RESTRICTED, GUIDE to the WESTERN PACIFIC, For the use of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps of the United States of America.,CinCPac-CinCPOA Bulletin, No. 126-44 August, 1944
機密文件，西太平洋指南，供美國陸軍、海軍和海軍陸戰隊使用。太平洋艦隊總司令部-太平洋戰區總司令 公告，第 126-44 號。民國33年8月《Black Water Museum Collections | 黑水博物館館藏》
"Stepping Stones to Japan"
The islands like Kwajalein, Saipan, and Wake, Or Tarawa, Marcus, and Yap Sound funny or queer to American troops When they look them up on a map.
There's Engebi, Rota, the Bonins and Truk, Majuro, Namur, and Palau, Formosa, Kusaie, Eniwetok, and Roi, Plus Ponape, Guam, and Davαο.
These tongue-twisting, weird, unpronounceable spots Point the way that our forces will go Through the skies, on the seas, over mountains and plains To knock out our Nipponese foe.
INTRODUCTION
Americans ought to like the Pacific. They like things big. And the Pacific is big enough to satisfy the most demanding.
It was "discovered" in 1513 by the Spanish explorer Balboa who crossed the isthmus of Panama to see its shimmering blue waters stretching out into apparent infinity. He was rewarded by his country for this deed by being created "Admiral of the Great South Sea."
The name "Pacific" was given to the ocean seven years later when the Portuguese, Magellan, entered it from the Atlantic through the straits which now bear his name at the southern tip of South America. He and his men were so weary of the antarctic blasts which battered his ships and so grateful for the mild trade winds which blew him northwest through the placid waters that the adjective "pacific" peaceful-came naturally to his mind.
Now neither Balboa nor Magellan was the first white man to see the Pacific. Marco Polo and his fellow Venetian adventurers had sailed its western waters from China around the Malay Peninsula to other Asiatic ports long before. But they did not know its vast ex- panses. They probably thought of it as a narrow body of water along the China Coast.
Magellan's name has stuck. It's a pleasant name, a kindly name, and often the ocean lives up to its name. Other times it does not. The Pacific has terrific storms-typhoons; its waves pile up to mountainous heights; its continental shores and islands have been the arenas of many bloody battles long before the Japanese struck at us at Pearl Harbor.
The stormy, blood-soaked Pacific is the biggest thing in geography -the biggest thing we know on our globe. It covers about 64,000,000 square miles enough water to cover every acre of land on the globe, with enough left over to cover another Africa. It's the bluest of the oceans and the warmest. And, it's the deepest.
Off the Philippines in the Mindanao Deep soundings reached bottom at 35,424 feet, farther down than Mt. Everest is up. The western part of the ocean has many of these "deeps"-trenches in the ocean
floor where in impenetrable darkness live weird sea creatures which defy human imagination. The average depth is about two and a half miles.
In only one respect is the Pacific outclassed by other oceans-it is not as salty and so it is harder to swim in the Pacific than in the Atlantic. But it's salty enough to make drinking it dangerous.
In this survey of the Pacific only that section north of the equator,
west of 180 degrees (the International Date line) and south of 40° North will be considered. The map in the center of this book shows this area with the various island groups to be treated noted.
Even in this limited zone, the distances are enormous and warfare becomes (mainly) a problem of supply, or logistics as the military men call it. It's 3,400 nautical miles from Honolulu to Yokohama, 4,600 nautical miles from Honolulu to Manila, and 1,750 nautical miles from Manila up to Tokyo. If a convoy sails at 250 miles a day it's not hard to understand why it takes time to mount our offensives and why only the most essential articles are shipped.
The islands of the north and west Pacific are for the most part of volcanic origin and are in varying stages of development. In some groups, such as the Marshalls, the original mountain peak has sunk below the surface and only the coral reef which once surrounded. it remains. These are called atolls. Others, like Truk in the Carolines, consist of mountains which have sunk part way, leaving bodies of water-lagoons-between the mountain and the coral reef built up on the submerged shoulders of the mountain. Still others, Guam, for example, are tops of volcanic peaks with the coral reef attached to the shore line and no lagoon between it and the island. The pur- pose of this pamphlet is to give in outline form the main facts about each of the islands and groups of islands in this area a little about their history and geography, some information on their people- what they look like, where they came from, how they live and how they earn their daily bread. American soldiers, sailors, and marines know by this time that. the isles of the Pacific are not quite up to Hollywood standards. But they will find much that is strange and interesting..
This book is to help them get along in these places which formerly were not even known by name to most Americans but which are destined to become as familiar as their own backyards to hundreds of Americans from Maine to Texas, from Minnesota to Louisiana, from Florida to Washington.
FORMOSA
Formosa, or Taiwan as it is called by the Chinese and Japanese, lies about 100 miles off the southeast coast of China, about 700 miles southwest of Japan, and about 200 miles north of the Philippines. Its position at the crossroads of the China Seas has largely maped Formosan history and gives it an important role in the present struggle.
Formosa, the beautiful
That's the meaning of the name given to the island in 1590 by Portuguese sailors. In the year 600, the Chinese had occupied a group of islands lying about 25 miles west of Formosa, and the Portu guese later named these islands "Pescadores", after the fishermen who lived there. But the ferocity of the head-hunting natives on Formosa had kept the Chinese away from that island, and had given Formosa an unsavory reputation. The only people who could stand up to the savages were the equally blood-thirsty Chinese and Japanese pirates, who for centuries made shipwreck on that island the greatest peril in the China Seas.
It was not until the period between 1650 and 1700, when China was torn by civil war, that Chinese refugees began to flee to Formosa. There with true Chinese determination they gradually pushed the savages back into the mountains. During this immigration the Dutch became interested in the commercial possibilities of the island and established a fort and trading station on the west coast near Tainan. Always out to beat the Dutch, the Spanish built Fort San Salvador on the north coast at Keelung, and the two countries set- tled down to a gentlemanly little war while the Chinese immigrants looked on and the savages took on all comers. In the end the Dutch won but their victory was short lived, for they in turn were driven out by Koxinga(鄭成功). This remarkable man, the son of a Chinese freelance and a Japanese mother, gathered a motley force of Chinese and assorted pirates, and in 1662, after a siege which lasted a year, drove out the Dutch. Koxinga's pirate kingdom was in turn overthrown in 1683 by the Manchu emperors of China. But life under Chinese rule was just about what it had been before; "every three years a disorder, and every five years a rebellion" ran the Chinese proverb. The emperors had little interest in this distant province and sent out governors who did not even understand the language of the people; while the headhunters, pushed out of the best lands, fought both rulers and ruled.
In spite of this hectic life, the Chinese population grew from approximately 1,000 in the year 1600 to 3,000,000 in 1900. By the middle of the 19th century, still another disturbing element came on the scene with the economic penetration of the country by Eu- ropeans, who forced the Chinese rulers to allow ships to trade in camphor, sugar and opium. This in turn brought more trouble because the Europeans, who were not always careful of their methods, wailed loud and long when the pirates too found this trade "profitable". Several times the British and French bombarded towns and sent landing parties ashore on forays. Even Japan, awakening from the isolation of the Tokugawa Shogunate, opened her eyes to the possibilities of this unruly neighbor, and in 1874 Japanese forces spent several months ashore in retaliation for one of the piratical outrages. The Japanese later put the fighting knowl- edge which they acquired of the country to good use, when war broke out between China and Japan in 1894, Japanese forces occu- pied the Pescadores with the result that the Pescadores and Formosa were ceded to Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. Japan's troubles had only started, however, for Formosa continued to live up to its reputation for trouble-making. The Formosans revolted, formed a republic which lasted about a month, and settled down to several years of guerilla warfare, which was only gradually put down and still flares up occasionally. The headhunters in their mountain villages continued to resist both the Chinese and Japa- nese and are not completely conquered to this day. Some of them are still enclosed inside a continuously policed "Aiyu-sen" or guardline, a 360-mile fence of which 230 miles are electrified.
The immovable aircraft carrier
Even before the present war Japanese newspapers spoke of For- mosa as the "immovable aircraft carrier in the line of the south- ward advance". It was from Formosa that the first airraids against the Philippines were launched. Naval, air and supply bases were established at Bako in the Pescadores and at Keelung and Takao, thus making a stepping stone to the Philippines, a base for attacks on the south China coast, a routing station for shipping, and a vital link in Japan's economy in war and peace.
The apparently rosy prospect that the Japanese hold out to Asiatics is the "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere"; the subject peoples get a fine-sounding name and the Japanese get the "prosperity". This is well illustrated in Formosa, one of the first of Japan's acquisitions and, supposedly, a model to attract other victims. Although the standards of living of the two countries were almost identical when Japan acquired Formosa, after 50 years of Japanese rule the Formosans get only three-quarters as much food per person as the Japanese, who get little enough. Not only is the food lacking in quantity, but its quality is not sweetened by the fact that the Formosan-Chinese have to worship once a month at a local Japanese Shinto shrine in order to get even that. Although Japan pointed with pride to industrial development in Formosa, industry was run almost entirely by Japanese monopolies, under Japanese bosses, on Japanese terms. The Formosans were the hew- ers of wood and the drawers of water, borrowing money hew Japanese at extravagant rates to pay high Japanese taxes, part of which went back into Japan by indirect means or direct grants, while another large part was used to support the Japanese bureau- cracy and the fortification program. Such money as was spent on irrigation and other projects was invested with the sole purpose of providing more food for Japan.
Brother Asiatics
The Japanese claim that they and the Formosan-Chinese are brother Asiatics, but they maintain the position of a tyrannical elder, and supposedly wiser, brother. The island has been governed by Japanese who were appointed by the imperial government and advised by local Japanese business men. To these men and their children went the best jobs, the best schools, medical care, in other words, the gravy. The Formosans got what was left, plus a large dose of propaganda about how well off they were under Japanese rule. On the whole this never went down very well with the Formosan-Chinese, who was proud of his heritage of Chinese culture. Some of the aborigines, impressed by Japanese strength, joined Japanese labor battalions, but most of the savages remain apathetic or absolutely hostile to Japan. The entire population is restless and the "Free Formosan Government" of revolutionaries set up in Chungking(重慶) in Free China claims that occasional sabotage continues. The basis of Japanese local government has been the hoko system which appeals to the strong oriental feeling for the family as a unit. Ten families make up a ho, with a headman who is responsible for the activities of all the families under him. Ten ho make up a ko, and similar joint responsibility. Each ho or ko is responsible for the activities of all its members with appropriate punishment for all if one commits a crime.
Mountains and plains
Formosa is an island shaped like an elm leaf, 249 miles long Mountains and plains in a north-south direction and 93 miles wide at the widest point. The inhospitable east coast is lined with several ranges of mountains which come down to the coast in spectacular cliffs several hundred feet high. Two of the mountains, Mt. Morrison (玉山) (Niitaka) and Mt. Sylvia(雪山) (Tsugitaka) are about 14,000 feet high-the tallest in the Japanese Empire. What few rivers there are in this region are short and swift, often flowing through deep gorges. Toward the western coast, long gentle slopes end in a broad coastal plain. The Pescadores to the west consist of seven flat, wind-swept minor islands and 56 minute islets, with a total area of only 48 square miles.
The island lies across the Tropic of Cancer, the dividing line between tropical and temperate regions. Its location gives Formosa value to Japan, for here for the first time Japan was able to get tropical raw materials. At low levels, the temperature of Formosa resembles that of Florida. Frost is very rare, snow, even on the mountains, is almost unknown. In the winter the dry season- the northeast monsoons prevail, while in the summer, the southern monsoons bring rain and storms. Typhoons, which occur chiefly between April and December, are frequent and violent, with winds sometimes reaching a velocity of 86 miles per hour. During the winter season, rainfall is about five inches a month, falling in heavy showers. Rainfall on the windward slopes is higher than on the leeward side. A volcanic area, Formosa experiences as many as 330 earthquakes a year, but few of them are serious.
Vegetation is generally luxuriant and tropical in character. From the palms and tropical fruit trees of the western plain, it is only a short step to the slopes of the lower mountains with their dense jungles of various growths-the many-trunked banyans, the graceful tree-ferns that often attain the height of palms, and the ever-present bamboo grass. Here is found a profusion of flowers, such as the butterfly orchid, and the pink azalea, while the trees are festooned with long streamers of moss. A little higher are plateaus covered with camphor laurel, the largest tracts of these trees in the world, while still higher up grow the forests of pines, spruce, and cedar. Here is found the giant benihi, the second largest tree in the world, similar to the redwoods of California, and the valuable hinoki or Japanese cypress. Still higher the rocky peaks of the mountains are but sparsely covered with bushes.
Although there is an abundance of vegetation, there is little wild life. Birds are relatively rare. Many water buffaloes and cattle, the common beasts of burden on the farm, are found. Snakes constitute the only real problem; there are 11 known poisonous land and eight sea varieties. Avoidance of all of them is advised.
And now, the people
In spite of 50 years of Japanese rule, there are only about 300,000 Japanese civilians on the island, as opposed to 140,000 savages and 5,500,000 Formosan-Chinese, These Formosan-Chinese are not all alike. Most of them come from the Fukien district of China, just to the west of the island. They are a hospitable and amiable people who have settled throughout most of the farming districts in the lowlands. The Hakka people, who come from the hills of Fukien and Kwantung provinces in China, have a background not unlike that of gypsies; they retain their own ways and dress and keep to themselves in the northwest and in the foothills where they have intermarried with the aborigines. Still a third group of Formosan-Chinese, speaking their own dialect, are the 100,000 Cantonese who live chiefly in the cities, where they are regarded almost as foreigners
Among all these Formosan-Chinese groups ties with the mainland of China are strong-not with China as a whole but with their home district. Their common means of communication with the written characters which they can all read, no matter what their dialect. Only about 45 out of every hundred can speak any Japanese at all. As a whole, they are intelligent but self-centered interested only in their own locality. Most Formosans know little or nothing of the United States or the other Allies for the Japanese have seen to it that only their own version of world news is heard. In dealing with strangers they are apt to be crafty, but with friends they are open, generous, and kind. They despise the Japanese but usually follow the line of least resistance and obey their conquer- ors. The Hakka people are generally the tallest, and their women, who wear their hair in a high top-knot, have never followed the practice of foot-binding which cripples so many of the oldest Fu- kien women. These Hakka are adventurous and warlike; it is they who have always been most actively anti-Japanese.
In normal times the Japanese civilians were scattered about the island in administrative posts. The top administrators did not look upon themselves as Formosans, but as public servants who must put in a period of service away from Japan. The majority of the Japanese however were men who came to Formosa to get rich quick, and to stay. They were aggressive and arrogant to- ward the Formosan-Chinese. So strong was their desire to main- tain their identity that they insisted upon segregating themselves in the cities, even importing special Japanese and Korean prosti- tutes and geisha girls for their own use. Physically, these Japanese are short and stocky, resembling the lowest class of Japanese fishermen and farmers.
The original Formosans
The original Formosans were the aborigines, called "savages" by both Japanese and Chinese. At present they are divided into two classes (1) about 116,000 who are called Pe-pa-hwan (sub- dued savages) who have sworn allegiance to the Japanese and adopted Chinese civilization in varying degrees, and (2) the Chin- hwan (wild savages) who are largely untouched by outside influ- ence. It is these "wild savages" who have been continual trouble- makers. Physically and culturally they resemble the mountain peoples of northern Luzon in the Philippines and certain other mountain tribes in the East Indies. In appearance they remind one in some ways of South American Indians. They are divided into numerous tribes, differing considerably among themselves and hating each other only slightly less than the Chinese and Japanese interlopers. Curiously enough, the legend that they were well treated by the Dutch still persists among some of them and they
have been kind to some white men, but it would be a mistake to count on it. They may have forgotten their history. They are a proud and independent people, agile and physically tough, superb hunters, fishermen, and woodsmen, but apt to deteriorate when away from their mountain homes. In their sex relations they are highly moral. Like children they give way to their feelings, alternating between periods of great joy and fits of anger. Their least attractive habit is head-hunting; for among the tribes of the north and central mountain ranges the possession of an enemy's head adds greatly to a young man's sex appeal. It is only slightly reassuring to know that they are not also cannibals, or that some of the western tribes rarely practice the sport. In their relations with these natives, the Japanese have always used a firm, if not cruel, hand, employing poison gas, airplanes, and artillery as well as the subtler weapons of civilization. These methods have been only fairly successful, but the number of savages has gradually declined as usually happens when a primitive society comes into. contact with an unfriendly higher civilization. Japanese policy has been to keep them in their mountains, attacking them only when they made forays into the lowlands.
Religion
The Japanese, pursuing their policy of "Japanization", have tried by government subsidization to force on these people their own Shinto religion, the worship of the Emperor and ancestors. Most of the Formosan-Chinese, although forced to keep Shinto shrines in their homes, have retained their own religion, a com- bination of the folk-beliefs of ancestor-worship, Buddhism, Con- fucianism, and Taoism as practiced in China. The aborigines are animists, worshipping spirits living in trees and rocks and animals. Christian missionary activity among the Formosan-Chinese before
the war produced about 7,500 Catholics and 41,000 Presbyterians.
Under the Japanese, education was but another vehicle in "Japanization"(皇民化運動). Japanese children were well educated, but Formosan- Chinese children received only a rudimentary education, and that was aimed chiefly at teaching them Japanese. The one university is at Taihoku; this again is reserved largely for Japanese. All news- papers are controlled by the Japanese, and printed in that language. The same applies to the radio, which is of less importance since few people can afford a set.
Health points
The Japanese made some progress against epidemics, but there are still many hazards to good health. Sanitation in the crowded cities leaves much to be desired for the people tend to be dirty and infested with vermin. Raw food should not be eaten because human excrement is a common fertilizer. All water must be boiled or treated. The following diseases are prevalent: malaria, dengue fever, typhoid, amoebic dysentery, all venereal diseases, typhus,relapsing fever, tuberculosis, influenza just about every disease in the book aan especially dange prevalent; raw or inde disease tooked fish is an especialprit angerous carrier. Since directately posure to the sun from protective pugh October is a serious risk for whites, some sort of protective head-gear should be worn.
The health problem is aggravated by the crowded condition of the cities. An Oriental city is incredible to an American, with the shouting of the peddlers, the firecrackers of a Chinese funeral pro session, the clatter of the geta or wooden clogs, the masses of blue- clad Chinese, the strange smells. Although there are some rather clodern sections most of the cities will bear little resemblance to anything American. The largest city is Taihoku (population 340, 000) at the north end of the island, with the port of Keelung (popu- lation 100,000) just to the east. On the southwestern coast lie the other two main cities, Tainan (population 131,000) and Takao (population 118,000). But since Formosa is primarily an agricul tural island, the majority of the people live in scattered villages or in wood and mud houses in the fields, surrounded by tall bamboo hedges to keep away bandits and savages.
How they earn their living
Although there are some mining, textile manufacturing, and metal work, the chief activities are either agriculture or the processing of agricultural products. Most of the land is owned in small plots by farmers or rented from large concerns at high rates. Rice is the main crop; because the climate is so perfect, two crops a year can be grown in the muddy paddies, while the dry fields produce one crop a year. Rice is a government monopoly, and its price and distribution are carefully regulated. Other government monopolies are salt, camphor, opium, tobacco, and alcohol. Approximately 13,000,000 tons of sugar cane are grown a year but the Formosans get little of it; most of it is exported to Japan. Most of the tea plantations are in the northwest part of the island. Oolong is the principal type export but the scented Pouchong is also produced. Large quantities of bananas, pineapples, and other tropical fruits are sent to Japan. The Japanese at first tried to limit the amount of opium(鴉片) produced, but this policy has been changed; today opium plays a double role as an ally of the Japanese, bringing them money and weakening the will of the people to resist. In the Pescadores, fishing is still the chief industry. Formosa's prosperity is hampered by the lack of communications, for, although there are railroads on both the east and west coasts, the two systems have not been connected over the intervening moun- tain ranges. Little cars pushed by coolies on narrow-guage tracks are the only means of transportation in some sections.
Nine-tenths of the world's supply of natural camphor comes from Formosa. Chinese loggers cut the giant trees, while others stand guard against the savages. The chips are distilled in crude stills, each tree producing about $5,000 worth of camphor. In addition to camphor, the vast forests yield millions of board feet of lumber a year.
The Japanese were wise when they took Formosa, for it has been a vast storehouse for them. But, although they thought to use it as an unsinkable aircraft carrier pointing south, in our hands it points north, toward Japan.
NANSEI SHOTO
Spread like a net across the eastern entrance to the East China Sea is a string of Japanese islands called Nansei Shoto or "Schina Sestern Islands." They are also known to travelers as the Ryukyu Islands or the Loochoo Islands. While they have little economic Importance to Japan, their location gives them immense strategic value. They command the sea approaches to the China coast be- valeen Foochow and Shanghai and in Japanese hands have made the East China Sea a Nipponese lake.
They actually extend some 570 miles from a point 60 miles east of Formosa almost to the southern tip of Kyushu Island, one of the main islands of Japan. None is very large, but they provide enough area to permit construction of airfields and supply depots. Several excellent anchorages for war vessels and fleet auxiliaries are scattered through the chain. They are as modern as many sec- tions of Japan and are quite different from the more primitive Micronesian Islands.
They provide real "Stepping Stones to Japan" for any force moving from Formosa against the Japanese homeland.
Their history antedates ours
The Nansei Islands are a good reminder to Americans of the youth of our country. The Chinese have records of their people going to the islands as early as 650 A. D. while the first king of the islands, Tinsunshi, "Grandson of Heaven", is believed to have started his reign not long thereafter. His descendants ruled until shoved rudely from their throne by Shunten, scion of the Japanese Minamoto family, who had been expelled from Japan. In 1372 China demanded that the Kingdom of Loochoo (as it was then known) pay tribute and the island kingdom did, keeping up its friendship at the same time with the rulers of Japan. But near the end of the 16th century when the king refused to help the Japanese against the Koreans, he was in trouble. After settling with the Koreans, the Prince of Satsuma descended on Loochoo and forced the king to acknowledge Japanese rule. He agreed but also continued to pay tribute to China. It's not easy for a small country with powerful neighbors.
So matters continued until 1879 when the Japanese, opened up to western civilization by Commodore Perry 20 years before, began consolidating all the semi-independent kingdoms and principalities scattered through her islands. The Loochoo or Nansei
A prayer before battle
Almighty God, we are about to be committed to a task from which some of us will not return. We go willingly to this hazardous adventure.
We are ready to sacrifice ourselves for our country and our God. We do not ask, individually, for our safe return. But we earnestly pray that You will help each of us to do his full duty.
Permit none of us to fail a comrade in the fight. Above all, sustain us in our conviction of the justice and righteousness of our cause so that we may rise above all terror of the enemy and come to You, if called, in the humble pride of a good soldier and in the certainty of Your infinite merry. Amen!
This prayer is contributed by General Dwight D. Eisenhower for a “Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Prayer Book” with a letter commenting:
“Here is a prayer that I once heard a company commander repeating to his men on a wet, cold night, just before starting a march to the front line. It struck me more forcibly than almost any other I have heard. Possibly the drama of the occasion had something to do with my reactions, but in any event it was a better prayer than I could compose. While I cannot repeat it verbatim I am sending it in words that approximate the original.”
臨陣祈禱文
全能的天主，我們即將投入一項無法全身而退的任務，我們願意參加這次的危險旅程。
我們已經做好為國為主犧牲的準備，我們不求個人的平安歸來，但懇切求祢助佑我們每個人都善盡職責。
不讓任何人在戰鬥中背棄同袍，更重要的是，請堅定我們對正義的信念與正道的初衷，如此我們才能在蒙祢召喚之時，以一個好士兵的謙遜與自負出脫於敵人的魔掌而奔向祢，並盡享祢永遠的福樂。阿門！
這篇祈禱文乃狄威特-艾森豪將軍提供給《士兵與水手的祈禱書》，包括一篇短箋評注：
「這篇祈禱文是我有一次在一個濕冷的夜晚，聽到一位連長在部隊準備開拔到前線時，不斷重複念給他的士兵們。這比我聽過的其它祈禱文都來得強而有力，或許這場合的戲劇性跟我的反應有關，不過無論如何，它都勝過我自己所能說出的禱文；雖然我無法一字不差地重複這段禱文，但我盡力以接近原意的文字傳達之。」
