1.6.2014
Today, I received another report from Oberfeldwebel Jollenbeck. It states that in light of Japan's increasing militarism, we have been approved to construct another naval personnel to augment the Italian squadron. The Wunderwaffe team has already received the blueprints and coding data to be implemented into this new Italian naval personnel and are already at work building her. The team has been very eager to have an opportunity to work on another ship girl, for this weapons program, clearly, is quite unlike anything they have ever worked on before. So great is their eagerness that the entire team has allegedly been building the blueprint data for future German naval personnel, should we ever receive the green light from Seal Team Six. Jollenbeck commented that when he was summoned to the government facilities that we have allocated to the Wunderwaffe team, he witnessed a scene of fanatical eagerness the nation had never seen since the days of the Third Reich. I hope he did not say that to be extremely derogatory, so I asked him to refrain from comments such as that.
A destroyer this time, by the name of Libeccio. I daresay Lebe and Max will enjoy having another destroyer friend to accompany them.
In order to fulfill my promise to Bismarck that I had made the previous night, I discussed the suggestion that my husband made with him about the true feasibility of such a suggestion. He divulged to me that it was more of a whimsical suggestion than a serious one, that it was something he'd mentioned without completely thinking it through. He seemed surprised that I took his words seriously, because considering the state that Japan is in currently, he couldn't imagine that Japan would actually agree to doing something like accepting our naval personnel for training purposes, even if we do have historically close relations. But when I relayed the arguments that Bismarck had brought up to me yesterday, he understood my sincerity for this kind of suggestion and asked me to give the Americans a call in his stead.
So I spent about half an hour in the morning in my office speaking with Frau Lauren on various topics concerning the ship girls. First, I asked her about the possibility of allowing the production of more German naval personnel. I spoke about several issues of contention, including the fact that while Japan is currently fielding an entire Platoon of naval personnel, Germany and Italy have barely enough to form a squadron put together in comparison. It is unlike me to be pushy and demanding, but I had to speak in a, dare I say, edgy tone in order to maximize my chances of convincing the Seal Team Six member to allow us to produce more naval personnel of our own. Unfortunately, this plan did not work - Frau Lauren stated that they could not allow that, not because they held a grudge against Germany as a nation or because of any direct hostilities against us in particular, but because the simple fact that they were allowing the Germans to produce naval personnel of their own would appear, to the Japanese, like an act of aggression.
Frau Lauren explained that right now, because of the Moebius Four Armament Program, tensions between the United States and Japan quickly deteriorated and are still in the process of deteriorating ever since the incident one month ago, when the Japanese naval base at Okinawa was ambushed and destroyed. She informed me that the Japanese were blaming the loss of the base on the premise that the commander of the base, who, as we'd already been told, was an American fleet commander. She suspected that this was a ploy on the part of the Japanese Diet to wrest total control of the Moebius Four Platoon away from Seal Team Six's hands and claim it as their own, from which point they would be free to do as they wished with their fleet of naval personnel. And because the Moebius Four Armament Pact has already almost completely removed all American military presence in Japan, Japan would not only have a rapidly progressing military that will inevitably soon reach maturity but also a deadly platoon of ship girls who will control the seas and give the new Japanese military an alarming amount of influence over Southeast Asian sea and air traffic. As collateral, the Platoon would also give the Japanese Diet tremendous political leverage in the Southeast Asian sphere and eventually the global political sphere.
Therefore, in light of these deteriorating relations, the Japanese government would surely find out on their own accord if Seal Team Six was leaking orders to us to construct more naval personnel of our own and view this as an American plot to spread the technology behind the Platoon to other nations in an attempt to create a buffer against their own force of naval personnel. They should be already aware of the fact that Germany and Italy technically already have their own small forces of naval personnel, according to Frau Lauren, but given the size of our own detachments, they do not consider us a threat. But as soon as they realize that our naval personnel numbers are growing, they will then treat this occurrence as a direct threat to their own Platoon's strength, by which point all American-Japanese relations will most likely be terminated. Frau Lauren also mentioned that more than likely, Japan would also mark us as potential threats as well, should we develop our own naval personnel forces, and our own relations would also deteriorate. So for the sakes of both of our countries, she declared that any expansions to the Wunderwaffe program in the near future would be folly.
I then asked her about the construction of this new Italian destroyer, Libeccio, who was ordered to be constructed. If Frau Lauren was so adamant in her aforementioned beliefs, then why did her team allow the construction of a new ship girl for the Italians? Given everything she had said, such an order is very blatantly contradictory.
Apparently, according to Frau Lauren, a third Italian ship girl was a long time in the making. Her team had been debating giving the go-ahead for the Wunderwaffe team to construct another naval personnel, and if and when they did, whether it would be another German or another Italian. And because there are currently far more German naval personnel than Italian, they decided on an Italian. While I myself have no qualms about this, at the time, I imagined that should the Wunderwaffe girls hear of this, they would be sorely disappointed indeed.
On the topic of the possibility of sending the Wunderwaffe girls abroad to Japan in a sort of exchange training program with the Moebius Four Platoon, Frau Lauren said that it was honestly a gray area for her, that she could not give ma a definitive answer on the spot. She said that if we were so willing, we could attempt to send a message to the Japanese Diet or the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force's headquarters and negotiate some kind of agreement in which our naval personnel could travel to Japan for the sake of training. For obvious reasons, Seal Team Six cannot assist us with this negotiation. She warned me that she and her team could not be held liable for whatever happened to our girls if and when they do travel to Japan. It is as though she is trying to imply that sending them to Japan is a risky venture.
But regardless, it is a venture whose risk is worth the gains that can be provided to the girls. It is for their sake that I am doing this - therefore, whatever risks that accompany it, they must already be aware of. I'm not exactly too sure what could be done to them, in the first place.
Armed with this information, I phoned Gernot during lunch break and let him know the words of Frau Lauren from Seal Team Six, and he determined that he would make the calls necessary to get in touch with the Japanese Diet or whoever he would have to speak to in order to open this negotiation.
I also informed the girls of this when I came back home from work. They were quite happy with the news, but as I'd suspected, they were very disappointed when I told them the reasons behind the new ship girl's construction. But they did not remain bitter about it, thankfully, as the reasons behind them were logical and sound.
"But wouldn't that mean that if there were no hostile relations between America and Japan, we could have more of our own comrades constructed?" Lebe pointed out. "Which would also beg the question, why did this not happen over the past four months? Why is it that the German and Italian fleets have not been expanded at all, while the Americans have been working with the Japanese to enhance and grow the Japanese's?"
None of us knew the answer. There was no way for us to answer it in the first place. My first thought was that perhaps the growing hostilities present in current American-Japanese relations had been going on for a much longer time since we had first heard of them existing ourselves, but then again there would be no way to prove that either unless we ask either Seal Team Six or the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force themselves directly.
Gernot came back home on time tonight, a rare occasion considering our amount of work these days. Retia was the first to greet him at the door, and Gernot lifted her up and swung her around, making her laugh. There was one night when I spoke with my husband when we were in bed to go to sleep, asking him how he felt now that we were parents and he was a father. I shared with him my thoughts on being a new mother, how it still has not clicked for me quite yet that I am a proud mother of a healthy one-year-old baby girl. It turns out that he is the exact opposite - he has fully embraced the odd sensation of being a new father. He loves Retia - when the news covered her birth, the papers and the news shows all displayed photos and video captured by hospital staff of Gernot smothering Retia with kisses. I recall feeling quite embarrassed for him - personally, I can't imagine myself displaying such emotions for my baby girl in front of the eyes of an entire country, but my husband can. I suppose that is why he is Chancellor, the man with the most amount of power in this country - in order to assume such a monumental role, one must have a great heart to lead a country.
For tonight, Prinz Eugen joined forces with Lebe and Max to make for everyone an absolutely gorgeous dinner of hendl and königsberger klopse. Prinz Eugen has been instructing Lebe and Max in the ways of cooking - Prinz Eugen explained to me at the dinner table that the two destroyers had asked if she could teach them how to cook. Originally they wished to ask me to teach them how to cook, but they felt that I was very busy with work and asking me such a request would only serve to hinder me. So at the mention of this, I told Lebe and Max that I was glad to teach them how to make certain dishes, provided that Prinz Eugen taught them the basics of cooking in the interest of time. The two of them were quite happy to learn that I was willing to teach them, and they thanked me properly for my consideration.
Being in the company of such lovely young women warms my heart to no end. If we do eventually work out an agreement with the Japanese to train our girls, I will miss them dearly for however long they are absent.