Again, another "shipgirls go to the 1940s and change history" short from SpaceBattles. This one is just a general look at what Canadian shipgirls were doing at the time, inspired by entry #s 32312 & 32409 (both by sasahara17) and 32431 (by Shaithan). This short also makes reference to events depicted in entry #s 32437 & 32452 (both by sasahara17).
In the universe of this story, the Crown Colony-class cruiser HMS Newfoundland (pendant 59) was summoned at Canadian Forces Base Cornwallis in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley and elected to serve in the Royal Canadian Navy as Her Majesty's Canadian Shipgirl Newfoundland because of her namesake dominion's joining Confederation in 1949.
This short was also inspired by a comment made by Harry Leferts at SpaceBattles about how a famous Canadian novel became wildly popular in Japan post-World War Two. This, of course, inspires the Canadian shipgirl leadership to follow Nagato's "Win the hearts of foreign leaders with cuteness" approach as demonstrated in sasahara17's entry #32437. Here's what happens...
Ottawa, the officers' mess at HMCS Bytown on Lisgar Street, breakfast...
"Thank God for that!"
That was the exclaimed statement from many a Canadian shipgirl when they found themselves back in the days of the Second World War AS shipgirls. Of course, the idea of once again actually facing off against their good friends from Japan, Germany and Italy was quickly derailed when Nagato, Bismarck and Roma moved to eliminate the idiots that had led those nations into Big Mistake Number Two like they did. That would mean that Canada wouldn't have to experience the loss of THOUSANDS of its youth in battles across western Europe — to say anything of that total idiocy at Dieppe! — and could strive to surge forth and forge its place as one of the trusted middle powers of the world.
Fortunately, they had won an ally right away when they came back in time.
Their very own prime minister, Sir William Lyon Mackenzie King.
Given the man's occultist interests and his well-masked spiritualism, he had been the FIRST of the world's major leaders — yes, even before the Heavenly Sovereign of Japan! — to accept the shipgirls' explanation as to what they were and how they came into being without questioning it. Fortunately for everyone, the ghost of his maternal grandfather William Lyon Mackenzie — who had led the Upper Canada Rebellion back in 1837 — had come to him and affirmed that what the beautiful women and insulin-inducing cute children and teenagers represented was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Of course, given how other ghosts had made Parliament accept that explanation...!
"Thank God for MSSB!"
That had ALSO been said many a time in the last few weeks.
Right now, the "Triple Triumvirate" as the Canadian press called them — light carriers Bonaventure, Magnificent and Warrior; light cruisers Québec, Ontario and Newfoundland; armed merchant cruisers Prince Robert, Prince David and Prince Henry — who effectively ran the Royal Canadian Navy were meeting in the officers' lounge as Cape Breton moved to serve some breakfast with the help of some human stewards. Thankful that all of the "post-war" shipgirls who actually been started during the war like the Cape-class fleet maintenance ship now feeding them had also come back in time, Canada's shipgirl corps was in much better shape than they had could have been had it just been those shipgirls who actually SERVED during the war. With Bonaventure's advantages ALONE...!
Currently attending this strategy meeting was the Prime Minister himself, along with his "minister of everything", C.D. Howe. Naturally, the topic was concerning the future of the Dominion in a much changed world than what either normal human was capable of accepting up front. "I've been in contact with our friends in Europe," the Member of Parliament from Port Arthur stated. "With the amount of damage that was done across the continent before you girls came back and Bismarck was so kind to use Saratoga's gift to get rid of Hitler, it will take nations like France years to recover. Once we get our version of this 'Marshall Plan' you told us of passed through the House, industries here will be making money hand-over-fist to get the whole continent rebuilt. Given the Americans' concentration on keeping Russia supplied to prevent this 'cold war' from happening, we have a huge advantage."
"We have to keep links to Japan open, though," Warrior warned with her mixture of Irish, Canadian English and Argentinian Spanish accents, which sounded strange to the Massachusetts-born minister of munitions and supply. "Given the know-how our friends there brought back with them, they're moving now to refit that shipwreck that was their economy to make them so strong, the Americans wouldn't DARE fight them. I have to admit that Nagamon's move to have the Akatsuki sisters serve as her ambassadors to FDR was brilliant. We'll need to hit the charm offensive to get our foot in."
Mackenzie King and Howe both laughed in mirth; they had heard through the "Tin Can Mafia" network maintained among destroyer shipgirls worldwide how that meeting at the White House had gone. Both men had been quick to notice how the Dominion's shipgirls had been moving to manipulate the fear many Canadians possessed concerning the great social and economic juggernaut south of their border to make the necessary changes in the local economy to ensure Canada would maintain some considerable control over its own industries. "What about the movies to recreate this 'computer' technology you girls miss so much?" the Prime Minister then asked. "I know Kitchener, Galt, Prestonian and Hespeler were moving to reform this 'BlackBerry' company that will be in Waterloo..."
"It's been done, sir," Magnificent said with a glitter in her blue eyes. "We should have an initial version of the Internet going within five years with Bretty's and Scotty's help." Here, she nodded to the nominal maintenance shipgirl of the Pacific Fleet in emphasis. "Much that our friends from Japan stole the march when it came to getting into space, we'll steal the march when it comes to reforming communications technology. Given that farce in Nevada...!"
Both politicians howled with laughter; they had heard of what Iowa and South Dakota had instigated in the desert close to Las Vegas some weeks before out of boredom. "And how goes the move to get your namesake dominion into Confederation?" Howe asked the last of the Crown Colony-class cruisers who was named after Canada's future tenth province. "Given how many of the people on the island appreciate the Americans for all the money they poured into the place..."
"It's stupid to allow the Island, much less Labrador, to fall into American hands, Minister," Newfoundland replied with her mix of the patois of her namesake island and Peruvian Spanish accents. "Such would put an American fleet too close to Halifax and could impede trade with Europe in case some right-wing idiots get control of Congress...or God forbid, the White House itself. Mister Smallwood has been able to get the National Convention started earlier than it would have been, with a proposal to join Confederation being put over remaining as a colony or..." — here, she shuddered — "...becoming an American territory. Fortunately, ex-British shipgirls who served with us have been quick to explain to anyone who might want to join Uncle Sam what being an American 'unincorporated territory' ultimately means for their own personal rights." Here, her brown eyes glittered with amusement.
"No ability to elect voting representatives in Congress, much less have any say in electing the President," Mackenzie King mused, which made Howe shake his head as he thanked God again that he had come up to Canada with its much simpler system of electing government officials. "Well, I think we're really on our way. I'd like to hear your girls' proposals as to how we can make things peaceful between us and Japan. Given what their shipgirls did for our prisoners that were taken at Hong Kong, there is a lot of goodwill felt by people here concerning them, but the excesses Lady Kongō and her sisters revealed concerning this 'Unit 731', much less the issue with the comfort women..."
"They need time, sir," Prince Henry stated as she crossed her arms. "Much that our friends there are making one hell of a huge start when it comes to reforms, they have to work through all the effective social 'brainwashing' that had been forced on the populace since the Meiji Reformation. We're moving to help right now with this." Here, she exchanged an amused look with her sisters. "Did you know, Mister Prime Minister, that Anne of Green Gables has already been translated in Japanese?"
"Really?!"
"Oui," Bonaventure said as she exchanged smiles with Québec. "Agassiz and Chilliwack went there to meet the translator so the book can be published with the supplies we shipped them in the first post-armistice convoy from Vancouver. The book should now be published under the local translation of the name, Akagi no An. With Naka working hard to reform the entertainment industry there with the help of Disney and the Warner brothers, an anime series should come out soon."
"Is Miyazaki-sensei alive at this time?" Ontario asked; she loved that anime.
The other shipgirls and Mackenzie King laughed as Howe shook his head...
Meanwhile, in Tōkyō (local time: Two hours before midnight)...
Crown Prince Akihito was wiping tears from his eyes. "What a moving story...!"
"Denka-sama, you mustn't read such gaijin filth...!"
The poor servant — who had BARELY escaped the purge of the Imperial household when the shipgirls came back in time and purged out Tōjō Hideki and his cronies — then gargled as the disapproving glare of the very namesake of ancient Japan herself landed on him. "You are causing Tsugu-chan distress by denouncing this child's story just because the author was Canadian," Yamato coldly declared as more sympathetic palace staff moved to comfort the heir to the throne. As the older man croaked in horror as he imagined what Yamato's once-unknown sister Yonaga would do were SHE to learn of this, a cold smile crossed the face of the chestnut-haired super-battleship. "Would you care to deny Akagi-san the maple syrup Québec-san was so nice to send with Agassiz-chan and Chilliwack-chan? Our Canadian friends understand very well what the concept of losing face means! They WILL retaliate if this gift to the children of the land is denied because of such a disgusting attitude! I've never seen Akagi-san happier! Do you wish to UPSET Kaga-san if Akagi-san can't have her favourite food?"
The servant quickly retired almost at the run while maintaining the barest semblance of decorum. Watching him go, the Heavenly Sovereign could only chuckle before he gazed on his own copy of Anne of Green Gables. "I must confess, our Canadian friends can be quite cunning," he quietly mused, keeping his voice down so that his children now reading this lovely tale that could — Horrors! — even match up to the stories of Momotaro wouldn't be distracted by "adult talk".
"It's necessary, Michi-kun," Yamato noted as she moved to kneel before him and his wife, using his childhood title. "Canadians as a whole — especially those of Québec and other French-speaking areas of the country — fear the beast that lurks on their southern border. This is driving their move to quickly incorporate Newfoundland and Labrador into the Dominion; if America gets the territory, they'll be cut off from Europe." As the Son of Heaven and his wife both scowled at that, she added, "In many ways, they're almost like us: Caught between massive powers that wouldn't really understand their particular situation and would take advantage of them if chance presented itself. That they've stolen the march when it comes to the Internet will force the Americans — especially their shipgirls — to treat them with the respect they've long deserved. Given that segregation is still a fact of life in the old Confederacy..."
"And Lady Québec is African in looks," the Sovereign Consort mused with a twinkle in her eyes.
Yamato giggled. "When Iowa-san comes up begging for a chance to get the Internet hooked up in the states, I can guess Ontario-san's response: 'Get rid of Jim Crow and hang the KKK, then we'll talk'."
Laughter filled the hall within the Imperial Palace...
...then Yamato gasped on sensing something on her radar. "Onē-sama...?"
"Forgive we humble warriors for intruding upon Thee, Heika!"
Everyone turned as a certain battleship-turned-large aircraft carrier came in, accompanied by two of the many Flower-class corvettes serving in the Royal Canadian Navy. Much to the locals' delight, Alberni and Chilliwack — who were nisei in looks, they appearing to be twelve years old in physical age — were in kimonos that were splattered with green maple leaves and beautiful flowers, marking their nation and class. "Yonaga-dono," the Heavenly Sovereign declared as Yonaga ritually saluted him, then he smiled at the two childish coastal patrol shipgirls that served as ocean escorts in the longest battle in the Second World War in their birth timeline. "Ladies, welcome to the Palace. You both look beautiful in those..." He then paused on seeing the VERY embarrassed looks on the Canadian shipgirls' faces. "May I asked what just happened, Yonaga-san?" he then wondered as he gazed hopefully at Yonaga.
"Not our fault...!" Chilliwack hissed as she squeezed her green eyes closed.
"Onē-sama?" Yamato gently probed.
Yonaga sighed. "Nagato-san's delightful little 'tick', my sister," she explained, which made the adults in the room wince while the children all giggled; they had seen those episodes on several occasions when something cute crossed the path of the current prime minister. "Our good friends from fair British Columbia were delivering copies of Montgomery-sensei's book to children in Yokosuka when Nagato-san came down to visit Yamamoto-gensui. She saw them in their kimono...!"
"It's not our FAULT!" Chilliwack snarled.
"What did you two do, Chilli-chan?" the Crown Prince's sister Atsuko, the Princess Yori, then asked.
"IT'S NOT OUR FAULT!"
"Cool it, Wacky!" Agassiz snapped before she sighed, bowing apologetically to the Heavenly Sovereign. "Your Majesty, in the name of His Majesty the King, I formally apologize to you on behalf of myself and my sister here for causing your nation distress. It was not intentional." She took a deep breath before waving her arms in frustration. "Some of those State Shintō idiots were there when Nagamon fainted on seeing us in kimono. They tried to attack us for 'defeating' her when the old folk beat them up, then they declared WE were the 'supreme Kami' of the kanmusu since we could lay HER down!"
"IT'S NOT OUR FAULT!" Chilliwack exclaimed.
Hearing this, the Heavenly Sovereign got the chance to feel the wonderful feeling of planting his face into the floor as all the children there gaped at them and Yamato and Yonaga moaned...!
Fin...for Now!
Explaining the Flower-class corvettes as shipgirls: Think of the Etorofu-class escort ships so far introduced in Kantai Collection. They were about the same size and displacement as the Flower-class corvettes (940 tonnes for the Flowers versus 884 tonnes for Etoforu and her sisters). That's how shipgirls like Agassiz and Chilliwack would look, though many would be Western in looks.
And their appearance will, IMO, finally do away with the "corvettes are dogs" trope that have appeared in certain other fanfics in the past! Thank Lyna!