The Iron Eagle II - Days of Strife
- Thread starter Kaiser of Brazil
- Start date
XX - TU HONGGANG
THE IRON EAGLE
DAYS OF STRIFE
TU HONGGANG
DAYS OF STRIFE
TU HONGGANG
The father of the nation was not exactly the best father for his children, that certainly was true for several dictators, most famously Joseph Stalin who mocked his son's suicide attempt, or Ivan the terrible who killed his own son and heir in a fit of rage. Mao Anying knew well his father's temper and, even after fighting years and being essentially mentored in the Soviet Union's war against the rising Reich he did not see as much coldness and strictness under the Red Army as he did under Mao Zedong's household. Mao, the father, lacked many options when it came to model children, his third born died when still a toddler and his second born, Mao Anlong, was mentally ill and kept away from the government matters. Anying was given responsibilities by his father, after proving himself in the fighting in Russia for years under Stalin, first against Hitler and then after Zhukov and the White Armies, then of course there were the anarchists, the bandits, the generalized chaos of the Russian countryside which scarred Anying for life. Of course he also fought in Korea as part of the Chinese "Volunteers" fighting for the Socialists against Colonel Paik's regime, returning in 1956 after the ceasefire to a world on the brink of change.
Life in Beijing under his father's rule was always tense, his father was jealous of Li, his wife, forbidding their marriage all the way until 1952 and then sending him to Korea after the war began just a year later. When he returned, Li and him would have a son, who he also named Mao in an attempt to earn his father's favor, and while Mao Zedong grew quite attached to his grandson, in his own way, Anying was still kept at a cold distance of his father who never showed the slightest concern for him, neither in Russia where he only escaped death after Stalin sent him away in 1947 before Novosibirski fell, neither in the Civil War against the Kuomitang, neither in Korea where he was many times close to his death. Of course, he was rewarded for his services, the people considered him a hero and it was expected when he was named the First Secretary of the Party in Henan in 1957, after serving a time as assistant to the local secretary who would be replaced in 1957 following his disappointing results when the report of the first Five-year plan was given in Peking.
Anying did not have as much experience outside of the military which he served for over a decade, being promoted to the rank of General, Upper Commander, for his services in the wars, but even he could see the ineptitude of the men the Central Party Committee, also known as his father, had appointed to command these provinces. The Land Reform after the war was led by "bandits" in his definition and he wrote an extensive report to his father in that year to describe the inefficiency of the province which Mao Zedong boasted about being his "Model". The numbers were fabricated to meet quotas, the land redistribution was ineffective and many times led to peasants owning land after bribing the responsible officer rather than showing any aptitude in farming, a few farms were planting crops which did not even fit the weather and soil of the province. This extensive report reached his father's desk and, much to Anying's fears, led to the purge of Zhang Xi, his predecessor responsible for the Land Reform in the Province. Anying would at least count with the help of his Second Secretary Pan Fusheng in order to learn more about the Province he was set to govern. Although the Province did technically have a local governor, his power was irrelevant compared to the Party's commands.
The Second Five-Year plan proved to be Anying's first challenge as a civilian leader, as his father made a speech in the Capital calling for great efforts for China to compete with the powers of "Capitalist and Fascist powers that threaten to surround it". To Zedong, the measure to determine a nation's strength was steel, the production of steel for buildings, steel for armaments, steel for the body and soul of the people. As a result, every governor had a quota of steel to fulfill with the goal being the doubling of that amount over the next 5 years, although Mao in private desired for that amount to be reached within a year, he did not see an urgency to reach that after the successful agreement with the Russians in 1955 put him at a certain ease, the eruption of the Ural War further ensured that the Tsar would not be a threat to the Revolutionary homeland with his reactionary "Cossack Bandits".
To achieve that Steel Quota, a great mobilization was made in Henan, one which would cause the deaths of tens of thousands of peasants under dangerous working conditions and brutal policies. Anying was a military man, he believed Discipline was the key to victory, as it was the case in Russia where the more disciplined Wehrmacht defeated the Red Army or how the more disciplined PLA was able to defeat the corrupt Kuomitang in 1952. He ordered the formation of collective farms across Hunan and relocated the enormous population of peasants to them in order to centralize production. Furthermore, despite the purge of the former Soviets in the higher positions of the party in 1955 during the Hundred Flowers Campaign, Anying still held a special sympathy for many of his colleagues from the former Soviet Union and invited Soviet technicians to the province, including the famous Iron Lazar, Kaganovich, a man who Stalin trusted to boost his own steel production in the 1930s. The arrival of Soviet technicians brought some alarm to Zedong who believed his son to be far too comfortable surrounding himself with "Russian Revisionists", but once the results came, he actually began to admire the methods used at Henan, where Labor discipline and centralized control by the Party bureaucracy directed the provincial efforts.
Anying would be summoned by his father in 1962, arriving at the Forbidden City, once the Palace of Emperors, to see the Red Emperor of China. He was nervous, knowing his father he knew he could not make the slightest slip. There was his stepmother, Jiang Qing, who at least vouched for him to Mao, but even so there was little anyone could do against Mao when he was upset, not his wife, not his sisters, and not even him. His father could be upset at many things, for example, Anying had to avoid brushing his teeth for this trip as he knew that his father detested the habit and most personal higene. But to his surprise, today it was only good news, Henan had delivered on the promises, and the losses, which Anying attempted to minimize, did not matter at all for Zedong who said "A few martyrs is good for the cause", that callousness brought him shivers. Now, Anying was going to leave Henan for Peking and, celebrating over a cup of tea, he would become a member of the Central Committee, replacing Zhang Wentian, who had recently gone through a "soft purge", an exile where he retired from his position in the committee to become the Ambassador to Hanoi, all for criticizing the cult of personality surrounding Mao Zedong.
Kim Tu-bong was not particularly satisfied when the armistice was signed in Korea, but many things did not go according to his plan and this was merely one of them. He was lucky enough to have been in Peking when Colonel Paik launched his coup, but it felt like all of his luck was spent that day and since then the Karma balanced itself by constantly frustrating his ambitions. First he expected a greater support than the one he had, he believed that his March Manifesto would gather the loyalty of the people and was still moderate enough to appeal to the center-left of the fallen Republic, but despite the support of much of the countryside, he could not gather enough backing from the urban centers and that prevented the Peasant Leagues from having the needed momentum to link up with parts of the military which opposed Paik, this disorganization turned what he had first called a "3-day march" into a 3-year conflict.
Korea has faced the unfortunate situation where the real government was exiled to the north and the Military usurper ruled the south, at least it was in Kim's opinion as he constantly claimed the People's Republic as the legitimate government of Korea, a direct continuation of the government which ended with the assassination of President Lyuh. To Colonel Paik's regime, the transition of power was perfectly constitutional with Prime Minister Lee resigning and the Assembly voting him as Prime Minister and as President, the new Constitution further solidifying his power and authority. The National Defense Act was edited, banning the Peasant Leagues and instead the Youth League was raised as the regime's auxiliary militia, afterwards the National Security Act dissolved all political parties and consolidated all the civilian apparatus of the State in a puppet assembly led by the "Party of National Harmony", a single-party which claimed itself as "Apolitical" and working to restore the order and fix the years of political division.
The two states would only grow more and more radical with the war, Kim's rule in the North began to drop the pretenses of Democracy as a radical group, led by one of the leaders of the Peasant Leagues who rose to the rank of General of the KPLA, Kim Il-Sung, advocated for harsher measures and the strict enforcement of discipline in the military, contrasting to the more anarchist leanings of the Peasant Leagues. At times the KPLA clashed with the Leagues even during the war, and by the end of the war the situation grew to an unsustainable level. Tu-bong and the Central Committee of the Party would finally crack down on the Peasant Leagues in 1957, with thousands being executed as "bandits" for resisting the orders of disarmament, while others joined the KPLA to continue the "Revolutionary Struggle". A similar consolidation of power was seen in the south where Paik showed his own brutality both during and after the war, with scorched land tactics being used in rural Korea where he considered it a breeding ground for communism, it is estimated that 300 thousand civilians were killed by the Seoul government during the war in the form of deliberate executions or reprisals against the Peasant Leagues. Similarly, the Leagues employed the liberal use of mass executions for landlords and owners of private propriety until the government began to employ them in labor camps instead.
The shadow of war loomed over the peninsula and Tu-Bong knew that, both him and Paik did, both sides associating themselves with ideological radicals during the conflict to try to gain an advantage over the other. Now they could not dismiss said radicals without crippling their own forces. How could Tu-Bong rid himself of Kim Il-Sung when him and his "War Communism" were a popular calling for so many in the Party? When ridding himself of his clique of radicals could plunge the KPLA in chaos without it's most effective commanders? But was the cost of having a potential "Bonapartist" in his ranks bigger than the benefits? Could he trust the armed forces after what the Red Army did to Stalin? But Stalin also gave a crucial lesson for all in the world when the news of his purges spread, he crippled the armed forces when a greater enemy was nearby. Tu-bong could not make that mistake, he would have to endure Kim and his rhetoric, for now at least.
He wished politics was not like that, he wished he could return to the days after the Japanese occupiers were defeated, when all Koreans believed in one free and united Korea, when they all took up arms and fought off against the hardliners, the last followers of the dying Empire. He wished an opponent was defeated by a debate or by ballot, not by bullets or the rope. He wished one could become a leader for the betterment of the people, spending his energies with matters like the Land Reform, Union Rights, Female suffrage and other questions instead of worrying that the next day he would be imprisoned and shot after a show trial. He wished Korea could stand on it's own feet without depending upon the mercy of Peking for it's survival, that commerce could be made with all sides, a Social republic where the proletariat would have it's rights secured, a free Korea.
That dream died with President Lyuh.
In Tokyo, the Imperial Palace was seeing an unusual level of activity, one that was usually not characteristic of the traditional status of the Imperial Family, especially after the recent declarations of Emperor Akihito. It was ironical, his name was meant to symbolize global peace, but in private his opinions were one of a traumatized child that did not learn to hate war, but rather hate captivity. He despised the Americans most of all, his father, his uncle, his people, all butchered even with the power of the Atom. Akihito expressed those opinions to a handful of those close to him, specifically his new Prime Minister Nishi.
But there was a personal reason, that day, January 9th of 1961, it was the day of the Emperor's wedding with none other than the Baron's daughter, Yoshiko. Some suggested for the event to be televised, but the access of the Press was refused, it reminded many of the days before the War, when the Emperor was seen as a reclusive and divine figure away from the reach of others. The marriage itself was not an unhappy one, but it was also political, it cemented Nishi's power in the Assembly considerably, now it was clear that the Emperor was throwing his weight towards the Baron's projects.
The treaty of Yokohama, signed in the previous month, was the greatest triumph of the so-called "National Association", as Nishi's government was called. The expansion of the Self-Defense forces was approved with a level of enthusiasm by the Japanese people in general, which coincided with the withdrawal of most American forces from the Japanese territory and the return of Nagasaki, a moment celebrated with a public ceremony which included a parade of the armed forces. Nishi used the occasion to call for an election, and by the time of the Emperor's wedding, he was high on the polls, rallying support with a renewed nationalist vigor and promising a "Five-step plan to restore the National Honor".
The results were astonishing, the majority of the National Liberal Party, and even some among the Socialists, were firm Nationalists, many being part of the younger generation that was born in the 1930s, raised during the war where they saw the fall of the Empire and the humiliation of the American occupation. It was beyond what Nishi expected, but when added to the Emperor's wedding, it was clear that now he had the mandate to rule over Japan as Prime Minister.
The five steps would be unveiled: Nationalization of Foreign Industry, Reconstruction of the Armed Forces, Ideological Unification, Containment of Communism and Reclamation of the Home Islands. The treaty of Yokohama began to fulfill two of said goals, with the American retreat from the Home Islands speeding up and President Hoffa innaugurated, a man who believed Japan to be an American ally. But next came the matter of Industry, a controversial matter that could jeopardize the cooperation with the United States and potentially bring forth retaliation. It would still take three years before the decisive step was taken against the American companies in 1964, but until then, there were two other steps to be done.
In China, the rule of Mao Tsé-Tung was solidified following the Hundred Flowers Campaign, a wave of purges which cleansed the intelligentsia of dissident ideas to the Maoist Revolution. Mao himself had growing ambitions, he believed China would be the birthplace of a new revolution spreading across Asia, Africa and Latin America, through peasants armed with revolutionary ideals that would conquer their way North against the centers of power in Europe and North America. This belief required that China was strengthened to lead said revolution when surrounded by Reactionary States, namely Russia and Japan, as well as the United States, the center of Capitalism. That is to say nothing of Europe and the Pakt, which caught the private attention of the Chinese leader.
The Helmsman of the Revolution saw the events in Europe, through spies and agents of the Communist International, now centered in Peking, as well as through refugees, some of which fled all the way to China. He heard about Goebbels, it is said Mao even listened to his speeches in private, claiming it was good to know his enemies, but perhaps there was a hint of admiration, as if he saw in Goebbels a "Revolutionary Zeal" that no other leader in the Capitalist world had. When he heard of Goebbels' purge of the German corporations, some of the most powerful companies in the world, with their nationalization in the hands of the German States, he was genuinely baffled and even questioned the economic leanings of National Socialism.
But what caught Mao's attention was the Volkssturm, a nation at arms full of revolutionary zeal, striking against the old order, the old teachings, the old masters, all in the name of a new cause. The racial component and anti-semitism was something he paid less attention to, but the way he saw the Volkssturm gave him inspiration. He imagined the Chinese Youth doing the same, renewing itself by destroying the old and building up a Revolutionary future whithout the shackles of the past. He imagined his face in the place of Goebbels' and Hitler's when the crowds marched and vanquished the old order. It is unknown if Mao already had such ideas, but the coming Cultural Revolution was named as "The Asian Angriff" for a reason.
But for the moment, Mao's concerns were economic, his desire was to build up an advanced State, and he measured said advancement through the production of Steel. The Second and Third Five-Year plans, nicknamed as "The Great Leap Forwards", lasted from 1957 to 1967 in Henan, and 1962 to 1967 in the rest of China as the methods and reforms applied in the "Model Province" were applied like a mathematical formula across a nation with vastly different geographical realities. The results of which would cause the deaths of up to 10 million people, from overworking to starvation.
The "Henan Formula", as it came to be known, was not a fully chinese method per se. Mao Anying, Mao's firstborn son and veteran general of the PLA, returned from Korea to be promoted as the Party Secretary in the Province. Anying had a high quota to accomplish as his father gave commands to the governors to double the steel production within five years. He faced the challenge of increasing the steel production in a province with little in the natural production of Iron, as such he would reach out to other provinces to divert Iron ore towards his own, through quite questionable methods. Despite the modest quantity, the recruitment of Soviet technicians, specifically the assistance of the "Iron Lazar" Kaganovich, the production was more effective than hoped, at the cost of a callous waste of human lives with many farmers forced to go to the new Steel Mills or to build railroads to other provinces such as Sichuan.
Anying employed a mixture of Soviet and Chinese methods to the province, methods such which would lead to deaths all across the nation, but it served his father's purposes as Henan achieved it's quota before other Provinces and Anying was promoted to the Politburo. Afterwards, the push for Industrialization in general, and Steel in specific, spread across China. In some places it would replace less successful methods of secretaries who made actions such as forcing farmers to melt their tools to produce a low-quality steel to be included in the Quota. On the other hand, it also would lead to the forced relocation of millions of farmers to work in the new Steel mills with their own quotas, individual punishment was applied to "slackers" and collective punishment for factories that failed the quota.
The working conditions were not only miserable but deathly, the arrival of so many new workers meant that most of them did not receive adequate equipment or protection, leading to crippling injuries or even deaths. In one famous example, a factory in the Shandong peninsula had 7 workers dying during one turn, but instead of their corpses being buried immediately, they would only be taken away at the end of the shift as all workers were forced to work extra hours to achieve the monthly quota of Steel.
In the farmlands, the conditions declined with the lack of workers, the quotas of the five-year plan meant that entire villages disappeared and farmers were brought from one field to another according to a mathematical need, which sometimes was not even right. But even forced relocations did not prevent the hunger of taking millions of farmers away from the field in the most populous country on Earth. Mao attempted to mitigate the effects of the crisis with an anti-pest campaign: Rats, Flies, Mosquitoes and Sparrows, the latter being replaced by bed bugs just months after the campaign's start.
The mass killings of the "pests", part of Mao's belief in the Revolutionary transformation and conquest of nature, did little to mitigate the famine, in fact, the killing of sparrows by the population would only worsen the pest control of the countryside. For that reason, Mao could be talked out by Anying in 1963, just three months after the start of the campaign, to stop the killing of Sparrows, at the suggestion of soviet advisors and reports from the countryside. Instead, there was a great encouragement for the Chinese people to own cats, leading to a population boom of the house pet in the 1960s.
The results of the two Five-Year plans, despite the bloodshed, was a success on paper, there was a considerable annual growth of the steel production, as well as of other mineral and industrial resources. In practice, the quality of said steel was questionable at the best of times, the process of smelting included the mixture of small quantity of other minerals with varying qualities so that quotas could be met, and farming tools with varying degrees of rust also produced what was essentially scrap. Mao did not show much trust in his own process as he refused to travel around in chinese helicopters. Accidents in aviation reached new heights from planes produced in China during the 1960s.
But the plan was still considered a success, and for the next five-year plan for the 1967-1972 period was focused on the growth of military production, taking in consideration the highly volatile situation in the world during the previous two years. Mao prophesied that a great war between Communist, Capitalist and Fascist powers would come in the next decade, for that reason he wanted to accelerate the military buildup of the PLA. Meanwhile, taking clear inspiration from a recently deceased firebrand, he hoped to achieve the Ideological mobilization and internal revolution of China by the time of the Five-year plan's ending. Furthermore, the first nuclear reactor of China would be opened that year, and Mao demanded that, by the end of the decade, the first nuclear device should be tested.
Across the sea, the Japanese State between 1961 and 1964 would fight a war against time itself, not only by restoring the customary calendar that dated time according to the Imperial reign of each Emperor, thus placing Japan in the Heisei era, ironically a name calling for global peace like how his father's was named enlightened peace, but also by turning back on several reforms. The reactionary and militaristic regime of Baron Nishi restricted the rules of election by establishing a vetting commission of candidates and disqualifying candidates which did not swear an oath of loyalty to Emperor Akihito.
The "Ideological Unification" and "Containment of Communism" were two pillars which targetted the Socialist Party, the main opposition to the National Association. The assault on the Left-Wing was not one made without conflict, the Unions in Japan were entrenched on the side of the Socialist Party and fears of a general strike prevented the banning of the party in the previous years. However, the National Association had a powerful ally against Unions: Organized Crime. The Yakuza, the Japanese crime organizations, had grown to an enormous level of power during the occupation, the Black Market ranging from food to weapons was widespread and one of the main clients of said groups were organizations such as the Orphans of Showa. Nationalism was a strong part of the identity of said organizations, thus considering the circumstances of the Japanese nationalists in the 1950s, their allignment was natural.
Kuribayashi's death would prove decisive, the High Commissar of Police, perhaps the most powerful man in Japan during his years of tenure, was nicknamed as "shogun", he was also the main impediment for the strengthening of the Yakuza. His investigations and leadership would not survive his death as the Police force was immediately placed under Nishi's command through the new High Commissioner Yashuhiro Nakasone, a former naval officer and a nationalist member of the Diet. Nakasone would work the next five years to entrench Ideological values within the Japanese police and enable the growing corrupt links between the Yakuza and the Government.
Government contracts were handed out to companies which had clear links to criminal organizations, legal processes were delayed or even discarded against business associates of the Yakuza, and most importantly the government would start to rehabilitate criminals purged during the American occupation. Former military officers such as Lieutenant General Jiro Shiizaki, a man who participated in Anami's takeover following the death of Hirohito that extended the war for pointless months and served during the Battle of Saitama. Shiizaki would have his army rank restored at the invitation of the Prime Minister into the newly-renamed Imperial Army in 1964. The Yakuza acted brutally against the Unions through intimidation tactics, blackmail and even outright murder of troublesome bosses, between 1960 and 1963, the change of guard in the Syndicates would place Yakuza associates in command and, despite on the outside they still appeared as supporters of the Socialist Party, Nishi knew that the Union leadership would not lift a finger to protect the "Red Threat" which was once so prominent in the country.
The incident that justified the ban of the Socialist Party of Japan happened on the First of May of 1963, a day of proletarian unity, Labor Day. The Japanese government had banned the celebration of the date that year following supposed reports of Labor agitation and the fear of incidents. Despite that, the leadership of the Socialist Party, led by former Prime Minister Katayama, usually considered a moderate, but the right-turn in the Japanese politics made him appear as an extremist in the eyes of the government. Katayama's participation in the act would be twisted by the press, his speech, which called upon the Japanese workers to protect a democracy under assault, led Nishi to believe, or pretend to believe, that a strike was coming. As such, Katayama would be arrested and the Socialist Party was declared banned, with elections being called within the same month that gave the opposition little time to organize beyond small fractured parties which did not manage to achieve the threshold.
The Liberal Democratic Party would take the assembly as a single-party state in June of that year, with that Nishi consolidated his rule by reorganizing the Party into the "National Association of Spiritual Renewal". At any point the United States could have intervened on the basis of the Japanese Constitution, but with the growing crisis at home, the Hoffa government had little apetite for war. By August, the 1949 Constitution was declared abolished, and, taking the example given by the Goebbels regime, the Japanese government made no Constitution. Instead, the Emperor would issue a declaration named "Basic Directives for Policy and Government", which formed the basis of the new Japanese government at the behest of the Emperor.
Akihito was restored to a status of Arahitogami, by his own self-declaration, he claimed he was not of age and neither was he at possession of his own will when the declaration was made. In a transmission made in 1963, the restoration of the State Shinto system was put into effect after 4 years of governance. Baron Nishi, the Emperor's father-in-law, was given an Imperial Mandate to renew the spirit of the Japanese people, in the Emperor's own words. Following that, Akihito withdrew from public life as his father did during much of the Military era, only having few appearances and elevated to a previous status while his new "Shogun" executed his will.
The "Ideological Unification" was coupled with the task of "Spiritual Mobilization", the idea of restoration of the Kokutai (National Spirit) was brought forwards by the Minister of Education and member of the new wing of radical nationalists that grew during the war, the literary writter Yukio Mishima. In his works, Mishima would many times decry the fact the Japanese people was like a plant plucked from it's garden, a "rootless" people losing it's cultural heritage and fickle like the wind under the influences of either the American Materialism or the Chinese Communism. As he became Minister in 1959, Mishima set to work on radically reshaping Japanese education through a purge on it's once growing intelligentsia.
The "Ideological Unification" and "Containment of Communism" were two pillars which targetted the Socialist Party, the main opposition to the National Association. The assault on the Left-Wing was not one made without conflict, the Unions in Japan were entrenched on the side of the Socialist Party and fears of a general strike prevented the banning of the party in the previous years. However, the National Association had a powerful ally against Unions: Organized Crime. The Yakuza, the Japanese crime organizations, had grown to an enormous level of power during the occupation, the Black Market ranging from food to weapons was widespread and one of the main clients of said groups were organizations such as the Orphans of Showa. Nationalism was a strong part of the identity of said organizations, thus considering the circumstances of the Japanese nationalists in the 1950s, their allignment was natural.
Kuribayashi's death would prove decisive, the High Commissar of Police, perhaps the most powerful man in Japan during his years of tenure, was nicknamed as "shogun", he was also the main impediment for the strengthening of the Yakuza. His investigations and leadership would not survive his death as the Police force was immediately placed under Nishi's command through the new High Commissioner Yashuhiro Nakasone, a former naval officer and a nationalist member of the Diet. Nakasone would work the next five years to entrench Ideological values within the Japanese police and enable the growing corrupt links between the Yakuza and the Government.
Government contracts were handed out to companies which had clear links to criminal organizations, legal processes were delayed or even discarded against business associates of the Yakuza, and most importantly the government would start to rehabilitate criminals purged during the American occupation. Former military officers such as Lieutenant General Jiro Shiizaki, a man who participated in Anami's takeover following the death of Hirohito that extended the war for pointless months and served during the Battle of Saitama. Shiizaki would have his army rank restored at the invitation of the Prime Minister into the newly-renamed Imperial Army in 1964. The Yakuza acted brutally against the Unions through intimidation tactics, blackmail and even outright murder of troublesome bosses, between 1960 and 1963, the change of guard in the Syndicates would place Yakuza associates in command and, despite on the outside they still appeared as supporters of the Socialist Party, Nishi knew that the Union leadership would not lift a finger to protect the "Red Threat" which was once so prominent in the country.
The incident that justified the ban of the Socialist Party of Japan happened on the First of May of 1963, a day of proletarian unity, Labor Day. The Japanese government had banned the celebration of the date that year following supposed reports of Labor agitation and the fear of incidents. Despite that, the leadership of the Socialist Party, led by former Prime Minister Katayama, usually considered a moderate, but the right-turn in the Japanese politics made him appear as an extremist in the eyes of the government. Katayama's participation in the act would be twisted by the press, his speech, which called upon the Japanese workers to protect a democracy under assault, led Nishi to believe, or pretend to believe, that a strike was coming. As such, Katayama would be arrested and the Socialist Party was declared banned, with elections being called within the same month that gave the opposition little time to organize beyond small fractured parties which did not manage to achieve the threshold.
The Liberal Democratic Party would take the assembly as a single-party state in June of that year, with that Nishi consolidated his rule by reorganizing the Party into the "National Association of Spiritual Renewal". At any point the United States could have intervened on the basis of the Japanese Constitution, but with the growing crisis at home, the Hoffa government had little apetite for war. By August, the 1949 Constitution was declared abolished, and, taking the example given by the Goebbels regime, the Japanese government made no Constitution. Instead, the Emperor would issue a declaration named "Basic Directives for Policy and Government", which formed the basis of the new Japanese government at the behest of the Emperor.
Akihito was restored to a status of Arahitogami, by his own self-declaration, he claimed he was not of age and neither was he at possession of his own will when the declaration was made. In a transmission made in 1963, the restoration of the State Shinto system was put into effect after 4 years of governance. Baron Nishi, the Emperor's father-in-law, was given an Imperial Mandate to renew the spirit of the Japanese people, in the Emperor's own words. Following that, Akihito withdrew from public life as his father did during much of the Military era, only having few appearances and elevated to a previous status while his new "Shogun" executed his will.
The "Ideological Unification" was coupled with the task of "Spiritual Mobilization", the idea of restoration of the Kokutai (National Spirit) was brought forwards by the Minister of Education and member of the new wing of radical nationalists that grew during the war, the literary writter Yukio Mishima. In his works, Mishima would many times decry the fact the Japanese people was like a plant plucked from it's garden, a "rootless" people losing it's cultural heritage and fickle like the wind under the influences of either the American Materialism or the Chinese Communism. As he became Minister in 1959, Mishima set to work on radically reshaping Japanese education through a purge on it's once growing intelligentsia.
The 1950s culture, forged by the cynism of the post-war years and the influence of American culture from GIs in the occupation, was assaulted by the 1960s culture as part of a general reaction. the banning of a list of books and literary works in 1961 was only one step in the general trend of reforging Japanese culture from the ashes of the war. One thing that Mishima had in his favor was a high number of eager men in the youth, such as Kazatuaka Komori, one of the men who would form what he named as the "Shield Society" (Tatenokai), a youth organization which quickly grew to become a part of the National Association in 1963 and that became mandatory to all Japanese men and women under 20, modeling itself after the Hitler Youth, Japanese Pre-War societies such as the Sakurakai (Cherry Blossom) and even the Volkssturm to a level.
There was a clear trend of inspiration of the National Association with the National Socialists in Germany, a feeling which was hardly reciprocal with Goebbels in charge. When a delegation approached the Germans in 1964 to restore relations and inviting the Reich to open an embassy, they were scorned by the German Führer, who received them in the Schwarnenweder in October. Goebbels had a strong tone of arrogance in his voice and treated them with condescendence, reminding the Japanese that they "failed in the great struggle of racial dominance", that their failure to attack the Soviet Union in 1941 left them outside of the victor's table. Goebbels then referred to Hitler's 1946 declaration of the Yamato as a "failed race" following the strike on Macau and the invasion during X-Day, claiming that he, as Hitler's follower, did not have the authority to rehabilitate a race which had "dishonored themselves" in the eyes of history. Goebbels said he would be open to a relationship with the Japanese Empire, but never in a position of equals, only one which "respected the hierarchy of the natural world". No further contact would be made between the Reich and Japan during the Goebbels era.
The Nationalization of Industries, issued by decree in January of 1964, would prove to be the last straw to break the increasingly tense US-Japan relations, shaken not only in a legal level, but even a moral one, the creation of Shinto Shrines which paid homage to high level war criminals, Kamikaze pilots and figures such as Tojo and Anami was seen as an insult to American Veterans. The Japanese government furthermore would declare John Kennedy, a US Governor, as a criminal for the killing of Emperor Hirohito during the war, a crime punishable by death for Regicide. Understandably, the condemnation of an American politician would lead to a growing attrition between the nations, even if Kennedy was in opposition to Hoffa's government and the Nationalization was a critical point.
After the destruction of the Zaibatzu network by Halsey's occupation authority, American companies, many "fleeing" Huey Long's new anti-trust laws and abusive tax rates, settled down their investments in nations such as Russia and Japan, however the Ural War showed many Americans that the Russian Empire was not a secure place for investments, as the local factories could be always seized and converted to military production for as long as the Tsar and his government deemed acceptable. Japan was a safer investment for many, not only due to it's mineral resources and large consumer market, but also the vast manpower available thanks to the high unemployment rates and the impositions of the peace treaty which favored American companies. As a result, the seizure of assets in Japan led to a strong backlash by corporations in the United States which pushed even the hardline populist Jimmy Hoffa into a corner.
Hoffa would not go to war over Japan, the Populist Party did not wish to see a repeat of the Hull administration's fateful decision of invading the Home Islands with the potential of death of hundreds of thousands of Americans, not even counting an eventual occupation. A middle ground between doing nothing and doing everything was found when Hoffa instructed the Coalition of Nations to embargo the Japanese Regime, with the United Nations issuing a condemnation and expelling the Japanese representatives of the Global community as a Rogue State. Furthermore, the US Marine Corps would invade and occupy the island of Tsushima from Jeju island, ensuring the straits connecting Jeju and Vladivostock would remain open.
This would be the start of the second "Bakufu" era, a period of relative isolation of the Japanese government which, in part, was not something the government opposed. The foreign opposition brought back the memories of the Japanese "Gyokusai", the siege mentality of the Japanese people, which began to rally in favor of the regime in 1964 at greater numbers, especially among the youth. Nishi would declare a goal of "Self-Sufficiency" and called upon the Japanese people to make sacrifices by enacting a war on "Materialism". American products were banned and the few stocks left were deliberately destroyed in public events, such as cans of soda thrown into the ocean, American clothes being burned in piles as a condemnation of foreign fashion trends, as well as English books, many of which were banned in the previous years, being burned in pyres.
One exception for that isolation, other than a few Asian and Middle Eastern countries, was Russia. Despite the potential flashpoint of Sakhalin and the Kuril islands, the two states, sharing a militant anti-communist belief and fearing the growth of China in the region, began to circle around the embargo. Hokkaido soon would become one of the main trading centers of Japan as the Island made the connection between Russia and the new Empire. Nigata and Akita, some of the main western ports of Japan, would also serve as a connection with Vladivostok where the Russian Empire provided Japan with crucial mineral and agricultural products that prevented the starvation of the Home Islands. On the other hand, Nishi had a level of skepticism, the Japanese dependence on many Russian products in the coming years, including of American companies that circumvented the Embargo by using Russia as a middle ground, ran contrary to the wishes to pursue Self-Sufficiency.
During the Ostkrieg, Japan also would give support for the Russian offensive, Nishi, desiring to give proper combat experience to the restored IJA, volunteered around 200 thousand Japanese troops that fought as far west as Rostov and Archangelsk, engaging in direct combat with the Wehrmacht. Despite the failure in the Russian reclamation of the West, not only did this war provide the IJA and it's new cadre of officers with vital information on the new styles of war, but it strengthened the bond between Yekaterinburg and Tokyo. In fact, after the war ended in 1967, a Treaty of Friendship would be signed with the two nations, with the Russians lifting up their part of the Embargo and opening an embassy in Tokyo. This made many in both nations feel nostalgic, as both countries were once allies and, indeed, the Harbin exiles that would form the Russian Empire were initially armed and trained by the IJA. This was a great step in restoring those ties, much to the aprehension of China and the United States alike.
There was a clear trend of inspiration of the National Association with the National Socialists in Germany, a feeling which was hardly reciprocal with Goebbels in charge. When a delegation approached the Germans in 1964 to restore relations and inviting the Reich to open an embassy, they were scorned by the German Führer, who received them in the Schwarnenweder in October. Goebbels had a strong tone of arrogance in his voice and treated them with condescendence, reminding the Japanese that they "failed in the great struggle of racial dominance", that their failure to attack the Soviet Union in 1941 left them outside of the victor's table. Goebbels then referred to Hitler's 1946 declaration of the Yamato as a "failed race" following the strike on Macau and the invasion during X-Day, claiming that he, as Hitler's follower, did not have the authority to rehabilitate a race which had "dishonored themselves" in the eyes of history. Goebbels said he would be open to a relationship with the Japanese Empire, but never in a position of equals, only one which "respected the hierarchy of the natural world". No further contact would be made between the Reich and Japan during the Goebbels era.
The Nationalization of Industries, issued by decree in January of 1964, would prove to be the last straw to break the increasingly tense US-Japan relations, shaken not only in a legal level, but even a moral one, the creation of Shinto Shrines which paid homage to high level war criminals, Kamikaze pilots and figures such as Tojo and Anami was seen as an insult to American Veterans. The Japanese government furthermore would declare John Kennedy, a US Governor, as a criminal for the killing of Emperor Hirohito during the war, a crime punishable by death for Regicide. Understandably, the condemnation of an American politician would lead to a growing attrition between the nations, even if Kennedy was in opposition to Hoffa's government and the Nationalization was a critical point.
After the destruction of the Zaibatzu network by Halsey's occupation authority, American companies, many "fleeing" Huey Long's new anti-trust laws and abusive tax rates, settled down their investments in nations such as Russia and Japan, however the Ural War showed many Americans that the Russian Empire was not a secure place for investments, as the local factories could be always seized and converted to military production for as long as the Tsar and his government deemed acceptable. Japan was a safer investment for many, not only due to it's mineral resources and large consumer market, but also the vast manpower available thanks to the high unemployment rates and the impositions of the peace treaty which favored American companies. As a result, the seizure of assets in Japan led to a strong backlash by corporations in the United States which pushed even the hardline populist Jimmy Hoffa into a corner.
Hoffa would not go to war over Japan, the Populist Party did not wish to see a repeat of the Hull administration's fateful decision of invading the Home Islands with the potential of death of hundreds of thousands of Americans, not even counting an eventual occupation. A middle ground between doing nothing and doing everything was found when Hoffa instructed the Coalition of Nations to embargo the Japanese Regime, with the United Nations issuing a condemnation and expelling the Japanese representatives of the Global community as a Rogue State. Furthermore, the US Marine Corps would invade and occupy the island of Tsushima from Jeju island, ensuring the straits connecting Jeju and Vladivostock would remain open.
This would be the start of the second "Bakufu" era, a period of relative isolation of the Japanese government which, in part, was not something the government opposed. The foreign opposition brought back the memories of the Japanese "Gyokusai", the siege mentality of the Japanese people, which began to rally in favor of the regime in 1964 at greater numbers, especially among the youth. Nishi would declare a goal of "Self-Sufficiency" and called upon the Japanese people to make sacrifices by enacting a war on "Materialism". American products were banned and the few stocks left were deliberately destroyed in public events, such as cans of soda thrown into the ocean, American clothes being burned in piles as a condemnation of foreign fashion trends, as well as English books, many of which were banned in the previous years, being burned in pyres.
One exception for that isolation, other than a few Asian and Middle Eastern countries, was Russia. Despite the potential flashpoint of Sakhalin and the Kuril islands, the two states, sharing a militant anti-communist belief and fearing the growth of China in the region, began to circle around the embargo. Hokkaido soon would become one of the main trading centers of Japan as the Island made the connection between Russia and the new Empire. Nigata and Akita, some of the main western ports of Japan, would also serve as a connection with Vladivostok where the Russian Empire provided Japan with crucial mineral and agricultural products that prevented the starvation of the Home Islands. On the other hand, Nishi had a level of skepticism, the Japanese dependence on many Russian products in the coming years, including of American companies that circumvented the Embargo by using Russia as a middle ground, ran contrary to the wishes to pursue Self-Sufficiency.
During the Ostkrieg, Japan also would give support for the Russian offensive, Nishi, desiring to give proper combat experience to the restored IJA, volunteered around 200 thousand Japanese troops that fought as far west as Rostov and Archangelsk, engaging in direct combat with the Wehrmacht. Despite the failure in the Russian reclamation of the West, not only did this war provide the IJA and it's new cadre of officers with vital information on the new styles of war, but it strengthened the bond between Yekaterinburg and Tokyo. In fact, after the war ended in 1967, a Treaty of Friendship would be signed with the two nations, with the Russians lifting up their part of the Embargo and opening an embassy in Tokyo. This made many in both nations feel nostalgic, as both countries were once allies and, indeed, the Harbin exiles that would form the Russian Empire were initially armed and trained by the IJA. This was a great step in restoring those ties, much to the aprehension of China and the United States alike.
In the mid 1960s, the Chinese Communist Party would work to expand it's influence across the world as the Vanguard of proletarian revolution after the fall of the Soviet Union, mainly through the support of insurgents in Africa, Asia and specifically in Peru. The Communist Party, following the Third Five-year plan's end, began to direct the effort of the Chinese people towards the path of militarization amidst the worldwide tensions of what came to be named as "The Age of Strife", the period between the Ural War and the end of the Ostrkieg where, across the world, violence grew in all sectors and a youth radicalized by totalitarian systems came of age to lead a cultural uprising against established notions, either through Liberalism, through Socialism, through Reactionarism or through Fascism and National Socialism.
To Mao Zedong, all of this was just the preparation for a much greater conflict between classes and ideologies worldwide, which is why he not only desired to prepare China internally through the Great Leap Forwards and the Cultural Revolution, but also externally by building up strategic alliances with different nations and movements. From the support for the "Shining Path" in Peru, an event which threw the South American nation into violent conflict, to the backing of the Communist Party of the Philippines during the civil war in the nation. Further movements in places such as Mozambique, Nepal, Angola and Cambodia. This was the doctrine of the "People's War", employed by Mao and inspired in his own experience in the Chinese Civil War, the idea was to create the conditions to support a Maoist takeover from the camps to the city through guerrillas, a "death of a thousand cuts" by waging a conflict of attrition with the government authorities. This doctrine would become the mainstream idea to guide armed struggles in the Communist World.
In a more direct fashion, Mao would endorse the North Korean government of Kim Tu-Bong, leveraging his support by using the threat of not only a South Korean conquest, but also to back Kim Il-Sung against Kim Tu-bong if the latter did not endorse the Chinese de facto control over his State. But there was never a serious danger of Chinese withdrawal of Korea, Mao saw it as the most immediate front to strike in order to secure what he called "A chain of land and rock" to shield China from the United States: Korea, the island of Taiwan, and the Philippines were to work as a protection of mainland china against naval attacks from the United States or Japan. This strategy would serve as a preamble for a potential expansion into the Pacific, which alligned with Mao's naval buildup scheduled for the 4th Five-Year plan.
But for now, there was peace in Asia, even with the return of the Japanese specter, the tense standoff in Korea, the growing militancy of China and the fears of the Russian Empire. The tensions simmered under the surface, while peace was achieved in the West and the immediate threat of a nuclear war was over, the shadow of war moved to the East, to the most populous region in the world. China and Japan alike began to pursue their own nuclear programs, the Russians showed they had no qualms over detonating atomic weapons on the battlefield, and the new Russo-Japanese friendship was set on a collision course with Mao's ambitions. While the United States began to lose ground with the turn of Japan and it's allignemnt with Russia, the American Eagle was still in the region, awaiting to see which one of the two red suns would first become a supernova.
And in the year of 1968, Mao Zedong began his own Angriff: The Cultural Revolution.
To Mao Zedong, all of this was just the preparation for a much greater conflict between classes and ideologies worldwide, which is why he not only desired to prepare China internally through the Great Leap Forwards and the Cultural Revolution, but also externally by building up strategic alliances with different nations and movements. From the support for the "Shining Path" in Peru, an event which threw the South American nation into violent conflict, to the backing of the Communist Party of the Philippines during the civil war in the nation. Further movements in places such as Mozambique, Nepal, Angola and Cambodia. This was the doctrine of the "People's War", employed by Mao and inspired in his own experience in the Chinese Civil War, the idea was to create the conditions to support a Maoist takeover from the camps to the city through guerrillas, a "death of a thousand cuts" by waging a conflict of attrition with the government authorities. This doctrine would become the mainstream idea to guide armed struggles in the Communist World.
In a more direct fashion, Mao would endorse the North Korean government of Kim Tu-Bong, leveraging his support by using the threat of not only a South Korean conquest, but also to back Kim Il-Sung against Kim Tu-bong if the latter did not endorse the Chinese de facto control over his State. But there was never a serious danger of Chinese withdrawal of Korea, Mao saw it as the most immediate front to strike in order to secure what he called "A chain of land and rock" to shield China from the United States: Korea, the island of Taiwan, and the Philippines were to work as a protection of mainland china against naval attacks from the United States or Japan. This strategy would serve as a preamble for a potential expansion into the Pacific, which alligned with Mao's naval buildup scheduled for the 4th Five-Year plan.
But for now, there was peace in Asia, even with the return of the Japanese specter, the tense standoff in Korea, the growing militancy of China and the fears of the Russian Empire. The tensions simmered under the surface, while peace was achieved in the West and the immediate threat of a nuclear war was over, the shadow of war moved to the East, to the most populous region in the world. China and Japan alike began to pursue their own nuclear programs, the Russians showed they had no qualms over detonating atomic weapons on the battlefield, and the new Russo-Japanese friendship was set on a collision course with Mao's ambitions. While the United States began to lose ground with the turn of Japan and it's allignemnt with Russia, the American Eagle was still in the region, awaiting to see which one of the two red suns would first become a supernova.
And in the year of 1968, Mao Zedong began his own Angriff: The Cultural Revolution.
Last edited:
The First Island Chain has been broken, and the Cultural Revolution is about to begin. God help us all...
Civil War in the Philippines? God knows what Mr Marcos is doing in this era...
That aside im interested to see how you write the Cultural Revolution. Im sure i'll love it though as The Angriff has been my favorite part of Part 2.
That aside im interested to see how you write the Cultural Revolution. Im sure i'll love it though as The Angriff has been my favorite part of Part 2.
Red Japan?
Caught that!
Seems we can cross one from the list, maybe
Hey, you said the title of this section (though it is technically the Days of Strife, but still)
That’s something I wish more TLs would explore: the remilitarization of Japan in a postwar environment
Oh that's real, from Mao's biography, he never brushed his teeth and had a rotten breath.
Hmmm so no Great Chinese Famine?
Less deaths during Great Leap Forward?
Seems like Mao Anqing may become the Chinese Gorbachev.
He doesn't strike me as being stupid enough to be a Gorbachev.
Gorbachev in a sense of bring more humanist. Khrushchev is a better call.
But seems like it the GLF has less deaths and no Great Chinese Famine.
Last edited:
I mean, 10 million instead of 30-40 is an improvement, but that's a very low bar.
One contributing factor is that Mao has no need to export an enormous amount of grain to pay off a debt to the Soviets.
The ineptitude of recent American presidents in defending the Yankee influence hard won in the war is incredible.
I mean no offense but these seeds were set the moment Japan attacked the East Coast. Bad invasion, horrible occupation, and indifferent administration. For Korea no consistent plan just a repeat of OTL methods mixed with weaker motive and position of power. Philippines became antagonistic because of indifference/mistreatment. Russia a bigger wild card than the USSR that only really works with the United States because of the Nazis and generally have mutual distrust. Other parts of Asia that have no reason to like or want to work with the USA. Like I said it was the self-defeating methods that the USA used created hostility, to blame one president is ridiculous. Even the best president couldn’t do anything with almost nothing to work with.
Certainly there are other factors, but the 1948 election is undeniably influential in this regard. Huey Long was a hardline isolationist in our world and, while he could be flexible when climbing power positions, once he's on top he has the blank cheque. He won the election by appealing to an electorate that wanted a more secure welfare system due to the lack of a proper New Deal and the 1947-48 post-war depression that was mishandled by Thurmond.
Plus it didn't help that his opponent was so hawkish that your average American would see "WAR WITH EUROPE" labeled next to his name in a voting booth.
Plus it didn't help that his opponent was so hawkish that your average American would see "WAR WITH EUROPE" labeled next to his name in a voting booth.