Update (July 1st 1944)
0000 July 1st 1944.
Imperial Palace. Tokyo, Japan.
"Your Majesty, Gentlemen. This new Cabinet has now been active for ten days and has entered its first new month. Time for some details of our Nation's current situation. We will begin with Industry." Prime Minister Hideki started the meeting.
"Thank you Prime Minister. Good morning your Majesty, Gentlemen." began Ginjiro. "Our Industry is running at near full capacity and has enough raw materials to maintain current production for eight days."
"My main concern is energy, or rather the lack of this commodity. We require a minimum of an additional seven thousands tons of energy to sustain industrial capacity throughout July. How we obtain that much energy is out of my control but without it our capacity to build new equipment or supply our troops will be seriously effected. The capture of the capital of Guangxi may help but there is no guarantee that it will, or that China will not annex Guangxi before we can capture the stockpile within Guilin.
I suggest that we try and arrange some exchanges of goods between Japan and other Countries that will allow us to do so. Waiting on the fortunes of War should not be the way we ensure our supplies."
"I can make some trades if required, although I would rather wait as it would give me time to make more favourable terms on such trades." replied Foreign Minister Mamoru.
"The path chosen by Armaments Minister Ginjiro is the one we shall follow. Begin trading as soon as possible. Even if fortune smiles upon us we will need the raw materials in time." Hirohito stated.
"As your Majesty wishes." replied Mamuro.
"Thank you your Majesty. To continue. Our shortfall in metal has been alleviated somewhat by a few free trades with Siam. We still have a deficit but it is far more controllable than other resources. Rare materials are increasing and can be used as a source for trading to other Countries. Oil is also increasing slightly due to some well placed trades by the Foreign Minister with South American Countries. The fact that most of the Imperial Japanese Navy is currently in port and consuming very little oil is also helping.
The population is still slightly discontent with the recent Cabinet reshuffle and at current levels it will take almost a month to completely reduce this dissent. Once this is done the industrial capacity currently being used to appease the populace can be switched to upgrading our forces. A side product of our current production is the increase of our monetary reserves.
Our manpower growth is steady and our transport capacity is still above our maximum threshold. Once the Kwantung Army arrives at its destination this should reduce to more reasonable levels. The reduction in dissent will also help in this regard as more industrial capacity becomes available with the return of our people to the factories.
More production has been switched to producing supplies to cover the costs involved with our current trades. A small amount of our industrial capacity has been allocated to providing replacements for some divisions that are short on manpower. We have a plentiful supply of convoys for the moment and no more have been ordered so far. Nothing further." concluded Ginjiro.
"I will move on to our military situation next." Hideki began. "The last ten days have mostly gone favourably for our forces both in China and the Pacific."
"Yamamoto has successfully removed the garrisons from both Wake and Marcus Islands and will shortly arrive in the Bonin Islands. There has been one hostile invasion in the Carolines at Satawan. This invasion has resulted in an attack against our garrison on the island of Truk. We do not expect the garrison to survive the battle. Additional plans are being made to try and remove further troops that are at risk, most notably in Rabaul. We can not afford to lose troops as we do not have a bottomless supply of new recruits with which to replace them.
There have been several attacks made against enemy shipping in the Pacific which resulted in the sinking of one American Aircraft Carrier. A second has been badly damaged and a third moderately so. One American Battleship has also received moderate damage. No Japanese ships have been damaged. We are not certain where the damaged Carriers went but they were last seen heading south and east from Palau towards the Carolines. If we assume that they were heading for a deep water port for repairs, the two closest bases would be Hollandia or the Admiralty Islands. Should they just be seeking a safe harbour and not a repair facility then they could be anywhere in the Carolines.
We shall be sending out some aircraft to try and find the possible location of these ships, but if they are in Hollandia or the Admiralty Islands we only have our Naval bombers that could reach them. Sinking these ships would be of great benefit and we shall do so if possible.
The damaged Battleships headed further east, possibly towards Eniwetok which is out of range of our bombers. That concludes the Pacific so we will move on to China where the Chief of the Army will take over."
"Thank you Prime Minister. Your Majesty, Gentlemen." Satoru began. "Progress has been good in general, with speed dictated by terrain more than enemy forces. The only set back is in Burma where some of our forces are withdrawing in the face of overwhelming enemy forces."
"We have managed to isolate roughly twenty five Chinese divisions in south eastern China, and these will be dealt with, once they have had a suitable period of time to contemplate their current predicament. We also captured two divisions in Zhanjiang that had briefly advanced into our territory.
The map shows our current plans for advance into China. Most of July will be needed to advance these small distances as nearly all of the terrain is mountainous. The Kwantung Army is due to arrive in Changsha on July 5th or 6th and will begin advancing after a few days reorganisation. Our southern forces will begin moving west into the mountains of Guangxi to attempt to isolate more Chinese forces in both Shaoyang and Wuzhou.
The northern line of advance will place our forces outside the Chinese capital of Chongqing. We do not know how many enemy troops are between Changsha and Wanxian and our plans may need to be altered. I would request the use of all Tactical bombers as well as the Close Support Aircraft for this phase of our ground campaign as their assistance would be most helpful in allowing us a swift advance through the mountains."
"They are needed in the Pacific to reduce the United States Navy." stated the Chief of the Navy, Nagano Osami. "We are currently planning an operation that requires their presence in order for it to succeed."
"This I am aware of, but I request their use regardless." replied Satoru.
"How long will your plan need to complete Minister Osami?" asked Hirohito.
"Two weeks your Majesty." replied Osami.
"You have the bombers for two weeks and then they go to China." stated the Emperor. "You will still have the Naval bombers."
"Thank you your Majesty." replied Osami.
"I have nothing to add to my report, so I will hand you over to the Chief of the Navy." concluded Satoru.
"Your Majesty, Gentlemen. The Imperial Japanese Navy has sustained no damage, nor inflicted any during the last ten days." Osami began. "Grand Admiral Yamamoto will be sailing directly back to Tokyo once he has finished landing troops in the Bonin Islands. Once there the fleet will be re-configured to support an invasion which will require almost the entire fleet to sail. With the exception of BB Division 1 all of the remaining ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy are already in Tokyo. They encountered no enemy presence during their journeys back to the capital.
As has already been said, we have damaged some American vessels, which we hope will give us a small window of opportunity to strike back. Our chosen target is the island of Saipan. Recent overflights by our aircraft on Naval patrol spotted the defensive garrison on the island being embarked onto transport ships, this currently leaves this island undefended. Two divisions from the Tokyo garrison will be landed on the island to secure it from future attack. This island is of great strategic value as it removes the closest base that the Allies have to mainland Japan. Capturing it will restrict the range of any future United States aggression and moves their aircraft completely out of range of Japan.
The operation carries some risk as we do not know the whereabouts of over half of the United States Navy's Aircraft Carriers and roughly one third of their Battleships. We believe that approximately one quarter to one third of the United States Navy is operating in the Atlantic which limits what could still be unaccounted for in the Pacific. Using the entire fleet to cover this invasion should provide adequate protection against most things, and we should have some advance warning of any hostile fleets approach because of the Tactical bombers.
Once we have captured Saipan most of the fleets will use it as a base of operations. The second task that needs to be completed is the rescue of the garrison on Rabaul and forces still in New Guinea. Two fleets will sail from Saipan to pick these forces up and move them to Java in Indonesia. Whilst the fleet is in that area it will also be used to re-distribute other troops to more favourable locations. Once these measures have been taken the fleet will then begin hunting for hostile shipping as well as protecting islands from invasion. Nothing more from me." concluded Osami.
"That concludes the military briefing so we will move on to Diplomacy." Hideki stated.
"Your Majesty. Gentlemen. The last few days has seen a large amount of diplomatic activity. I have managed to secure several trade agreements with various Countries, although none were what I would call equal trades, with the exception of our trade with Manchukuo. Siam has donated a large part of its metal production to our cause as well as some rare materials. Attempts to find and acquire energy have been limited. The main target for an energy trade would be the Soviet Union, but unfortunately more than 90% of any trade with them would not reach our shores. I am still seeking other possible trading partners for energy and will begin some one time trades after this meeting." began Mamoru.
"I have also managed to obtain a large quantity of blueprints for some advanced technology from our German ally in exchange for some of our technology and other resources. The Germans have been kind enough to begin to provide this type of information for free after our first trade. These trades should greatly increase the speed of our research into the relevant fields."
"I have also received an up to date set of maps for the War in Europe. Our German ally is making some gains in the south but is losing ground almost everywhere else on the Eastern Front. The Soviets appear to be concentrating their forces towards the center which also seems to be the Germans weak point. The Kriegsmarine appears to be hunting something in the Baltic but I have no idea what that might be."
"The British have pierced the defences in Italy, although there do seem to be enough Axis troops here to possibly halt any further advances. Most surprisingly the Allies have failed to expand their beach head in Normandy. The force sizes do not appear to have changed much and yet the defences hold firm. We can only hope this situation can be maintained. All done." concluded Mamoru.
"Intelligence please."
"Your Majesty, Gentlemen. We lack the funds for me to increase either defensive or offensive intelligence operatives, with diplomacy taking all the spare funds we have. I have put together the latest intelligence reports on our main enemies and the Soviet Union." began Kuniaki.
"The current estimate of Nationalist Chinese forces places them at fifty nine divisions. This would mean that they have lost twenty one divisions in ten days. This is not correct. We have captured two divisions so far which would put the number closer to the eighty they were reported as having ten days ago. The are a further twenty or more divisions isolated that will eventually be captured which will bring the number close to the current estimate."
"Similarly the numbers for the United Kingdom are also completely different. This is largely due to the small number of agents we have within their ranks. According to these numbers the British suffered huge losses in their land forces and also lost three Aircraft Carriers. We know that neither of these is correct. This is why we need to increase our agents in these areas to enable more accurate reporting."
"The United States ground forces also show a large loss which is also not correct. The numbers for their Navy look to be fairly consistant however. These show the loss of one Aircraft Carrier, which we know is true, and the addition of seven smaller vessels."
"Our agents in the Soviet Union are more numerous and this report is likely to be more accurate. Quite simply they have a massive army, a fairly large airforce and a useless navy. Judging from their research they do not appear to be too far ahead of us in most areas.
I will need considerable funding to be able to provide much better information than I can at present although I believe the current resource situation is of more importance, and therefore a better use of the funds we have available. I shall continue to monitor our enemies in the hope of finding some weaknesses. Nothing further." Kuniaki concluded.
"That is everyone for today your Majesty as there is nothing to report for Security as it is unchanged." Hidaki told the Emperor.
"Very well. We will have to be bold in order to survive and I am pleased with progress so far. Thank you for coming Gentlemen." Hirohito said as he left the room.
