日本指南太平洋艦隊總司令部-太平洋戰區總司令公告編號 209-45。民國 34 年 9 月 1 日。機密文件

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GUIDE TO JAPAN CINCPAC-CINCPOA BULLIETIN NO. 209-45. 1 SEPTEMBER 1945. RESTRICTED

日本指南太平洋艦隊總司令部-太平洋戰區總司令公告編號 209-45。民國 34 年 9 月 1 日。機密文件《Black Water Museum Collections | 黑水博物館館藏》

GUIDE TO JAPAN CINCPAC-CINCPOA BULLIETIN NO. 209-45. 1 SEPTEMBER 1945. RESTRICTED

地理

GUIDE TO JAPAN - Geography CINCPAC-CINCPOA BULLIETIN NO. 209-45. 1 SEPTEMBER 1945. RESTRICTED

GEOGRAPHY 地理

be followed by "world domination," she began to make skillful use of the power her geographic location gave her.

The Japanese leaders were astute students of geography. They realized that if they could get control of the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies they could control the eastern half of Asia. And so the first drives in the early stages of the war reached these oblectives.

Through smart utilization of geography the Japanese made our job much harder. Our men and supplies for China had to go through India and over the Himalayan Mountains. The Russians were reluctant to join us in the fight against Japan because they appreciated that for a long time, we could not get through to join forces with them.

Geography and strategy

Geography, in addition to justice, dictated the program of the Cairo Asiatic Conference where the leaders of the United States, Britain, and China agreed to smash for all time Japan's strangle-hold on Asia by restoring Formosa to China (將台灣歸還中華民國), assuring freedom for the Philippines, and forcing Japan from her mainland holdings in Asia.

The geography of Japan is a fact, a stubborn fact which presented great problems to those en trusted with the planning of our campaigns. Any persons interested in working out for himself why our leaders proceeded as they did must always keep the facts of geography in mind.

Japan proper-the four main islands which are usually meant when we use the words "The Empire" runs for about 1220 miles in a north-east-southwest direction between the parallels of 46 30 N. and 31 N. The northern island, Hokkaido, is roughly square and is about 250 miles across. Honshu, the biggest and most im portant island, runs north-south in its northern portion and then bends at the middle to run off to the southwest. It is about 200 miles thick at its widest point. The two other islands, Shikoku, and Kyushu, lying just south of Honshu, are much smaller.

Lying off the coasts of the main islands are 324 little islands plus numerous other tiny, unin-habited islets. The total land area of "The Empire" is a little more than 147,000 square miles, about the same as Montana and less than the area of California.

A long coastline

If Korea, Formosa and the Pescadores, Kara-futo (the Japanese half of Sakhalin), and the Kuriles are counted, an additional 117,000 square miles are added to "The Empire". In this chapter, however, only the four main islands will be described. The other sections, except Formosa, 1 are covered in later chapters.

Japan's coastline is enormous, totalling 10,500 miles on the Pacific side and 2,000 miles on the Japan Sea side. On the Pacific side it is indented in many places, providing numerous excellent harbore and anchorages which have helped pro-mote Japan's great peacetime maritime trade and fishing industries.

The bottom of the ocean drops off very rapidly from the eastern coast of Japan to tre mendous depths. About 550 miles south of Tokyo is the Ramapo Deep where the ocean floor is 34.026 feet below sea level. Other submarine trenches or "deeps" lie north of Japan and off the Aleutian Islanda to the northeast.

Because the Pacific shoreline is more indented than her Japan Sea coast, Japan's best and busiest ports are found there Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe, to name the most important. On the Japan Sea side are Moji, Shimonoseki, Tsuruga, Niigata, and Maizuru.