30.5.2014
Oberfeldwebel Ulrich Jollenbeck, one of the main drill sergeants of the GSG-9 and the man who has personally trained the Wunderwaffe girls, has reported to me a peculiar event that is occurring with the nation of Japan. The country is mobilizing. This poses a few critical problems with the rest of the international community, the fact that Japan's rearmament movement is undergoing drastic changes in such a short time.
First, the facts: just six months ago, before the start of the Moebius Four Armament Pact, Japan had roughly 250,000 currently active servicemen and servicewomen and roughly another 56,000 reserve forces and the fifth largest defense budget in the world. While under their former Constitution, Japan was barred from having their own formal military, a penalty imposed upon them after their capitulation in the Second World War, so the country formed the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, their de facto military that circumvented the technicalities of Article 9 of their post-war Constitution, encouraged by local American authorities at the time, as well. So with the introduction of the Moebius Four Armament Pact, if I am to understand the terms of this Pact correctly from Seal Team Six, Article 9 is effectively nullified and is no longer in effect, meaning that Japan is free to indoctrinate its own formal military force, which, given its growing right-wing sentiments over the past few years, one might think should have happened by now.
Strangely, however, they have not - their armed forces are still referred to officially as the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. This has multiple implications: first, Japan may be aware of the fact that it is alarming its neighboring countries by suddenly mobilizing their forces within such a short time, and that they feel that their claim to self-defense against this new Abyssal threat is not convincing enough, so they believe that refraining from swearing in a proper military force is necessary to at least prevent international relations with neighboring countries from falling through. Second, they may have not yet formed an official military as a ploy to lure these Abyssal enemies into a false sense of advantage over the Japanese forces by giving off the guise of slowness and unpreparedness. Oberfeldwebel Jollenbeck's report suggests quite the opposite - the Japanese Self-Defense Forces are extremely formidable and are quite mobilized already in response to the Abyssal threat. Third, perhaps the Japanese Self-Defense Forces still require time to organize their assets before declaring themselves a formal military. Whichever the case, the fact that Japan is still relying on its Self-Defense Forces as its active military is both strange and unsettling.
Now, if the Oberfeldwebel's report is to be believed, Japan's standing forces across all military branches stands at an alarming 400,000 and another 100,000 in reserve. Now compare this to the United States' military forces, at roughly 500,000 active personnel with another 500,000 in reserve. While these numbers may not seem like they can compare very well, we must consider that in a matter of years, the Japanese military has increased by a stunning 60% in active personnel, and if the Japanese government ever declares war on this new Abyssal threat, as they are entitled to do with the nullification of Article 9, these numbers for the Japanese Self-Defense Forces are sure to swell even further. And this is not including however many hundreds of naval personnel that make up the Moebius Four Platoon that Seal Team Six has constructed for the Japanese's sake.
Second: Japan remilitarizing so heavily like they are doing now is raising many concerns across the world governments. China, both Koreas, and virtually any country that had been taken over by Japanese conquest pre-World War II are crying foul at Japan's heavy remilitarization efforts, and Japan has been ignoring them, prompting a miniature arms race across all of these countries and thus aggravating the North Korean problem. The delicate situation that those countries in the Far East have been juggling amongst themselves is beginning to become even more frayed, and Japan, the instigator, shows no sign of backing down. While their cause may be justified, the other countries will not tolerate their aggressive militarization. This is the exact identical scenario as Germany's, should we decide to aggressively expand our military forces and resources and assets. After all, our own Bundeswehr is currently having major logistics problems with equipment and gear, and we may not even be able to uphold our obligated NATO promises for EU defense in this fiscal year - but the moment we try to expand our military, all the countries around us shall cry foul and dig up the dead souls of those who have perished in the Second World War some seventy years ago. While understandable, the situation is simply unfortunate - and Japan is demonstrating for everyone else in the international community what will happen if one of the countries of the former Axis Powers attempts to remilitarize as they had done in the past.
Third, Japan's own remilitarization movement has sparked a sort of rightist opinion among our own speakers in government as well. The Abyssal threat has been no secret amongst the world's leading politicians and political authorities; however, in light of the recent large-scale ambush attack that successfully destroyed one of Japan's major naval bases, more and more am I seeing politicians agree that the nations of the world must mobilize at least somewhat for the sake of the defense of their shores against this mysterious seaborne terrorist threat. A few of our own representatives in the Bundestag are calling for strong and aggressive expansion of our own military forces in knowing defiance of the countries around us who may also cry foul at our doing so, and recently, more and more of our representatives are beginning to agree with them.
If Japan shall arm itself, then so shall we...is the atmosphere these days.
Gernot and I hesitate to act just yet. For one, we still have very little information on what or who is responsible for this Abyssal terrorist threat. According to Seal Team Six, the terrorist group I mentioned yesterday, the AAHW, is the group that had constructed the Abyssals and once based their headquarters in a classified location in the Pacific Ocean known as "Sector B", which was destroyed in a joint operation between the Moebius Four Platoon and the JMSDF a month ago. The AAHW themselves have not claimed immediate responsibility for the existence of the Abyssals, and because they are such a small group with a few outstanding members, it is extremely difficult to track them or their actions. Not even Seal Team Six knows exactly what these men are up to. We also have no information on what the Abyssals' course of actions will be following their successful attack on that base in Okinawa. With their headquarters at Sector B destroyed, who knows if they have already established another headquarters territory elsewhere or if the remnants of the Abyssal forces are now simply to be considered roaming entities that must be rounded up and arrested to prevent them from attacking human settlements without restraint. And while Seal Team Six has warned us that the Abyssals could very well target anywhere in the world to be the site of their next attack, I doubt Germany or any of the European countries will be at risk. Though, I suppose if one country here in Europe did get targeted, it would have to be Germany.
Prinz Eugen has informed me that Retia is already learning how to speak and is starting to carry a comprehensive conversation with her and the other Wunderwaffe girls. Considering that she is learning both German and English at the same time, this means that Retia has inherited the brains of her mother, which I am glad to hear. Prinz Eugen is most definitely the most motherly of the girls here. Perhaps Littorio is the more motherly, but she is not always here to take care of Retia like the others are. Retia is very happy whenever she gets to see Prinz Eugen, and for some odd reason, she elects to simply tap Bismarck on the nose whenever the latter attempts to communicate with her, much to Bismarck's embarrassment. It has been a subject of much debate among the girls.
I did take some time to sit the girls down in the living room and speak with them about the developing situation with Japan and their growing military while snacking on some coffee and cookies. Because both Gernot and Bismarck are fond of good beer, they chose to drink their lagers. Because the Wunderwaffe girls are all naval personnel, my husband and I felt that their opinions on this matter are worth their weight in gold, but Lebe pointed out that they have very minimal actual combat experience in their current forms as ship girls to have a solidified opinion on the matter. But what was for certain was that by themselves, there were too few of them to defend the entirety of Europe, even if they were to join forces with the Italian ship girls and the English ship girls. What they needed what combat experience, and quickly. There was only so much training that they could do on their own.
Gernot suggested to me the idea of perhaps flying the girls to Japan. From what we know, the Japanese are focusing their efforts heavily onto their own platoon of ship girls, for the crux of their military will rest on their shoulders for the war against the Abyssals that is soon to be declared, if it has not already been. There were many ship girls there who served at the Okinawa base for months before the fateful Abyssal attack that have amassed much experience in live combat, so the safest way to give the girls the proper training they needed was to send them to Japan. We discussed this possibility with the girls, and they were all in favor of being sent to Japan for training, so Gernot will contact the Japanese Diet and arrange for their trip tomorrow.
Bismarck, however, did have a word with me in private to tell me that she believed it was best for Germany's future if we, too, expanded our own military. She'd taken a look at Germany's numbers, our army count, our equipment, our logistics, and to her disappointment, everything was woefully lacking. She said that she understands why Germany must have a passive military, but she cannot help but feel disappointed and somewhat angered by the pitiful state of her own military. Why is it, she pointed out, that the victors of the war are the ones who are allowed to wield such huge militaries nowadays? It has been some seven decades since the war - surely people have buried the hatchet by now. But I told her that while it would be nice if she were right, the situation wasn't as simple and straightforward as we would like - that we couldn't militarize in the same way as Japan can. We were not yet attacked by the Abyssals, so we don't quite have the same excuse as Japan does for rearming itself and growing its military powers. And even if we do come under Abyssal attack, there would still be much opposition to our country attempting to amass a strong military to defend against future Abyssal attacks.
"Then if we cannot expand our military," Bismarck told me, "why not construct more of us? Us Wunderwaffe naval personnel."
While that would certainly be quite luxurious, I told Bismarck that we were under contract with Seal Team Six. We wouldn't have more than the five we had now. Besides, just having us was like having an extended family, and it was fun being able to get to know everyone like this. Bismarck admitted that if I put it in such a poignant way, there was no way she could argue against me.