Predictably, MacArthur knew just the place for this offensive action: his theater. He proposed an attack on the base the Japanese had built on the island of New Britain at Rabaul, around New York City on his superimposed map. If allowed to hold this base, the Japanese would use it to strengthen the forces they had established in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea, and cut off Australia. But if forced out of Rabaul, MacArthur argued, the Japanese would have to abandon these other positions and retreat seven hundred miles northward, up to a latitude on par with Mindanao.
