Update (October 1st 1948)
0000 October 1st 1948.
Imperial Palace. Tokyo, Japan.
"Good morning your Majesty, Gentlemen." Hideki began the monthly meeting. "I will update our annual goals before we begin department reports.
1948 Objectives:
- Reduce the Soviet Union to less than one hundred factories and less than fifty divisions.
- Capture Moscow, Stalingrad, Leningrad, Baku and Sverdlovsk.
- Capture Soviet Energy reserves in the Ukraine.
- Reduce the Comintern to five Countries by annexing Tannu Tuva.
- Reduce the Allies to less than twenty Countries.
- Maintain the current Naval strength position by keeping the United States Navy below fifteen Aircraft Carriers.
- Capture the West Aleutian Islands.
- Capture Diego Garcia Island.
- Link Asian Armies by land connection.
There are no changes in this list but we do currently have the United States Navy below fifteen Aircraft Carriers. This measure will only be counted valid on December 30th of this year. Leningrad is close to being captured at which point we will have completed all of our objectives against the Soviet Union."
"When will we capture Leningrad?" Hirohito asked.
"October 3rd your Majesty." Tanigawa replied.
"How is your progress towards the latest plan?"
"We will not be as ready as I would like and I would ask for a delay to the October 8th deadline."
"There will be no delay."
"As you wish your Majesty. You are aware there will be losses as a result?"
"I am Minister Tanigawa. We have some room to manouver I would think."
"We do yes."
"Diplomacy first this month please." Hideki continued after receiving a nod from the Emperor.
"Good morning your Majesty, Gentlemen. Diplomatically I am ready for the 8th and I have brought along an update on our puppet Nations." Mamoru began.
"Manchukuo remains our most able puppet but both Siam and Mengkukuo are coming along nicely. I am providing as much assistance as I can by handing over blueprints for technology and sending the Siamese regular Energy supplies. Despite my best efforts I have been unable to convince them to alter their military production towards the creation of Garrison divisions but they do provide Infantry on a fairly regular basis. Nothing further." concluded Mamoru.
"Security please."
"Your Majesty, Gentlemen, good morning." Hakujiro began. "I have an update on the latest partisan levels in Australia which is where our Garrison divisions have been deployed so far this year."
"As you can see the situation is improving and I have been concentrating in the south where the majority of the Industrial Capacity is centered. We may be able to strip most of the Infantry divisions from the area towards the end of the year if we continue our progress. New Zealand will also require a few Garrison divisions at some point but we can easily contain any uprisings with the two divisions we have in that Country.
Elsewhere, China remains fairly well garrisoned but could easily use another dozen divisions. Mengukuo and Siam are providing additional forces to this area as they become available. Siberia is under control as Manchukuo is providing a large number of garrison troops to the region. Our largest problem is the Soviet Union where partisan levels are rising continually as we advance. I see no drop in the levels here for some considerable time as even annexing that Country would not help.
An estimate of the number of new Garrison divisions required to control all of our territory to a good degree would be something close to one hundred divisions. So at the current rate of production I would need somewhere in the region of ten years to bring the levels down to an acceptable number. Somehow I doubt I will get ten years, nor will the lines remain stable, so I will just have to do what I can with what I have. Nothing further." Hakujiro concluded.
"The price of rapid expansion Minister Hakujiro."
"Indeed your Majesty."
"Production please."
"Good morning your Majesty, Gentlemen. Our current production is at a very low level with a few ships and Garrison divisions all we have under construction." Ginjiro began.
"Our base Industrial Capacity increased by thirteen factory complexes all from the Soviet Union. Transport Capacity is not dropping very much as we are capturing more high partisan provinces and we are also in the middle of re-deploying a large part of the East Asia Army.
Our Energy, Metal and Rare Material stockpiles are extremely large and I see no problems with any of these resources for many years to come. Oil is not as high as I would like but is not a major concern. The large Energy reserves we now have also allow us to convert to Oil which helps the situation. Supplies were fairly low at the beginning of the month but the capture of Warsaw and Lodz, where the Polish capital relocated, have increased this considerably. We should have no problems providing our forces with extra supplies if required.
Financially our reserves are slowly decreasing as Minister Kuniaki conducts espionage missions. Our Manpower reserves remain low but increased by 4,000 during September and we should be able to continue Garrison production for some time if it remains this stable.
Our Supply needs have dropped somewhat as a large part of our Army is now static in the Soviet Union. We have ample capacity to increase Supply production if required. Reinforcement levels are small with some ship and aircraft repairs all that are required. Upgrades remain the largest need as far as production is concerned and I have been using a large amount of our capacity in this area to update our forces. This process will still take some time but it can at least begin in earnest now. Nearly all of our ground forces need at least one upgrade with a large part of our Airforce also requiring one. Done." Ginjiro concluded.
"Intelligence please."
"Your Majesty, Gentlemen, good morning." Kuniaki began. "I have had limited success with placing agents overseas but I did manage to infiltrate the West Germans again. France and Canada have small forces according to my agents but West Germany could have anything from fifty to one hundred Infantry divisions. That is as accurate as I can be with only one agent, which is not ideal given that we are marching towards East Germany and will soon have a border with the West."
"The Soviet Union lost a further forty factory complexes in September and will lose another eighteen once we capture Leningrad. Essentially it is no longer any threat Industrially. Two more of it's research teams lost their funding as a result and they completed no projects.
They are down to only five Infantry divisions which are also no threat. Most of these are in the east and are Militia divisions. No change to Aircraft or Ship numbers."
"You can cease to report on the Soviet's from now on Minister Kuniaki. There is little point." stated the Emperor.
"As you wish your Majesty."
"British Industry has reduced by one after we captured a factory complex in the Middle East. No research projects were completed.
Their ground forces have reduced by three Infantry divisions and their small ship count went down by two. Other than that there is no noticable change to the British Armed Forces which are clearly still being supported by additional Allied divisions."
"Industry sees no change in the United States and they also completed no research projects.
They lost seven Infantry and one Armoured division somewhere. I suspect the losses were due to their Transport ships being sunk. Three were certainly lost in the Aleutians. No real change to the United States Air Force.
Their Navy suffered badly during September. Three more Carriers were sunk with none being built and they also lost six smaller ships overall. I fully expect them to build a lot more Carriers over time but we have at least contained this growth for now."
"My own research teams completed one project, Improved Light Carrier, and should finish at least one other in October but probably two. All done." concluded Kuniaki.