The Little Giant - A Kaiserreich Japan AAR

The great Battle of Karimata began in a somewhat unassuming fashion. Yamamoto's carrier fleet went on high alert again when it appeared the Germans were once again probing Yamamoto's strength. As it happened, split leadership of the German fleet caused co-ordination problems when half of the German ships failed to radio a change in course to both German flagships when they began chasing Russian submarines raiding German shipping (Transamur).

The disorganization did not last long. Germany had sent a major fleet. A fleet intended to relieve Singapore, yes, but also to directly engage the Imperial Japanese Navy and establish naval superiority in the Pacific. And everyone knew German naval dominance in the Pacific would soon lead to an ignominious defeat for Japan. The stakes were high as reports came in to Admiral Yamamoto. Two large carriers. At least six battleships and an equal number of battlecruisers. Plentiful support ships. Yamamoto's carrier fleet possessed only decades-old cruisers and destroyers, a few relatively modern heavy cruisers, one decent destroyer, and Yamamoto's three carriers.

Yamamoto's carrier doctrine was going to be put to the test. Yamamoto had one advantage: more airstrips. The old converted battleships Atago and Akagi had proved remarkably seaworthy and capable of launching modern aircraft. The Ryujo was a smaller carrier, but purpose-built. Though notoriously top-heavy and having some difficulty with the rough seas, the Ryujo allowed Yamamoto to launch more fighter planes than the Germans. More critical to Yamamoto's advantage, Singapore's air strip was vulnerable to the few bits of artillery the Japanese army besieging the city possessed - Yamamoto would not have to worry about ground-based bombers.

The battle began in earnest during a heavy squall. Iron grey seas and dark storm clouds weighed heavily on the hearts of pilots launching in waves from all five carriers. The little planes bucked and shuddered in heavy, swirling winds. But the battle had begun. The fighting men needed to be in the air. The victor would control the crucial straits linking the Indian and Pacific Oceans. A Japanese loss almost certainly meant the loss of India and could even mean the fall of Burma - to either German forces from Europe or syndicalists from an aggressive Bhartiya Commune taking advantage of the situation.

Grand Admiral Raeder commanded the German fleet against Yamamoto, confident in his significant advantages in tonnage and the more modern composition of his fleet.

{Whoa! I had no idea Germany started with such excellent naval officers.}

The Battle of Karimata developed slowly, aerial formations being scattered by high winds. Several of the intial air losses on both sides included embarrassing collisions in overly-tight formations unable to handle the high winds. And failed landings for refueling. Both fleets hoped the squall didn't develop into a major storm that would force aircraft to land.

Yamamoto's fleet sailed to the southwest, away from the approach of the German ships steaming in from German Indochina. A direct surface engagement would be suicide. Yamamoto's ships had to avoid direct contact while Japanese planes located German carriers to allow attacks on the Germans' own mobile air bases. For his part Grand Admiral Raeder advanced cautiously, trying to screen his own carriers from view while his airplanes sought out the Japanese carriers. He held his battleships back for the moment, not directing them to engage under full steam, instead keeping them protected in the rear of his fleet.

As fighters danced, occasionally illuminated by lightning in the stormy sky, Grand Admiral Taniguchi began to receive the first messages relayed from the ground forces besieging Singapore. The sheer weight of the German fleet worried him, confident as he was in Admiral Yamamoto's skill. Admiral Koga's battleship fleet, busy hunting submarines and enemy convoys attempting to reach the Yellow Sea, was ordered into the South China Sea en route to Singapore and the Karimata straits.

Still unaware of the developing blue water drama, Japan's newspapers carried loud headlines of the war - the new war. The semi-Christian millennial movement that had been percolating in the western mountains of China, fed in part by rogue missionaries that flooded into the country through the Legation Cities from various parts of the Christian world ever since the German intervention in China, finally declared war on the decadent and 'pagan' Qing. The lavish ceremonies surrounding Pu Yi's marriage to his second wife didn't help matters. It seemed all of Asia was engulfed in war.

Germany decided to renege on their co-operative agreements with the Qing, retaining most of the supplies promised to Pu Yi for the war against Japan (also recognizing the popularity of the Shangqing with a few fundamentalist Christian social organizations back at home).

Meanwhile Siamese forces countered a German push towards Bangkok through Battambang by sending a lightly-armed division down the coast along concealed routes, then suddenly launching an unexpected counter-attack through Phnom Penh and into Southern Indochina. They linked up with a small Japanese army easily landed at Siamese-captured beaches near Saigon. Japan's second transport fleet delayed its return to India to pick up more troops in order to bombard German forces that retreated to the west bank of the Mekong Delta. The German commander intended to hole up hole up until AOG conscripts could break the thin Thai pickets isolating the German troops or the Germans leading the offensive towards Bangkok turned aside to take Phnom Penh and relieve the trapped divisions.

The Japanese army in Saigon had no intention of allowing the Germans to wait out the troubles in the marshes. Japanese infantry crossed the Mekong and began engaging in a clumsy and seemingly random series of fire fights with continuously retreating German troops. Neither side held any kind of real battle order - but that was the point. The Japanese Army didn't give the Germans any time to fortify strong points in the marsh. Unfortunately small German supply convoys did manage to slip through the uncoordinated forces of the Japanese fleet and Siamese patrol boats.

Gunfire also rang out across yet more of Asia when Philippino Syndicalists took advantage of the withdraw of American troops to briefly take Manila. It was widely assumed the Bharitya Commune somehow had a hand in affairs despite total lack of evidence to back up the assumptions by panicky capitalists.

But disciplined Phillipino army units trained by the American general MacArthur, only recently recalled to the United States, retook the Philippine capital after a bloody and merciless counter-assault. The officers leading the crack troops immediately installed a military government.

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Suzuki made a controversial decision to openly support the Qing Empire in the fight against the Shangqing, following the advice of experts in the Foreign Ministry. It was thought that after the Germans ignored Qing appeals for aid the move might convince Pu Yi to turn his forces against AOG-held southern China and reclaim territory lost to German administrators in the event of a rapid victory over the Shangqing. Or at least decide against using the war between Germany and Japan as an opportunity to invade the Japanese-backed Fengtien Republic. Opposition newspapers accused the government of hubris, however, attacking Suzuki for diverting war material to the Chinese even as Japan faced the German giant.

While the Germans concentrated nearly the whole of their Asian naval forces on relieving Singapore, the Japanese decision to retain multiple fleets - and carefully escort their transports - showed some benefits. After halting the bombardment of Can Tho due to the difficulty of locating German formations in the marshes, Japan's second transport fleet returned to India - and intercepted enemy transports along the way. For the first time since the Weltkrieg, the venerable guns of the Satsuma and the Aki opened up on a German fleet - even if they were only troop transports. This time the fighting took place in the Bay of Bengal instead of the Yellow Sea.

It was hoped the transports were full of German soldiers, but who could tell at a distance?

At first Yamamoto's fleet sailed southwest, until Sumatra became visible on the far horizon. Then it sailed southeast, continuing to avoid direct contact with the German fleet. Grand Admiral Raeder finally ordered his battleships and battlecruisers to pursue the enemy more aggressively. Both admirals sucessfully screened their carriers from direct enemy attack, but German and Japanese dive bombers finally found targets as the pursuing German surface vessels inched away from the German formation - and outdated Japanese ships faced difficulty maintaining sufficent speed for maneuvers.

Critically, the top-heavy Ryujo, the most modern of Japan's carriers, had repeated difficulties in the rough seas. It had fallen to the rear of the Japanese formation by the time Yamamoto signaled a shift in course to a more southeasterly direction. And with the storm clouds of the early stage of the Battle of Karimata lifted, the sun illuminated the Ryujo's wallowing deck. And German dive bombers braved clouds of Japanese fighters to make attack runs on the endangered carrier. And still Koga's battleships had yet to arrive.

{I slowed the game speed down to a crawl and kept close watch on this battle, but I didn't take continous screenshots. The Ryujo, genuinely top-heavy OTL, was targetted by the German carriers soon after they finished off a few cruisers. The Ryujo put up a hell of a fight, her sea and air defenses giving the German carriers fits. But eventually she went down.}

The Ryujo fell out of the Japanese formation as Admiral Yamamoto ordered a change in course yet again, this time to the northeast. Japanese airplanes had gained an advantage over German forces during the aerial battle over the Ryujo, the German carriers launching more bombers than fighters and the Japanese planes, unable to locate the German carriers, contented themselves with cutting up German dive bomber formations and destroying the torpedo bombers that finally landed critical hits on the Ryujo's weak lower hull. The Japanese carrier sunk into the waves even as the new Japanese air advantage allowed more aggressive action by the bomber squadrons of the Atago and the Akagi. Vulnerable German surface ships aggressively pursuing the Japanese fleet were pounded as fighter aircraft and fast search planes fought and searched for the critical carriers.

Finally a German search plane, fleeing chasing Japanese fighters, caught sight of the Akagi, Admiral Yamamoto's flagship. German bomber squadrons took to the air in considerable numbers again and began attack runs on a second Japanese carrier. Admiral Yamamoto kept the Akagi, already farther from the German fleet than most of the Japanese vessels, in battle for only a few hours. As the Akagi began to take damage to her flight deck, Yamamoto ordered his fleet to scatter and disengage - through the lines of Admiral Koga's battleship fleet, now steaming at full speed directly towards the German lines!

Yamamoto's warships, low on fuel and with exhausted crews, withdrew northeast for refueling in Formosa and repair in Tokyo.

Grand Admiral Raeder suddenly found himself facing Japan's battleship fleet, unprepared,with a ragged formation and bombers already in the air and low on fuel. German ships broke off pursuit of Yamamoto and the Akagi, turning instead southeast once again, in the direction of the coast of Borneo. With sufficient warning of Koga's approach, the Germans narrowly avoided the charging Japanese ships. The chase was on once again - this time with the Germans on the run!

Damage taken by the Akagi and the her escort cruisers. The Atago remains at full fighting strength.

But the Atago and Akagi pounded the pursuing German battleships for days before being forced to retreat, sinking several!

The German fleet forced the Japanese carriers to retreat - but had little to show for their efforts - save the very notable destruction of the Ryujo.

A week of pounding had destroyed most of the powerful German surface ships. The Battle of Karimata now changed drastically. Koga's battleships took on the same role the German surface ships had played the previous day. But Raeder's fleet continued to steam southeast, away from the Japanese. German planes, though reduced in numbers by earlier battles with the fighters of Yamamoto's carrier fleet, started scoring significant hits on the Japanese battleships - none of which had significant flak capability.

For a full day Japanese battleships took damage without being able to raise their guns in reply. Admiral Koga finally reversed course as night fell, breaking off the pursuit of the German fleet and heading back in the direction of Singapore - once again being pressured by Japanese land forces. They held little hope of taking the city before the Battle of Karimata concluded, however. The approach of the German fleet and the desperate maneuvers of Yamamoto's carrier group had allowed ample time for enemy transports to bring new troops, AOG conscripts, into the city.

Bad news on land around Singapore was matched by good news on other nearby battlefields. The German colonies on Borneo - including the small oil fields there - were undefended. Admiral Ozawa's transport fleet delivered three Japanese cavalry divisions diverted from Korea to the island. The Japanese cavalry quickly began securing important production facilities. And in Indochina the Thai lines in Lumphat unexpectedly held against the German and Chinese assaults attempting to relieve Can Tho. Riddled with disease and organization problems from the difficult marsh country they hid in, the two isolated German divisions surrendered piecemeal - although a good number of the Germans either remained in hiding or died lonely deaths lost in the wilderness. Rumors of rabid and half-wild bands of Vietnamese syndicalists began to spread among Japanese forces hunting the Germans.

During the night, as Admiral Koga's battleships retreated, Vice Admiral Nagumo, commander of the Atago, detached his ship from Yamamoto's Carrier Fleet. Risking attacks from German submarines or errant surface ships, the lone Japanese warship steamed for Singapore.

Grand Admiral Raeder realized the new disposition of Koga's fleet only upon the morning. He ordered his ships to turn back towards Singapore, carefully advancing towards Koga's battleships with the intention of destroying them piecemeal. Unknown to the Germans was the return of the Atago to the Battle of Karimata! Focusing on bombing waves sent against Japanese battleships, the German carriers failed to properly mask their position.

Japanese scout planes sighted the SMS Peter Strasser almost immediately, and the Atago's torpedo planes and dive bombers raced to put holes in the deck and hull of the German carrier. Caught entirely by surprise, the German carrier was disabled by the first wave of Japanese attack planes, its planes forced to find refuge on the SMS Blumenthal. Some even crashed into the sea once they ran out of fuel.

The destruction of the SMS Peter Strasser put the Japanese and German fleets on equal footing in the skies - and while the Germans still had a significant advantage in ship numbers, the Japanese battleships possessed the superior surface firepower.

Yet neither surface fleet seemed eager to engage the other. Koga knew the importance of his fleet to the Japanese war effort, and Raeder was loathe to risk leaving German colonies without naval support - Raeder still hoped German forces held out in Can Tho awaiting relief.

As the sun dawned on the eleventh day of the Battle of Karimata, news finally reached Tokyo that temporarily overshadowed the naval showdown. General Zheng Zueling, ruler of the Fengtien 'Republic,' looked to his future and saw problems growing from the increasing sympathy for the Qing monarchy among the Manchurian populace. With the war against the Shangqing, seen as western-deluded madmen in Manchura, Zheng Zueling decided to secure his future by negotiating the return of Manchuria to Chinese rule - a return that left Zheng fully in control of various business interests and Manchurian army units.

Pu Yi accepted immediately.

Japan's leaders unhappily examined their options: none. The only forces she had in the region were the strong garrison in Port Arthur, a small mobile army of cavalry and tanks in Vladivostok that was needed to cow the Korean populace (while preserving its organization by not dispersing through the hostile Korean countryside), and the 'Korean Army', busy taking German enclaves in the Yellow Sea.

Zheng's decision couldn't be forestalled by force. Japan's diplomats in Harbin and the Forbidden City instead gritted their teeth and congratulated the Chinese court and Manchurian officials, smiling and declaring it a great day. They also pragmatically pressed Pu Yi for an alliance, promising to add all of South China in addition to Manchuria to Pu Yi's domain. The alliance would provide for Chinese and Manchurian support in the event of a Korean uprising, put pressure on an AOG administration already shipping most of their conscripts to Indochina, and generally give Japan's war effort a needed boost.

Pu Yi declined, not wishing to split his army given the already problematic campaign against the Shangqing. And quite frankly expecting the Germans to win their war with Japan. A disturbingly pragmatic move. Though good news did come in from China when Admiral Ozawa reported meeting and destroying German transports carrying troops on their way to fortify Tsingdao. Though those same troops had unfortunately just finished the conquest of the southern Legation Cities. Triad-controlled militias kept their heads down, unwilling to engage in battle with trained soldiers.

In America the chaos, bickering, and brutal partisan violence sweeping the nation began to subside - as in one region or another one party gained control and ruthlessly suppressed its foes. The federal army slowly moved out of its enclave around Washington D.C., rooting out syndicalist cells struggling to organize the industrial cities there. The Syndicalists, while facing difficulty on the east coast (save New York City), solidified political control of the industrial Midwest, including Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, St. Louis, and Minneapolis. Meanwhile syndicalist militias struggled to pacify less ideological rural territory in Missouri, Wisconsin, Indiana, southern Illinois, and Kentucky.

The 'knights' of the True American Union raided Syndicalist territory wherever they could, and quickly clamped down on any opposition in the South. Although New Orleans remained held by federal forces and the strong U.S. Navy and native american tribes remained loyal to President Curtis. In the west the various high plains towns sympathized with Curtis, but as they were cut off from the federal army on the east coast, they pragmatically surrendered to any armed forces willing to march into town and claim the area. In many cases these were Californian militias cautiously extending the political control of the Pacific States of America.

For three more days the IJN Atago and the SMS Blumenthal dueled in the seas around Singapore. Both ships remained hidden behind the massive screen of the Japanese and German fleets. And while fighters and search planes engaged each other on a daily basis, the real losers were the surface ships left without fighter cover. Dive bombers and torpedo planes sank a few more large ships before Grand Admiral Raeder spotted what seemed to be a Japanese plane within sight of the SMS Blumenthal. Worried about losing his fleet's last remaining carrier, Raeder ordered the German fleet to withdraw north to Indochina and the naval bases there.

Japan won the Battle of Karimata! Due in no small part to the heroism of the sailors and pilots stationed aboard the Atago.

But the surrounding seas were peppered with the hulls of German and Japanese ships. And a strong German-Australasian-Chinese force maintained control of Singapore.

The Germans lost far more tonnage, losing four battleships, four battlecruisers, two heavy cruisers, and the SMS Peter Strasser at Karimata. But in many ways the Japanese losses were more significant, with the most modern Japanese carrier, the Ryujo, sunk early in the battle. And many of Japan's best surface ships sank as well, notably Koga's flagship the Kaga and the modern battlecruisers Krishima and Hiei. Admiral Koga himself had to transfer his flag to the Tosa after escaping the burning Kaga in a life boat.

But a victory was better than a defeat. Much better. And the German Admiralty now had to reckon with a Japan that sank most of the important ships in her great Asian fleet - all while maintaining control of the sea lanes and harassing German shipping.



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You wouldn't believe how often I returned to the battle to check the targets selected by the various carriers in the Battle of Karimata. Quite tense. And when the returning Atago immediately targeted the Peter Strasser without being targeted itself - despite my fleet being outnumbered two to one in carriers? Fist-pump moment! Also, bloody Zheng...

The Battle of Karimata had long-ranging effects on Japanese policy. Not least was the ascendancy of one of the major factions within the Japanese Navy. After the Battle of Karimata, the battleship faction became the most influential in the Admiralty. Counter-intuitively, the success of the Atago and the heroic defense by Yamamoto's Carrier fleet left the battleship proponents at least temporarily in charge: because the Carrier Fleet was busy undergoing repairs, particularly the badly damaged Akagi. Japan's battleship fleet was the only major fleet she had left in the field. Grand Admiral Taniguchi stepped aside to focus on his command of Japan's second transport fleet while Grand Admiral Fujita Hisanori became Chief of the Navy.

The situation remained fluid on the Indochinese front. Instead of reinforcing the outpost at Saigon, Japan's generals decided additional reinforcements from India would be sent to Bangkok and directly into battle with isolated and out-of-supply German forces curt off from Hanoi by the Siamese army. Again it seemed unlikely the Siamese could hold Vientiane in time for Japanese forces to capture or destroy the trapped German and Chinese forces - but then again, the same had been said about the Siamese lines at Lumphat.

At the same time the German troops marching on Phnom Penh failed to relieve their stranded compatriots in Can Tho, but they did manage to cut the coastal supply route used by the Siamese army. Japan could theoretically resupply through Saigon, but the shortage of available convoys convinced the Japanese army to reposition their forces as soon as one of the transport fleets became available.

Germany, hoping for a major success to bring an end to a suddenly expensive war, had to turn to their army after the defeat at Karimata. They sallied their outdated Indochinese fleet, which had so far only sunk two Siamese destroyers and been tasked with protecting shipping in the Gulf of Tonkin and around the Pearl River Delta, and engaged and then baited Admiral Koga's battleships away from the siege at Singapore while German transports snuck into the port. Noting the recent lack of assaults by the large but ineffective Japanese army, the German generals gambled on sneaking their offensive forces - the Chinese and Australasians - out of the city and north for a renewed offensive against the Siamese capital, Bangkok, hoping the German troops remaining in Singapore could hold out with the city's formations. And as important as Singapore was, taking Bangkok would knock Siam out of the war.

The Germans lost a small cruiser for their trouble. At the same time the allies of the major powers continued smaller skirmishes in the Pacific. Australasian submarines hunted Russian destroyers and transports - or were the destroyers hunting the Australasian submarines?

Then, terrible news. The disease of War traveled from the colonies past the quarantine of the high seas and came to Japan's national provinces! Korean partisans appeared seemingly nowhere, streaming out of Seoul and Pyongyang to extend their control through the center of the peninsula, imprisoning Japanese language teachers, killing Japanese administrators, and burning the hated Japanese-language schools. The time of the Choson rebellion was at hand! No Fengtien divisions stood menacingly along the Yalu. Japan's ships sank on a daily basis. Japan's airforce bombed German bases in the Yellow sea and engaged in dogfights in Mitteleuropan planes over Indochina. Japans armies weren't in Korea. And they were headed towards Tsingtao, where the Germans had quietly stockpiled weapons and trained Korean patriots even before the outbreak of war with Japan. The only obvious danger lay in three veteran cavalry divisions stationed in Vladivostok. But what chance did they stand against Korea and her mountains? To war!

Immediately after news broke of the rebellion in Korea, speculation swirled about the possibility of a rebellion on Formosa. It seemed impossible. But so had a Korean uprising. A few weak-kneed doves even suggested allowing the Taiwanese their independence. Soon, a delegation from an obscure Taiwanese cultural organization even presented a formal request for independence to Emperor Hirohito, gaining an audience through false pretenses.

The emperor, merciful and liberal as he might be, ordered the arrest of the offending men on the spot. Formosa was Japan and Taiwanese were Japanese, and no troubles were expected from that simple statement of fact.

A back-room showdown between Prime Minister Suzuki Kisaburo, the Prince of Terror, and Minister of Justice Saito Takao occurred when the latter discovered authorization by the Prime Minister to ship anti-air flak guns directly form Japan to the Traids holding out against the air power of Germany's allies. Saito accused Suzuki of political cowardice and a lack of honor, and demanded the Prime Minister repudiate the criminal activities that got Japan into the war, perhaps keeping Shanghai out of German hands by quietly signaling the Qing Japan would welcome a takeover of the city.

Suzuki flew into a rage, berating Saito for a lack of patriotism, declaring that he'd arm any man who wanted to fight the Germans, and that by the Emperor, Shanghai was a loyal Japanese colony now.

Saito threatened to go to Hirohito and convince the emperor to call for the Prime Minister's resignation. Suzuki told him that if he did, Saito's head would be on a spike on the wall of Edo Castle within the hour.

Eventually Saito backed down, not willing to weaken Japan's democratic institutions by encouraging a monarch to bring down a legitimately elected national leader. But bad blood remained between the two men.

Japan sent as many forces as it could spare into Korea, marching its best cavalry into the north of the country. The only unexpected good news was that the Germans had already evacuated their ground troops and war planes from Tsingtao - even before German arms and German-trained Koreans sailed for Seoul. After placing a few Japanese troops in the city and tasking them with establishing control over the Shandong peninsula, the 'Korean Army', now much reduced in size, sailed for Busan, hoping to establish a perimeter around the city before Korean partisans arrived. In the mean time, the bombers that helped secure beachheads in Tianjin refueled and prepared to sortie east out of Port Arthur instead of west.

Japan's logistical experts continued to face significant problems, and the rebellion in Korea threw everything into chaos. The technical officers soon warned the Admiralty that with the pace of oil consumption by the navy and air force, Japan would run out of oil reserves within the month. If not sooner. The captured oil fields on Borneo were expected to help, but even when fully online they might not be able to make up the difference in oil consumed versus oil produced. The Californian oil purchased from the United States no longer existed - and didn't look to be available in the future either, as Japan had so far refused to recognize the Pacific States of America thanks to Japan's good relations with the federal government. The Second American Civil War threatened to cripple the Japanese war effort if another source of oil couldn't be found.

There were limited options. Only a few significant sources of oil existed within reach of Japanese forces. Persia was the obvious motherload - but another land war even farther from Japan and even more threatened supply routes simply couldn't be maintained after the naval losses at the Battle of Karimata. Persia wouldn't trade with Japan due to its recently signed lucrative trade agreements with Germany. The small sources of oil - Sarawak and Burma - were already in Japan's hands. That left Indonesia, California, Venezuela, and Mexico, all of which produced considerable quantities of oil. Japan wasn't ready to turn away from Curtis and recognize the PSA government, particularly with Attorney General Earl Warren becoming ever more popular by prosecuting Japanese-Americans who had the temerity to own land and farm it. Canada's control of the Panama Canal cut off Venezuela from trade with Japan. That left war with the Netherlands or trade with syndicalist Mexico.

Indonesia's oil was nearby and tempting. And in fact the army faction in Japanese political circles argued for a declaration of war on the Netherlands - a state friendly to Germany after all - and occupation of the oil fields there. Never mind concerns about opening yet another front before even reinforcing Korea, the boastful generals guaranteed that the army currently besieging Singapore could overrun Indonesia in a month - and take the oil fields sooner. Let the Siamese blockade the German base.

All of which was true - but the Admiralty pointed out the proximity of Indonesia to Australia. An attack on Indonesia could convince the reluctant combatant to fully commit to the war and adopt an aggressive posture. The naval faction argued for trade with the syndicalists - and pointed out that Japan had quietly been trading coal for iron with the Bhartiya Commune ever since Japan's conquest of the Princely Federation.

Japanese diplomats tentatively reached out to Mexico City. Would the socialist government there be interested in trading their oil to capitalist Japan? The answer came back: YES! And Mexico, currently in the grip of a modernization program and struggling to maintain to maintain the technological and cultural center of the country in Mexico City as it incorporated its new territories, also offered to barter large quantities of oil in exchange for Japan sending the country engineers, doctors, and other technical advisors.

The complication concerned a number of Japanese politicians - should Japan consent to improve the armed forces of a socialist country? The idea seemed problematic. In the end, Japan agreed to send technical experts to advise the Mexican government on humanitarian and logistical issues - and on convoy protection. Japan had its source of oil.

Sir Stubbs himself, the Sri Lankan president, took part in a scheduled conference before Emperor Hirohito just one week after the Taiwanese affair, politely informing the emperor that as Japan no longer had any troops stationed on Ceylon, Sri Lanka now considered itself a fully independent nation with its own foreign policy. The Sri Lankan leader, a veteran of diplomatic balance and tact, added that he understood how this announcement could be delicate, and promised to avoid any contact with Japanese press, keep his visit a secret, and generally never mention the affair to anyone outside of Japanese leadership again.

Unbeknownst to Japanese leaders, Sri Lankan envoys had already privately approached Germany with an offer of peace for a non-aggression pact. Germany refused, however, the reclamation of the significant naval base in Colombo part of its long-term goals. So Sri Lanka quietly remained in the Japanese alliance and considered how it might fortify its ports.

{"Storm The Rigs!" is cut off there.}

In Mexico, Entente business owners protested the shipment of so much crude to Japan. There were even whispers the King might order the closure of the Panama Canal to Mexican shipping. The Mexicans, desperate for Japan's technical advisors and trade materials, occupied the foreign-owned oil rigs and called Canada's bluff regarding the canal. For now Canada feared the diplomatic fallout from Latin American nations already uncomfortable with the crown's seizure of the critical strategic asset.

With the Mexican oil, the larger strategic situation looked at least sustainable. German bases in the Yellow Sea had been neutralized, though Korea prevented Japan from turning its full attention to the war in the south. Small but capable armies would prevent the entirety of the Korean peninsula from falling into rebel hands, however. Germany decided not to defend Sarawak against the other half of Japan's famed cavalry. Singapore remained under siege, but heavy equipment kept in storage in favor of faster infantry maneuver was being shipped from Japan for a major assault. The hottest fighting was in Indochina, as a thinly contained pocket of German troops rapidly collapsed from the assault of fresh Japanese soldiers. Yet Saigon remained undefended, and German forces moved methodically towards Bangkok. By taking Chon Buri, their forward units were just a few days' march from the Siamese capitol. Bangkok, however, was defended by Japanese reserve units. To the west, Germany still held the Maldives. Ozawa's transport fleet steamed towards Bombay to capture that last German base off the coast of India and recall the last spare men from India to fight in the Pacific.

The air forces remained busy. The land-sea squadrons rebased to the captured German airbase at Kuching, as close as they could get to Karimata. Ground bombers flew unopposed over Korea, while Japan's somewhat outclassed interceptors made up for their lack of modernness with numbers over Bankok and Indochina. Additionally, naval vessels detached from larger fleets for repairs at the Home Islands or to re-organize.

The rebellion in Korea had covered the embarrassing loss of the Kongo, a Japanese battlecruiser, during a surprise raid on the Singapore blockade by the aging German Indochinese task force. The Admiralty, worried about the weakness of the primary Japanese fleet, took the drastic step of stripping the transport fleets of their older battleship escorts and sending those ships to rendezvous with Admiral Koga's fleet to bolster its numbers. The decision was questionable, given the slower speed of the old battleships and the vital importance of the transport fleets. But a credible main battle fleet was deemed of the utmost importance. The Satsuma and the Aki were pulled from Japan's second transport fleet, while Admiral Ozawa relinquished command of the battleships Yamashiro, Fuso, and Settsu. The aging behemoths were sent to rendezvous with Admiral Koga at the recently captured naval base on Borneo, Kuching.

In America, the Combined Syndicates of America seemed ascendant. CSA militias scored major victories over True American Union forces pressing the Mississippi corridor. They succeeded in holding St. Louis, encircled True American Union forces in Indiana while pacifying the conservative Indiana farm country, and began to push into the high plains. The only problem for the CSA was the federal capture of New York - involving very little fighting and quite a bit of naval posturing. Still, America anxiously awaited the reaction of the city to the ragged federal troops landing on Long Island. It seemed like a better than even chance that the sizable New York City syndicates and unions would drag the city into an orgy of violence and resistance.

It seemed nothing could go right for President Curtis, who attempted to fix his earlier mistake by offering the Pacific States control of the Rocky Mountains - control the PSA was already well on its way to effectively establishing.

At first the Siamese army division that created the western Indochina pocket looked as if it would hold Vientiane, throwing back a multi-pronged Chinese assault on the city. But the Siamese began to buckle when Germany re-tasked several German bomber wings from guarding the sea approach to its bases on the Gulf of Tonkin and send them to relieve its forces to the west.

Japanese generals had a difficult decision to make. Allow the beneficial forward position to fall, or flood the region with reserve troops - troops that would be tired from the rapid march north and had previously been tasked with defending Bangkok itself. The generals decided to take the risk, and the Siamese logistical system held strong. The Siamese division fell back, evacuating Vientiane, but the Japanese reserves plugged the gap. The army that destroyed the German forces in Can Tho were rushed by sea transport to Bangkok to defend the Siamese capital.

Japanese fighter pilots struggled with the limited range of their air planes, but found a way to make a difference.

The beleaguered 'Korean Army' struggled to hold as much of southern Korea as it could while the rough terrain of northern Korea slowed the 'Mongol' cavalry's advance to the front lines. Japan's navy suffered another setback when the unescorted Settsu and Fuso, detached from Ozawa's transport fleet en route to Kuching, were intercepted by the unexpected appearance of the pesky German task force that had recently been making itself a nuisance.

Meanwhile, political relations between Russia and Japan, never good, came close to open hostility when Russia began actively supplying the Koreans through Manchuria - the Qing turned a blind eye. Privately, Prime Minister Suzuki and the upper echelons of the Japanese government worried Russia might enter the war - Germany would welcome a campaign by Russia to reclaim Transamur. Tumultuous Russian domestic politics came to the rescue, however, as the weak leftist coalition - no friend of Germany's - retained power. They maintained their unambitious foreign policy: Germany and Japan should be left alone to weaken each other.

Even as the Admiralty fretted about Ozawa's battleship-less fleet cleaning up the German base in the Maldives without any potential support, news came of the impossible: a second rebellion in Japanese home territory against the beneficent rule of Emperor Hirohito. Loyal Japanese everywhere declared no home territory would be ceded to rag-tag terrorists!

After the Taiwanese revolt, the mood amongst the upper political circles in Tokyo was universally one of grim determination. Everyone knew the revolt wouldn't end soon - there were no more reserves to commit to battle. Propagandists could blame the Korean rebellion on the Germans or the Russians - not so Formosa. And while the vast majority of industry remained on the home islands, during so great a conflict the loss of factories in Seoul, Pyongyang, and Taipei still hurt. It was also a matter of concern that Japan was becoming increasingly reliant on foreign trade for raw materials. Japanese leaders no longer talked about whether it was wise to trade for iron with the Bhartiya Commune - they argued about how to increase trade with the syndicalists. Japanese diplomats in Mexico City began offering additional aid and Japanese money to rush completion of a Veracurz-Acapulco oil pipeline in order to maintain Mexican oil shipments in the event of a Canadian closure of the Panama Canal to Mexican shipping, now widely assumed to be inevitable.

Japan's army continued to report minor successes, and the Siamese were fighting harder and more effectively than anyone had predicted. Combined with the lack of effort put forth by the AOG's Chinese conscripts, no one was speaking of a bitter peace. But the merchant marine continued to barely manage Japan's supply situation. And despite the excellent performance of Japan's convoy escort system, the construction of additional freighters only slightly exceeded losses to German and Australasian submarines.



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Not having the right Secretary of the Navy genuinely hurts. The benefits to various ship types are fairly significant. And the battleship proponent Fujita Hisanori (Decisive Battle, bonuses to overall naval offense, battleships, and heavy cruisers) also adds 10% naval detection. I probably should have replaced Taniguchi (Open Seas doctrine, bonuses to light carrier, light cruiser, destroyers, ASW, and troop transports) as soon as the Germans declared war. But that didn't fit the role play. Now Fujita is in charge for the same reason as written above - the batteships are, for the moment, all I have available to fight!

If the carriers continue to be my only successful ships, I will of course switch to Yamamoto Isoroku (Power Projection, bonuses to Fleet [non-light] Carriers, with smaller bonuses [and a lack of org bonuses] to overall naval offense, battleships, and heavy cruisers - but no additional naval detection). But I have a bias to the sheer offensive power of the battleship, an ORG bonuses to carriers aren't the most important, so I'll avoid that if I can.

Also - holy crap. I think this is the first game I didn't see ANYONE decline participation in the Second American Civil War. Everyone and their dog sent volunteers and supplies at every opportunity. Except myself. The event hasn't popped for me since I've been continously at war.

Armies stretched across the Pacific required supply. As close to the Home Islands as the Ryukyus, fisherman panicked and saw Australasian submarines whenever a whale surfaced. And the rebellions in Korea, Formosa, and the defection of the Fengtien removed critical farmland from the control of the Empire. Instead of a net food exporter, Korea became a net food importer, as the Japanese Empire struggled to ensure the loyal population around Busan remained well-fed. Rationing started to turn into genuine shortages and the Japanese government had to turn once again to foreign trade. The obvious choice was La Plata, granary of the world. Her fields and ranches could provide wheat and beef to Japan. And modern shipping could pass through even the Straits of Magellan, up the Pacific coast of South America, and across the Pacific near Hawaii - easily avoiding the zones of enemy fleet activity. But the canny authoritarian government in Buenos Aires demanded Japan relinquish military technology in addition to coal and rare earths. Faced with starvation, Japan accepted the deal.

The imported food allowed Japan to maintain the war effort. An effort that required the focus of naval efforts to prevent a hostile Taiwan from disrupting shipping of equipment and (Argentinian) supplies to troops fighting in Indochina. The Sea Wolf, Sakonji, was diverted from raiding German shipping to maintaining a blockade of the rebellious island even before the ink was dry on the agreement signed in Buenos Aires.

Finally supplied with heavier equipment, the Japanese army on the Malay peninsula began the long awaited fourth assault on Singapore. The German Indochinese fleet, bolstered by reinforcements sent from Europe, to Australia, and to Indochina through the Sunda strait, engaged Admiral Koga's battleship force. Sorely missed was the flagship Tosa, docked in the Home Islands for repairs.

The German naval attack was only a diversionary action to allow German transports to reinforce the defenders in Singapore, however. The Japanese army transferred from Can Tho to Bangkok had succeeded at turning the German offensive aimed at Bangkok at Chon Buri and the Germans, after the failure of their attempt to take the Siamese capital, were attempting to transfer men back to their fortress at Singapore. But this time Admiral Koga was vigilant. The German transports were sunk by Japanese guns and the German fleet retreated after a brief exchange of fire between the battleships involved in the action. The ancient warships Satsuma and Aki sustained minor damage, but no ship was sunk in the battle.

Armed with heavy equipment, the Japanese army overwhelmed the undermanned German division defending Singapore, despite a valiant defense by the defenders. To the north the Japanese forces in Chon Buri turned south to engage Chinese troops garrisoning Phnom Penh in an attempt to relieve isolated Thai forces trapped in turn at Can Tho.

The Japanese war effort in Korea went unexpectedly well, as the lack of a German defense in Sarawak allowed two cavalry divisions to be shipped north and innovative Russian motorized infantry controlled territory behind the Japanese spearhead. Japanese air power provided the support and reconnaissance that allowed for a rapid advance on the linchpin of the north, Pyongyang.

Privately, Japan's military leaders admitted that Siam and Transamur's unexpectedly strong support was critical to the maintenance of the war effort. There was a growing respect for the capabilities of the junior partners of the alliance and their willingness to fully commit to victory. Allied naval forces in particular patrolled many crucial shipping lanes as the Japanese Navy found itself forced to concentrate its forces on fewer fleets dedicated to critical tasks. The Siamese navy was more than willing to deploy in risky forward positions to better surprise enemy submarines and raiders.

Still the naval losses to Germany could not be denied. Every moment spend reorganizing in a friendly port like Kuching meant lost convoy transports at critical straits.

While the Siamese forces showed special valor befitting friends and allies, the Russian war effort was not without some cost to Japan. Vladivostok's factories put an additional strain on Japan's resource supply as the dependent state required help acquiring sufficient raw materials to fuel the war effort.

Across the Pacific, the United States' armed forces' success on the eastern seaboard was matched by the political efforts of President Curtis. After secret negotiations through a go-between from Harlem, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., President Curtis secured the defection of Asa Randolph from the Combined Syndicates of America.

Randolph led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, one of the most influential unions in America. Initially a strong supporter of the CSA, Randolph was also an major recruiter for the syndicates, often speaking about playing on the floor as a child while his mother guarded their house with a shotgun on her lap and calling for men to join the "March on Washington Campaign". But the Chicago unions that dominated the CSA refused to reform, and certainly not until the war was over, much to the disgust of Randolph. Curtis promised Randolph the reforms he was looking for, and promised to implement new labor hiring standards in defense industries immediately, even as the civil war raged on.

Randolph switched sides, and brought many of the northeast partisans with him. In a show of personal bravery rare in politicians, President Curtis and Randolph jointly addressed the American people before a huge and unruly public crowd in the largest open area in Central Park, New York City. The address was carried nationwide over the radio. All of America heard Randolph delcare that the March on Washington Campaign was a success, the most successful campaign of all time that didn't end in marching on its target. Randolph called on all Americans who loved equality and freedom to join the federal cause, and he then introduced "his friend and brother" President Curtis.

Curtis thanked his "brother" and launched into a rousing speech decrying unions of "this sort of American" or "that kind of American" and delcared all Americans everywhere "equal partners in one union, the federal Union!"

The CSA declared Randolph a traitor and increased security patrols in Chicago, but Randolph's defection robbed the CSA of momentum previously enjoyed as a result of its rapid assertion of authority over Minnesota and Denver.

The AUS declared the New York Address proof that the "corrupt and illegitimate" Curtis was willing to "tear down the pillars of Western Civilization and abandon the unique destiny of America." The speech seemed to galvanize AUS efforts, and the Long partisans pressed the USA and CSA hard along the Mississippi.

Of course, none of the American governments made any mention of the large numbers of foreign troops now participating in the American Civil War. Syndicalists from France, Britain, southern Italy and Mexico volunteered to fight for the CSA. Volunteers from National France, Canada, Germany, and northern Italy fought for either the federal government or the True American Union. Even Russia sent volunteer divisions to the aid of Curtis' government. It seemed odd that the leftist government in St. Petersburg would support the distant United States, but many assumed the factions of the Russian government wanted troublesome White-faction officers out of their hair.

{Actually I think I missed a few countries. More people participated than I actually knew got involved in the ACW. I didn't see a single event where some country DIDN'T send volunteers.}

The European syndicalists involved themselves in South America as well, sending aid to the workers of Brazil.

Siam began to stabilize as the German pocket in the north fell apart, the German defenders in Singapore were overwhelmed, and the Japanese army in the south pushed through multiple lines of defense on the way to Phnom Penh. A worryingly strong squadron of German attack planes harried the Siamese retreat from Lumphat to Can Tho, however, and it appeared that unit would break and attempt to melt into the jungle. That could be as dangerous as remaining in formation and vulnerable to German planes, however. More than a few guns that appeared to be made in Calcutta could be found in the hands of Indochinese farmers intent on defending their homes and villages.

Meanwhile Yamamoto's Carrier Fleet finally returned to open water with the repairs to the Akagi finally complete. The Admiralty decided to send Yamamoto back to the straits around Singapore to protect Japanese shipping and provided a needed anchor to what was expected to become only a small Japanese garrison in the city.

Asa Randolph's defection solidified public support for Curtis in the northeast, but a second wave of international syndicalist support for the CSA allowed the American reds to turn aside the federalist push into Ohio. The CSA also prepared to push for St. Louis once again as French, British, Italian, Mexican, and even Centroamerican reinforcements took advantage of the Texas-Kansas passage to sign up at CSA recruiting posts along the new Mexican border.

Internationally Persia increased its alliances. Already friends with Germany, it received pledges from Afghanistan and Azerbaijan to come to its defense. And Germany guaranteed friendly governments in Europe protection from syndicalist aggression - foreign or domestic.

A civil war in Spain and the new opportunities opened up by Mexican reclamation of much of the American southwest led to a steady stream of emigrants from Spain to Mexico. The Anarchist movement in Spain briefly considered closing its borders due to fear many socialists would simply move to the stable and modernizing Mexico, but ultimately decided to side with international worker solidarity. Russia continued its attempts to safely increase its influence around the world, supporting the existing 'legitimate' government in Spain as it had in America. (Though in Korea...)

As international syndicalists streamed into the CSA, and the Chicago unions even accepted Mexican help despite that nation's usurpation of American territory, the CSA garrisoned Detroit against the federal army and Asa Randolph's seemingly magical ability to turn syndicalists living in territory taken by the federal army into loyal American citizens.

The situation remained unstable, however, as Huey Long grew increasingly reckless. Even as the syndicalists threatened to close the Mississippi to the True American Union forces, Long stuffed Saint Louis with defenders and simultaneously ordered his Army of the East to take advantage of federal advances against the syndicalists. Long's forces penetrated as far north as Pittsburgh. President Curtis remained defiant, promising "a second Gettysburg, a second Union victory, and a second Reconstruction!"

Long, obsessed with his inability to take New Orleans or Washington D.C., both major True American Union targets, even went so far as to propose a temporary alliance with the syndicalists against Curtis. The CSA leadership wasn't suicidal, however, and knew that kind of move would likely end international syndicalist support of the CSA.

A second war erupted in Europe, but it looked to change little in the grand scheme of things. A strong minor power would emerge. Either Bulgaria would retain hegemony in the south Balkans or Serbia would take her place. Brazil decided to send volunteers to the first European war, eager to show European syndicalists they valued the international movement.

Japanese infiltrators from Seoul stirred up trouble behind Japanese lines in southern Korea. Japan refused to admit loyal citizens safely protected by Japanese troops would engage in guerrilla warfare against Japan. Economically devastated Shanghai, pockmarked with unrepaired craters from bombing runs by German allies due to the non-existent city government, suffered a gang war between the ruling Triads and rival underworld organizations frustrated with the city's participation in the war and the lack of smuggling bringing in profits.

The rebellions, resource and food shortages, and widespread concern with Japan's ability to win the war brought industrial production down to its lowest point since the 1920s, well before Inukai Tsuyoshi became Prime Minister. Prime Minister Suzuki loudly declared no quarter would be given to Japan's enemies in public and privately asked Hirohito to issue a statement and give Japan a national symbol to rally around. The emperor demurred, however, deciding to avoid becoming involved in every crisis of the moment.

Japan's military remained well suppled even if shortages were an occasional problem at home, and her navy did its best to keep Japan's enemies from aiding each other. The Sea Wolf's blockade of Taiwan was a notable success, even if the effort to maintain total coverage of Formosa's coast through the intelligence service and small-boat tactics proved expensive.

Japanese diplomats solved many of the food shortages by expanding trade with another distasteful military dictatorship: the Philippines. Japan offered military technical aid in exchange for rice shipments despite continuing concern the small nation might decide to side with Germany in the war. Conservative nationalists on the Home Islands were also pleased when embassy officials convinced the Philippine government to purchase many of the supplies for high prices from farmers on Davao, often called 'Little Japan'.

Additional good news came from Indochina. The collapse of the German pocket allowed Japan's northern army to relieve the large force of reserve troops holding Vientiane. The Japanese army pushed into Hanoi as the reserve troops spread along the long Indochinese front - and garrisoned Bangkok, which had been left temporarily vulnerable to a sneak attack from the sea.

The southern army pushed into Lumphat en route to Saigon, hoping to capture the airfield there and stop the murderous attacks by the German planes terrorizing Siamese and Japanese ground formations.

As the war started to go well on the ground, the mood in Tokyo became slightly less bleak. If domestic shortages could be relieved... If disorder and discontent on the Home Islands and in Japan's national provinces could be reversed... If the navy continued to maintain the shipping lanes at sea and shut down German transport efforts... then if all that happened Japan could sustain success on the ground against Germany, the AOG pawns, and Korea.



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One of those things one has to ignore when playing strategy games are the bits of realism its engine leaves out, sometimes for good reason. Sometimes these things are critical to history. For instance, using food as a weapon of war. Darkest Hour's WWI scenarios are particularly egregious here. How do the allies convince Germany to sign the armistice without food riots taking place in German cities? Nor are 'supplies' a representation of food. After all, while factories help process food, you can't just devote your whole country's industrial production to churning out bread in a pinch. The rebellion in Taiwan was convenient for me in this respect. In case you couldn't tell, I was under 500 supplies when Taiwan rebelled, and thus unable to immediately implement the blockade. Until I traded with La Plata for some supplies. And that's how I wound up actually mentioning food in an AAR.

Also, sorry about the many hard-to-read events. I wish I knew how to keep the screenshots full-sized (they appear that way in the post preview, but then the forum automatically shrinks them).

@Mobius
Yeah, I like the chaos . Certainly I'm feeling a bit of pressure, but with the Germans pushed back from Bangkok the ground is on its way to being cleaned up. From the beginning of the game the Japan has one unparalleled advantage: troop transports. Japan's transport capacity over the ocean simply can't be matched. Japan starts with twenty troop transports! And naval power is a TREMENDOUS force multiplier (see: British Empire). Given the right terrain, ten divisions can do the work of thirty. One of the reasons things are so fun right now is that I'm refusing to give ground on any front. (Except Taiwan, I suppose.) Being able to do that is a luxury, however.

Taking Bangkok could have put a lot more heat on my army. There's a surrender event that'll pop if the Germans take Bangkok that can cause some major problems. But even in the event of a full-on German annexation of Siam, they still can't deal with my troop transports. Sooner or later they'll leave either Hanoi, Haiphong, or Naoming lightly defended. A quick landing and a push with Japan's full force will take one of the bottleneck provinces: Hanoi or Haiphong. The AOG can put some major pressure there, but 10-15 divisions will hold it. Then even if the Germans push all the way to the Bhartiya border, they still have to face the full force of the Japanese army (minus divisions holding the bottleneck). If they pour in enough ground troops to match Japan's army (unlikely), they'll have to send so many supplies to the region that Japan can easy destroy Germany's convoy transport fleet once the player locates their resource depot - so Japan can starve them out. Since Germany never gives up Indochina and pulls back to fortress AOG, eventually you're always up against China + German leftovers. Which is not difficult.

There's really only one solution to the geographical trap as Germany: win major battles at sea. Japan's ability to take advantage of German vulnerabilities without ever risking ground division losses drops significantly as soon as her troop transport fleets can no longer operate with impunity. It does happen sometimes. I recall one particular game losing seven of ten full transports attempting to power through an amphibious assault on Singapore Germany sent a major fleet to contest. I covered the transport fleet with a very powerful battle fleet, but I still lost too many transports. Or as a human player liberate one of the Indochinese nations so that you have an independent supply base. Though that's a poor RP choice.

As far as Korea and the north, I'm sorry to say I've been relatively lucky as far as events go so far. The Koreans have two chances to find foreign aid. (An event chain controlled by Legation Cities. If you want to play as Korea - loading up as Legation in 1936 is a good way to go.) They can ask Germany, Russia, Australasia, or China for aid. These powers have varying chances of responding with "go away," "drop off leftover equipment," or "full support and aid." Unless Japan negotiates away Korea, two straight go away answers will prevent the rebellion from happening at all. "Drop off leftover equipment" gives the standard 6-ish division rebellion event I'm facing this game. "Full support and aid" roughly doubles the strength of the Korean rebellion. And individual aid events ala the civil wars can also swell the Korean ranks by some divisions if Japan doesn't blockade.

What's more, sometimes Korea will head a new alliance, bringing Taiwan under their umbrella if Japan doesn't act fast. That sets off another event chain where Transamur and Fengtien can choose to join a Korean-led anti-Japanese alliance. I'm not entirely sure why the Korea-Taiwan alliance didn't occur this game. It probably either requires the existence of the Fengtien Republic (annexed by the Qing this game) or the "full support and aid" flag for the Korean rebellion. It's exceedingly rare, but I've seen AI Japan defeated by the Korean alliance and forced to sue for peace at least once.

THAT would have been challenging - full war with Germany, Taiwan, AOG, and Korea (like this game), but subtract Siam either to a German capture of Bangkok or no alliance, double the strength of the Koreans, and add Fengtien and Transamur into the mix.

The Pacific Ocean is very, very big. As the Admiralty began to become comfortable with the ability of vessels to remain concealed in its vast waters, Japanese leadership turned more and more to trade from across the ocean as a critical iron supply situation developed. Japan needed steel, and the large iron mine in Anshan now fed the hungry Qing war industry instead of the foundries in Osaka and Yokohama. The Foreign Ministry, in co-operation with the country's leading industrialists, pressed hard with an ambitious program to expand trade to South America.

But what to trade? When producing at full capacity, Japan was no longer creating a surplus of coal. The energy supply problems weren't helped by the constant demands of Japan's ally in Vladivostok, either. Japan had a major surplus in rare earths thanks to the Burmese mines, but the world market was relatively flush with such material. What Japan had was technical expertise rivaling if not surpassing North America or Europe. And while the ambitious nations of South America had relatively prosperous economies, they still relied on outside help for modernization. Help Japan could provide. More and more engineers, architects, and macroeconomic theoreticians were hired by the foreign ministry, as Japan prepared to trade knowledge for cold hard iron.

The first offers were sent to the government of Peru, a natural choice given the prominent Japanese Peruvian community in Lima. While not overly large, the energetic immigrant community had quickly risen to the upper levels of Peruvian society. This connection provided Japan with local contacts and, more importantly, a ready-made source of interpreters fluent in Japanese and Spanish. Although many of the Japanese technicians working in Lima were shocked by the poor grammar and bad Japanese skills of some nisei.

Peru's leadership was unwilling to give up much of their already relatively small reserves of resources, but Japan pressed forward with the effort anyway, anxious to prove the viability of the new project to other Latin American nations. La Plata expanded its trade deals with Japan next, adding metals to its shipments of wheat and beef through the Straits of Magellan. The growing Japanese presence in South America was unfortunately limited by practicality to dictatorships and sham democracies. But in the grip of shortages at home, Japan cared little for the niceties of ideology.

When the German base at Male was taken and Japan's army removed the German threat to India from just off the coast back to German facilities in Djibouti, the Japanese high command decided to take the risky decision of transporting the last of Japan's offensive and reserve forces in the region back to Korea. Only four garrisons were left in the country to ensure political control: one division in each of the important cities of Delhi, Karachi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. The threat from the Bhartiya Commune was considered low as its centralized economy was benefiting from trading metal to Japan, the growing expectation of Japanese victory in Korea showed the Empire still had the ability to respond with force even where it stationed no large defensive armies, and the Commune had its own internal struggles to worry about.

The Commune had appointed an African radical by the name of Gandhi head of their Interior Ministry. Gandhi was in the process of eliminating the entrenched Indian caste system - a program creating significant internal political wrangling. The worried Bhartiya government had authorized the creation of a secret police program to spy on individuals opposed to Indian syndicalism, including those opposed to the end of the caste system. But Gandhiites opposed such repressive measures, further complicating the matter.

Bhartiyan priorities led to Japan being able transport significant numbers of reserve troops to Korea. Russian troops also proved invaluable both for supporting the Japanese reserves and directly participating in major offensives on the penninsula.

The good news in Korea was marred by losses to Japanese shipping to an unseen menace, probably a large submarine fleet from Germany or Canada. The merchant marine continued to suffer occasional losses in the rarely-patrolled seas around Okinawa. A greater concern was the destruction of a large supply convoy within sight of the coast of Korea. Even the short Nagasaki-Busan sea lane in Japan's home waters faced pressure.

But the embarrassing loss of those supply transports near Busan only reduced Japan's reserve of war materials in southern Korea. It couldn't stop Japanese tanks and cavalry from securing the south bank of the Yalu river and eliminating the Russian smuggling routes into the country. And Qing refusal to allow the Korea rebels safe haven in Manchuria led to mass surrenders of Korean partisans along the border.

A trickle of Korean rebels throwing down their weapons became a flood when Minister of Security Saito Takao paid a surprise visit to Pyongyang and announced over radio and loudspeakers the establishment of an amnesty for any rebel willing to surrender - excluding high-ranking officers and political leadership. Prime Minister Suzuki and several nationalist Japanese army commanders were apoplectic.

Suzuki privately threatened to declare the amnesty illegal and remove Saito from the cabinet, but Saito coolly declared the decision was within his legal powers as minister of justice: Korea was part of the national territory of the Japanese nation and not considered an overseas colony according to the constitution. As to removing Saito from the cabinet, Suzuki could do so if he wished. But members of the Diet were already organizing for the next election; choosing the party they would represent, deciding the issues on which to campaign, and Minister Saito correctly judged that Suzuki wouldn't dare to publicly cross him.

With northern Korea secure, the cavalry was sent south to recapture Seoul itself.

The exhausted infantry of the 'Korean Army' failed to take the hills south of Seoul and withdrew to focus their attention on containing the guerrillas attempting to disrupt the establishment of peace and normal commerce in Jeonnam province (Gwangju).

But the assault on Seoul, at first in difficulty due to the ability of that city's defenders to ignore their southern flank, was reinforced by no less than four Russian divisions. Including motorized infantry and armored brigades.

Against the Germans, the northern Japanese army supporting Siam poured out of Vientiane and captured the two critical bases held by the enemy in the region: the air base and port facilities near Hanoi. The offensive also cut supply lines from China.

This left the Germans and Chinese in southern Indochina dependent on supplies delivered by German convoys. Japan took immediate advantage of the vulnerability, gleefully attacking the now predictable convoy approaches to the naval base in southern Indochina.

The concentration of German and Chinese troops broke allied Siamese and Russian formations in the area, but the well-equipped Japanese army that took Singapore participated in numerous minor actions. Field Marshal Yuhi engaged the enemy at every favorable opportunity, attacking everywhere the Germans and Chinese hadn't constructed defensive positions. {I didn't want to split the army up, so I attacked nearby provinces until I forced a retreat, then canceled the advance into the province.}

Admiral Ozawa's transport fleet, in its capacity as a currently available naval force, increased the attacks on German shipping - and sank two rebel destroyers attempting to help their German allies.

Fanatics among the Korean nationalists, including several millenarian Christian groups, holed up in the mountains around Daejeon. But they couldn't withstand the advancing weight of the allied army sent against them.

Glory to the Empire, which will defend ALL its people! Korea is reclaimed and summer celebrations rejoice at the reclamation of Japan's lost provinces! The Russian soldiers on the peninsula are immediately asked to depart Japan's national territory, with the emperor's thanks.

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I refuse all expeditionary forces and don't take military control of my allies, by the way. That Russian support of my assault on Seoul and their general placement of troops in Korea was all the AI. Go Transamur!

P.S. Does anyone know Yuhi's story in our timeline? I promoted him up from the ranks due to his Logistics Wizard trait.

Ah, sadly the units in Korea aren't really suited for amphibious assaults. It just feels wrong to send cavalry in against a fortified beachhead. And I only have five or so infantry that are fairly low on organization in the south. I'd really like more numbers or better yet stiffer brigades. The remaining divisions in Korea are a few of Japan's ubiquitous reserve garrison divisions. So I will likely ship the cavalry and half the infantry to Indochina. The rest will stay in Korea in case of partisan insurrection.

After Korea & Taiwan both rebelled, and with me not always picking the best events re:dissent reduction (plus switching a few ministers around), I reached nearly 40% dissent. With my sliders heavily in favor of 'Open Society', I was actually pretty close to developing runaway revolt risk in my national provinces... I think most of Honshu got up to 2%. And with nearly full Open Society, once you get up to 4-5% it can rise dangerously fast.

Retaking Korea should end that problem in national provinces - but the way the events work Korea takes awhile to revert to national provinces status.

So sorry, no immediate assault on Taiwan. But as way of apology, here's an update!

Events in the Americas developed rapidly. As Japan celebrated its reclamation of Korea, Asa Randolph's active and continuing support of President Curtis' legitimate government started paying big dividends. Increasingly concerned about divisions at home, the CSA was forced to spend much of its strength keeping an iron grip on its own subjects. The militias failed to retake progressive St. Louis from Long's forces and travel between Detroit and Chicago became increasingly dangerous as federal troops cut syndicate-controlled roads. New foreign recruits expanded CSA influence along the Mexican border, however. The armies of the PSA, well aware of Mexico to the south, decided not to harass the Syncialists.

The firebrand Long continued to enjoy unexpected success. An offensive in Louisiana, supported by the rebellion of 'leading men' in New Orleans allowed True American Union forces to finally squash the embarrassment of federal control of the mouth of the Mississippi. And his forces continued their slow drive towards Washington D.C. from the west, away from federal naval supremacy. But President Curtis rallied the U.S. Army, which took heart from Curtis' presence in the capitol and the continuous occupation of the seat of American government by loyalist forces. They gave ground, but every trench taken by True American Union attacks cost the southerners uncounted dead - and the survivors merely gazed on another trench only a few dozen yards away.

The Justo junta in Argentina experienced a surge in popular support as the wily dictator happily supplied Japan AND Germany. The "winter boom" brought an unprecedented influx of capital and technical expertise, and Argentinian farms made plans to plant record acreage come springtime.

For Japan, the end of the rebellion in Korea and the capture of Hanoi (itself essentially a result of the valiant Siamese invasion of Vientiane early on in the war) led to a critical offensive in southern Indochina. Japan's navy had already sunk much of Germany's large-capacity transports in various naval actions during the war and her generals realized that a major defeat could be delivered to German-allied land forces in Indochina. Native syndicalist sentiment prevented the Chinese and German divisions fighting the Japanese and Siamese forces from peacefully purchasing supplies: the colonial powers reaped the bitter harvest of their oppression when they discovered their soldiers could only be fed through rice imported from the Pearl River Delta by sea. Or by raiding supposedly allied villages and stealing from the civilian population.

Food has always been a powerful weapon of war, and Japan ordered Field Marshal Yuhi to advance on Germany's only remaining naval base in Indochina. Yuhi conducted a slow but implacable campaign. A supporting general at Mangalore, he remembered well the difficulty the normally quick and lithe Japanese infantry faced when engaged against set defenses. Deploying Japan's few tanks and artillery brigades, he began an inexorable march on Saigon.

Believing the destruction of the German forces in Indochina critical to ensuring the war remained offensive rather than defensive in nature, Japan's admirals recalled virtually all of the Sea Wolf's submarines from Taiwan and set Admiral Sakonji to destroying German attempts to resupply their armies. Ozawa's transport fleet provided surface support. And even the bulwark of Yamamoto's Carrier Fleet was called north from Singapore to hunt down German convoys. The Siamese navy also joined the action, sending a few ships.

Well aware of the threat to their forces, Germany's generals struggled to respond. Constrained by the inability of Germany to translate her massive resources in Europe into a critical weight of forces in Asia, her generals knew the support of the AOG's conscripts was crucial to the contest on land. But with Japanese army regulars forifying the crossings over the Red River, particularly the Song Thai Binh and Song Van Uc branches, it became increasingly clear that reinforcement from China by land - or retreat into China - had become impossible.

The Germans tried to cover their supply routes from the air - but Japan's admirals had already moved Yamamoto into position. Japanese carrier fighters engaged German ground-based bombers. The Atago suffered major damage from German attacks, but the Germans failed to force Yamamoto to abandon the Indochinese coast. And Field Marshal Yuhi's army appeared unstoppable.

Although the damage to Japan's most famous warship was worrying, Germany soon had to withdraw its warplanes to prevent their destruction by Yuhi's advancing army. And the national wave of relief at the quick end to the Korean War was reinforced by the rapid resumption of normal life on the peninsula. Though it had to be said that the reason for the rebellion - insufficient vigilance or uncalled-for oppression - continued to be a contentious issue in Japanese politics.

In desperation the German forces tried to cause a panic in Bangkok - and a withdrawal of troops to the capital - by bombing Bangkok. The air raid, which came in from the sea, did in fact throw the city into chaos for a day. But Siamese generals were not so easily fooled. An increasingly desperate German command even attempted to send reinforcements by sea, or possibly to withdraw the German troops from Indochina and leave the Chinese conscripts to their fate. The Japanese admiralty didn't know, since the German troop transports were found attempting to quietly sneak into secluded coves at night and were immediately destroyed by the massive Japanese fleet.

The Germans were persistent. But without a major fleet engagement, the Japanese navy had no intention of allowing resupply. The persistence cost the Germans dearly, with more and more convoy transports recorded lost every day.

The Germans were not simply passively awaiting destruction. The German Navy was struggling to put together a credible fleet in southern China, in preparation for a major sea action to lift the blockade. But the long transit from Europe prevented German admirals from acting with alacrity. The imminent capture of Saigon finally forced the Germany's only significant fleet in Asia to fight. Her forces, led by the SMS Blumenthal, veteran of the Battle of Karimata, began to engage the combined forces of Yamamoto's Carrier Fleet and Ozawa's transport ships. After a German battleship took some significant hits, the German admiral began to steam away, unwilling to engage in direct battle but still hoping to tempt Yamamoto into a pursuit. The experienced Japanese commander refused to be drawn away.

Retreating through the Gulf of Tonkin, the German fleet next tried to lift the northern edge of Japan's blockade. Maintained by the Sea Wolf and a few Siamese surface vessels, it seemed an easy target for Germany's Pearl River Fleet. But the majority of Japan's ground-based aircraft sortied from the airbase at Hanoi. Only bad weather kept the bombers from inflicting major damage on the German warships. The same poor conditions saved the fleeing Siamese surface vessels.

Yamamoto, anxious at the reappearance of the German Navy, moved his Carrier Fleet north in an attempt to engage the German warships once Japanese ground troops secured Saigon. But the Germans retreated, taking refuge in the fortified harbor at the Pearl River Delta. Pursuit into waters covered by German airfields was perhaps reckless, but the unexpected maneuver allowed Yamamoto to sink two large German transports operating out of southern China, further restricting Germany's ability to project force.

The German fleet didn't mobilize in time. A resistant populace and the Japanese blockade finally took its toll on the already demoralized Chinese armies, who began surrendering en masse to anyone who would promise to feed them.

When the Germans stationed their fleet in Hong Kong's harbor, Admiral Yamamoto launched a strike from on the former Legation port with bombers taking off from the decks of the Atago and Akagi.

But the German fleet was in Guangzhou! The bombers, spending much of their time circling and looking for the missing fleet, only manged to damage a transport vessel.

Relations between the Phillipines and Germany continue to be cozy, though the dictatorship in Manila has yet to allow the German Navy access to its ports.

Naval skirmishes continue as Yamamoto's aggressively postured fleet intercepts Australasian transports on their way to southern China as Japan's carrier fleet moves to Hanoi to refuel.

At the same time the absence of any major Japanese fleet from Singapore is finally taken advantage of - several ships from Japan's merchant marine are lost in the straits on the way back to the Home Islands from Rangoon. And someone's irritating task force is still operating in Japan's home waters - ships continue to disappear between Korea and Kyushu.

For at least a few weeks, as Japanese forces secured the surrender of Chinese armies in Indochina, the major powers seemed content to take turns terrorizing the unarmed vessels of the enemy.

In contrast, the American Civil War saw a major change in the balance of power. The heat of summer and the shifting definitions of "loyalty," "betrayal," and "True American" saw a dramatic shift in power. Race riots in Detroit and Chicago crippled the syndicalists' ability to hold their fortified positions in those cities. And the federal army took full advantage, capturing both major Syndicalist strongholds, Detriot and Chicago. At the same time the True American Union movement threatened to cut the already tenuous CSA supply line to Mexico.

The syndicalists quickly expelled the federal forces from their strongholds, but it appeared their war effort was doomed to die a slow death with the disruption to those cities' industries and the successful True American Union wedge that cut the connection to Mexico.

In Asia the war remained quiet only on the ground. The Japanese air force, operating out of Hanoi, contested control of the skies and thus control of the sea with the Luftwaffe, operating out of airfields in Guangzhou and on Haikou.

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I actually get a chance to legitimately perform a carrier strike on a port (rather weak in Kaiserreich, in my opinion, especially this early with the lack of bonuses from doctrines), and I pick the wrong port. Argh....

Thank you, Nikolai.

Four major problems remained for Japanese war planners after the Japanese victories in Indochina. The German stronghold in China, German attacks on Japanese shipping, the rebels on Formosa, and the distant bulk of Australasia. A fifth could potentially present itself if the Germans landed in India. But with the destruction of so much of the enemy's transport potential and the German desire to maintain their once lucrative control over half of China, an invasion of India seemed unlikely.

Attacks on Japanese shipping would no doubt continue - the task of the navy was to ensure only occasional submarine attacks troubled the merchant marine. Japan's shipyards could absorb occasional losses, so long as major task forces didn't shut down an important sea lane. And, of course, the navy needed to accomplish this without halting critical transport and supply operations.

The Germans complicated this task by sending a small surface fleet to the seas around Sumatra. Consisting of just three inter-war cruisers and a small carrier, the task force proved to be a constant embarrassment to Admiral Yamamoto.

The German task force struck at shipping wherever it could, as Yamamoto's Carrier Fleet chased the Germans down. Yet every time the larger Japanese fleet began to engage the Germans would immediately withdraw from the vicinity. Little damage was done to the Germans, as their carrier, fielding only fighter planes, kept the Japanese attack waves at bay. Several engagements occurred: inconclusive engagements where Yamamoto's carriers failed to significantly damage the Germans. The engagements also delayed repairs to the Carrier Fleet in Singapore, repairs since the German naval bombings conducted during the assault on Saigon.

Only the intelligence services performed well, spies in Sumatra alerting Yamamoto to the position of the German fleet whenever they came within sight of the coast.

None of the war planners had developed a credible scheme for dealing with Australasia, but it was assumed that nation was saving her strength and allowing the advantageous terms of their German alliance to maintain her defense. Additionally the lack of quality ports outside of China hampered any Australasian incursions into Japanese territory. And the loss of at least three divisions to the Japanese army - possibly more at sea - limited the offensive potential of the Australasian army.

Eventually Japan would have to launch an attack on southern China. Much of the AOG's strength had been wasted on Indochina, but the task was still a daunting one. The AOG armies consisted of poorly-paid and poorly-trained conscripts with only the cheapest equipment. Yet that sounded like exactly the sort of army the Chinese could rapidly rebuild with their German factories and nearly infinite supply of manpower.

A few army generals advised an immediate attack on China, even as the final enemy divisions in Indochina - hoping beyond hope for an evacuation from Da Nang - were eliminated. They clashed with another army faction, backed by naval officers, calling for bringing an end to the rebellion on Formosa and the reclamation of all of Japan's home territories. Those arguing for an immediate attack on China wanted to engage the enemy before extensive fortifications could be dug and conscripts could be handed rifles. Those backing the assault on Taiwan insisted Japan's national territory could not be abandoned any longer.

Prime Minister Suzuki had to step in to decide the matter. Rebellion must be stamped out at any cost.

The blockade of Taiwan had become very light with the reassignment of the Sea Wolf to the coast of Indochina. But while Taiwan managed to put some ships at sea, the larger Asian war prevented her potential saviors from sending signficant aid. The Qing fought the Shangqing, the Germans and Australasians fought Japan, and Russia had no significant presence at sea.

The Taiwanese rebellion was not about to collapse from the lack of access to the sea - but neither were the rebel armies growing larger.

Both Japanese transport fleets sailed into the harbor facilities in northern Indochina and took on heavily armed Japanese assault troops - the same heavily armed infantry divisions that took Singapore and Saigon. They then left port under the protection of Japan's fighter planes and headed back out to sea, steaming for Formosa. From Japan came Koga's battleship fleet, once again in fighting shape after extensive repairs - particularly to the flagship, the IJN Tosa.

All three fleets took station along the coasts of Formosa. Three-fourths of the Japanese navy was involved in the operation, the (second) largest naval task force in the history of the world. Rome and Carthage both fielded more men at Cape Economus. Salamis, Yamen, Lepanto, even the Spanish Armada all saw more ships at sea. But with the sole exception of Jutland, never before had a navy put as much tonnage into a single operation. Jutland was inconclusive. The Japanese assault against the Taiwanese rebels needed to be decisive.

Shore bombardment and a landing began at Gaoxiong, as most of the rebels were fortifying Taipei. The landing was heavily contested by rebel forces, who had more numbers and better organization that Japan's generals thought the Taiwanese could muster..

In response to the invasion, the few remaining independence partisans in Korea tried to initiate a general uprising in Seoul. The Korean rebels, in solidarity with the Taiwanese, hoped to force the Japanese army attacking Formosa back to the Korean peninsula. Where the partisans would melt back into the Korean populace. But garrison forces in Seoul - along with the small Japanese army still stationed there - held.

In internal government discussions, Prime Minister Suzuki called for an immediate crackdown on all Koreans suspected of being involved - starting with those that surrendered in exchange for amnesty during large-scale combat on the peninsula. Minister of Justice Saito refused, declaring the Seoul uprising a police matter.

Prime Minister Hamaguchi's reformed constitution, only one year old, was put to the test when Suzuki quietly tasked an army general with rounding up suspected dissidents in Korea. But Saito discovered Suzuki's scheme when the officer in charge of the coastal defense division in Seoul - theoretically in command of the defense of the city - informed Saito of the orders being prepared by one of the regular army generals.

The new constitution gave command of defensive garrisons on Japanese home territory to the Interior Ministry, NOT the War Ministry. Minister Saito wrote the commanders of the three regular army divisions in Korea, reminding them of that fact - and the general of the garrison division's theoretical command of operations against the uprising in Seoul.

The crisis could have gone either way - but the regular army commanders decided not to begin a general harassment of anyone that seemed to be "too Korean". Whether the army commanders made their decision out of respect for constitutional concerns, a desire to avoid engaging army troops in police actions, or a distaste for attacking civilians was unknown.

But the aftermath of the Seoul uprising proceeded according to Minister Saito's orders, not Prime Minister Suzuki's. Captured partisans were tried and executed. But Korean-language newspaper offices were not raided, Korean-language schools weren't shut down, and curfews were only issued for the safety of the populace when combat occurred.

The invasion of Taiwan and the disturbances in Seoul buried the news from India, which might otherwise have made the headlines of Japanese newspapers: the Princely Federation held a Grand Durbar to decide the new structure of the government - both to ensure it was composed of princes in favor of fealty to the Japanese allaince and to designate the princes who would rule the new territories of Delhi, nearly all of which was now under Indian jurisdiction (Japan opted for direct military rule of the excellent naval base at Karachi). In a surprise move, long-time Federation stalwart Savarkar was dismissed from office.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Prime Minister of the Federation before and after the war with Japan, was ousted when confidants revealed he had made anti-Japanese statements in private. As a result, the conservative Indian princes - most of whom were happy to continue ruling India in exchange for a subordinate position vis-a-vis Japan - discredited Savarkar at the Grand Durbar and removed him from power. The whole drama occurred behind the scenes, and the reasoning behind the ouster was not made known to the general public.

Savarkar 'retired' to Karachi, where he began the "Free India Movement," whose primary goal was to reunite the city with the rest of the Federation. But the majority Muslim population of Karachi didn't find the Hindu's message compelling.

The Taiwanese shifted men south to deal with the Japanese tanks and infantry attempting to storm Gaoxiong. This prompted the Japanese fleet to begin the second stage of the invasion plan, a landing in Taipei triggered when loyalists reported rebel forces transiting through Taizhong.

The shifted forces contained the Japanese forces attempting to establish a beachhead in the south.

But the rebels only left a single division in Taipei.

There was also some minor news the Foreign Ministry took note of later.

Too late, the Germans made an effort to contest the landings... but a small effort from distant airfields couldn't stop the majority of the major ships in the Japanese navy from conducting operations.

Although the Japanese flagship suffered a number of direct hits. It would later detach from the fleet and return to the Home Islands to repair.

Minister of Justice Saito Takao took a personal interest in the re-occupation efforts. State propaganda flooded the radio and posters went up all over Taipei even as Japanese troops established control of the city. The city was 'liberated,' Japanese citizens (including Formosa natives) should look forward to upcoming elections, and the day was one to be celebrated. The overwhelming propaganda effort made it clear that the invasion was to be considered a liberation in public conversation, whatever residents of the island thought privately.

Saito Takao didn't inform the rest of the government about the content of the propaganda prepared by his ministry. The heavy reliance on promising participation in elections in Japan's propaganda finally caused an open and public split between Minister Saito and Prime Minister Suzuki.

Suzuki told reporters from Home Islands newspapers that former rebels would be allowed to vote in Diet elections only "when the Empire and the emperors are dead and their ashes ride the waves." He accused Saito of attempting to game the electoral system in favor of his Justice and Law party and of being anti-democratic and anti-Japanese.

Saito went to opposition newspapers to respond, loudly declaring his support for Japan's electoral system and making several comments alluding to Suzuki's own relatively anti-democratic history. "The failed terrorist wants to fail in Formosa again," said Saito, implying Suzuki's heavy-handed policies would eventually lead to a second rebellion.

Saito went on to make a radio address to the Home Islands audience, describing in extensive detail the trial system - and executions - that awaited Taiwanese rebels. He also insisted no amnesty and no quarter would be given, unlike Korea. The move was an obvious political response to the anti-Japanese accusations of Suzuki, and angered the generals on the ground on Formosa: rebel forces began fighting to the death.

But the political maneuver worked, and Suzuki's anti-Japanese charges didn't stick. The Prime Minister remained silent as Suzuki remained in the press, describing the promised 'elections'. He created a new distinction between "residents of the Japanese Empire" and "citizens of the Japanese Empire". On Formosa, any resident would be allowed to vote in local elections or elections at the prefecture level. But Formosa-wide elections or elections for Diet representatives would be limtied to citizens. All Japanese born in the Home Islands were understood to be citizens.

But for decades the Japanese Empire's public pronouncements had long contained a strain of propaganda declaring all Formosans and Koreans Japanese - which many inhabitants of Formosa now claimed should apply to their citizenship status. This was obviously untenable for Saito given Tokyo politics. So he created a new regulation for the island - any Formosan "resident" who wanted to become a "citizen" had to appear before a voter registration official and take a literacy test: a test given in the Japanese language.

The public fight created a new two-tier system in Formosa, separating those who could speak and read Japanese and those who could not. But it also allowed all Formosans to participate in local elections and gave them rights to free commerce in Japanese national territory, rights to a jury trial, and the right to an Imperial passport if they wished to travel abroad. Though the compromise also guaranteed continued heavy fighting over the whole of Formosa and trials of rebel officials who had formed the government of Taiwan.

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I was a little gamey when it came to Taiwan, I admit it. When the event popped about the Taiwanese Cultural Association protesting before the emperor, I send my submarine fleet to the island right away. If you don't blockade the coast (event), Taiwan usually gets considerable aid from hostile powers (events allowed without the blockade) - aid that makes a naval assault with mere infantry nearly impossible. In fact, without an immediate blockade, it usually takes the third naval invasion doctrine (5 unit max size) and ten divisions (AT LEAST half of which have to be marines) to crack the island. It doesn't help you can't take any of the smaller ports with airborne assaults - Shanghai and Okinawa are too far away for paratroopers.

And honestly, Japan not being able to force a landing somewhere on Formosa seems a little odd - so I let myself be gamey. Seven to eight divisions is a bit much for a rag-tag rebel army, anyway. Five is enough.

The independence of the Republic of Hawaii was never recognized by the Japanese government, because the white planter elite that decared independence at the beginning of the Second American Civil War reinstated the old pre-annexation constitution. A constitution that strictly limited suffrage to major property owners. Hawaii could hardly be called a republic when only a few thousand people could vote. The move angered native Hawaiians. Long denied statehood due to its mixed population, tensions rose in Hawaii as this further insult angered a new generation of Hawaiian nationalists. The large Japanese, Filipino, and Chinese populations stayed neutral. While the government wanted to restrict the vote to plantation owners, the nationalists wanted to restrict the vote to ethnic Hawaiians. All sides were roundly condemned in the various Japanese newspapers - although the issue never made the front page.

The question of American democracy did make the front page; twice in one week in late October. Asa Randolph's defection was a bleeding wound the CSA couldn't staunch. His declaration that the federal system represented the best hope for freedom and equality carried tremendous weight. Even Randolph's enemies admitted he was a man of principle, resolute in obtaining his aims. Some few members of the CSA's militia began to question the righteousness of their cause. The majority that did not still saw dissension and divisions on the streets of the CSA's cities - and felt the reduction in output from the CSA's factions as disputes between the various unions of "this type of American" and "that type of American" came out into the open.

The enemies of the American syndicalists took full advantage of their weakness. True American Union forces raced north through the western plains, gobbling up large swathes of territory. Meanwhile the federal army established control over the Ohio country. By mid-September federal control of Detroit was undisputed and Chicago was surrounded, besieged, and observers expected the CSA capital would surrender once the winter cold hit - if the federals didn't storm the city first.

It appeared the federal forces gained the largest advantage from the fall of the Combined Syndicates of America. And encouraging news came from the soft middle of the True American Union's defenses. Tennessee, virtually undefended, put up little resistance to a loyalist incursion. But for good reason. Huey Long continued to insist his commanders pour men into breaking trench after trench in the east, slowly whittling away at the defenses ringing the American capital.

{Yes, I'm catching up the American Civil War to the beginning of the Japanese landing at Taipei. There wasn't a second partisan revolt in Seoul.}

And as tensions rose in South America between La Plata and the South American syndicalist axis, the European syndicalists decided to ensure Brazil had an advantage to offset La Plata's profitable trade with Germany and Japan. An industrial aid program began, one designed to make Brazil as strong as her southern neighbor.

On October 15, 1937, the President of the United States, Charles Curtis, addressed the nation. His description of the strength of the American character, the generous nature of her people, and the justice inherent in her institutions gave pause to every patriot in all of the four Americas. And many people in Hawaii or territory occupied by Canada and Mexico as well. As Curtis went on to tell stories of his youth and how he learned what it meant to be American - only the good side, of course - his voice audibly cracked over the radio. But the president continued nonetheless, his emotion laying heavily on his words, audible to every American.

It was a shining moment of American pride and democracy. It is said that Jack Reed and the CSA leadership put into motion their plans to flee the country the minute Curtis finished. That Long cried out for the future of his movement after hearing the speech, California began negotiations to rejoin the Union, and Mexico secretly began to plan for the surrender of its territorial gains.

It is said those things happened. And it is true that even in Japan, newspapers carried a translation of Curtis' speech, complete with complementary statements from leading government ministers like Saito and Suzuki about the proud history of the American experiment in democracy. But it is also said True American Union commanders, fanatical Long loyalists, enforced a radio blackout over their entire eastern campaign. Myths are still told of mounted southern aristocrats riding through the True American Union camps, seeking out the sound of Curtis's patriotic voice, and stamping out any radio they found with their horses' hooves.

Whatever the truth of these myths, despite the heart-wrenching speech by Curtis, the True American Union's eastern army made a final, near-suicidal push forward to the U.S. capital. And finally, after months of effort, they breached the defenses of Washington D.C. and took the city.

They didn't topple the Washington monument. Or loot the Capital Mall, or bayonet babies, or do any of the horrible things everyone expects an occupying army to do. But there was an explosion. According to a few eyewitnesses who made statements to the major newspapers, the White House exploded as True American Union troops first entered Washington's city streets. Their statements made it sound as if the White House itself was the source of the explosion. And certainly the smoking crater left where there was once the center of American government seemed larger, more final, than the result of some errant artillery shell or a bomb dropped from a plane.

And for two days all of America's attention was on the True American Union occupation of the city, the continued fighting by determined loyalist forces in Washington's northern suburbs, and the tragic loss of one of the great symbols of America.

No one stopped to think President Curtis might have actually been IN the White House during the battle. Certainly the President had moved the nation in his recent speech. Yet the common man had been taught to think of Curtis as a morally strict but gentle man - not a warrior. Not someone made of that sterner stuff; not someone who would stay in his city - America's city - willing to be the last man defending it.

Yet after two days, Curtis gave no radio address, gave no statement to the newspapers. Said nothing about the righteousness of the federal cause. Even when loyalist soldiers retook the District of Columbia.

When federal soldiers retook the city and fell exhausted, decimated by days of constant fighting without any possibility of sleep, officers quietly began questioning their men about what they'd seen. Journalists promised hidden rations of salt pork to anyone willing to talk confidently, and the country began to realize Curtis was dead. He had been in the White House. And if he planned to evacuate the city because of the True American Union assault, he never got the chance.

President Curtis was dead. So where was Vice President Frank Knox? A junior newspaperman in New York City managed to take a picture of Knox climbing into a car with mirrored windows, escorted by a small squad of soldiers. Yet Knox seemed almost to be hiding himself, trying stay hidden from the view of anyone on the street. A day later, rumors started by a mess sergeant said he took a meal in the middle of the night at an army base in Baltimore.

Finally the Vice President appeared before a hasty press conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. "I chose to address you today in the capital of this great state," Knox said. And the reporters ignored how an address to the nation from somewhere not far away: Independence Hall, Philadelphia, would have been much more appropriate.

What the few low-level Harrisburg journalists the army rounded up on short notice couldn't ignore was Vice President Knox' unhealthy pallor. He looked thin, exceptionally pale, and his skin was paper dry. Dark bags under Knox' eyes betrayed a lack of sleep. And Knox issued his statement with a decided lack of energy, enthusiasm, or really anything but a low, dull monotone.

"I am not a military man. I am incapable of fulfilling the demanding duties of commander-in-chief in a time of war. Therefore I will not commit the treasonous act of leading our great nation to defeat. Our great nation needs a man with the strength to unify her. She needs a military man. She needs General MacArthur." Knox' voice never wavered. Nor did it gain its strength. The dull monotone held true through the speech.

"I shall answer your questions in writing." And Knox disappeared, flanked by his escort of soldiers.

Thus the United States' democracy ended in ignominy only a few days after hope for its preservation had finally seemed justified.

The United States government conducted an inquiry into the White House explosion, of course. It was officially ruled a stray artillery shell that scored a lucky direct hit. A shell fired by True American Union forces. Perhaps even on purpose by a mentally-deranged man whose true loyalty stood with the defunct Confederacy of the first Civil War.

There could be no doubt as to the cause of the explosion, insisted government investigators. And military police were instructed to watch for anyone spreading rumors of federal soldiers secretly preparing a powder magazine in the basement of the White House the night before the True American Union attack.

Japan suspended diplomatic relations with the United States a week after General MacArthur was officially installed as "Commander-in-Chief". Knox insisted he remained the "Vice President" but said little else when the Japanese ambassador to the United States demanded an audience with him. It seemed MacArthur didn't want to suddenly assume the title "President," but wouldn't allow anyone else to claim the title.

The suspension of diplomatic relations mattered little, of course. Canada's closure of the Panama Canal elminated the possibility of any meaningful trade relations between the United States and Japan. Japan made the decision largely on the basis of domestic politics. Seiyukai leadership believed it would reflect well on them in the next elections if they appeared to be zealous democrats.

Men from territory formerly under the control of the Combined Syndicates of America had been volunteering for federal service in large numbers in the last weeks of President Curtis. This flood turned into a trickle and then disappeared when MacArthur referred to trade unionists in general as "unamerican reds." Not long after that provocative statement, General MacArthur repealed the defense industry concessions Curtis had promised to Asa Randolph. He cited "military necessity in wartime" as the reason for the changes. And certainly there seemed to be less tension in federalist factories.

Randolph didn't respond. Rumor had it that he had gone into hiding in case MacArthur's MPs were searching for him. Japan proclaimed Randolph a "first-rate anti-colonialist" and a "lover of freedom" and publically offered him sanctuary. Though again the statement was for the domestic press; few people in America heard of the offer and nothing came of it.

The new "Commander-in-Chief's" negotiations with Pacific States' emissaries, presumably the same as those rumored to have been negotiating with President Curtis, fell apart when MacArthur demanded the Pacific States' immediate reintegration into the Union and the appointment of military governors who would "guide war production policies". The PSA, still officially a collection of democratically elected state governments, balked at the notion.

Back in Asia, Japan's famously dedicated infantry conducted a night crossing of the Red River, completely surprising the German army in Haiphong, which had been staring at prepared defensive positions around Hanoi for weeks. A thousand picked volunteers swam across the wide river to open the attack, carrying grenades water-proofed with a wax coating. They crossed behind prepared enemy positions in time to surprise the German defenders when they noticed the second wave crossing in barges secretly prepared under camouflage at night. The Germans should have seen the attack coming, but their complacent officers assumed Japan wouldn't launch an attack into German-held China until after completing the conquest of Formosa. More fool them.

With the rise of General MacArthur, Japan lifted its previous restriction of military aid to syndicalist nations. Specifically Mexico. Mexico continued to be Japan's most important trading partner, willing to ship large quantities of those materials Japan needed most, oil and iron, for the labor of technicians, engineers, and small amounts of Japan's scarce gold reserves.

In contrast to the daring operations in Haiphong, Field Marshal Yuhi's heavily armed infantry advanced slowly across Formosa, taking its time to ensure no rebel squads snuck through Japanese lines to cause trouble after the set-piece fighting. He trapped the rebel army at the military base in Gaoxiong and began an inexorable, if costly, assault. The rebels, facing execution for treason, bravely fought to the last man.

Frequent air battles continued to take place over Hainan, Haiphong, and the Gulf of Tonkin - battles Japan's fighters generally got the best of. Though Air General Yamashita cautioned that this success had much to do with problems co-ordinating operations between Germany and its allies. In America, Commander-in-Chief MacArthur began a major offensive in Tennessee and Kentucky, hoping to exploit the American Union State's weakness in their center.

Divisions made available by the annexation of Korea and what appeared to be the end of problems there allowed new offensives to begin. Taniguchi's transport fleet, anchored by a few small and old carriers, risked aerial bombardment to land troops behind German lines at Naoming. Koga's battleships were also temporarily tasked to Singapore, and displayed immediate success shutting down German activity in the critical nearby straits.

Ozawa's transport fleet brought more men down from Korea to attempt a landing at Fuzhou, a former Legation city, but stiff Chinese resistance shut down several different attempts to establish a beachhead.

Around Formosa the Japan lifted her blockade of her own territory with great fanfare, taking pains to send 'care packages' of luxuries shipped in from Mexico and Rangoon, such as bags of oranges, small bars of chocolate, and some sort of strange cactus liquor. The luxury goods served as an apology to the 'loyal' citizens of Formosa for the hardships of embargo during the rebellion. Meanwhile, Japanese planes maintained the navy's ability to operate in the Gulf of Tonkin/Pearl River Delta area.

General MacArthur's offensive into the center of True American Union-held territory ended in disaster, though federal troops easily held a counter-attack against Chicago and Wisconsin due to the onset of winter. The effort was nevertheless an embarrassment for the new Commander-in-Chief, as was continued heavy fighting in northern Virginia. And the True American Union's eastern army had yet to concede the District of Columbia.

Army officers formerly posted as military attaches with the foreign office claimed this failure was unsurprising. They said that MacArthur was at heart a politician, and the failed offensive was the result of having to take a more direct hand. MacArthur's direct involvement in command was a necessity arising from the questionable loyalty of several high-ranking federalist officers who believed more in the U.S. constitution than their "Commander-in-Chief". The Japanese attaches' summary of MacArthur was downright scornful. "A propagandist in World War I. Picked up some easy medals due to his European connections during the war. Parleyed that into a choice posting at a political general's gold mine, the United States' military academy, and a brief stint 'advising' America's colony in the Philippines. Which also suffered a recent coup." They concluded MacArthur's only real fighting experience was in trench warfare, unsuited to the highly political and mobile war now occurring in the vast space of America.

Only time would tell if they were right.

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I didn't get a screenshot of "The President's Speech," an event that occasionally pops for a democratic USA during the civil war. But it triggered shortly before Curtis' death. I don't know if that timing is written into the event chain or not.

Also, the surprise attack across the Red River wasn't just flowery prose: I actually got the surprise bonus in-game (you can see that in the screenshot). That particular combat bonus is exceedingly rare. Even more so against a technologically advanced enemy like Germany. Nice.

Less nice was the continuing resource problems. In the screenshot of the final assault on Gaoxiong & the air victories over Mitteleuropa, you can see my metal stockpiles down to 45 - and my under-performing industry (79/92). The trade with Mexico brought by industry back up to par, but the shortages were irritating.

@Teivel
Dissent is actually better than its been for awhile. There's no doubt that's been holding me back. As for my economy, I 'm doing ok as far as industrial capacity. I'm having more resource problems than I'm used to, however. In other Japan games I've imported large quantities of metal from Sweden relatively cheaply, but that's impossible this game due to the war with Germany. Though to be honest, having resource problems is kind of a refreshing change of pace in Kaiserreich.

As for Germany, they only have roughly double my IC. And they have Europe to worry about, while I do not. So for the moment I don't see any major problems there, even if they were human controlled.

@Germanypeon
Thank you.
I'm actually a little more concerned with taking German air bases along the China coast than the naval bases, though they're generally in the same provinces. I only really fear a naval engagement without air support - or something bizarre happening and Germany actually backing one of their fleets up with ground-based aircraft. The shipping losses are a slow wound that just costs me a little IC here and there. I currently have about 20 IC dedicated to convoy production (four series convoy transports, one series convoy escorts), and that seems to be covering replacements and increased demand.

As for naval activity, convoy raiding has been roughly constant. The Germans haven't decided to commit to a major fleet engagement since Karimata, however. Frankly, I don't know if that's because they don't have a credible fleet in the area or I haven't given them a compelling reason to fight.

@Kaiser_Mobius
Thanks for the compliment.
Personally I don't like the way capturing resource stockpiles works. When taking a capital it's just too advantageous to the attacking player. It works well for blockading & then occupying colonies though, so I guess I shouldn't complain. I was also disappointed when Curtis died and MacArthur took over. An American democracy that survives the civil war intact is a rare treat.

The Japanese Army began a major winter offensive in December. With both Japanese reserve forces and allied armies trailing, the fast-marching Japanese infantry advanced out of Indochina and into China proper at a rapid pace. Japanese commanders moved relentlessly towards two objectives: securing the Gulf oF Tonkin by capturing Chinese airfields within easy range of the seas and attempting to trap enemy forces in Pingxiang.

The already thinly stretched German divisions took care to avoid any more large-scale losses of manpower, however. They pulled their forces out of Hainan before the naval landing at Naoming could trap them on the island. And they began to move out of Pingxiang even as Japanese units began to arrange a pocket to put them in.

Air battles also continued, and Koga's battleships sunk a troop transport convoy from the United Baltic Duchy attempting to sneak past Singapore. Another success for the large guns of the navy! Though it seemed some transports might be making it through undetected - there remained considerable Germans in China despite the number of Germans killed or captured in Indochina.

In America reports came of mass graves and summary executions, this time by Pacific States army units. The nominally democratic Pacific States government seemed unable to control its army. Despite President Merriam's insistent statements that the Pacific States viewed all the other American states as their friends and brothers, the Pacific States military treated everything east of Idaho and Nevada as occupied territory. This proved quite lucrative for a number of PSA generals, who occupied "strategic" industries in captured territory and operated them for personal profit.

In just one example, Brigadier General James Doolittle took an interest in Utah industry after taking command of Wendover Air Force Base, now used exclusively by Pacific States forces. Doolittle "commandeered for military use" the massive Bingham Canyon copper mine. There were even rumors that when the miners, many of whom were European immigrants classified as 'potential subversives,' went on strike over massive cuts to their pay, Doolittle threatened Mormon Prophet Heber J. Grant with the destruction of the Mormons' Salt Lake temple unless sufficient 'volunteers' were found to work the mine. And many of the previous laborers, particularly their leaders, disappeared altogether. The suddenly very wealthy Doolittle could soon be seen making appearances at the informal headquarters of the Pacific States' elite: Hearst Castle.

The Pacific States were merely another rogue state willing to slaughter anyone in occupied territory who spoke ill of them, in the name of "military necessity" and "freedom".

Within the political circles of the Japanese military, the obvious need to lay down hulls for new ships led to a major increase in tension between battleship proponents and carrier proponents. The carrier faction weilded their great weapon, the Battle of Karimata, gaining a significant advantage. Over and over admirals told the story of the Atago seemingly single-handedly rescuing Koga's battleships.

But the battleship proponents insisted on a fleet review and put forth the idea that other than Karimata, the battleship had proved superior to the carrier. First by sinking more German shipping off the coast of Indochina. They also referenced the more recent ability of Koga's battleships to crush attempts by Germany and her allies to operate around Sumatra and the straits near Singapore. The battleship proponents admitted carriers' ability to take a seemingly endless toll on enemy forces when engaged in a prolonged defensive battle, but they insisted that only battleships could rapidly destroy tonnage in a major offensive engagement. And they suggested faster, more modern battleships would be the key to Japan's navy. Defensively, land-based air power could ensure dominance near Japanese bases. Offensively the carrier would fail to destroy any fleet that chose not to participate in a prolonged engagement.

The bureaucrats in Tokyo finally compiled the fleet review, and the admirals began waving papers from the review around.

The carrier proponents again pointed to the results of the Battle of Karimata. And the kill lists of the Akagi and Atago.

{Plus one more transport.}

{Plus one more 1918 battlecruiser.}

The battlecruiser proponents didn't mention Koga's flagship, the Tosa, terribly often.

But they made a big deal of the Mutsu.

{Plus two more transports.}

Carriers require the constant replenishment of their air groups, pointed out the battleship generals, ensuring they flew the latest planes. Put those planes on land-based airstrips. The Mutsu, completed in 1921, was the first Japanese battleship wholly designed by native engineers. Paid for by subscriptions sent in by school children, she retained significant sentimental value to the Japanese navy. Look at the Mutsu, cried the battleship proponents. Sixteen years later she's still one of Japan's most valuable ships at sea.

The carrier faction looked to be winning. But new hulls hadn't been laid down yet.

Japan's naval intelligence officers also compiled a list of ships lost by various combatants - in battle or because of scuttling or defection, as happened on some contested ships in America's Civil War.

What stood out most was Japan's steady destruction of German shipping. Although her own convoy losses and both Germany and Japan's heavy battleship and battlecruiser losses caused considerable comment. Only one carrier each had been destroyed by the two major naval powers.

In fact if Germany were the only problem, Japan would rapidly be gaining the advantage in convoy capacity. But the Australasians were taking a steady if relatively small toll on Japanese shipping in support of the Germans.

The numbers seemed more ominous when accompanied by a note at the foot of the report: every forty convoy transports requires roughly eighty thousand man-hours to produce. Roughly the same amount of effort needed to produce a light carrier. One hundred and twenty convoy transports cost Japan's industry as much as a modern battleship.

Asia was not the only region seeing combat. The federalist navy in America had lost two destroyers and sunk a number of rebel naval vessels.

Japan's naval planners now had to make hard decisions about where to allocate freighters available for convoy duty. Japan's various armies and her navy remained well supplied, but a fair amount of coal and rare earths began to pile up at Rangoon, Karachi, and other Japanese ports. Japan simply didn't have the ships to maintain an effective distribution of non-critical resources. And despite shipments of iron from the Bhartiya Commune and South America, the metal stockpiles of Japan's industries were again critically low. Without more iron, production might have to be halted on new ships being laid down for Japan's merchant marine.

While Saito Takao argued for lifting the censorship of the press imposed by Prime Minister Suzuki and expanding his 'sunlight' policy of openness in government, Seiyukai leadership ignored the Minster of Justice's proposals. Instead, all spare government manpower would be directed to look for ways to increase the production of war material - and maintain the industrialization program first begun under Inukai's administration.

The same small German task force that gave Yamamoto's carrier fleet fits as it operated with seeming impunity around Sumatra was spotted near the Dutch base at Palembang in early December. Taking full advantage of the rare intelligence coup, Koga's battleships scrambled to catch the German fleet. The battleships crossed paths with the enemy as they rounded Bangka island. The thunder of four-tenners, the 410mm guns of the Mutsu, rolled over the waves. An early volley caught the German light carrier SMS Rhein portside.

{The Rhein crumpled so fast it had been obliterated by the time I took this screenshot.}

The Germans had no chance against Japan's main battle line, and the entire task force was sunk. A blow to the German's efforts to harass Japanese shipping entering the Indian Ocean, yes. But more significantly, a major propaganda coup for the battleship faction in Tokyo. The battleship Mutsu claimed credit for landing no less than three fatal hits, its guns destroying three of the German ships almost without assistance. Three ships from the same battle group that escaped contact with Yamamoto's carriers on multiple occasions.

Success continued on the ground as well. In China, Japanese and Siamese forces eliminated the three Chinese divisions that refused to abandon Pingxiang. The surrender of the first two divisions exposed one element of the Chinese view of the war: the soldiers of two Chinese conscript divisions happily surrendered to Japanese forces, preferring being trapped in Pingxiang to falling back to Yulin with German forces and continuing the fight under foreign commanders. The other Chinese division, recruited from the province, defended their homes with valor, resisting almost to the last man. Japanese commanders were impressed by the courage and bravery of these Chinese, fighting with much greater dedication and morale than Japanese commanders at the time assumed the enemy was capable of.

Politically, the Yunnan clique took advantage of the weakness of the AOG administration in the face of the Japanese offensive, sending raiding parties across the border. In India, the aristocrats there decided not to alter policy. Already they had their hands full maintaining control of the country and ensuring there was no outbreak of anti-Japanese sentiment. Japan happily noted the obedient policies of her client state.

Not long after the fleet review, Japanese planners decided to dispatch the main transport fleet under Ozawa with part of the army that re-established control over Formosa. Ozawa rapidly facilitated the establishment of Japanese control over the Marinaras island chain, including the German base on Pagan and the former American base on Guam. No significant land forces were destroyed, and Japanese leaders also decided not to strand a large force on the islands. The whole campaign might have been unnoticed, but the massed Australasian fleet made an appearance, engaging Ozawa as he undertook an assignment to continue the base-control campaign on Truk.

Ozawa's fleet confirmed the presence of four battleships and at least as many battlecruisers in the Australasian fleet. His own force consided of armored cruisers, transports, and escort ships.

The careful Ozawa commanded Japan's primary transport fleet for a reason, however. A loose battle formation and advance planning allowed Ozawa to scatter his ships northward and evade the Australasians before regrouping. The Australasian fleet sank only two cruisers. But new orders came in for Ozawa to retreat to Formosa. The presence of the Australasian fleet forced the Japanese naval leadership to abandon the effort to extend Japan's control over the various naval bases scattered throughout the small islands of the Pacific. Instead plans began to be laid for a second attempt at taking Fuzhou with an amphibious assault.

Across the seas, the Qing emperor reacted angrily to a modernization initiative.

And who held the initiative in the eastern half of America became even less certain than in previous months. The stubborn True American Union army in the east managed to capture the District of Columbia again. Curiously, Commander-in-Chief MacArthur re-established his headquarters in vulnerable Denver. The move seemed inexplicable as federalist holdings in the west seemed to be melting away to attacks by Long's forces along the Mississippi river (Long's commanders wanted to establish a defense of AUS high plains country using the natural barrier of the Mississippi), and opportunistic occupations by Pacific States forces.

Aside from the very notable exception of the True American drive to take the capital, federalist forces held most of the northeast. And the federalist fleet allowed lightly-armed forces to take much of the southeast as well, circumventing the drive on Washington through the use of naval transports. Long lost his capital in Atlanta, though AUS forces held Long's home state of Louisiana.

Reports streamed in from America's southeast about the mass execution of anyone involved in the True American movement or who described how MacArthur and Knox circumvented the U.S. Constitution. Japanese officials continued to criticize MacArthur and the Pacific States heavily, repeatedly describing them in interviews and friendly newspaper pieces as an example of what was so horribly wrong with anti-democratic, authoritarian governments. Japanese officials and diplomats suddenly began parroting America's claim to be the light of democracy from ten years ago, all as a ploy to make the current American administrations look bad.

In response the PSA broke off diplomatic relations with Japan and began compiling a database of all Americans with Japanese ancestry. The PSA stripped Japanese Americans of their American citizenship, declaring that American and Pacific law forbade awarding citizenship to anyone of Japanese descent, notwithstanding the fourteenth amendment. The notorious Earl Warren put forth a legal paper that stated that those of Japanese descent remained at all times loyal to Emperor Hirohito, therefore could not be considered subject to the jurisdiction of the United States since they were subject to Hirohito, and therefore Japanese Americans born on American soil were not citizens under the text of the U.S. Constitution. A constitution the Pacific States still claimed to revere.

Japan declared a formal trade embargo on the Pacific States of America, not that it had any real world effect.

Hostility to the PSA led Japan to openly help Mexico increase its fighter and anti-air capability, hoping to give the Mexicans a chance to counter Pacific air power in the event of a war between the two states. Grateful, Mexico maintained the sizable shipments of oil that Japan's navy relied so heavily on.

Part of that oil filled the tanks of the IJN Soryu, finally complete and ready for service. The new ship added a third large flight deck to Yamamoto's Carrier Fleet and represented the carrier faction's best chance to silence the battleship proponents once and for all.

The Admiralty ordered Yamamoto to Singapore to plug the straits while Koga's battleships bombarded Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Japan's cavalry had nearly captured the last of Germany's airfields on the Chinese coast.

Not long after Yamamoto sailed, disturbing reports began to filter in from Europe. German naval moorings were suspiciously empty. It appeared the Kaiser had sent a significant portion of his High Seas Fleet to Asia. Every vessel not considered vital to defend Germany from the Union of Britain intended to undertake a final effort to relieve Germany's beleaguered colony in China.

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Well, I'm glad I put Ozawa in command of my biggest transport fleet! I sometimes think Blockade Runner is an even more useful trait for naval commanders than Superior Tactician.

Also, the way defections work inflates the "losses taken" statistics for the United States. The lost convoy transports and escorts are listed correctly, and the federalists did lose two destroyers to the AUS. All the other "losses taken" for the United States are the result of the Civil War defections.