Utsunimiya's War
(HoI3 TFH - Interactive Japan AAR)
Chapter Eighteen : Comedy Of Spies - 5.6.1936 To 20.6.1936
Yasuji Okamura was not having a good time. It was if every nation on Earth was catching Japanese spies. Within a two week period Persia claimed to have captured a Japanese spy, the Communist Chinese had announced they had captured TWO Japanese spies, both Ireland and Greece had, somehow, both captured a Japanese spy, Luxemburg, of all nations, had also somehow captured a Japanese spy, and the USA had captured ANOTHER Japanese spy.
It wasn't just embarrassing to the Head of Intelligence. He had also received quite a few angry phone calls during that time period.
First the Foreign Minister had complained about how all these spies being captured all over the world was REALLY ruining the Japanese Empire's reputation. Which, in turn, threatened any future trade deals the Ministry wanted to make in the future.
Then there was the phone calls from Minister of Armaments. Seems HE was worried about the current trade agreements with the US. He felt that the Americans might break the agreements if they became too upset. Which would threaten the production schedule.
Then there was the phone calls from the Chief of Staff, Hajime Sugiyama, who was worried that the military might not like the Head of Intelligence messing up the production of their future equipment and military divisions.
Then there was the dead rat he found in his mail. He assumed it was from the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Of course the rest of the world wasn't just capturing spies. There was, for example, news of a huge peace demonstration in Switzerland. Seems they were worried about the Germans and how large their army had become.
While this was happening Siam had signed a trade agreement with the UK and the Guangxi Clique signed a trade agreement with the US. And then the Guangxi Clique broke their trade agreement. In other words the Chinese were as logical as they always were.
Then, of course, the Communist Chinese signed a trade agreement with the Nationalist Chinese. The people who hated them.
As this was happening South Africa had a surge of volunteers for their military. An interesting development that was noted by the Japanese military.
Then Ireland was in the news again. This time not because of capturing a spy but because of a boost to their economy. Therefore there were dozen of photos in the papers of Irish miners and factory workers. This did not concern the Japanese military as much.
While all this was happening outside the borders of Japan a few small, but important, events did happen within its borders.
First the Ministry of Armaments ordered the construction of defenses for the Province of Kagoshima. Here it was, a corner of the Island of Kyushu, with a small local industrial center yet with nothing to protect it. So the Minister ordered that coastal and land forts be built within the Province. Also anti-aircraft guns were ordered to be built also to protect the factories.
At the same time the 7. Hohei Shidan had finally arrived in the Province of Shisuka. While it looked like the three Regiments were settling in without a problem there were already suggestions that they were having supply issues.
During all this General Shō-ichi Utsunimiya was planning out how best to collect information on the Chinese Navy. While he knew they were nothing when compared to the Imperial Japanese Navy he would like to have SOME idea about their size and placement before the conflict.
But how would he do that?
