From: Davao (Kihara)
To: Tokyo
August 22, 1941
J-19
#104 (Intelligence of Primary Importance)

 

Because too much time would be required to fill in the paddy fields as originally planned in the construction of a new air base, it is rumored that these plans have been changed. Construction is to begin on an air base which will be laid down between the sea and the paddy fields where now stands a cocoanut grove. In order that bombing planes can use this air field, four concrete runways are to be constructed. It is understood that some 2,500 recruits from among the local populace will be used in this construction enterprise. Four or five hundred wheelbarrows which will be used in this construction work have already been unloaded onto the pier. When I last visited this area and made an investigation of the land they planned to use, it seemed to me that they would have to use more than three feet of dirt to fill in these paddy fields. A great deal of work will be entailed, I observe, in the cutting down and removal of the cocoanut trees in the grove.

 
ARMY 24063                                           Trans. 10/28/41 (6)

 

(EXHIBITS OF JOINT COMMITTEE , EXHIBIT NO. 2 JAPANESE MESSAGES CONCERNING MILITARY INSTALLATIONS, SHIP MOVEMENTS, ETC.)