Oldest Newspaper In Alaska. ’* I lie News of I he Dav In Pictures** Member Of I lie Associated Press
THE NOME NUGGET
VOL. 44 No. 47. NOME. ALASKA, MONDAY, APR. 20, 1942 Per Copy i*
Tokyo Is Air Raided For First Time
Jap Radio Reports Bombers Raid
Tokyo, From Several Directions
UNDATED, April 18, 1:02 A. M —6:25 P. M. (AP)
— An Imperial Japanese headquarters broadcast heard
in the United States confirmed the Tokyo raid, saying
that hostile planes struck from several directions at
"he Japanese capital and claiming that three raiders
were downed.
San Francisco heard in another broadcast, a state
ment that nine were downed. A DNB Berlin broad
cast said Yokohama was attacked as well as Tokyo
but said only slight damage was caused. Anti-aircraft
and fighter planes were in action. Another Berlin
broadcast said 400 houses were burned by an unex
plained fire at Oguni in northern Japan.
CAUSE GREAT INDIGNATION BY POPULACE”
SAN FRANCISCO, April 17 10:05 P._ 10:55P. (AP)
— The Tokyo radio announced tonight that enemy
bombers attacked Tokyo. A CBS listening station re
ported a broadcast which said that “Enemy bombers
appeared over Tokyo for the first time in the current
war, inflicting damage to schools and hospitals. The
laid occurred shortly past noon Saturday, Tokyo time.
The invading planes failed to cause damage to mili
tary establishments although casualties in schools and
hospitals were unknown. This inhuman attack on these
cultural establishments, and residential districts are
causing widespread indignation among the populace.”
Hostile Planes Bomb Tokyo,
J
Yokohama, Nagoya and Kolie
TOKYO, April 18, 8:38 A. M.—6:23 P. M. (AP) —
From Jap broadcasts — The Jap command announced
that hostile airplanes bombed Tokyo, Yokohama. Na
goya and Kobe and caused air raid alarms to be rung
through three of the four main islands of Japan. Ob
servers said the raiders over Tokyo bore the insignia
of the U. S. air force. These arc the first air raids in
Japan’s history.
(Thus, in one tremendous sweep, the attackers, in
what appears to have been the most daring air as
sault in history, struck at the heart of the Jap em
pire. Tokyo the capital, with a population of 7 million,
the world’s third city; Nagoya with a population of
1,400,000, center of Japan’s aircraft industry; Kobe,
with 1,200,000. chief port for empire shipping to the
front, supplying the Jap armed forces in the south
west Pacific; and Yokohama, with 950.000, port for
Tokyo.)
Alarms were in force for varying periods from the
northern tip of Hokkaido to Hikoku in the south, in
cluding most of the main island of Honshu, a stretch
of more than a thousand miles.
Imperial headuarters announced that the raiders,
which “approached from several directions,” came
over the Tokyo and Yokohama area a half hour after
noon. Two hours later two planes raided Nagoya, and
a single raider dropped incendiaries on Kobe, 370
miles west of Tokyo.
An official announcement said “It is confirmed thus
tar that 9 enemy planes were shot down,” and in all
cases damage was slight.
(The claim of 9 raiders destroyed suggests that the
raid was carried out by many times that number of
planes.)
RAF Sends Wave After Wave
Bombers Assault Arms Industries
LONDON, April 17, 9:36 A. M.—5:05 P. M. (AP) —
Clearing weather unleashed wave upon wave of RAF
planes in an offensive against the German-dominated
continent. Nazi bombers struck back savagely at a
south coast town, said to be Southhampton.
Great forces swept over northern France and return
ed across the Srait, preceeded by the angry sound of
German anti-aircraft barrages from the occupied main
land coast. Spitfires blanketed a great area as they
continued to shuttle destruction across the waters at
20,000 feet. The first wave was followed inland over
France by a second force.
The German command said 11 British planes were
destroyed over the channel .and English south coast
yesterday. They said supply installations were attack
ed with “good results” at Southhampton, with high ex
plosives and incendiary bombs.
I
3-Hour Alert
Held Central
Cal. Coast
San Francisco, April 20
(AP) — California’s cen
tral coast region was held
I in a state of alert for 3 hrs
15 min. early yesterday by
j “an unidentified target” ofT
: the coast. It was the 14th
| and longest alert of the
war in the San Francisco
region. There was no black
j.out.
The 4th interceptor com
mand first flashed the alert
at 1:15 a m. and extended
it to Monterey, 125 miles
to the south, at 1:32 a.rn.
The all clear was signalled'
at 4:30 a.m.
Marshal! And
Hopkins Return
From England
Washington, Apr. 20 (AP)
— Gen. Marshall is back,
after two weeks in Eng-!
land and northern Ireland
where he conferred with
British war leaders. The
General and Harry Hop
kins returned to New York
by air yesterday. Marshall
burred to Washington but
Hopkins remained in New
York.
Nazis Announce
Shell Refineries
At Curaeo
Berlin, April 20 (AP) —
A special announcement de
dared that 18 enemy ships
totaling 131,000 tons were
sunk in the Caribbean Sea
and the Atlantic off the
American coast. A bulletin
broadcast by the Berlin ra
dio with the fanfare usual
ly accompanying an an
nouncement of great vic
tims of German subs, also
said shelled and set afire
were oil refineries at Cur
aco.
Reported Laval Would
Friendly Relations
VICHY, April 17, 9:36 A. M.—5:05 P. M. (AP)
The government cleared the way for the assumption of
power by Laval, submitting their mass resignation to
Chief of state Petain. at the old marshal’s request that
they retire. Vice premier Darlan became commander
in-chief of land, sea and air forces.
Berlin radio dispatches date-lined Vichy, said Laval
presented to Petain at noon, an incomplete “list of the
persons uhom he intends to include in his government.
The dispatch stressed but did not explain the report
that Petain rode by auto to today’s cabinet session
while the ministers came and departed afoot.
Reuters at London heard Vichy reports thru Zurich
suggesting that Laval would like to maintain ‘friend
: ]y relations with the United States, as he realizes that
! a break would have a disasterous effect on Laval’s con
1 trol.” These Vichy-Zurich reports even suggested that
Laval will try mediation to reestablish peace between
Germany and the United States.
The Vichy communique made a point of identifying
; Darlan as the political heir-designate of Petain and
i spoke of the gravity of this country’s present situation.
Japs Start
Intense Effort
Smash Corregidor
Washington, Apr. 20 (AP)
— The opening of an in
tense Japanese effort to bat
ter Corregidor into help
lessness with bombs and
siege guns was reported by
the War Dept. From new
positions on Bataan and
the south shore of Manila
Bay, the foe began an in
tense artillery bombard
ment yesterday and for the
first time, dive bombing
raids were made on Cor
regidor. In addition, Jap
light bombers attacked Cor
regidor and Fort Hughes
several times from high al
titudes.
Meanwhile near Zambo
anga on the island of Min
d. nao, more than 500 miles'
to the south, an American
and Filipino patrol ambush
ed two bus loads of troops/
Japanese troops inflicted a
number of U. S. casualties.
Encircled
British Saved
By Chinese
*
Chungking, April 20 (AF’)
— Chinese troops swooped
down from the northeast
and recaptured Yanang
daung, in the heart of the
west Burma oil fields and
after two days of bitter
fighting released a British
force of several thousand
men from encirclement bv
the Japanese, a Chinese
communique said.
35 HOSTAGES SHOT
I\ OCCUPIED FRANCE
Vichy, April 17, 9:36 a.m.
— 5:05 p.m. (AFJ) — Ger
man authorities announc
ed that 35 hostages were
shot in occupied France in
reprisal for attacks against
German-occupying troops
I
Jap Nerves Jangled Over Mystery
Where Bombers Came From. Went
JAPANESE VERSIONS OF RAID CONFLICT
UNDATED, April 20, 8:33 A. M.—10:32 A. M. (AP)
— Air raids bore home total war to Japan for the first
time Saturday and dealt her a jolting blow both mater
ially and spiritually. It became increasingly evident
that despite efforts to belittle them as ineffective,
perhaps what jangled the enemy’s nerves was the
mystery of how the bombers got there. What Japan
would most like to learn, no doubt, is if the attacking
planes got back aboard aircraft carriers hurrying at
top speed out of flying range.
“Martin bombers” were said by the Japanese to have
swept a thousand miles to their shores. Presumably
what they meant were U. S. Army B-26 medium bomb
ers; Army, rather than Navy planes, which were too
large to be launched from carriers.
A Reuters dispatch from Chungking said the planes
reached their “destination” safely. This evidently
meant they returned to their bases.'
A new Jap communique, in sharp variance to earlier
Tokyo bulletins, put the number of planes at ten in
all. They said some escaped and are “understood t >
have fled to the Chinese mainland.” It too, identified
the raiders as American medium bombers. One ver
sion heard in the United States by the CBS said the
communique reported that one of the bombers was
forced down and five crew members captured. This
is in evident conflict to the previous assertion that 9
planes were downed, since there would have been none
left to escape, if of 10 attacking planes, 9 were downed
and one forced to land.
/ 4
The Italian paper La Gazzetta del Popoio of Turin
expressed the belief that the raiders started from
bases in Soviet Russia, secretly ceded to the U. S.
Stimson Asserts Army Pretty
J J
Near Ready for the Offensive
WASHINGTON, April 17, 8:44 P. M.—4:47 P. M.
(AP) — Secretary Stimson said Gen. MaeArthur Is
in complete charge of the “strategic direction” of the
United Nations’ war effort in the southwest Pacific
and the “practical coordination” campaign in that area
to defeat the Japanese invaders. He told a press con
ference that MacArthur’s authority was fully agreed
to by the Australians and Dutch, the agreement embod
ied in a formal directive signed on April 3 in Wash
ington.
Stimson said “So far as the Army is concerned, we
are getting pretty near the stage of being ready for
an offensive, however difficult it may be.”
In a review of American military progress since
Pearl Harbor, given in general terms at his press con
ference, Stimson said “things are beginning to move
and move in the right direction. I know I am more than
ever convinced we are going to get on the offensive and.
do so at earliest practicable moment.”
He stressed, however, that preparation for offensive
war. in a conflict involving the entire globe, is a long
and difficult process. “Before we can lead this nation
into long-sustained offensives, we must be as sure as
possible that certain key points in our armor are as
safe as possible,” he said.
65.000 Troops and Civilians, 16
Generals Unreported On Bataan
WASHINGTON, April 17, 8:44 A. M -4:47 P. M.
(AP) — The War Department announced that 65,000
troops and civilians, including 16 generals have been
unreported for more than a week on Bataan and are
presumably in the hands of the enemy.” The figure
included approximately 35,000 combat troops, about
5.000 sick and wounded, a number of supply and other
non-combatant troops, and 25,000 civilians.
The communique reported that no reports on cas
ualties in the last few days of fighting were received,
but it is believed likely that losses were heavy to both
sides.
There were 68 Army nurses in Bataan, all of them
evacuated to Corregidor on April 9th, along with a
relatively small number of troops.