1961 - Tiān gāo, huángdì yuǎn
“The flight controller's voice in the headphones sounded almost solemn: 'Aufstieg - ascent!” At first it was as, if it were thundering in the far distance. The dull rumble quickly came closer and closer. The rocket began to vibrate, as if it were trembling to get away from the crater of the volcano it was sitting on as quickly as possible. I did not see it from the capsule 40 meters above the ground, but eyewitnesses later told me about this unique spectacle. It looked like a fire-breathing dragon pouring out a sea of flames and smoke. The rays from the five engines raged in red, yellow, blue and violet. A fascinating sight. My heart rate was increased. But this palpitation of the heart wasn't afraid, rather stimulating. And what I then saw was total bliss: Our Earth, wrapped in bright blue. Simply fantastic."
From an interview with the first human in space Ritter Sigmund von Jähn
The announcement of Jähn's flight was broadcast all over the world early in the morning of the 19th of May, by Berlin time, just as the man in question and the craft that carried him were in the process of crossing the Straits of Magellan. The launch itself was public knowledge, due to the German spaceport being located close to the port city of Odessa as well as the necessity to coordinate launches with the Russians to avoid unnecessary issues and flak fire, the contents of the payload had remained a secret due to fears of failure among those responsible for the project. The German achievements in the space race had after all not come without a number of sacrifices, many of which would continue to remain secret for decades to come. They however mattered little as Jähn and his flight became immortalized across the world. However as the public cheered the achievements of humanity, the other great powers silently gritted their teeth. This was especially true among the Syndicalist powers, where Futurism had become an important facet of government propaganda. The period following the launch of Trabant I in 1957 and Jähn's flight in 1961 is usually included in the Space Race however few were convinced that the race was 'fair' with the ease at which the Germans, and to a much lesser degree the Japanese, had grabbed 'points'. Whilst Sakigake had not remained the only piece of Japanese equipment sent into orbit during the period a number of things contributed to Japanese officials putting their space program on the back foot. These included launch failures, resource demands to shore up nuclear deterrence efforts including the military application of rockets as well as price difference between the launches and other Japanese propaganda efforts, such as Antarctic exploration and exploitation. Even after Jähn's flight, when new and special funds were made available to push the Japanese space program faster, higher and stronger, the Japanese government efforts remained split and its bureaucrats distracted by the the events unfolding across China.
Writings by authors such as Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke had become commonplace
across the Syndicalist world, painting a picture of a better Syndicalist Tomorrow.
Contrary to the hopes of some Japanese officials, the suppression of protests on Double Ten Day in 1959 and the subsequent crackdowns had done very little to aid the stabilization of the Japanese backed regimes in China. The various guerilla organizations that had emerged from the woodwork only began to grow in strength as Guangzhou threw their support behind them. Although opinion has remained divided on whether the initially tame Japanese response to the growing crisis was right or not with a number of theorists positing that the course of history could have been changed and the China War averted had the Japanese adopted similar policies to those used in the the East Indies revolt in 1947. These same beliefs were widespread at the time as well, especially among high-ranking officers in the Imperial Army with long-service records in deployments across China. These officers claimed that, in addition to having regressed further into corruption under the 'watchful' gaze of the Japanese, the warlords, who made up the majority of the armed forces in Northern China were with rare exception fundamentally unsuited for undertaking any military tasks, but garrison duty in unpopulated areas. Some officers went further than just pointing to the questionable achievements, both military and criminal, of the warlords and openly questioned the loyalty of them and their units. This was especially true in the Fengtien Republic, where Zhang family, first under Zuolin and now under Xueliang, had cultivated loyalty among the local Korean population. Tokyo feared that a sizeable number of these Korean soldiers also included their own citizens, which they did, and that they would put what they learned into effect once they returned home, which they had. Officials had thus attempted to curb the recruitment of Koreans to limited effect. However the issue of loyalty, in addition to struggles with funding, were fundamentally the reasoning behind the more tame response. Unlike Indonesia, where the Japanese could rely on the loyalty of the Muslim majority, harsh 'police action' against the Han in China were deemed a functional impossibility and thus rejected off the bat.
Whilst Japanese instructors had been somewhat of a rarity prior to the Double Ten Incident,
they would become increasingly more commonplace after the event.
The fears of those in the China hawks as well as their evaluation of the forces loyal to the warlords, seemed to ring true as in 1960 intelligence reports from the Chinese countryside noted increased suspicious activity and subsequent raids by the Japanese special forces revealed guerilla training camps hidden in the mountains ranging from small to sizeable. This as well as the increasing number of weapons in the hands of villagers. All of this combined with growing instability in the cities and draconian actions taken by the Qing government against the authors of the Manifesto of the Nine and other dissenters sparked worries was the first real event to spark worry in both Japanese government and military officials about their chose path. This is also where the Japanese attempts to counter the policy of warlordism, as well as a number of other harmful institutions that had been let slide during the preceding decades, began. Beginning in the November of 1960, the Japanese government made cheap credit available to the Chinese on the condition of reforming their Armed Forces. Whilst suspicions of whether the funds were actually reaching their target were lodged from the get-go they mostly fell on deaf ears. The Ikeda cabinet was in the grips of drafting the 'Income Doubling Plan' and they believed that the massive military tenders stemming from rearming China would help realize it. Inquires conducted at later dates into the appropriation of these funds however proved such hopes unfounded. Indeed that usually less than half of the money would reach its intended target with the rest usually vanishing into the pockets and the greasing the palms of various officials across the Japanese sphere. Although occasional military tenders from China had received much press in helping grow the Japanese economy, these tenders were usually small prestige projects rather than the massive overhauls the Japanese had hoped. Because of their small size they were also usually massively eclipsed by tenders from the domestic market as well as those from other 'captive markets'. The minimal levels of oversight over these lines of credit would eventually cost the Japanese taxpayers hundreds of millions, if not billions of yen over the whole China War.
The demand for workers had seen Japanese women enter the workforce in greater numbers,
although many still left for home-making after marriage working women were here to stay.
The 60s also saw a new issue crop up in China, primarily that of succession. Although the aforementioned Zhangs had had a clear line of succession for a long time, the same could be said of many other rulers. True for both the Qing Emperor, as well as Yan Xishan, governor and de facto ruler of Shanxi province. True to his life long policy of playing each and every player, with any shred of power over him, off each other finally caught up to Yan, when he succumbed in 1960. The 'Model Governor' left behind a model province, which in some aspects rivalled the coastal Legation Cities, as well as the model of a dysfunctional administration. In his twilight years the warlord had, in addition to the Qing that ruled him, made overtures to the Republicans, the Millenialists, the Zhang family in Manchuria, a few loyal subjects and of course the Japanese. This meant that when he died all of these forces and many more came to collect their dues. However although the official Japanese position was to support the Qing Emperor, as the supreme ruler of China, Shanxi provided a sizeable quantity of resources for the Japanese economy and instability there would mean considerably less of those resources. This meant that the actual Japanese policy was more akin to supporting whoever took control control quickly enough as long as the resources kept flowing. This line of thought is also thought to have partially extended to the Qing, where Emperor Puyi forwent his fiat to appoint a governor and instead was convinced to 'consider the fragility of the situation' by his advisors. Such concerns were however of little importance to the Millenialists, who quickly rose to the dominant power in the province and proceeded to liquidate any threats to their rule. Having bet on their own loyalists and frightened by how quickly they had been crushed, the Qing government quickly did a U-turn. The '1st Cavalry Division' was ordered to Taiyuan and their Japanese 'advisors' were asked to accompany them, of course without notifying Tokyo. Whilst the forces entered the province without issue and even to cheers of those anti-Millenialists that had managed to escape liquidation efforts, the situation continued worsening by the minute. Millenialists and Qing forces clashed on multiple occasions both on and off duty and even dragged in the Japanese on the 12th of July. The Japanese inclusion in the night battle gave the China hawks in the IJA fresh arguments, but once again they found themselves largely over-ruled or provided with little more than nominal concessions.
In his later years, Yan Xishan Thought had increasingly taken pointers
from Millenialists and caught on widely among the masses.
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May
May 15 – J. Heinrich Matthaei performs the Poly-U-Experiment, and is the first person to recognize and understand the genetic code marking the birth of modern genetics.
May 19 – German astronaut Sigmund Jähn becomes the first human in space, orbiting the Earth once before parachuting to the ground.
May 22 – An earthquake rocks New South Wales.
May 31 - Benfica beats Barcelona, who had previously knocked out the five time champion Real Madrid, 3–2 at Wankdorf Stadium, Bern and wins the 1960–61 European Cup.
Approximate flight path of Walküre I, carrying the first human in space.
June
June 1 – Ethiopia experiences its most devastating earthquake of the 20th century, with a magnitude of 6.7. The town of Majete is destroyed, 45% of the houses in Karakore collapse, 17 kilometres of the main road north of Karakore are damaged by landslides and fissures, and 5,000 inhabitants in the area are left homeless.
June 12 - A joint Japanese-Qing special forces patrol clash with forces formerly in the service of the warlord Yan Xishan. The succession struggle among his ranks has seen many side with the Millenialists against the Qing. Both sides withdraw from the night battle without casualties, however attempts by some IJA officers to use this event to weaken the warlords are thwarted and the nominal submission of the Millenialist as well as Shanxi to the Qing continue to weaken.
June 17 - A Paris-to-Strasbourg train derails near Vitry-le-François; 24 are killed, 109 injured.
June 29 - Ernest Hemingway, hero of the Second American Civil War dies, whilst the Browder government claims that he died of hypertension the closed casket funeral and cremation give strength to rumours of suicide.
Whilst the reaction of the Japanese troops on the ground after the incident was rather jovial,
the same could not be said for the reaction Army Headquarters or the civilian government.
July
July 4 – The government of Hendrik Verwoerd officially abolishes South African ties to the British Empire and proclaims the state a presidential republic. Werwoerd reconfirms the South African support for German rule in the region as well as extending nominal offers to support the German expeditionary forces. An offer which the German government reluctantly accepts.
July 8 - In Japan, the Basic Agriculture Law, which seeks to promote greater productivity as well as push for wage growth in agricultural sector, comes into effect.
July 12 – Ichirō and Jirō, become the first cats in space as Japanese officials ramp up their space program looking to counter recent successes by the Germans.
July 31 - Following growing pressure from the Americans and British, the Irish government officially expresses its will to join the Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The Imperial Space Agency had been preparing for an animal launch for a while now, but prior to
Jähn's flight budgeting decisions had kept them from actually launching animals into space.
August
August 1 - In Japan, the first Nishinari riot takes place in Osaka. Day labourers clash with police after conflict is stirred by police conducting an on-the-site inspection of a traffic accident victim rather than removing the body from the scene.
August 8 - The Sendai High Court acquits everyone involved in the Matsukawa derailment incident.
August 11 – The Union of Britain conducts their own nuclear test, becoming the fifth nuclear power. Analysts raise questions about the British acquisition of the weapons and point to growing rifts between them and the Americans as the cause for it.
August 18 - The Americans officially join the Space Race, as the 20th of February, the first American, as well as Syndicalist, made first satellite achieves a stable orbit around the Earth.
Rioters levelled at least two police stations, set fire to cars and attacked taxis and trains for three days
before the deployment of more than 6,400 reinforcing officers tipped it in the favour of the police.
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Just read the whole thing. Suscribed to see how this ends!
Glad to have you, I hope I won't disappoint.
Good to see peace established over the arctic!
