Okinawa, Japan
[The sun is just beginning to set on the beach, giving everything in the tropical paradise an orange hue as a gentle wind slightly shakes the trees. Though once a popular tourist destination in the prewar days, this beach, along with most others around the world, are largely avoided by the population thanks to the danger of what lurks out in the oceans. That is why the house where I'm currently seated has been built to be nearly on the tree line with retractable ladders and walkways needed to reach the top. The beachfront house was entirely engineered by the current occupant that I happen to be interviewing today, former JSDF Attack Helicopter pilot, and current flight instructor, Morgan Wu.]
I didn't need dead up and walking to scare the hell out of me, we already had the threat of World War Three and Nuclear bombings as a fun little preshow. Sure, today all the historians and intelligence people talk about how the whole Taiwan Strait Crisis was just one big distraction by the CCP, but none of them were there to see it firsthand. It was brinkmanship of the most terrifying kind, and all of us thought that at any minute the hammer was going to fall. It didn't seem to be a question of if it would happen anymore, only what shape it would take.
Could you elaborate?
International politics in the prewar Pacific were always complicated, especially when it came to Taiwan. China has claimed control over the island since the end of the Second World War, and the Communists had been shaking their firsts angrily from the mainland while threatening to invade for decades. The United States officially had an obligation to defend them in case of attack and wanted their allies to back them up if it came to that, but Japan and the others had always been careful not to make too concrete of promises. Public opinion and various administrations weren't all that eager to fight a war over Taiwan, so it wasn't clear whether or not the JSDF would even lift a finger if the Chinese made a sudden lunge across the strait. I mean hell, after the debacles in the Middle East, it wasn't clear if even the US would do anything. But since there were no clear answers one way or another, we all were left sitting on edge for a while.
I was assigned to be part of the reinforcement of Okinawa, working closely with the Americans since I was fluent in English and had gotten my engineering degree in the States. The buildup was supposed to be a reassuring show of strength to our people while acting as a strong deterrent to Chinese aggression. Me? I couldn't help but think of this place as a big floating bullseye. All those allied forces would be a hell of a tempting target for a preemptive strike if they wanted to land a knockout blow before we could respond. I swear, they had us believing that every gun they had was pointed at us even with all those stories about the internal crackdowns.
What did the military think was happening inside China's borders?
Exactly what they wanted us to think: the elections in Taiwan had sparked outrage and even ultra-nationalistic fever within the country that they needed to use force in order to reign in. The exact details depended on who you asked, they kept things just murky enough to give the barest of appearances that they were trying to keep it covered up, and it led to debates between the Intel slugs and even the rank and file as to what the "truth" was.
A lot of us thought that really this was the first stages of an uprising, that the Chinese people had finally enough of the Communist Party like we knew they eventually would and those in charge were cracking down hard trying to cling to power. Another opinion was that the Chinese were actually downplaying how bad the nationalistic spirit had gotten, that the electoral victories of the Taiwan Independence Party had finally sent them over the edge and that the Chinese people were demanded action now or else. I was born in Hong Kong, my family fleeing to Japan before the British handed over control after hearing the stories of what the CC did to those who disagreed with them, so I was pretty biased towards the former possibility. Either way I was buying what I didn't even realize they were selling.
Did anyone suspect that something more was going on beyond that?
Sure, but it was just a handful of rumors that would sometimes be floated the bars or maintenance bays. "You know, I hear there's actually a full-blown guerilla war in the east where those farming villages are trying to break away. This whole thing is just a bluff for them to buy time". That sort of thing. There was never any proof, and no one ever really bought into it once they sobered up. Never heard anyone suggest that the CCP was actually covering up a viral outbreak that caused the dead to start chowing down on the living, that would have laughed away at the first mention as the biggest pile of tin foil hat styled dumbassery imaginable.
I even heard a couple of months back that some of our analysts had intercepted Chinese communications that were saying that's exactly what was happening, and they still thought that it was a code for something else. We just weren't in the right mindset to start seeing that even as a possibility. At least not until all those weird incidents started.
When you say "incidents", you mean encounters with the…?
Siafu. Or Zack. Whatever you want to call them. Once they started popping up, it didn't take a genius to get there was more going on than we first thought.
My first run in with them was late on one of the nights my co-pilot and I were sitting alert. It was a fairly thankless and boring duty that has us sitting around in our full flight kit for hours on end just in case we had to take off on a moment's notice if things suddenly went bad. Our shift was just about to be changed over, when the orders to take off immediately came down without warning. I thought that this was it, that China had just begun their attack and Okinawa had just become prime real estate for missiles looking for a home. It wasn't until we were already in the air that command told us what was up.
A Chinese fishing trawler had entered Japanese waters, heading in the direction of Okinawa and wasn't responding to any radio hails. My Apache wasn't designed for maritime operations, but it had good range and solid weaponry that could more than handle a small boat, so command wanted us to fly cover for the interception while the Anti-ship choppers were held back in case the PLAN decided to get involved.
Seems a bit of an overkill response for a fishing boat.
We're not talking about a canoe where an old man takes his grandchildren out on the lake. The armed and sometimes trained their fishermen to act as a sort of Maritime militia, using them as military auxiliaries to expand their power base in disputed waters. If one was coming towards Japan, it almost certainly meant trouble. With tensions as high as they were, no one wanted to take any chances, even when it came to something that would have otherwise seemed trivial like a trawler.
By the time we arrived on the scene, the waters were as black as the moonless night and choppy to boot. It wasn't exactly storm conditions yet, but the swell looked like one would be coming soon if we didn't wrap up business quickly. I'd expected to see one of our warships making the intercept, but instead it was one of the smaller Coast Guard vessels. Still equipped to do the job, just not nearly as imposing or sending as big of a message. Guess the Maritime Self Defense Force figured a patrol boat and army helicopter were expendable while they held back their full strength. Or maybe they thought that sending a frigate on this job would be a step too far even in a show of strength. Couldn't blame them after putting eyes on the fishing boat itself.
It was nearly as black as the ocean it floated in, none of the usual bright signal lights you'd find on sea going vessels were active. Its engines weren't on either, leaving it drifting as the hull rocked back and forth eerily. It looked like a ghost ship that you'd always hear about from the stories, violent weather patterns and other issues could force a crew into the water for any number of reasons, but I was so paranoid back then that I was convinced it had to be a trap of some kind, maybe a floating bomb or a decoy trying to lead us away from where a real attack could happen.
I made a pass over from the top, seeing if I could stir up any reactions like small arms fire or maybe even rockets. None came, and I took position on the opposite flank of the vessel from the approaching Coast Guard. They stuck a spotlight on the fishing boat, sweeping it back and forth while they called out over a loudspeaker. No one popped up to shoot at them either, but I could have sworn I saw a red stain smeared across the upper decks, though it was hard to tell from the distance I was watching. When they didn't get any response, the Coasties sent out a boarding party that came along the rear of the vessel that was the easiest to climb up. Only two of the boarders had gotten their feet steady when the "crew" decided to make their appearance. There was just one at first, coming out of the entrance to the bridge and staggering in a way that made me think he must have been drunk at first. I thought maybe this whole incident was just the result of some fishermen getting smashed drunk and letting their ship just drift along while they tried to sleep it off. The tenseness left my shoulders for not even a second, then froze back in place when I saw the man lift his arms up and start towards the boarders. I saw the mouth fall open even though I couldn't hear the haunting that would soon be burned into all of our fucking brains.
The Coasties raised their weapons, demanding that he stop. What happened next was a blur. I heard a gunshot over the radio, then suddenly one of our people was on the ground with the fisherman wrestling atop him, snapping his teeth and trying to bite down on his nose. The other boarder tried to help, putting two shots into the attacker's back but the wounds didn't even seem to make him blink. On the active channel I could hear the struggle, the growling and hissing of the fisherman in my ear as if he was right there in the cockpit with me, sending ice cold shivers of fear down my spine. The coastie must have managed to pull a sidearm or something because I heard another gun go off, and this time something shot out the back of the attacker's head. Even from where I was, I could see it wasn't the usual red of blood. It looked almost black or brown, and kept spilling out onto the deck even as the now motionless body was shoved off his intended victim.
There was more motion across the trawler now, as more shambling figures made their way from the lower decks and the bridge towards the sound of the fighting. They were moving with the same awkward yet deliberate pace of the first man, with no weapons in hand or even any showings of surrender. Our vessel's Captain requested that I fire off a few warning shots with my main gun to show them how serious we were and hopefully knock some sense into their stupor. I did as requested, letting off a trio of rounds from the Apache's cannon that landed close enough off the ship's starboard side that some of the water splashed up onto the deck. In the last muzzle flash, I could see one of the darkened figures clear as day, ashen gray face with arms outstretched towards the helicopter as he was trying to pluck us out from the sky. I can still see that image in my mind, the first time I ever made eye contact with the siafu…forever burned into my mind in the muzzle flash of the gun.
None of them were intimidated by my little show of force, obviously, and the patrol boat's crew started laying down fire with its front mounted MG and other small arms to provide cover for the pair of boarders to get the hell back to their raft and away from the deathtrap. Rounds ricocheted everywhere as glass was shattered and sparks from impacts played across the ship, but only a couple of those across the trawler fell due to the withering fire even though I could clearly see that every single one of them had been hit at least two or three times. By the time the Coasties were clear of the ship, the captain wasn't playing around anymore. He gave us the order to sink the trawler.
My co-pilot centered his sights, then put a rocket right in the center of its hull, right below the water line. The effects were as immediate as they were dramatic, the ship listing immediately as it started taking on huge amounts of water all at once. At that point I figured they would have to give some kind of reaction. To somehow show some fear or panic at their doomed ship threatening to take them all to the bottom of the depths with them. But still there was nothing. Even as it slipped beneath the waves, its crew seemed to be entirely focused on the boarding party that had long departed, arms still reaching for them as they were engulfed among the waves.
The patrol ship made a sweep for survivors once it was deemed safe, but no one was found. It was as if none of the crew had chosen to drown rather than just doggy paddle in place until they were picked up. That alone felt completely eerie, and completely wrong.
What did your superiors think?
I'm not entirely sure. The investigation was handed over to the Coast Guard, and whatever they found or didn't find wasn't relayed to me. I told my own bosses about what happened, and they agreed that it didn't make any damn sense to them either. Passionate nationalism driving them to never surrender was one thing, but if the fishermen wanted to make a fight of it, why hadn't they at least shot at us? The best any of us could figure was that my first instinct about them being piss drunk had been right, and they just had been too out of it to put up any kind of a real fight beyond just staggering around. It wasn't a good explanation but what else could it have been?
Did the CCP ever comment on the incident?
That was the weirdest part of all. Normally they would raise hell, rattle their sabers while claiming that their fishermen had done absolutely nothing wrong and demanding that we give compensation. This time, they actually apologized for their countrymen's actions. Even said that they would tighten control on their civilians to make sure they didn't leave Chinese waters again. "In the name of lowering tensions" they said. Once upon a time they would have been shouting from the rooftops for everyone in the international community to know about what happened. Now they wanted it swept under the rug and kept as quiet as possible. THAT should have been the biggest and loudest warning of everything that something bad was coming.
[Morgan pauses a moment, downing the last half of the beer sitting on the stable next to her]
Too many people today forget just how bad that war scare was in the moment. How we genuinely thought that missiles could come raining down on our heads at any minute to kick was what was guaranteed to be the bloodiest conflict mankind had ever seen. Large scale modern war promised death and destruction on a scale that had only been in the worst of man's nightmares up to that point. And that was just talking about conventional weapons, never mind the apocalyptic possibility of a nuclear exchange. I genuinely thought that the Pacific was going to turn into a maelstrom that would kill millions, probably including me.
How the fuck did everything somehow turn out to be worse than that?