The Emperor's Suggestion

Yokota Air Base. April 29, 2020

Lt. Gen. Kevin Schneider frowned as his character was again defeated by the Ebony Warrior. Deciding to take a break, he rose from the computer chair. Taking a beer from the fridge, he started to gulp down its contents. He could not help but lament the taste of Asahi, it had nothing on Budweiser from back home…

He immediately stopped his train of thought before it would take him to darker places, but did not entirely succeed. To distract himself, he decided on yet another rematch with the Ebony Warrior. Perhaps he could try to lure his opponent to the edge of a cliff and shout him to his falling death.

A month ago, he could not imagine he would spend most of his time on duty killing time before a computer screen. Yet, what else was there to do?

The modern military ran on oil. A fact he knew but had never had to worry about, since the commodity had always been readily available on demand. America would always ensure that all its military forces, regardless of where on Earth they were, would remain generously supplied.

That had all changed on April 1. Suddenly they had found themselves in another world, America gone, and Japan had virtually cut off access to all its oil for the U.S. Forces in Japan.

Schneider had immediately appealed to the Japanese government, but he was unable to change their minds. The argument Japan provided had been straightforward: Food shortages and a massive fall in standards of living were larger security threats than military conflicts with foreign forces. Therefore, supplying oil to the logistics line between Japan and the new continent, the projects over there, as well as the oil exploration missions at sea needed to take priority over everything else in order to maximize security (implying that less oil for the U.S. forces increased security), and with their meager stockpiles they had no oil left to spare them. Yet it did not escape Schneider's notice that the JSDF was still as well-supplied with oil and other fuels as always.

Of course, lack of oil was not the only problem for the U.S. forces here. Military equipment needed constant maintenance and spare parts (the U.S. military spent more money on operations and maintenance than China and Russia combined spent on their entire militaries). Japan had refused to shoulder this burden, explaining that the entire Japanese industrial sector, which had been greatly disrupted by the transfer, was already at full capacity providing for its citizens and the overseas economic projects through this crisis. But this meant that eventually when American military equipment started breaking down, it would remain that way and could not be replaced.

Taken together, and the U.S. Forces in Japan had been paralyzed. Most personnel could not even afford to continue training, as a lot of training consumed fuel and ammunition, and further deprecated their military equipment, which they had to save for as long as they could. And lacking instructions from the American government, as well as no military security threats in this world that needed to be addressed, many of the personnel at Yokota were unsure what their role now was. At least Japan still paid their personnel, even if most spent their time on duty playing video games, partying, and the like. And with the rising food and fuel costs, their pay started to mean less and less.

He wondered about the situation back home. The disappearance of America's unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Asia-Pacific had probably been a huge blow to his country's strategic position. The U.S. had also lost a significant military ally; while it was not commonly known, Japan had possessed the most powerful navy among all of Washington's global partners. And it certainly did not help that much of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, the largest of America's numbered fleets, had been lost along with it. Just how was America to face a rising China with its diminished prospects? He would just have to place his faith in President Trump to pull his country through these trying times.

Then there was the other source of tension between his forces and the Japanese government: for more than two weeks now Japan had pressured them to negotiate over control of the airspace over Japan. The U.S. forces controlled much of the airspace over central Japan, and Japan had made it clear for some time that it wanted some of it back. At the instructions of the U.S. government, Schneider and those before him had consistently refused to negotiate the issue, except for minor changes, and there was nothing Japan had been able to do about that. But with America now gone, Japan had started to intensify its pressure that they negotiate the issue. Schneider, like all other U.S. personnel, had sworn the Oath of Enlistment, meaning he would always have to serve the U.S. government for as long as he was in service. And since the U.S. position had always been that they retain control of the airspace over central Japan…

He was really torn about this.

"It is a common misconception," began a professor of neuropsychiatry, "to believe that the 'mind' exists separate from the body. There is in fact no evidence for the existence of the mind, as opposed to the physiological states of the body. Some describe this as the mereological fallacy."

They were sitting around a round table in a square-shaped room, with the familiar minimalist wood paneling theme typical of Japanese interior design, where Nakano and other officials from the Ministry of Defense were attending another meeting with a panel of experts.

Nakano nodded. He had heard similar explanations from other professors and scientists both in this and previous meetings with expert panels. "In that case, why do you think almost all the deck officers claimed they 'felt' something enter their 'minds'?"

The professor tilted his head. "There is insufficient data to make anything conclusive out of that. For all we know, they could have just imagined it. Although I confess that it is statistically unlikely for that to happen to so many at the same time. Perhaps that sea animal performed some sort of sonic attack? Just take any claims of 'mind control' or 'psychic attacks' with a great dose of skepticism however. Such concepts are almost as unscientific as magic."

Nakano and the rest of his ministry discussed the issue for a little longer with the gathered experts before adjourning the meeting, and he walked out of the room to the main parts of the Kantei. Normally such a briefing, as well as the rest of his job, would have taken place in the headquarters of his ministry in Ichigaya, but in order to save fuel, they could not afford to regularly have staffers from various cabinets commute across the city, and so many functions of other ministries had increasingly moved to the Kantei.

Looking out of one of the numerous windows, where sounds of commotion could be heard, he saw the hundreds of anti-nuclear protesters who had assembled just outside the building, many of whom were striking their clubs against the wall of riot police officers. A few were even throwing molotov cocktails.

Nakano turned away from the sight and hoped things would not turn even more agitated. While protests in Japan rarely became violent, it appeared that the mass unemployment, growing number of people being idle, and the fall in standards of living had started to spill over into greater dissatisfaction, and more demonstrations were being seen as a result in Tokyo and elsewhere. For their part, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare was worried about the massive gatherings accelerating the transmission of COVID-19.

But the government could not budge on the nuclear power issue. Yes, numerous post-Fukushima safety regulations were being skirted to allow the mass restart of most nuclear power plants, but the frequency of earthquakes had significantly decreased since the transfer; the risk of tsunamis hitting Japan had been substantially downgraded as a result. And they desperately needed the additional power to offset the loss of LNG energy generation, not to mention the net reduction in oil consumption the restarts would bring.

For the same reason, they could not stop the planned offshore oil projects in the north. Damned sea monster...

It had been two days since that incident had shook the entire Cabinet Office. The shell-shocked deck officers had called the relevant authorities and frenziedly explained the situation.

A creature large and heavy enough to significantly shake the Chikyū on impact. A creature that actually deliberately swam into collision course with the ship. And a creature that had astonishingly immobilized several deck officers through a 'psychic attack'.

None of it made sense, the biologists, the zoologists, and the neuroscientists had told him. A creature capable of causing such rockings to Chikyū had to be significantly heavier than even a blue whale, which was not metabolically feasible. And marine animals did not intentionally swim into ships. And, as that distinguished professor from the University of Tokyo had just told him, mind attacks were impossible because the mind did not technically exist. But unlike what the professor had offhandedly suggested, it was almost certainly not a sonic attack, because the sonic equipment on the ship had not picked up on anything of the like.

Nakano sighed. It was typically Japanese to deliberate about the details and avoid taking action. They needed to act, and quickly, if Japan was to survive as an industrialized country. What he planned to do regrettably went against some conservation laws and treaties, and he would undoubtedly receive protests from wildlife conservation organizations, but the sea monster had started it with its attack. It needed to be stopped before it could further disrupt oil rig projects. In fact, given its unknown powers and aggression the creature could realistically be seen as a security threat that needed to be dealt with.

It was time to call in the JMSDF.

The two Kongō-class destroyers reduced their speeds as they arrived at the project site to the north of Japan, where several offshore oil platforms were being assembled, joining several other destroyers and other naval ships that were already guarding the area. They took their spots at the designated positions, forming a defensive ring around the project sites. Dozens of ships and tens of thousands of workers were participating in the assembly of the platforms, far more than was usual for such projects. With this many people involved, they hoped to have the first oil rigs in production within less than six months.

Captain Ichiro looked outside from the bridge of the Kongō-class ship as he sipped on his green tea. It was a clear day, with barely any clouds hanging in the bright blue sky. Looking over at the sparkling blue water, he was seriously considering taking a dip later if time would permit. Though he imagined it would be rather cold up here in the north.

He was interrupted from his musings by one of the officers, who burst out: "Active sonar has detected a large submarine target! Distance, nineteen kilometers. Depth, 1,200 meters." The officers then communicated this to the other naval ships in the fleet.

Ichiro felt a rush of excitement. Finally some real action for once in his life, instead of one of those drills. "Tell them we'll handle this," he said. "Good, then let us approach until we are five kilometers from the target. Remember the instructions from HQ."

About twenty minutes later a remotely operated underwater vehicle had been lowered into the sea. Per the instructions, they needed to acquire target identification to determine whether they could proceed to the next stage of the operation. The officers waited patiently as the underwater vehicle approached its intended target. Finally, it was close enough that it became visible as headlights shone on the target, and the live footage was sent to video screens on the ship.

"That's it!" one of the officers exclaimed. "The sea monster!"

It did look very much like the target description they had received. Even though not all of it was visible, it was certainly large, and its angular head and tendrils made it look very distinctive. Its jaws were enormous, the hundreds of teeth clearly visible before the cameras as they seemed to come closer…

"Communications lost! The vehicle has stopped sending signals!"

"'Aggressive' is an understatement," muttered another officer. "That marine creature attacks everything in sight..."

"Target is starting to move toward the surface!"

Ichiro saw no point in delaying any further. "Once it is less than three hundred meters from the surface, fire two ASROCs at the target with a twenty second interval between launches," he commanded. "And remember to maintain the minimum four kilometer perimeter to avoid its strange attacks." They were lucky that the sea creature did not attempt to move toward them from greater depths where their torpedoes could not reach it, before resurfacing from right under them. Not that they would have allowed that to happen, with the countermeasures they had in place.

After the sea creature had approached the designated depth, the missiles were fired in succession from the ship's vertical launch cells. A deafening boom was heard and smoke trails were visible in the sky. The torpedoes separated from the missiles close to above of where the submerged creature was, and slowly fell into the sea by parachute, where they activated upon contact with the water. The sea creature in question seemed to have stopped its ascent at a depth of around fifty meters, and instead began to move toward the direction of their ship.

One of the officers began a countdown. "Time on target in 7...6...5…

Ichiro shivered as he suddenly felt an invisible presence in his head, not so potent that it would force him to his knees, but it still clearly impacted his motor functions. And it appeared he was not the only one feeling something, as the officer doing the countdown had abruptly stopped.

Seconds later it stopped as a geyser-like eruption was seen some kilometers away. "S-successful hit," an officer stammered. About twenty seconds later, another wide column of white water was seen in the distance.

With the strange mind attacks having been reported by several naval officers, including the commanding officer, the cabinet could no longer ignore the issue, and a task force was quickly set up to investigate and research the issue further. So far, the only information they had was that the intensity of its attacks were possibly affected by distance, as the naval officers had been much less affected than the officers aboard Chikyū. And results from national laboratories, who were to study some body parts of the creature that were to be raised from the depths, would not be available for many more months. Outside the government, the reports of the mind attacks sent shocks through academia, the scientific community, and many ordinary Japanese people. News media featured editorials proclaiming that human understanding of physiology had been forever altered by these incidents. Many were still skeptical, however.

Luckily, no other member of the same species had been sighted as another month went by. Indeed, things were starting to look up for various overseas economic projects. Sufficient oil reservoirs at sea and on land had been discovered that would last Japan many years, once the wells and rigs had been assembled.

In Shin Minami, more than 50,000 square kilometers of arable land had been cultivated by the start of June, with the size still expanding. Apparently, the enormous swaths of arable land stretching much of the northern shores of the continent, and bordered by massive subtropical and tropical forests, were some of the most fertile lands ever observed, at least by Earth standards; with continuous flat terrain, fertile soil, an overabundance of river deltas, and heavy rainfall seasons yet long sunshine durations, this region would eventually become an ideal agricultural production center. The widespread amount of monoculture plant crops identical to those on Earth that were found naturally occurring there also helped immensely, with their seeds used to scale up seeding and the produce shipped back to the Home Islands.

The first major crop harvest from intensive agriculture, on the other hand, was a few months away. Sure, the estimated annual cereal yield per hectare was a paltry two thousand kilograms compared to six thousand in Japan, but that was what you got when quality of execution was sacrificed for speed, especially with regards to soil fertilization.

The expedition had also found abundant reserves of uranium, coal, iron, bauxite, phosphorus, and even some rare-earth minerals. And all for Japan.

With the passing month, the overseas economic projects caused some disagreements between some regional governments, and some property and rent disputes between a few corporations in Shin Minami. There had also been a minor diplomatic incident, which culminated in Minato arriving at the Embassy of Panama to issue a formal apology and express deep regrets on behalf of Japan. Evidently, the Osaka Municipal Government had thought it was within their legal constraints to seize the Panama-registered vessels docked in Osaka for the purposes of bolstering shipping capacity and reducing bottlenecks at their harbors, all in the interest of improving logistical efficiency relating to the overseas economic projects. It had been up to Minato to resolve the diplomatic incident. And twenty minutes after his meeting with the Ambassador of Panama, he was in the Kantei.

"... expect to achieve self-sufficiency in the production of these key natural resources between the second half of and the end of Reiwa 3," Minato supplied to Naruhito.

As usual for these types of conferences, they were sitting in a wood-paneled room. Minato and his cabinet had gathered to give the Emperor a thorough briefing, and to discuss further policy goals of the government beyond the acute economic ones.

Naruhito nodded. His face seemed to have regained some of the lost mirth since the start of the transfer.

"Your Majesty, we have also decided to release the stored water at the Fukushima nuclear plant directly into the ocean," added the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, "and we assure you that the concentrations are so small they would have zero impact on the ecology of the oceans." The Minister of the Environment could be heard cracking her knuckles.

"Very well," said Naruhito. His gaze then fell on the only piece of visual art hanging in the room; a woodblock print belonging to Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series. "When I look upon that work, one of the last by the great Hokusai, I am reminded of the closing of a past era. I am reminded of the end of sakoku, of our policy of self-isolation from the rest of the world." He leaned forward. "Tell me, when is the end of our unofficial sakoku in this world?"

Minato frowned. "Your Majesty, we have thus far been so preoccupied with the immediate crises that few in our cabinet have even given a thought about opening up relations with the rest of the world." And still are, Minato added silently. "We are also constrained by international law treaties that prevent us from entering the territories of other states. We do know this; no society in this world has reached the industrial revolution, confirmed by the lack of lights at night in our satellite images, a lack of radio signals, a lack of greenhouse gas emissions, and other indicators."

"Besides," said the Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare, "it would be irresponsible of us Japanese to interact with other societies with the COVID-19 situation at home, as we are approaching fifty thousand confirmed cases. We would be spreading the virus to the rest of the world."

"We could require comprehensive PCR testing of anyone who visits other inhabited lands," someone else suggested.

"The press and many other ordinary Japanese people have started to wonder about the lands to the east," said the Minister for Foreign Affairs Hideaki Shinoda. "A recent poll in the Asahi showed that more than 70% would support government efforts to try to open up relations with the societies there. If we tarry for too long, we might risk producing dissatisfaction unnecessarily."

It was clear Minato was still hesitant about the prospect. But reluctantly, he offered the following: "We could start setting up task forces and expert panels to study and review how to best go about this. If everything goes smoothly, we might be prepared to send out our first expedition to the eastern continent in a few months."