Japan's survival in the Pacific depends on her merchant fleet, which must bring back Jap loot from Asia and the East Indies, transport Jap supplies to extended island bases. In one of his most optimistic moods, ebullient Navy Secretary Frank Knox last week told the U.S. public that one-third of Japan's precious cargo shipping had been sunk.
Mr. Knox's estimates: when the war began, Japan had 6,368,891 tons of merchantmen. Since then she has added approximately a million tons of ships seized, ships salvaged and ships new-built (mostly wooden ones).* Of that...
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