 The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present the Pacific story. In the mounting fury of world conflict, events in the Pacific are taking on ever greater importance. Here is the story of the Pacific and the millions of people who live around this greatest sea. The drama of the people whose destiny is at stake in the Pacific War. Here, as another public servant, is the tale of the war in the Pacific, and it's meaning to us and to the generations to come. Japan's Highway of Steel. 23rd and 25th in the waters of the Philippines. The Japanese Navy suffered its most disastrous defeat in the history of the Empire. 24 Japanese warships were sunk. 24 out of the 60 Japanese ships in the battle. 34 were damaged. 34 knocked out of service for months. Only two Japanese warships escaped without harm. By this victory, the U.S. Navy won control of thousands of square miles of the western Pacific. Also, there were other figures to report. We are sinking Japanese shipping at the rate of 2 million tons a year, and Japan can build only 1 million tons a year. These were the cold facts. Japan is a maritime nation. To supply her far-flung troops, she must have ships. And to bring back raw materials from the land she has conquered, she must have ships. But the Japanese have long been preparing for the eventuality of being throttled at sea. Today, as the U.S. forces draw the news tighter around her sea communications, Japan's inland strategy becomes clear. Japan is developing a railroad system to stretch from Korea to Singapore. The development of this railroad system is linked with the basic thinking of the Japanese. Wars are won by land fighting. Ships are for the transportation of troops. Observers who watched Japan's development of the railroad system on the mainland of Asia in the last third of a century inquired into the Japanese thinking. Do you mean that you do not think of ships as a fighting force? Ships are for transport and for protecting communications. But what of Admiral Togo's crushing victory over the Russians at Tsushima? The Russian fleet was 18,000 miles from home. Every advantage was ours. That implies that you Japanese avoid taking risks with your vessel. You might say that we prefer taking risks in another way. Your country and Britain think of your Navy as defensive weapons. You use your Navy to keep the enemy away from your homeland. We use our Navy to take our troops to the lands where the decisive battles will be fought on land. I see. Then your Navy is a servicing unit for your land forces. It is the land forces that win wars. With this thinking, the Japanese long ago took steps to assure her land forces of transportation on the mainland of Asia. After Admiral Togo had destroyed the Russian fleet, the Japanese took over Russia's leases of Port Arthur and Dyeron in Manchuria. With this, they also took over the railroad connecting Port Arthur and Dyeron in the interior of Manchuria. This became the first unit of the Japanese rail system on the mainland. And soon they were busy with the second unit. Mr. Asikawa, my government requests an explanation why this bridge is being built across the Yellow River without the consent of the Chinese government. Has not the Chinese government given Japan rights to maintain the railroad between Mukten and Anton here on the border of Korea? The rights you speak of were forced from us, but the Chinese government gave no rights to Japan to build a railway bridge across the Yellow River. The bridge is necessary in order to make direct rail connections between Busan and Korea and Mukten in central Manchuria. But the Chinese government did not intend that Japan should develop such a railroad system. We are building this bridge at our own expense. I must tell you that the Chinese government does not approve of the building of this bridge and that building operations must be stopped at once. But the Japanese went on building the bridge. And when it was completed, they had a railroad extending from Korea, over which they then held a protectorate, up to Mukten, and from there up into the northernmost reaches of Manchuria. This railway became the spearhead of Japanese aggression on the mainland of Asia. The South Manchuria Railroad, which the Japanese now control, is a desperate threat to us here in China. I say that we must develop a railroad of our own and a seaport to supply it. You have recommendations to make? Yes. Look at this map of Manchuria. Yes. We will develop a port here at Hula Tower. That is very close to the Japanese control of Beijing Mukten Railroad. Less than ten miles. And we will build our railroad up here at the border of Siberia. British and American bankers offered to finance the development of the port at Hula Tower and the railway to Siberia. But the Japanese were not caught napping. Is it not true that China has a treaty with Japan concerning such a development? The secret treaty you refer to was rung from China by force. If China should proceed with this project without referring it to Japan, it would be difficult to estimate the seriousness of the trouble that might result. The Japanese forced the Chinese to drop their project. Then the Japanese planned their own railroads in Manchuria and off China and had China build them and help pay for them. We will, of course, advance the money for the building of the railroad. The Japanese advanced the money, but their purpose was clear. In effect, Japan's got a mortgage on those railroads. And that isn't all. The Japanese sought to it that the railroads were built where they will do the most good in time to come for the Japanese. The Japanese were looking ahead to the time when they would need and use those railroads. And meantime, they lost no opportunities. In World War I, Japan came into the war on the side of the Allies and seized Qingdao. She also seized the Kiao Chao Xin An Railway. And then one day in 1915, to the astonishment of the world, she made her notorious 21 demands on China. Japan demands that the Chinese government consent to the building of a railroad from Qifu or Lunghao to join the Kiao Chao Xin An Railway. Japan demands that the Chinese government agree that whenever permission is granted to a third power to build a railroad, or to make a loan for the purpose of building a railroad in South Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, that the consent of the Japanese government will first be obtained. Japan demands that control and management of the Kirin Chang John Railway be handed over to the Japanese government for a period of 99 years. Japan demands the right to build a railroad connecting Wuchang with Kiyukan and Manchang. Another railroad between Manchang and Hang Chao. And the third railroad between Manchang and Chao Chao. Japan demands that China must consult with Japan whenever the need arises. China resisted but was forced to accept five of the 21 demands. Step-by-step Japan was developing the railroad which one day she would use the good advantage in her bid for world power. On July 7th, 1927, a conference of Japanese military, political and industrial leaders was held in Manchuria. What they discussed made world history. Rettos! Rettos are not to deceive ourselves. Transportation is the key to operations on the mainland. Or not only that, it is the key to our national defense. Or do not think in terms of defense. We must think in terms of expansion. If we wish to develop the natural resources of the mainland and strengthen our military position, we must build a railroad, especially in northern Manchuria. If we build a railroad in northern Manchuria, our purpose will become obvious to the entire world. Or if we control the great systems of transportation on the mainland, there will be no need to hide our designs. No, we will need transportation to conquer Manchuria and Mongolia and China. And when we have accomplished this, the rest of Asia, including the South Sea islands, will be ours whenever we wish to take it. These were the principles laid down in the Tanaka Memorial. And soon they were translated into action. September 18th, 1931. The Japanese today attacked the Chinese at Mukden and are now planning out to occupy all of Manchuria. It was no accident that the Japanese struck at Mukden. Mukden is a strategic railway point. By the time they struck the railroad, they'd so long been planning and having the Chinese build. They were ready for military operation. The Japanese took all of Manchuria. Now they have their railroad system from Korea up into Mukden, and from there to the important points of Manchuria. Watch Beiping next. Observers on the scene saw this coming. The blow fell where they expected it. July 7th, 1937. The Japanese today attacked the Chinese and the Marco Polo Bridge outside Beiping. They are now moving to occupy northern China. From Beiping, they drove on Shanghai. Mile by mile, they took over the railroads as they advanced. From Shanghai, they struck westward and southward. They drove on the Tiantang Bridge, crossing the Tiantang River at Hang Chao. And in the van of their onslaught, there was frenzied activity at the bridge. Get that cart moving across the bridge. One of the wheels is broken. It's lost down under the load. Well, whip up your horse and drag the cart out of the way. You're holding up the traffic on the bridge. My horse will be 106. He cannot drag the wagon with the broken wheel. Everything we have is on the cart. Drag that cart out of the way. You'll have it jumped over the side of the bridge down into the river. Now move. My horse cannot pull it. Here you. Help this man tie a plank under the broken hub of this cart here. And the rest of you, man, help them drag it across. Now, sir, do you think the Japanese will be here? I don't know, but we're moving everything possible over the bridge before they get here. Keep moving over there. Keep moving. Oh, I've never seen such traffic. We're moving everything, military supplies, government supplies, food, railroad stocks. What are you going to do with the bridge? That's up to the military. Keep moving over there. Oh, that bridge was completed a lot more than two or three weeks ago, wasn't it? Yes, and it took years to build it. The lucky thing we have it, for at least we can get some of our supplies across the Hang Chao and then back into the rear. We have the plank tied under the broken wheel now. All right, good. Take your men and give them a hand getting his cart across the bridge. All right. Get up there. Get up there. Look at that broken wagon dragging across the bridge with that load. Keep it moving up there. What is from the colonel? You ought to stop all traffic across the bridge at once and to withdraw to safety. Yes, sir. Stop all traffic. Lockade the bridge. All right. What about all this traffic lined up to get across? They cannot get across. The Japanese are coming. The traffic that was stopped swelled out like a sea on the miles approaching the bridge. Motor mobiles, horses and wagons, trucks, locomotives and railroad rolling stock. The destruction of the chim-pang bridge haunted the Japanese drive, but not for long. The Japanese swarmed across the river and took Hang Chao. And within a year, they had taken Cam Ton, China's principal force for war materials. With the taking of Cam Ton, they controlled the operation of the Cam Ton-Hang Chao Railroad. Unit by unit, the Japanese were seizing controls of China's railroad. Cam Ton had fallen into Japanese hands and Hang Chao and Nan Chang and with them went their railroad. We have now been at war more than a year. And it is now clear that the strategy of the Japanese has been to paralyze us by seizing or controlling our railroads. They hoped they would force us to surrender. In order to continue resistance, we must fight to hold every possible mile of railroad and to build new lines, whatever we can manage it. We have lost Cam Ton and we have lost Hang Chao. But we still control much of the railroad lines between them. Yes. It is my belief that we should tear up the sections that are in danger and move them to sectors where they will be of more use to us. The rails and the rolling stock and all. Everything that can be moved. Well, where would you move it? To the Hang Yang Guiling District. If we do not move it, we shall lose it all to the enemy and they will use it against us. It was decided. The task of moving a railroad from one sector to another was undertaken. Tens and hundreds of thousands of Chinese bent their backs to the job and by fall 1938 traffic was moving over the new line. Report. In the first ten months of operation, 480 military trains were moved over the new Hang Yang Guiling section of railroad. Report. One million persons or a million tons of supplies were moved over the new Hang Yang Guiling section of railroad in the first ten months of operation. Where the Chinese could not save their railroads, they were moving them. But the Japanese continued their relentless drives and troubles mounted for the Chinese. Since the fall of Canton we have been bringing war materials in through Indochina. But today we have been informed that the French are not in sympathy with trans-shipping through Indochina. Have they stopped our shipment? Not yet. While there is still time we must build a railroad of our own down to Indochina. The plans were worked out but the Japanese continued to swallow up China's remaining railroads. By the middle of 1939 Japan controlled most of the railroads from the north of Manchuria down through north China down to the southern port of Canton. By the middle of 1939 the Japanese had seized 80% of the 11,000 miles of railroad that China had at the opening of the war. By the middle of 1940 the situation was still worse. Strong units of Japanese troops landed at Haifeng, French Indochina. They're landing a lot of Japanese. What are they going to do? Take over Haifeng? The Japanese have come in to prevent Haifeng from falling into the hands of the enemy. Whose enemy? France has been out of the war since June. But Indochina is not at war with China or in the life of Japan. We are not in a position to prevent the Japanese from landing here and at Hunaya. Oh, it's Kanai too, huh? What about the airfields at Tong King? The Japanese are also in control of them. Looks to me as a bystander that the Japanese have taken control of all northern Indochina. These are protective measures. What do you suppose this will do to the Yunnan Railway into China? The Chinese are already tearing up the section of the Yunnan Railway near the Indochina frontier. Wow. Well, these troops coming ashore here have cut off just the box China's last outlet to the outside. There is still the Bemerode. But the Bemerode was not a railroad. And soon it too was closed. And while China, shut off from the world, struggled to carry on her war of resistance, the Japanese efficiently supplied their front over the railroads the Chinese had so laboriously built. The coming war in the Pacific was shaping up. Now it was 1941 and halfway around the world, Hitler sprang at the throat of Soviet Russia. The far east shook with the reverberations. The Japanese already firmly established in northern Indochina now drove southward and occupied all of Indochina. And from Vichy France came an important announcement. On their floor, the Vichy government has today signed a protocol with the Empire of Japan. These Japanese troops have come down here to Saigon to protect this French naval base against the enemy. That's what Vichy says. Could they just buy a coincidence? Also be interested in the railroad that leads from here in Saigon up to High Falls? What do you think? Well, to try to put this occupation of Indochina means to the disadvantage of China. It also should mean something to Britain. Because of Singapore? Yes. Japan now has not only a handy little springboard for an attack on Malaya, but also on Singapore which by the way is only 650 miles away. At first the Japanese had gone into Indochina to blockade China. They were converting Indochina into a military base for further aggression. Two days after Pearl Harbor the Japanese engineered the so-called surrender of Thailand. And two months later they had taken Singapore. Their task now was to close the gaps between their railroads, link them together in one great interconnecting system. But while the Japanese were forging their overland railroad collider on the mainland they were losing at sea. Forward torpedo room. Number two out tube. Cube's ready forward, sir. Zero one four. Zero one four. Zero two zero. Zero two zero. Zero one zero. Fire one. Set up on number two. Number two ready, sir. Fire two. Total number of Japanese ships sunk by Americans. Eight thousand. Seven thousand. Six thousand. Five thousand. Four thousand. Three thousand. Two thousand. One thousand. Now let's get back to the carrier. Throughout 1942 and 1943 U.S. land and sea forces attacked Japanese shipping and inflicted staggering losses. Look at this. I saw that. And she knows planes have sunk a Japanese cruiser in a flock of smaller supply ships. We must have sunk a couple of million tons of Japanese shipping. Well, we have. Maybe two and a half million tons. I can't see how Japan is going to make up those losses. The chances are she can't. She can't build much more than a million tons a year. Well, then when we get her shipping whittled down a little more, all we're going to have to do is throw a blockade across the South China Sea and cut off her communications to her troops in the south. That'll not stop the Japanese operations on the mainland. And that is our big problem. As the U.S. Navy carried the war deeper and deeper into the western Pacific into the waters of the enemy, Japanese sea losses mounted still higher. But meantime in China it was becoming increasingly apparent that Japan's inland strategy was paying off. By the spring of 1944 the objective of Japan was clear to cut China in two. And to this task Japan committed her best train to her most efficient troops. Weeks of savage fighting and Yang had the last fall into the Japanese. This gives the Japanese possession of the entire railroad between Beijing and Hangzhou. Japanese have advanced with a powerhouse drive taking city after city. Their immediate objective now appears to be the closing of a 60 mile gap around Guilin. The Japanese were bringing up supplies for the assault on Guilin. They only closed the gap between the railroads. But it would mean the wiping out of the strong U.S. air bases at Guilin. Help me. Help me move this stove. All right. Let me get hold of it here. No. There. Now I must rest. We cannot rest until we have the street torn up for the pillbox. I work all night. I'm old yesterday. Yes. And all the night before that fire. Everyone is working. Look at the hills. How they are being fortified. And the barbed wire stretched out everywhere the Japanese could come. Every street and every empty place is dug up for trenches and pillboxes. But I am so tired. I can't work no more. Rest a little. Then perhaps you can help some more. It is said that we will fight for every foot of Guilin. The Japanese will only pass when they have killed us. Come. Come. Pick up your shovel. We must get the pillboxes in here. Do not stop working. Come, Shannon. Try a little more. Yes, yes. I will try. Bye. As the tens of thousands of Chinese struggled to complete the fortifications before the Japanese came, all available American supplies were brought in. All right. Take it up. Take it up. Get those trucks unloaded over there. Get going. We're going to need every ounce of this stuff. Presently the Japanese started their drive on Guilin. They averaged 10 miles a day in the early stages and intelligence revealed their strength. The Japanese are converging on Guilin with seven strike divisions. They're well-equipped and well-trained. The railroads are bringing up enormous amounts of supplies to support them. From the U.S. air bases, there was an almost continuous traffic of warplanes taking off and returning permission. Hello, Shannon. We strapped them up and down the ranks after the farmers laid their eggs on them, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. They keep right on coming. They must be advancing at night. They are. All right. Get those ships serviced. Take a breather, Lieutenant. You'll be going right up again. But in the face of the resistance, the Japanese drove on. At last it became obvious that the Guilin air bases could not be held. It took us more than a year to accumulate those supplies. Every ounce was flowing in over the hump. And there it goes up and smoked. Still liquid, the Chinese resisted to the last. Behind the Japanese, as they advanced, the railroads brought up more and more reserves, more and more supplies to feed into the battle. Airforces in China have been pushed back hundreds of miles from the south China coast. The Japanese now have an overland railroad carados in the 743 miles from Tokyo down through China and French Indochina to Singapore. The Japanese are now engaged. One bright spot is that the Japanese still have to build about 500 miles of railroad to complete their overland caradaw. And since the great part of the caradaw is in Chinese territory, the Japanese will be vulnerable to Chinese attacks all along the line during the building. Well, of course, that's a possibility. Also, railroad traffic is no match for shipping. But it is an excellent alternate. And there's still another advantage the Japanese have in this railroad system. In the operations in the islands, the Japanese were not able to reinforce their troops, not able to keep them supplied once we land it. But on the mainland, it'll be a different story. How strong would you say the Japanese land forces are in China? All would be difficult to say accurately. But there's reason to assume that she has at least 4 million combat troops in China and probably as many or more in reserves. Well, if she can keep them supplied, she has a definite advantage. With her railroad, she'll be able to transport troops quickly and keep them supplied. So even if we should destroy her navy and throttle their shipping, Japan would still be able to offer enormous resistance for their highway of steel. You have been listening to the Pacific story presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable azug Send ten cents, insist the coin to to university of California President Berkley California. The Pacific story is written and directed by Arnold Marquess. The first score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso, your narrator, Gain Whitman. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company.