Chapter 51
“Japan is a mber of the Tripartite Pact, but we are keeping our distance from the war in Europe. The military expansion ambitions of the German Empire are beyond our understanding, and we cannot help but mourn for the Aricans who died.
The Tripartite Pact stipulates that we will jointly declare war if one of us is attacked first, but this is a preemptive war by Germany against the United States, so our Japanese Foreign Ministry and governnt have interpreted that Japan has no obligation to declare war on the United States.”
Nomura Kichisaburo, the Japanese ambassador to the United States, was very polite and humble in front of Hull, the U.S. Secretary of State, who ca to see him after declaring war on Germany. What does he an by mourning?
Hull was puzzled by the vague translation of the interpreter, but he nodded anyway, assuming it was an expression of regret.
The United States had imposed an oil and steel embargo on Japan, along with Britain, China, and the Netherlands, to stop Japan’s imperial ambitions in China.
Now, before entering the war with Germany, he had a eting with the Japanese ambassador to settle the Pacific front, and Japan seed to have no ill will towards the United States, unlike what he had expected.
“Thank you for expressing your regret, Ambassador. However, the U.S. governnt cannot tolerate Japan’s invasion of mainland China, setting up a puppet governnt called Manchukuo, and disrupting the peace in East Asia.
Also, I would like to ask if Japan has any intention of formally withdrawing from the Tripartite Pact if it has no intention of going to war with the United States.”
“Excuse ? What did you just say…”
Kichisaburo’s eyes widened.
The Japanese interpreter slowly repeated the translation and Hull repeated his proposal at the ambassador’s request.
Withdrawal from the Tripartite Pact, dismantling of Manchukuo, and cessation of illegal and forcible occupation of China’s legitimate territory.
Hull knew the Japanese habit of not showing their emotions well. But Ambassador Kichisaburo seed quite… shaken.
His eyes were trembling, his lips were tightly bitten, and he was enduring humiliation.
Hull could confidently say that he had never seen a Japanese act like this before.
But what could he do?
Eighty percent of Japan’s oil ca from the United States.
After the oil embargo, Japan had been eyeing oil from the Dutch colonies in Indonesia, taking advantage of the fact that the Netherlands had been occupied by Germany, a mber of the Tripartite Pact, but Japan had no room for that.
It was hard enough to fight against Chiang Kai-shek’s China, which was waging a desperate resistance.
How could they go all the way down to Southeast Asia and fight a war?
Britain and the Netherlands were too busy with their holand being invaded, and China had virtually no navy.
The main force would be the U.S. Pacific Fleet, but Japan lacked the ability to go to Australia and New Zealand and fight a war.
In short? What would they do if things got tough?
Kichisaburo seed to be suppressing his anger.
He calmly drank his tea in front of him and conveyed Japan’s demands.
And now it was Hull’s turn to be angry.
“What do you an by asking us to withdraw from the Philippines! That is an Arican territory in Southeast Asia that our troops shed blood to occupy, and we have no intention of giving up an inch of territory for Japan. Ambassador Kichisaburo.”
The ambassador’s expression was calm.
As if he had expected it.
Hull closed his mouth again, feeling embarrassed by his own excitent.
Well, if they wanted to bet, they could do that. But Japan’s proposal was beyond common sense.
They pressured China to surrender, demanded that we give up the Philippines, lifted the oil and steel embargo and ‘economic cooperation’ – aning economic aid to Japan – and even recognized Manchukuo.
They seed to think that just as they had thrown away Germany as an ally like a devoted lover, Arica would also abandon China.
Germany had weighed China and Japan for its influence in Asia and chose Japan, withdrawing its diplomatic mission from China.
Japan seed confident that it was a much better choice.
But Arica had no intention of giving up China.
To begin with, could they betray an ally once again?
The Japanese Empire had acquired a population of 200 million by occupying Manchuria, larger than that of Arica.
Manchuria’s developnt was still poor, so it would take a long ti for Japan to match Arica’s production level. But if Manchukuo achieved dazzling growth through economic developnt and Japan swallowed up mainland China as well?
By then Japan would be a formidable enemy.
Now they could stop Japan with just an oil embargo.
The main purpose of Japan’s proposal was probably to lift the oil and steel embargo.
Hull could sense that intuitively.
But if they gave up oil for Japan and abandoned China to get rid of Japan’s threat in the Atlantic war?
Japan would eventually swallow up mainland China, develop Manchuria, and attack and occupy oil fields on its own.
By then, Arica would have lost its leverage to intervene in Japan’s foreign policy, and would eventually have to intervene with the blood of its young people.
“Today’s eting was useful in that we could understand each other’s positions, but I don’t think it will produce any aningful results. The weather is getting colder, so please take care of your health. Ambassador Kichisaburo.”
The ambassador nodded his head and seed to say a long greeting, but Hull waved his hand to the interpreter and told him there was no need to translate.
As he left the eting room with the ambassador, he instructed his secretary.
He told him to raise the rating of the Japanese embassy by one level for wiretapping and surveillance.
The intelligence agency had mostly deciphered the contents of the wireless ssages coming in and out of the Japanese embassy.
Judging by the ambassador’s attitude, it seed that he had first presented a compromise that was difficult for the United States to accept, and then gradually demanded negotiations.
‘Damn monkey bastards.’
He also had to report to his superiors what orders to give to the three battleships he had taken out of the Pacific Fleet.
Should they return to Pearl Harbor, their ho port, considering Japan’s threat? Or should they face the naval fleets of the German Empire and the Axis Alliance in the Atlantic?
He thought it would be best to send all the carriers he could to Pearl Harbor as soon as possible to deal with Japan, while keeping the battleships in the Atlantic as much as possible.
If he only looked at the information collected by the State Departnt, Japan seed to have no intention of starting a war ‘right now’.
Three of the seven carriers were originally part of the Pacific Fleet, so he could send three carriers to Pearl Harbor instead of the three battleships he had taken out. But he felt that even giving them all his carriers would not be enough to appease the Pacific Fleet Command, which had reluctantly parted with their precious battleships.
The Japanese ambassador Kichisaburo, who had sent Hull out, looked at the encrypted letter that had been secretly delivered from his holand once again.
He was told to deliver this docunt to the U.S. Secretary of State as soon as possible if a coded ssage arrived.
The 14-page ssage was a declaration of war against the United States.
According to what he had secretly learned from his holand, a surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet, involving the Combined Fleet and even a few German submarine aces, was being prepared.
If they annihilated their main force at Pearl Harbor when the U.S. ships gathered there… The Pacific would fall into the hands of the Emperor.
The timing of the surprise attack was not yet clear, but he had to justify it by delivering a declaration of war just before it.
He could easily change his interpretation of his obligations to the Axis Alliance. Kichisaburo did not like such an attitude very much, but he thought it was part of war.
Deception was also a tactic.
Japan had no choice but to counterattack if Arica interfered with its sacred war by dragging in resources and allies.
To use its scarce oil as efficiently as possible…
‘A surprise attack that destroys them in one move is essential.’
History is written by the victors.
Who would bla Japan for using a ‘little’ trick in the beginning when it ruled over the world with this victory?
“We’ll have to be on duty for a few days for ssages from our holand.”
Kichisaburo ordered his secretary.
They might suspect sothing from their attitude of being on duty, but they wouldn’t know it was a declaration of war before a surprise attack.
He had to show so sincerity as long as Germany cooperated so much.
Joseph Kennedy seed like a prophet who predicted doom and destruction.
He consistently criticized Britain’s conduct of war.
In his words, Churchill was an anachronistic imperialist who was obsessed with colonies – which Roosevelt could not deny – and Britain’s fools had dug their own graves by stubbornly refusing Germany’s negotiations.
Forr Vice President John Nance Garner also agreed with forr Ambassador Joseph Kennedy’s argunt.
“Arica did not need to intervene in Britain’s war, and in fact, if it weren’t for this preemptive attack, we wouldn’t have needed to do so in the future.”
“I’d like to refute that, Mr. Vice President. When there’s a fire next door, if you don’t lend them a hose, that fire will spread to our house. Wasn’t what we’ve been doing so far support for putting out that fire? It’s because we failed that sparks flew into our house!”
“Hmm… I’d like to say that you brought fire with you.”
Roosevelt brought up his usual analogy again, but still, the mbers of the State Council were skeptical.
You brought fire with you, that’s right.
Hahaha.
So sneered at the president’s words.
It was like lending them gum instead of a hose, and they didn’t want to get that gum back anyway – following Republican Senator Robert Taft’s rebuttal.
“Can we just ignore their preemptive attack? What about expanding the size of the army?”
“Yes, Mr. Secretary. We have started discussions on sending U.S. troops to ground operations in agreent with Britain and Russia. However, in the case of the Soviet front, it is extrely difficult to maintain our own supply after sending allied ground forces. In the case of Britain… I don’t know how long they can hold on with the German landing…”
This was the result of hesitating. Roosevelt wanted to shout that.
Marshall occasionally stroked his bushy mustache and told him what he needed to expand the army rapidly, and he felt suffocated as he watched the mbers of the State Council pick on everything.
The ans for Arica to intervene in the other side of the Atlantic had disappeared.
What would they do when even Britain and Portugal, the last ones left, sank into the sea of the Axis? Who would they go to Europe with?
Would they land in Portugal, which maintained a semblance of neutrality, pass through Spain, cross the Pyrenees, pass through Vichy France, cross the Alps, occupy Italy, cross the Ardennes and the Rhine, and capture Berlin in Germany?
‘Damn, that’s too far.’
Most would ask why they had to intervene in Europe in the first place.
Anyway, the ans for Arica to project its influence on the European continent had almost disappeared.
Roosevelt knew well that this loss of possibility would have a serious impact on Arica’s future.
We could also beco an island.
“If we have to prepare for war so much, how about reducing our support for Russia?”
“Mr. Secretary, that is absolutely unacceptable.”
Marshall argued that Russia should be actively supported.
As a soldier and a bureaucrat, he only dealt with facts, and rarely expressed political opinions, but now it was hard to tell whether he was representing Roosevelt’s opinion or his own.
If they cut off support for Russia, the Russians would die more and kill less.
And as much as they killed less, they would co to the Atlantic.
“We can produce as much material as we want, but we can’t make young Aricans in factories!”
It was a very orthodox statent, but so were not very happy because the target was Russia.
As Marshall’s turn ended with suspicious glances at his inclination and the navy’s turn ca, the navy requested permission to change from the existing plan.
Now that the Panama Canal was gone, there was no need to consider the Panamax standard – the width limit of warships that could pass through the Panama Canal – for a while.
The Pacific would be put aside for now, and since most of the production facilities were concentrated on the east coast of Arica and the Atlantic coast, they should make use of them as much as possible and commission more new battleships of Montana class!
“Under the existing Two-Ocean Navy Act, we received permission from Congress to build five new battleships of Montana class, 70,000 tons full load displacent, which exceeded the Panamax standard. However… We are still nurically inferior to Crixmarine’s battleship fleet and this could cause problems in comrce raiding. We need to expand the Montana class battleship plan.”
The Two-Ocean Navy Act had eight Essex-class carriers, two Iowa-class battleships, five Montana-class battleships and six heavy cruisers as well as nurous warships and aircraft production as its backbone.
Among them, they asked to increase the limit of five Montana-class battleships.
“How many… No, I’d better ask the Treasury Departnt about that. We can’t assign all five of them to the Atlantic Fleet alone and we have to allocate at least so to the Pacific. Two more 70,000-ton battleships? Hmm… We’re already building five carriers right now. How can we do that?”
The naval officer just groveled.
He had to get this project sohow at this opportunity when the Atlantic Fleet could expand its size enormously.
Especially from his point of view, battleships were much more important than carriers where pilots from the navy air force who made him lose his appetite were installed.
Carriers?
Weren’t those what Britain rolled around and went down with their battleships in naval battles?
They also contributed to the disaster of Taranto.
He thought it would be better to invest in army air force that contributed to victory by launching dium bombers from land at Gibraltar.
As huge budgets were being tossed around, Marshall felt uneasy sohow.
Would Japan really stay still?
Molotov said so.
Japan would definitely start a war against Arica.
And within this year! Marshall trusted Molotov’s claim quite a bit.
He might not have been able to detect a surprise attack due to the lack of intelligence on what Germany would do, but that was inevitable.
He was afraid of Japan’s silence.
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