The Charlotte News

Friday, June 12, 1942

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: Sail away, sail away, sail away...

News finally caught up with the Battle of the Coral Sea five weeks earlier, as provided on this date’s front page. The sinking of the carrier Lexington May 7 is finally reported on June 12. The stories continued to cling to the notion that the battle was a resounding success; as history indicates the results, however, it was actually more a wash, at least in terms of lost ships, aircraft, and men, as we noted on May 8.

On the other hand, it was the first time the Allies had successfully stood down the Japanese Navy and forced its retreat, inflicting severe damage to the carrier Shokaku and so depleting aircraft aboard its twin, Zuikaku, that the latter had to return to Japan along with Shokaku, keeping both of these newest and fastest of Japan’s carriers out of the fight at Midway the previous week, immeasurably therefore aiding the Allied success in that battle.

Moreover, the goal of the mission for the Japanese in the Coral Sea was frustrated as they failed to capture Port Moresby on the south coast of New Guinea and establish there an airdrome and naval base from which missions could be launched against Australia as well as to ward off bombing raids against Rabaul and other airdromes to the north in an effort to preserve the East Indies; they were also stopped in their intent to establish a base at Tulagi in the Solomon Islands to the northeast of Australia as a point from which to harass shipping lanes between the U.S. and Australia, the primary purpose of the infiltration by the Japanese into the Coral Sea. Thus, in strategic terms, the Battle of the Coral Sea could be termed an Allied success, even if the press reports appear to be basing the notion instead on the initially reported scant losses incurred by the Allies versus supposed heavy losses inflicted on Japan.

In any event, as another piece points out, the Japanese Navy was now, sure enough, reeling from the Battle of Midway and the sinking of four of its primary carriers, the heart of its sea operations. For awhile to come, the Japanese Navy would be severely limited in its air mobility as a result, not entirely confined to land bases, but certainly not enabled of the same elasticity in its operations as during the previous six months.

The pilots who were dive-bombing the ships at Tulagi, we are informed from a first-hand front page account, were alternately cussing and yelling "Remember Pearl Harbor!" as they let loose their bombs and flak. The Japanese, it was now clear, had made a serious misjudgment in assessing the responsive character of the American people.

Meanwhile, domestically, the queue was forming around the block to turn in old rubber for a penny a pound to ameliorate the shortage.

"Coalition" on the editorial page comments on the threats being made of opening a second front by way of invasion of the Continent. The editorial understands the problem well, that absence of men and materiel still plagued the Allies so as to prevent the prospect any time soon of an invasion of France, Norway, or Italy, the seas still being too perilous, the prospect of Hitler’s mobility within Central Europe too fluid for such an operation yet to succeed. But, it also recognizes that the time would come, and that when the time came, it would be a bloody time for the Allies, touching all of America with personal tragedy. It was indeed a perspicacious editorial.

Amy Bassett penetratingly asks the question whether America had its share of Nazis for the mentality manifested, even among intelligent people, in their expressed reverence for the supposed efficiency and keenness of mind attributed to the Nazi, in business, in science, while the British had ascribed the qualities of doddering sloth, steeped in the past, the best of their lot presumed as killed off in the First World War. Ms. Bassett takes issue with these notions, pointing out that the British had, after all, withstood the onslaught the previous year during the Blitz, had wisely withdrawn from its positions around the globe out of self-preservation, while fighting it out to the extent possible in each locale where it had initial footings, France, Hong Kong, the East Indies, Malaya, Burma, all affording in succession America time to gather its wits and begin steady production to supply the war effort. And of course, it continued to fight and hold Malta and its positions in Egypt and Libya, as well as the newly occupied Madagascar.

Anyway, somewhere between the shorts, "Hare of the Dog", about the bunny who had an irresistible impulse to chase dogs until they dropped from exhaustion while frightening the passersby into fainting spells—no doubt with ‘uge, fierce, nasty, gnarling teeth—and "Hail, Britannia!" about the worst sin the captured German naval officer could do aboard a British ship on the waves bounding over the seas ruled by its Captain, and the hairy doggerel about the cushions needed by the soldiers of Il Duce getting their seats pinched, and about to have them pinched even more thoroughly within the not too distant future once the Yanks got to Africa in November, somewhere in all of that, there must be a common thread. But we don’t dare venture to pass the needle through the eye and sew it together for you today.

For we heard today a rumor that humor had been banned by decree from Alaska.

And, certainly, given the one titled "Worst Fate of All", not to mention the outrageous implications of Herblock, especially if the objet d'art therein were rud, we would not wish to comment too loosely on anything on today’s page for fear that we might inadvertently appear to be making some reference crude to some politician in combination with the inference drawn therefrom that somehow it inevitably involves the politician’s progeny and thereby places the whole thing, naturally, by implicity, in some context masking penetrating insight with cheap sardonism.

Because, it is impermissible, after all, to laugh at anything which doesn’t pass, we understand, the Alaska Board of Language Etymological Origin Research into Aberrant Linguistics Secondary Educational Commission on Text and Satire Approval and Committee on Sociability and Parenting Amid Comments Extralegal, held weekly at the official conference of Alaskan leaders of the world, meeting regularly in the church circle there, where, in between prayers, we understand, the Governor of that State pauses to make quick calls to Exxon executives, spreading her influence, while continuing to stand up to Big Oil, to solidify the deal to construct a natural gas pipeline from her State to the Lower 48.

"Bon appetit."

"Goldberg."

...far beneath the Coral Sea.

Framed Edition

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