Tokyo, Sept. 5.
Japan's naval strength is sufficient to prevent any aerial blitzkrieg here in the event of a war between Japan and the United States, according to opinions in the newspaper "Hochi" by its aviation expert, Teiichi Muto. Muto said that American aviators would find it impossible to penetrate Japan's naval defences:
Discussing the general subject of defence against air attacks at a time when the nation is engaged in air defence drills, Muto wrote:
"Supposing Japan is obliged to rise arms against the United States—it is unthinkable that the American air arm should come to raid Japan so easily as the Germans have done against Britain. Much less is it likely that the air over Tokyo would be swarming with American raiding "It seems certainly a fact that as things stand, the Japanese navy is strong enough to check the United States navy from crossing the 120th meridian in the Pacific. The Japanese navy has confidence in its ability to do that.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.