Japan is essentially a cherry blossom country. - Stanisław Tym, the film "Rozmowy Kontrolowane"
20 Apr 1641 C.C.Y
The Empire of Parpaldia
Esthirant
Imperial Palace
It has been only three full years since Poland's arrival in this world and the effects of this have already been seen. Like a stone thrown into a calm lake, it has shattered the harmony of the clear sheet of water.
His Imperial Majesty Ludius was to see for himself, a year ago he was the ruler of a respectable superpower. Yes, the weakest of all the world's superpowers, but still a superpower.
This was the case until last year, by the way, today marks the first anniversary of this event. Since April 20, 1640, the Empire of Parpaldia has gone from being a superpower to an ordinary power, well not that ordinary. It still remains the most powerful and richest country of the third sphere and more than 68% of the GDP of the Philades Continent is generated by Parpaldia all the time.
Unfortunately, it is no longer a completely independent state. Not after a humiliating defeat at Polish hands. Although Poland knocked out Parpaldia without much effort, the country that claimed the biggest prize was Japan. It was she who got Parpaldia's biggest market, it was she who subjugated the third zone's biggest military power.
Ludius remembered well that day a year ago, he remembered how Edward Gierek, with fury in his eyes, signed the peace treaty ending the war for Altaras. He guessed that Gierek did not expect such a peace, yes he defended the independence of the island kingdom thus gaining Poland an important ally and partner.
Yes Poland seized all the overseas bases of Parpaldia, and snatched a treaty port for itself. As well as being recognized as the guarantor of the independence of the newly established states in the north of Parpaldia, retreating the Empire's territory to the south.
But what good is that since Parpaldia has avoided subjugation, and what's more, a huge and profitable market has become the spoils not of the Poles but of the Japanese? It is Japan that has duty-free trade with Parpaldia. It is Japan that has seized important deposits of natural resources that will allow it to more quickly break out of its raw material dependence on Poland.
In the end, it was Japan that carried out its plan, avoiding alienation and cutting off Poland from countries further northeast, except for the Kingdom of Riem, which are joining Japan's sphere of prosperity in a silent trade war.
Poland was left to settle for the rest. It's like showing a dog a bowl in which juicy meat has been placed on dry crisps, then taking the meat from the bowl and having the dog eat the crisps alone while eating the meat itself.
Of course, there are many more crunches, even too many for a dog to eat them all in one go, but still, it's not the same as meat even if it's a few pieces.
Ludius, on the whole, did not complain, perhaps not his best-case scenario came true, but not the worst either. The losses turned out to be much lower than he thought, while the Japanese proposal will easily make up for them and even surpass the previous state.
Of course, as he expected, the price he had to pay for Japanese help in getting out of trouble was considerable. No less the gains he will make from this help will far outweigh the price.
Because how do you explain the fact that the price for the aid, was to open the market and make the Imperial Army an auxiliary force for the JSDF, and that these obviously assume the modernization of Parpaldia to be of any use to Japan?
Thanks to Japanese specialists, it can not only make Parpaldia leap centuries of technological development, but also surpass the most advanced superpower on Earth to date? That is, the Holy Milishiant Empire.
Moreover, the Japanese did not hide at all the fact that the Imperial Armed Forces could eminently help them in military operations, acting as the backbone of the army to offset Japan's greatest weakness against Poland.
The number of armed forces and the ability to replenish them. Yes that the Japanese are much more numerous than the Poles. The problem is that the Japanese are much less willing to serve in the military, despite the fact that their entire economy has collapsed and the Military in times of crises, especially security is always a stable employer.
And the Polish People's Army is a conscript army, which, combined with a young population, gives tangible results that in the event of war will be much larger than the JSDF without effort.
Anyway, let a good example be the fact that there are barely twice as many Japanese aged 10-14 as Poles of the same age! And this is, after all, Japan has 127 million people and Poland barely 36 million. What's worse, it's Poland that can only grow and Japan that will decline over the next 20 years.
Even if young Japanese adults started having three children per family. Add to that the unexpected immigration of tourists from Japan, and the sudden birthday boom after April 1(Wonder why?) after they moved into this world. This paints a grim picture for Japan. Ludius knew this well, after all, this is one of the things his spies in Japan brought first.
This gave him a good negotiating position, for Japan needs bodies in the event of an armed conflict, and these could be provided by Parpaldia, since America had rolled out of their hands, and the Poles had passed a great distance from Japan's attempts.
Therefore, with appropriate leverage on his part, he agreed to the Japanese proposal, although he had planned to drag out the negotiations more, but when the Polish-American pact was announced he understood that time was up. Of course it would cause some upheaval in his country, as well as anger that they had to obey those barbarians from across the eastern sea, but for Ludius it was a mere triviality. This was not the kind of obstacle he had to overcome for the first time, he had done it many times.
He was pleased to see a copy of the treaty for his hands. Later today he was to sign it in Tokyo.
The preamble itself read as follows
The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their faith in the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their desire to live in peace with all peoples and all governments.
They are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilization of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. They seek to promote stability and well-being in the Philades area.
They are resolved to unite their efforts for collective defense and for the preservation of peace and security. They therefore agree to this Philades Treaty :
From what Ludius has learned, the Polish-American treaty is called the Warsaw Pact 2.0 by virtue of the fact that much of the provisions as well as the preamble itself are literally copied word for word from the original Polish-Soviet treaty forming the original Warsaw Pact. An alliance in which Poland was until three years ago an involuntary member.
In turn, the one that appears before it in many of its provisions, as well as in its preamble, is a copy of the treaty of the opposition alliance founded by America and its allies in non-communist Europe.
Ludius found this "copying game" quite amusing. Of course, he had to sign some papers on human rights and similar nonsense, but these are just details that do not add to the picture of the whole, nor can they overshadow the interests of both countries.
"Your Highness!" cried Supreme Chamberlain Julius Kaisar entering his office. Ludius raised his head laying down the treaty he was holding in his hands.
"Your plane is ready to fly to Tokyo." Kaisar informed.
Ludius smiled contentedly, barely a year ago he was signing a humiliating treaty and the future of Parpaldia looked dark. Now he had the opportunity to erase the bad impression that day of defeat by signing a new treaty that gives Parpaldi another chance to rise from its decline.
Or at least that's what Emperor Ludius V of the Coniuspolscium dynasty thought when he left his office, but it's only the court of Gods and History that will pass judgment on whether this actually happened.
For there is a reason that all hundreds of years later in Parpaldia, this day is still remembered as a day of disaster, right?
May 1, 2017 J.C
Empire of Japan
Tokyo
"Eat it up Mr. Gierek." said Yomoya contentedly to himself, watching television which showed Gierek speaking against the backdrop of Warsaw's landmark Palace of Culture while sipping a glass of champagne.
Why did he watch exactly that? Well, Yomoya did so mainly because... he was practicing his knowledge of the Polish language. As he heard it from Gierek, or perhaps another of his party colleagues, the language of the enemy must be known after he learned that he understood German.
He then asked out of curiosity why he knew the language of the cruel occupier. He found this advice extremely useful, so he practiced speaking the new language. Not to talk to Poles, but to understand what they were saying among themselves. Without intermediaries.
Of course, Polish wasn't the only language he learned; Milishian, Parpeldian, and Muanese were also on his list.
From what he understood, Gierek was strongly dissatisfied with Japan's response to the Polish treaty, although he did not directly threaten Japan, one could sense between the words Gierek's true feelings and thus Poland's true position.
Well, last year was a year of change for Japan. As expected, Parpaldia came to Japan for help. They helped them, but demanded significant concessions. Some saw this as an analogy to what Japan did with Korea, but in reality Yomoya was much wiser. Why outright subjugate a country when you can do it with white gloves and they'll even love you for it?
It did what the U.S. did to Western Europe after World War II. Although it was not an overlapping analogy in its entirety. No less the degree of dependence as well as cooperation is modeled there.
This has helped Japan stand firmly on its feet to a considerable degree, although the fact is that it has been greatly outclassed. If it were now back on Earth, its Earth, it would not be in the top 10 economies of the world. She would be ranked much lower, ahead of South Korea but barely ahead.
GDP losses have been calculated at more than three trillion USD, that is, Japan's economy is the size of ¼ pre-transfer. Someone will say that this is still a lot, but Yomoya remembers well how quickly the Poles caught up in two decades.
They went from over $60 billion in GDP in 1991 to over $533 billion in 2008. And yet they started from a much worse ceiling than they have now. After a grueling economic crisis, with the loss of a very receptive eastern market, with the idiotic in his opinion Barcelovich plan implemented in the name of ideology rather than helping Poland. What success Poland achieved was astounding, and this despite the stabs thrown by the Polish government at the feet of the Poles themselves.
Although as prime minister he was concerned about the next 20 years, the years during which he will not govern. He is too old for that, but he will most likely see what will happen. That's how his economist's soul, with anticipation, watched what the Poles would do. That they would become a superpower economy he did not doubt, he even suspected that they could surpass even Japan in the long run.
He was simply curious what the Poles would come up with to get there. After all, who can stop them? Their former rivals and eternal enemies remained in that world. Their place of summoning placed them far from their enemies, they even got security at the level of the U.S. for any enemy must first cross the oceans to get to them.
And thanks to the proximity of the third sphere and Japan, they can develop very quickly, even faster than on Earth because they do not have to compete with the old industrial powers of Europe which have established markets, while Japan itself needs them to drive product prices down.
At the same time, it is not even as dangerous for Japan as many of its opponents would like to say. The sooner Poland gets richer, the sooner Japan will return to normalcy, and after all, that's what it's all about now. Japan needs markets, and a richer Poland means a bigger market, and what's more, a richer Poland means more richer markets in the third sphere because it's all developing thanks to Poland investing and selling in third sphere countries.
In turn, this will make previously expensive products from Japanese companies much cheaper for the wallets of natives because they can afford them in reasonable numbers.
In general, trading is not a zero-sum game, everyone will profit from it with the right approach.
The case is completely different in the case of Politics, here it is more difficult to have a win-win. Sometimes someone has to lose for another to win. Such was the case with Parpaldia, from what the interviewer struggled to pull out, Poland believes it also lost that war because it fought for much more and got barely the minimum.
He knew well what was at stake. Had Poland, as intended, knocked down after which subjugated Parpaldia as a people's republic, Japan would have been in a bad position. With only a couple of primitive states as allies, she would have had almost an entire continent of countries against her, separating her from the wider world.
Of course, it would have been even more difficult for Poland to maintain this than it is now, but she would have had Parpaldia and thus its resources and wealth which she could have siphoned off for herself. Thus Japan was forced to rely on Polish goodwill for essential trade for survival.
Fortunately, Poland was persuaded, in exchange for technological assistance, to go to peace and agree to the current terms. Of course, neither Parpaldian nor the Poles are satisfied with the current agreement.
This is because Parpaldian is humiliating them as well as limiting their hitherto unlimited opportunities. They want to get back at Poland for obstructing their plans as well as losing their superpower status.
For the Poles are not enough in relation to their war efforts. Only they are sure that they will get reimbursed for the war, and the amount they have sung not small for Parpaldia. As soon as they have the opportunity they will try to repaint the world map in their favor.
Only Japan's strength and the efforts of its diplomacy maintain this fragile peace, which actually only the Altaras are satisfied with because they got what they wanted.
The Parpaldians caught the carrot in the form of helping to modernize their country, the Poles through cooperation in the maritime field. Let's not hide, technology is Japan's greatest asset as well as its bargaining chip. It must use it carefully.
Fortunately, the greatest period of weakness, during which Polish intelligence, which should not be underestimated because it is Cold War, made daring moves to steal a couple of weapons. Getting hold of secret technical documentation, or sacking a couple of competent Japanese politicians by pulling their dirt from the closet.
Anyway, the latter was a serious lesson for those believing in the superiority of technological supremacy. Even the most advanced equipment is no substitute for skills or their use. Polish intelligence may be limited to primitive computers and a classic notepad with a pen, but that doesn't mean it can't swoop in and get what it wants.
As well as reminded everyone that there is certainly no shortage of hackers in this country, who happen to be starving, so Polish zlotys do not stink to them, after all, they do not eat the air.
Speaking of hackers, Yoshinori now recalled an astonishing report on Polish technological capabilities from the computer industry. The specialists sent as part of the Polish-Japanese agreement, nothing new in fact they had already done this once in 1994 simply repeated the same agreement only with earlier Poland to open a computer technology academy in Poland had the opportunity to learn about Polish technical thought.
Surprisingly innovative and ingenious for the period in which the equipment was developed. But that was not the source of the surprise. What surprised them most was that the Poles had reverse-engineered a computer from the 1990s.
More precisely, on the basis of old computers purchased in Japan, they built their own from Polish components and with a purely Polish programming language called Loglan 75. Of course, as befits a prototype, the whole thing was of average workmanship, the machine had periodic problems with operation.
No less when all was well, the computer worked great and flawless in terms of normal use. Some even went so far as to say that it gave them a new outlook.
Yoshinori himself was not interested in most of these delights. Ot, a computer from the 90s built by machines from the 70s. A surprise, yes. But is it a problem? Not very.
On the contrary, this is even good news, if the Poles are now able to produce poor quality but working components it will effectively help to sell the price. Especially when it comes to semiconductors. Japan yes is one of the world's leading producers of this component.
The problem is that now that there is no possibility of importing from abroad, semiconductor prices have jumped up sharply. The effect of this, is a bottleneck, especially since the best ones were produced by the Dutch who did not share the secrets of their production with anyone.
Whether Yoshinori wants it or not, and to be clear he would prefer not to, he needs the Poles to master the production of components of good quality and appropriate technical sophistication for Japanese needs as soon as possible. Until they do, the production of any advanced equipment requiring advanced electronics will become more expensive, a good example being car prices. They have all jumped up and up sharply and automobile corporations have also been forced to postpone plans for new cars.
This is the reason why the Japanese, hitherto reluctant to import and buy cars of non-Japanese brands, started buying Polish cars de facto causing sales records. Despite their quality, although here he had to admit the Poles did their homework after a couple of incidents because of the quality of the products, the new FSM 126p and FSO 125p are much better made than the older ones.
And the cars themselves are a pittance, Toyota or Mitsubishi can always go back to older models. Which, by the way, Honda was the first to do by offering discontinued models of the car. Another method is to sell the handicapped current models, that is, due to high demand, they simply removed those components that are in short supply on the market, mainly electronics.
Much worse is the production of computers, telephones, satellites or the worst problem, guided missiles. These being the main advantage and advantage of the Japanese over the Poles, they obviously require advanced electronics to make them work. While they can, in the event of war, divert most of their capacity to missile production, it will hurt.
Because while the Army or Air Force can eventually do without these modern inventions, simply reverting to attacking with more traditional methods, the navy will not necessarily.
Their greatest advantage, is their technical advantage and thus their range. For not only can they spot the enemy from over the horizon, but they can also attack him. Unfortunately, the missiles are expensive, difficult and time-consuming to produce, while the rate at which they are lost in warfare is enormous.
And Poland or other New World powers are not like Louria and Parpaldia which sail wooden ships, when it comes to a cannon fight the victory is not so obvious. Yes they have an accuracy advantage, but still, it's exposing themselves to attack. This in turn contradicts the current style of warfare at sea.
Yoshinori still had in the back of his mind a warning from the JSDF that their stockpile of guided missiles was only for three weeks of fighting.
He just prayed that he would not get into a full-scale war within the next decade, in which case Japan would get up to quite a logistical challenge.
They should be able to cope with Poland, mainly at sea because the Poles are rather unfamiliar with conducting naval operations. In turn, the Americans can do little to help them here. The Poles must learn to do it themselves.
The problem is that when it comes to the navy, I think Poles learn too well.
But let's leave that topic, Yoshinori felt that for the time being everything was ticked off, all pressing matters taken care of, needs provided for. Just to stay the course and wait for the first fruits of his three-year effort to get through the difficult period to appear.
What can he take care of? He pondered for a moment before reminding himself of another important aspect of cooperation with Parpaldia. The Poles, yes, thanks to the Americans, can push their technical development forward, learn from them the art of seamanship, and develop their economic power. But it is Japan that has claimed the most important spoils to be won in the third sphere.
Biomagic.
Yoshinori pulled out from a hidden drawer a folder marked that it was for the prime minister's inspection only. Under this folder was a page titled "Universal Soldier Program." Smiling, he browsed through the planned experiments and goals to be achieved. If it succeeds, and after all, they have access to experts from Parpaldia, then the problem of the aging population and will no longer be so problematic.
Yes it is worth having a Plan B, hence the need to get cannon fodder in the form of Parpaldians, yes however Plan A is more preferred. At the end of the day, magic seems an appropriate shortcut to genetic modification. The Parpaldians were able, at the level of the early 19th century, to breed a new species of dragons as well as improve the current ones.
Just add to this the achievements in biotechnology and the developed apparatus, and Japan is sure to achieve what seemed impossible. Especially since Parpaldians are quick learners and the research being done is very promising.
Yoshinori looked at the TV again and muttered, "You don't wake a sleeping dragon, do you Comrades?"