“But in these colored colonies the peoples will always be troublesome and some may actually pollute their motherland if and when they somehow settle in their motherland—can you imagine a million Mohammedans encamped in civilized England practicing their crude and primitive rituals: half-naked fakirs in the streets of London; restaurants in Cambridge next to the university colleges serving curries and spices; and even mosques next to churches in Birmingham with all those imams spouting their crazy ideas? And remember, the Mohammedans’ Koran teaches there will be no peace until all the infidels are slain. I know it sounds ridiculous today, but it could possibly happen in the distant future. Who knows? And were that to happen, then these European countries will start to be overrun and destroyed, just as the Moors did to southern Europe hundreds of years ago. All these European countries will be destroyed, slowly, but ineluctably. So this is the most important unintended consequence of the madness of Versailles: Germany remains pure, while England and France now are burdened by these troublesome colored colonies; sooner or later, England and France will suffer.”
“So, Kishi, you’re saying the British are fucked?” King said with his usual subtlety.
Nomura answered with, “Yes, Admiral, I am. Now, Mr. Churchill is very good at talking about the English-speaking world, and the greatness of the white race, but I think this is very much overdone.”
“Mr. Stimson, to answer your question, after capturing Hong Kong and Singapore, I know that the Army intends to attack your Philippines possessions. We would never dare attack the 48 states of the United States itself, but the idiots in Tokyo think the American possessions in Asia are just that—Asian possessions.”
“When?”
“That I do not know, but I know the Army hotheads, so it is likely to be well before they are ready.”
Nomura had just laid down four aces and he knew it.
“So how could we work together?” the President asked with real interest.
“Well, were I you, I would assume that everything I have told you this evening is a lie. Then I would wait to see how events unfold. This risks nothing for you and only takes a week or two. In the interim, we all go about our business.
“If we can come to an agreement in for the next month or two, then our two countries could work together. We Japanese could work with you to establish an American-Japanese Asia Council. As we all know, Asia is rich in resources. We need oil, and you need rubber from Malaya and other raw materials. Using a new and expanded NIRA tailored for the countries in Asia, we could stabilize prices, remove the specter of unemployment and waste, and establish new independent governments, all under the joint protection of the United States and Japan—jointly, we would be the region’s policemen. Your country has made huge progress in those areas, and it is very, very unfortunate that your Supreme Court has ruled against it.”
“You can say that again,” Roosevelt said with real malice. “That would teach those fucks a lesson if we could do a big NIRA in Asia.”
“There is one thing I can do that may be of some little assistance to you gentlemen,” the Ambassador stated.
“Go on,” said the President of the United States.
“I can signal Tokyo that we are speaking, and to halt all new offensive actions against your country’s possessions until the first of January.”
“Yes, that could be some little assistance,” Roosevelt said ruefully with a smile.
Nomura took a sheet of paper from his jacket and on it wrote in clear English, “The cherry blossoms are blooming early on the Potomac.”
Beneath it he wrote a short-wave frequency.
“Mr. President, can you have your naval radioman in the basement transmission center send this message now; there will be a single word reply.”
Roosevelt’s eyebrows rose at the mention of the secret, or as it now appeared, formerly-secret radio room.
Roosevelt nodded and Stimson rose and left the room.
Nomura withdrew a second piece of paper and wrote one word. He folded the paper, rose and stood in front of King, bowed and handed the paper to the Admiral.
“The answer code word is from a new American talking picture I enjoyed so much.”
Stimson returned.
Roosevelt said, “Mr. Ambassador, you have been very forthright with us today.”
Stimson’s heart missed a beat fearing the always-impulsive President was about to say something he would later regret.
“Can I offer you a drink?”
Stimson’s heart regained its natural rhythm.
The Ambassador smiled for the first time, and said that an American bourbon would be most pleasant.
“Like me, you’re a naval man, right Kishi?” the President asked by way of small talk.
“Yes, I am sir. I have had the honor to have served my Emperor.”
“See any action?”
Nomura held up his left hand, the smallest two fingers were both missing the first joint.
“Russian shell fragment when I served on the Takachiho, but I was luckier than the man standing next to me who was killed.”
“Tsushima?” King asked.
The Ambassador nodded.
A moment later, the phone rang and Roosevelt listened then replaced the handset in the instrument.
“Rosebud?” the President said, more as a question than as a statement.
King unfolded the paper and nodded.
“What does this mean?” Roosevelt asked.
“This means that all offensive operations against the United States’ possessions in Asia will cease, on land and at sea. A cessation of hostilities, an armistice.”
“And the British?” Stimson asked.
Nomura was slightly surprised, “Sir, Mr. President, this agreement is only regarding the United States.”
Roosevelt smiled, “That will piss off the gentleman in London no end.”
Professional curiosity got the better of King, “So what is the plan for Malaya and Singapore, and the Royal Navy task force, and their Force Z?”
“I was briefed by the new adviser who arrived from Japan last week—these details are far too sensitive for cables. Well, the plan is this.”
King leant forward and realized no admiral before or again would ever be in his unique position. (Yamamoto might have disputed that claim, however.)
“There are four senior Japanese submarines that have been given the task of locating and sinking the Repulse and the Prince of Wales. If they fail, then our aircraft based in the forward air fields in Saigon in French Indochina will locate and attack these two vessels. We are almost certain that Admiral Phillip will head north up, along the coast of Malaya, and as he does not think highly of aircraft attacking capital ships, he will have little or no aircraft protecting him.”
This last revelation made King look very directly at Stimson. As if in answer to King’s thought, Nomura said,
“Admiral King, the British Admiral Phillips has been sufficiently kind and generous to give newspaper interviews in both Pretoria and more recently in Singapore to that effect. In fact, we have the newspaper clippings of these precise interviews. In both sets of interviews, he stated that there were few Japanese aircraft in the region and quote ‘they are all second-rate’ and that, regardless, that ‘the big ships of the Royal Navy have nothing to fear from the sky; we are, after all, the British Royal Navy, which has ruled the seas since the time of Nelson.’ I also suspect that the English admiral thinks the Japanese a backward race and that 1905 was just a fluke. But he seems to conveniently forget that it was the English who created the Japanese Navy, who taught the Japanese Navy tactics, who even created the uniforms, and that my beloved Takachiho was built at Newcastle upon Tyne.”