“Hey not to be a spoilsport in all of this, but once we receive the new suits and are determined combat ready, you can bet that we will be deploying back here and you can bet your paycheck we will be leading a counteroffensive against the Chinese.” Now the room filled with groans.
“On the bright side, when we do get a night off, first round’s on me boys,” Allen said to the joy of his soldiers.
Decisions in the Dark
The Japanese government was caught between a rock and a hard place with not a lot of options available to them. To date, they had not upheld their defense agreement with the Americans, aside from providing some intelligence and surveillance activity of the Chinese. In May, they were forced to intern the remaining American Forces in Japan or face a military reaction by the Chinese. To prevent the Chinese from viewing them as a threat, Japan signed a non-aggression treaty, which formally ended their mutual defense agreement with the US. Japan had conscripted nearly one million soldiers and began a doubling of their navy, but these efforts would take time to come to fruition; in the meantime, they had to defend their island with the forces they had at hand.
Prime Minister Yasuhiro Hata had been in power now for five years. He had become the PM right after President Stein had won his first election, and had developed a good working relationship with the American President. Japan had benefited greatly from the U.S. economic revival and from the Grain Consortium. The export of American natural gas had also helped to fuel Japan’s own economic revitalization of sorts. Despite some angst among his own political party, PM Hata had been instrumental in the modernization of the Japanese Self-Defense Force (SDF) and the navy. With the rise of the Chinese military and navy, it became imperative that Japan be able to defend itself.
When China launched their surprise attack against America, Japan had almost joined the war immediately. However, it was the threat of immediate invasion by the Chinese (along with the destruction of the American Fifth Fleet in the Red Sea, and the American Seventh Fleet at Pearl Harbor) that prevented the Japanese from immediately coming to the Americans’ aid. During the first several days of the war, the Chinese had effectively removed American naval power from the equation in the Pacific, leaving Japan isolated and alone.
Both sides had agreed to leave each other alone for the time being. As China gobbled up Southeast Asia, the Japanese continued to build up their own forces. Once the Chinese had launched their invasion of Alaska, it became clear to the leaders of Japan that America was not going to be able to come to their aid should the Chinese turn their military attention towards them. With the Russians laying siege to Europe and America being invaded, it was time for Japan to reevaluate their standing with China and the U.S. and make sure they are going to be on the winning side of this growing global war.
What really changed the tide, turning Japan away from a position of supporting America, was the overwhelming nuclear response to the destruction of New York and Baltimore. The government had expected the Americans to respond with nuclear weapons; what they did not expect, was the near destruction of the entire Islamic Republic. Over 650 million people had been killed in the nuclear holocaust, and this was simply something the people of Japan and the government could not support. They publicly denounced the attack immediately and even offered medical aid to the IR. This further strained the American/Japanese relationship, but resulted in improved relations with China.
When China had approached the Japanese government about the creation of a greater Pan Asian Alliance, the idea had intrigued them. A loose confederation of nations that would rule Asia and lead the world into the 21st and 22nd centuries had a great appeal to PM Yasuhiro Hata. It could be his legacy achievement, bringing great glory, power and prestige to Japan. The cost to joining this alliance though was the complete betrayal of their friend and ally, America. If they opted to not join, then they would be frozen out of the new PAA economy, currency and potentially face military action.
After a lot of internal consideration, the PM and several of his closest friends, advisors and key members in the government, made the decision to secretly join China in the creation of this confederation. The young emperor of Japan had even gone along with the idea. The thought of Japan being able to be a leader in the greater Pan Asian Alliance was very appealing, even to an emperor who did not have a lot of political power. His spiritual guidance and support would go a long way towards convincing the rest of the population that this was in the best interest of Japan.
Occupation Offer
The state of the IR was near chaos across most of the country, with the exception of Indonesia. The IR had limited electric power and intermittent rolling blackouts were plaguing the Republic; fortunately, several Chinese nuclear-powered ships and a single nuclear-powered Russian cruiser were still in the Gulf and providing power to the IR. It had been six months since the US had carried out their overwhelming nuclear attack across the IR. It had resulted in the provinces of North Africa seceding from the Caliphate in a side deal they made with the Americans. The country was further hurt by the near total destruction of their critical infrastructure, highway and rail systems along with the vast majority of their major ports. There were critical food and water shortages across nearly every major city, with tens of thousands of people dying from thirst and hunger weekly.
Talal bin Abdulaziz was the Foreign Minister for the IR. He had been the one to contact the White House and the President when Caliph Abbas made his demands to President Stein and then detonated a second nuclear device in America. The Caliph had made a calculated risk that the IR could survive a nuclear exchange with the Americans… he was wrong. The Americans had hit the IR with five 25 Megaton neutron bombs that effectively killed over 250 million people; another 200 million more people were killed in the subsequent conventional nuclear attack and another 200 million would eventually die from radiation poisoning. The loss of so many additional troops and equipment during the second invasion of Israel further compounded the losses for the IR.
Recently, Talal had been contacted by the American Secretary of State with an offer to end the war. Jim Wise had called him on a secure line and calmly laid out the details, “Talal, we know that your country is suffering greatly. We would be willing to accept an unconditional term of surrender from the IR; the U.S. would even provide the Republic with 100 million tons of food a month, for the next three years. In return, you would have to surrender your nuclear arsenal and terminate your military alliance and base rights with both Russia and China. In addition, there would be a 30-mile radius of land around the Israeli border where there would be an Israeli and American military occupation and monitors. You would be allowed to maintain a military force, of course, but one that is no larger than what is needed for territorial defense and internal security.”