. How long have you been up here in Alaska? Well, my outfit just got in a week tomorrow. They're carrying Len Liefs material to Russia. Len Liefs to over Alaska? Alaska is not only the shortest way to Russia and China and Japan, but it's going to be one of the greatest places on earth when this war is over. Top of the world, a distant wilderness that has become a key to victory in the Pacific. Today at last its value is understood. Years before the American frontier was pushed to the Pacific, Russian traders and explorers invaded Alaska, set up trading posts, fortifications, settlement. From the alute name Alaksha, which means the great land, they named it Alaska. For years they exploited the fur trade and then believing they had drained Alaska of its resources lost interest in it. Then one night in 1867, thousands of miles away in Washington D.C., Secretary of State William H. Seward, that's playing quiz. Hello, Bonnie. Retricks for you and seven for me. Well, you're certainly lucky, Seward. Let's play another game. You don't know when you've had enough. Your deal. Yes, and this time the cards are really going to be shuffled. Mr. Secretary? Yes, Howard. There's a gentleman at the door. He says he's the Russian minister. This time of night? It's almost midnight. He says it's most urgent, sir. Tell him I'll see you in the library. Yes, sir. The Russian minister at this hour? Yes, sir. Excuse me. Well, I think I'll get along home, Seward. No, no, no, no, no such thing. I've got to let you win at least one game. Stay right here. I'll be back in a moment. Seved word from the Tsar tonight. So I have hastened to you as Secretary of State. The Tsar? His Imperial Majesty has authorized the sale of Russian America to the United States for the sum of $7,200,000. $7,200,000. Well, that's considerably higher than our last offer. The Tsar declined the offer of the United States for $5,000,000 at that time. And now the price is $7,200,000. I am authorized to sell for that price to the United States. To the United States? Are other nations interested? Well, that I am not in a position to know. Mm-hmm. Halleck. Halleck. Yes, Mr. Seward. Give my regrets to Mr. Varney. Tell him we'll have to finish our game some other time. I'm going down to the State Department. Yes, sir. To the State Department now? Yes. We'll drop the deed at once. Seward's icebox. Seward's folly. It's outrageous. $7,200,000 for an Arctic wilderness. The Russians have been trying to get rid of that country for years. Under the auspices of Mr. Seward, the United States has entered upon a colonial system. At a time when we are heavily loaded with debt, we are to pay more than $7,000,000 in gold for a remote and barbarous region which under ordinary human conditions will never be largely peopled except by savages. The advantage of obtaining a large territory with a population of eskimos is certainly not very striking, even with the added control of the fishing and fur trade. Alaska became our largest possession, one-fifth the size of continental United States, 2,300 miles across and 1,400 miles north and south. Put the map of Alaska on top of the map of the United States and Point Barrow is at Duluth. The southeastern point touches the Atlantic coastline in Georgia and the Aleutian Islands reach to Los Angeles. Not just a frozen tundra, but a land containing 385,000 square miles of forest, 65,000 square miles of land suitable to agriculture, 35,000 square miles of grazing land, a land in which vegetables flourish and flowers and berries grow profusely, a land of untold wealth and resources. Since 1867, Alaska has paid for itself a thousand times with its economic trinity of fur, gold and fish. In season, the Pribilof Islands are covered with seals. The same, mister, do you know how many seals there are in that herd? There are two. I've been in the fur trade up here 40 years. There's over two million seals in that herd. Two million seals? There's lots of other fur animals up here too. Mich and Silver Fox, Martin, Landon and Beaver and Fitch, more than half a million felt for taken every year. Well, what would you say is the value of the furs taken out of Alaska? Well, since we bought Alaska from Russia, a hundred million dollars worth of furs have been taken out. A hundred million dollars worth of furs and gold, the gold taken out of Alaska far exceeds the gold taken from any other place on earth. Gold has been mined continuously in Alaska since it was discovered in 1898. Yes. First, we found it in the Yukon. Next year, we found it on the beach at Nome. All you had to do was wash it out of the sand. Well, how much gold would you say has been taken out of Alaska? Six hundred million dollars worth. And there's as much still left here as has been taken out. And that isn't all. Two hundred million dollars worth of other minerals have been mined here. Copper, silver, iron and platinum. Eight hundred million dollars worth of minerals. And the waters off Alaska are one of the world's richest fishing areas. All right. All of it. All of it. Recent years, two thirds of the world's supply of salmon has come from Alaska. Mr. Sanistician, what's the value of the fish taken out of these water? Value of the fish from Alaska and the waters? Well, since 1900, we've taken out more than a billion dollars worth. Alaska's value to the United States is counted not only in fish, gold and furs. Today, its chief value is strategic. Japan understood this long before we did. In 1922, Japan induced the United States not to fortify the Aleutians. And this was written into the Naval Limitations Treaty. And in the ensuing years... Gentlemen, gentlemen, you congressmen are far from the realities that we face in Alaska. Well, to you Alaska is just a distant wilderness. But let me warn you and let it be a matter of record here and now that Japan's ambitions are not illusory. If we are to defend Alaska against Japan, we must have highways. We must have planes, soldiers and ships. Thank you. I sympathize deeply with the apprehension of the delegate from Alaska, but it is evident that he is so close to the problem that he cannot see the wood for the trees. Now, we have heard the testimony of experts here in committee that Alaska is both indefensible and valueless from a military point of view. But no position is valueless if it overlooks the enemy's rampart. On what grounds does the delegate from Alaska speak of the enemy? We are at peace with Japan, and God willing we'll remain so. It is my opinion that in order not to disturb or alarm Japan that we should not fortify any part of continental Alaska. Meantime, Japanese fishermen with spy glasses, Japanese tourists with cameras, Japanese cannery workers with hidden radios were fascinating themselves with the enchanting scenery of Alaska, its thousands of inlets and its chain of Aleutian islands. In 1935, General Billy Mitchell told the Congressional Committee, Alaska is the most central place in the world for aircraft. Whoever holds Alaska will hold the world. It is the most important and strategic place in the world, but this was an age of international amity and goodwill, and the profits cried alone in the wilderness. As late as 1939, when the world situation was critical, and in a matter of months, Hitler was to march on Poland. As late as 1939. Here's a story that ought to be good for page one. What is it? Yeah, it came in on the telegraph. Oh, and that Japanese goodwill flight from Tokyo to Washington. That's right. You look it over. Yeah, to promote international fellowship. Washington's granted them permission to send ahead welcoming parties to the Aleutians, to wave at the goodwill plane as it passes. That's fixing it up fancy for them. Yeah, sort of cheer the Jap flyers on as they carry greetings from their Mercado to the president. Well, okay, shoot it on page one. I wonder what those welcoming parties are going to be doing. Hey, hey, you see this? Jap warships have landed those welcoming parties of Japanese all along the Aleutians. From Tokyo to Washington, goodwill flights have been postponed again. When are they going to get started? Well, those Jap welcoming parties have been waiting all summer on those Aleutian islands for that, that goodwill flight to come by here at his postponed again. Here's a story from the Aleutians. Those of these Japanese welcoming parties are passing away the time walking and fishing. Here's a story from Tokyo as the Japs have decided to call off that goodwill flight to Washington. They're sending out a warship to pick up their welcoming parties from the Aleutian islands. That was in 1939. The significance of this event was not as clear then as it is today. It has now become clear to military experts that in all likelihood, the flight was projected to test the bombing route to the United States. The welcoming parties took pictures and took soundings. Today, we know that Japanese fishermen have explored every harbor of Alaska and have landed at one time or another on every atoll in the Aleutians. Through their soundings and surveys, they possess a better understanding of Alaska and the Aleutians than we do. Japan understood Alaska's value long before we did. Saw that Alaska was the strategic center between Japan, Russia, the Pacific Ocean, the United States, Canada, and the Arctic Ocean. Japan saw that what Gibraltar was to Great Britain in the last century, Alaska could be to the United States in this century. By the time the Tokyo to Washington Goodwill flight was called off, the distant throbbing of the war drums had become a deafening roar. The United States rushed to fortify Alaska. What's that there on Logan there? Concrete out of this ship and steel out of that one there. Looks like they mean business. Well, it's about time. I haven't seen this many ships here in the harbor since the Gold Rush. It's more than I ever seen. Yes, the government spending four million dollars on the air base at Fairbanks. And pretty soon, you're going to be here. The handwriting on the wall was becoming clear and it was late. Very late. Until this time in 1939, the United States had less than 300 troops in Alaska. Now machinery and materials and men were pouring into Alaska. The naval air base at Sitka was undertaken at a cost of three million dollars. The base on Kodiak was undertaken at a cost of nine million dollars. Millions for defense beyond the dreams of the most ardent Alaskan. And this was only a beginning. When the Nazi juggernaut crossed Europe and Japan moved south into Indochina, suddenly Washington became aware that Alaska was not an indefensible outpost, but the front door to North America. We've got to fortify Alaska. We've got to fortify Alaska. Sage, you hear on the radio? A hundred million dollars has been appropriated for the defense of Alaska. I propose that we boost the appropriation to fortify Alaska from a hundred million to a hundred fifty million. See this? Congress has appropriated three hundred million dollars to fortify Alaska. And if that isn't enough, I say appropriate more. Ships steamed into Alaska harbors with valuable cargoes. Airplanes brought skilled technicians and critical material. But this was not enough. To supply this strategic military base, Alaska needed a Burma Road. Sixteen hundred miles abroad through Virgin Mountain and Forest and Muskeg. By this time, Japan had struck the United States with sledgehammer blows. Suddenly, in March 1942, the long-pending plan for an Alaskan highway was endorsed. The decision was reached. The trainload of Army engineers started for the North country. Engineering regiments, some of them all Negro units, plunged into the stupendous task. The race for Alaska. Russian poplar, an ugly trail was cut, raising the giants to their stumps. The trees fell like tempins before the blazing crews of the Army. Then came the civilian construction crews with bulldozers. Look at that monster root out those stumps. Ah, that's a powerful caterpillar, stronger than a snow plow. Back in here is this bull bruiser. Just pushes those stumps out by the roots. Look at that. And look at that. Pushes aside that boulder as if it's a pebble. Stand back, here comes another. Stambas came the ditching machine, gouging deep drainage ditches alongside the road. Through forests, the workers hewed their way. Across tundra and muskeg swamps. Hey, is it true that automobiles and horses think out of sight in this muskeg swamp? Yes, in the summer even the deer will sink into it. But in winter, when it's frozen, you can drive a truck over it. You think this corduroy road we're putting over it is going to be strong enough to hold a convoy of Army trucks? We've avoided most of the deeper muskeg, and we can drain the shallow muskeg down to a solid foundation. Through summer heat from dawn to dark, thousands of men sweating and struggling, racing to establish a lifeline to Alaska. On October 29th, a little more than six months after the project was started. Today for you to remember October 29th, 1942. He listened to those guys yell alongside the road. They got something to be excited about. They built this highway. We got something to be excited about too. We're in the first convoy of Army trucks to drive over it. Near Edmonton, Alberta to Fairbanks, Alaska. Through forests, over mountains, across muskeg swamps. Army trucks carrying supplies overland to Alaska. To the revelation of a new frontier. Cut the moor. Okay. Brother, look at that runway. Hey. Must be a mile long. And an Alaska. Yeah, I'm glad to see you guys. A convoy trip to have. How pretty rugged, but we've failed right through. That's right. Boy, this airbase gets me. Look at the size of that runway. Yeah, we bill it in record time. Bill it right over a muskeg swamp. So this is Alaska, huh? Hey, where's the snow? Oh, we get less snow in this part of Alaska than they get in Virginia. And some of the temperature here goes up to 90, sometimes up to 100. Hey, you know, kiddie. That's right. Yeah. What are those over there? Eskimos? Huh? Oh, yes, they're refugees brought in from Atkar. That's an island in the Aleutians. Oh, look at them watch those planes over there. Oh, that looks like a whole squadron of bombers. No, that's what it is. They'll be taken off in a minute. You mean those planes are going out on a bombing mission? You're on the war zone here, soldier. You're practically looking down Japanese gun barrels right now. This is the only fighting front on American soil right here. Well, where are they going? You guess. There they go. In a few hours, they'll be dumping their eggs, but it'll do the most good. Gosh, it makes you realize how close we are to those jets. They're right in our front yard. As the bombers fly, the United States is within one day's flying range of Asia and vice versa. From recently conquered Attu, Tokyo is only 2,000 miles, and the Japanese air and naval base at Paramosheri is only 700 miles. Strategic Alaska. By air over the Great Circle route, the shortest route from almost anywhere in North America to anywhere in Asia is over Alaska. Toronto, Chicago, and Washington DC are nearer to Moscow over Alaska than to Buenos Aires. Over this route, the northern claw of the great pincers can clamp down upon Japan. And when the war in the Pacific is resolved, this route will make Alaska with its wealth of resources one of the most important places on Earth. I've been keeping my eyes open since I've been up here, and that's why I want to know. You've been here in Alaska a long time, haven't you? All my life. I was born here. I'm looking to the future, and that's why I want to know. You plan to stay here after the war when you're discharged from the Army? If all they say about this country is true. Well, son, until the war, we were cut off from the rest of the world. We only had one railway, 471 miles from Seward to Fairbanks. It used to take 28 days to travel from Seward to Fairbanks by dog team. Today, it takes two hours by plane. Air transportation has nipped all of Alaska together, and we're perhaps the fastest growing place on Earth. What about the possibilities here in the future? We have the possibilities of becoming a Sweden or a Finland. Our latitude, climate, and natural resources are similar to theirs, and our population potential is even greater. Until the war, we had a population here of less than 80,000. We know now that Alaska is capable of supporting a population of 10 million, and perhaps more. America's new frontier bids well to play an ever-increasing role in the war in the Pacific, and in the great Pacific era that lies ahead. Just what this will mean to us and to all the Pacific Basin. To present a proper perspective on the meaning of this, the national broadcasting company presents Owen Lathamore, director of the School of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Lathamore. There are many thousand young Americans in Alaska today who had never dreamed that they would ever go to Alaska. Still less had it entered their heads that they would someday be serving in the fighting forces in Alaska to free American soil of Japanese invaders. It is safe to say that many of these American servicemen thought that Alaska would turn out to be nothing but an Arctic wilderness, and that practically none of them knew beforehand what Alaska is really like. This American ignorance of Alaska is important for all of us. It matters a lot if someone you know, perhaps your son or brother or husband, serving in Alaska seems to you to be far away in a desolate and forbidding land. It makes you feel lonely and out of touch. But it's different if you think of him as serving on a part of America's own frontier, territory that is as American as Maine, and that forms part of America's vigorous and hopeful future. One lesson to learn from Alaska is that there are American territories which Americans need to know more about, just as we need to know more about what we have in common with the countries that are our allies, and more about what produced fascism at home and aggression abroad in the countries that are our enemies. There is one thing that you will be especially glad to know about the Alaska of today. I have been talking in the last few days with a man who has been covering a lot of ground in Alaska and all the way out to the Aleutians. He couldn't tell me, of course, how many American fighting men are out there. That's a military secret. But he did tell me something about the way they feel. The very idea that Japanese are established on American soil on Kiska fills them with fury. They don't think of Alaska just as the base from which they are going out to push the Japs off Kiska. They are much more aware than most Americans are that they are fighting on the one front in this world war which is on American soil. They think all the time about the fact that Tokyo is only 2,000 miles away and Attu only 700 miles from Japan's air and naval base at Palamushiru Island just off the tip of Kamchatka. They want to do something about it. And the days when the fog is too thick and soupy for bombers to fly makes them feel frustrated and impatient. Even we armchair strategists who stay at home and look at maps instead of frontline battle plans can see how important strategically Alaska is. What it comes to is this. The shortest way from anywhere in North America to anywhere in Asia is over the top of the world. And Alaska is our front porch with a view over the top of the world. Alaska used to be isolated from the rest of America and the rest of the world. Any place inside of Alaska used to be isolated from any other place. A few years ago it took 28 days to travel from Fairbanks to Gnome by dog team. Suddenly air transportation has knit the huge territory together. Even very small towns are connected with what Alaskans call the outside by daily plane service. Even cows and horses get to be flown around by air. The easiness and the everydayness of air transportation are already leading to a phenomenal growth in population and development of resources. Personally this impresses me very much because it is so much like China. I once traveled four months by Camel Caravan to reach a part of China that you can now reach in a few hours by plane. There are millions of people in China who have never seen a train but are quite familiar with the sight of an airplane. Alaska's importance in the regrouping of the world which is bound to take place after the war is as great as Alaska's importance in the war. The Alkan Highway by which you can go from America through Canada to Alaska is part of our national investment in the future. But we and the Canadians must not run away with the idea that we are the only progressive forward-looking people. By the speed with which we put through the Alkan Highway we showed what we can do. But in terms of what has already been done the Russians are ahead of us. In the overall development of the Arctic and the subarctic the Canadians are a good deal ahead of us and the Russians are ahead of the Canadians. We can come back to that in the next program which will be about Siberia. In the meantime let's consider Alaska as the junction between the main land of America and the main land of Asia. Not long ago Vice President Wallace brought up the idea in a very vivid way. He was describing a conversation with Foreign Commissar Molotov when Mr Molotov was in Washington holding conferences with other United Nations leaders. The Vice President told Mr Molotov that he had a vision of a future in which there would be a true world highway system starting down at the southern tip of South America. It would reach up into Central America and Mexico then into the United States, Canada and Alaska. There would be a ferry at the bearing straits between Alaska and Siberia only about 50 miles. Except for this a man would be able to drive all the way in his own car from the Straits of Magellan to Siberia and when he got to Siberia he would be at the tap route of another branching system of highways either going straight on through Siberia into Western Europe or turning south and southwest for China, India, the Near East and Africa. That would be a true world system. And according to the Vice President, Mr Molotov's first reaction was no one nation can do it by itself. Then he said you and I will live to see the day. In this conversation we have the foretaste of a new future when it will be natural, convenient and quick to go to Europe across the Pacific or around the top of the Pacific and through Asia and you will be able to choose whether you prefer to buy a plane ticket or drive your own car. That will be a new and exciting chapter in the Pacific story. Thank you Mr. Latimore. You have just heard the second program of the new series, The Pacific Story. Next week at this same time over most of these stations the third will be broadcast. Siberia, America's nearest Asiatic neighbor with drama of the past and present and commentary by Owen Latimore director of the Walter Heinz Page School of International Relations Johns Hopkins University. You may secure an illuminating handbook of the Pacific Story which gives background information on each program in this series with suggested further reading. This Pacific Story manual will be sent to you for 25 cents in coin to cover cost of printing and mailing. Address the University of California Press, Berkeley, California. It is written and directed by Arnold Marquess. The musical score is composed and conducted by Charles Dan. Your narrator, Art Gilmore. This program has been presented as a public service and another feature of the Inter-American University of the Air by the National Broadcasting Company and the independent radio stations associated with the NBC network. This is the National Broadcasting Company.