26.6.2014
Oh how shocking the events of today's meeting have been.
It began quite ordinarily, all things considered. In order to handle the simpler matters, the United Nations council voted to fully support the relief effort occurring in the Netherlands. Prior to today, several branches of the United Nations Development Group and other well-known third-party international relief organizations have been carrying out the relief effort for the displaced Dutch civilians and helping reconstruct the dikes that the Abyssals had destroyed on the day of their attack, but with official UN support to back them, the relief effort should be well under way shortly. In addition, all European powers - including Russia, somewhat surprisingly due to how decisively the Russian representative cast his vote - motioned to mobilize their naval fleets and supplementary military branches wherever related to prepare for future attacks made by the Abyssal group, and all European representatives agreed to assist one another wherever an Abyssal attack may strike. The representatives of the other hemispheres also made similar agreements, although this was a little bit rougher with the Asian representatives, as both of the Koreas refused to cooperate with the rest, and China only grudgingly agreeing to cooperate.
But once these simpler matters were taken care of, the floodgates were opened...oh, was that "too soon", as the Americans would say?
The first shocking development: Japan almost walked out of the meeting. It began with a discussion on behalf of the South Korean representative who once again brought up the issue of Japan's glaringly large fleet personnel number. He proposed that there were two realistic solutions to resolve that issue, and that one of them must be taken: either the team responsible for the production of these ship girls, Seal Team Six, must produce additional naval personnel for all or at least most of the major powers represented at the UN council, and that the American president, Herr Blackwood, would have to find a way to order the team to carry this order out and distribute them to their respective nations (at the exchange of each of the countries compensating Seal Team Six either monetarily or via other compensation methods), or Japan must distribute its own fleet to the rest of the major powers of the world to station the world's supply of fleet personnel evenly to make sure no major region was at great risk of an Abyssal attack without the opportunity of a focused counterattack (or having the Japanese fleet personnel stationed in specific areas around the world instead of assigning them to different countries was acceptable too). Naturally, the Japanese representative, Herr Ugaki, protested violently at this notion, but he was very clearly alone in his own opinion, as the rest of the council set up a motion to decide on this matter and had everyone discuss. From what I was able to observe, many of my European colleagues, many of whom already know Seal Team Six to varying degrees depending on the countries they represent, did not want to owe the team any more favors. Plus, the notion of having to pay an American military entity (or even perhaps the American federal government directly) did not sit well at all with the European representatives, so the vast majority of them voted for the latter option, including my husband and I, but not because we had anything against the American government in particular, just a political face-saving maneuver. The other regions of the council was a little more divided, but it was still rather clear that the council was favoring having Japan partition its fleet of naval personnel and distribute them around the world.
In response to this, Herr Ugaki condemned the UN council of attempting to sabotage the Japanese military. He accused Herr Blackwood of negotiating a deal with the rest of the council behind his back to have them vote to split up Japan's fleet, possibly in reference to the fact that America had lost its share of military power stationed in Japan because of the Moebius Four Armament Pact - a threat that the American president simply sneered at and said nothing more. Then, the Japanese minister proceeded to walk out of the meeting room, although Herr Akiyama, the Chief of Maritime Staff of the Japanese Navy, was a little more reluctant to take such a drastic action. While Japan's resistance to this motion was expected so that a reasonable compromise acceptable to all parties could be reached, having the Minister of Foreign Affairs simply walk out on the meeting would be terrible, because Japan by itself funded almost ten percent of the United Nations budget, the second-highest amount after the United States. Needless to say, this would be a huge absence of funds for the UN council, so the Secretary General compelled the council to reconsider and rethink the terms of the motion, and only by promising not to compromise Japan's contemporary military hegemony was Herr Ugaki so compelled to return.
But then came a period of general indecision. Everyone (except Japan, obviously) felt that Japan possessing the vast majority of fleet personnel available to the United Nations was imbalanced, to say the least. But what would we do about it? How would we go about balancing it without enraging Japan and making its representative view it as an unjust exertion of international power on Japan's ability to maintain national security? The Mexican representative suggested that Japan operate on a leasing program in which countries who so desired could purchase the services of Japanese naval personnel on contract for a set period of time, perhaps with accumulating amounts of interest as though they were bank loans. For some reason, the Korean representatives were quite enthusiastic about this notion, but I'm not exactly sure why. Conversely, the Japanese representatives looked aghast at such an idea. Selling out their own fleet assets for money? I can see how it would be highly offensive, although such a notion is not all that strange with other nations - I hear that the Royal Navy is thinking about putting up one of their carriers for sale soon. But the Mexican representative's idea was at least the closest to being a discussable compromise.
Until, that is, after some discussion between themselves, the Japanese representatives proposed the most shocking compromise today: Japan would launch a major global offensive with their fleet of naval personnel in a worldwide tour of the seas to hunt down and exterminate whatever Abyssal threats they could find. Because the Japanese fleet was so large, Herr Akiyama proposed additionally that their fleet would be partitioned into three fleets: two major subfleets and a third minor scouting fleet, all three of whom would scour the seas in different directions in order to seek out the Abyssal threat and alert any nearby countries of any detected Abyssal presence for reinforcements.
This was a huge double-edged sword for everyone involved. For one, Japan is clearly willing to extend a military hand to the global stage in the international effort against the Abyssal threat. Not only this, but Japan is willing to take the leadership role in a movement that is still not very well understood, a movement in which everyone else has no real idea on how to lead if they had to lead it. And for free, too - Herr Akiyama clarified that Japan would ask for no compensation for their fleet's efforts, other than being able to resupply wherever they needed to, of course. But this more dramatically rang alarm bells in most other countries' representatives' heads: in light of Japan's recent remilitarization efforts and political right-wingism, this could be interpreted as a method for Japan to practice its newly regained military capabilities on the global stage by using the excuse of the Abyssals to do so, plus all of the other questionable implications that come with a nation making a global tour of part of its military - and a huge navy at that. I daresay some of Japan's neighbors in the Eastern Hemisphere have something to say about that.
But compared to all of the other compromises put forth today, the one made by the Japanese representatives was the most acceptable to the majority of the council. Of course no one liked it entirely, but it was the only such compromise that could accrue a majority of votes from the council members to be worked on as the official compromise. With this being set in place, the council set about working on the details of the compromise.
Japan, as promised, would deploy its fleet of naval personnel on a multi-stage international tour. The Japanese fleet's stated objective is to seek out and destroy all Abyssal assets and forces; if in the event that they could not eliminate them, they were to study and track Abyssal movements and distribute whatever information and intelligence gleaned to the United Nations. Japanese fleet personnel would be given military clearance to dock at designated naval stations around the world, where they would be able to resupply and rest before continuing on their journey. However, Japanese fleet personnel would have to rely solely upon themselves for any combat they would engage in. They would not be able to request support from any military entity; in fact, the compromise specifically outlawed the Japanese fleet personnel from requesting or receiving aid from any military entity - this extended to mercenary and paramilitary groups and private military companies as well. They would also be outlawed from doing the same with civilians, as well. The Japanese fleets would depart in eleven days' time, on July 7th, 2014. One fleet would head southwest from Japan towards the Indian Ocean and make their way west; the second fleet would head east towards the United States, reaching the Aleutian Islands as their first checkpoint, and instead of heading through the Panama Canal, they would sail around Cape Horn and head up to Canada from there. The third fleet would remain in the Eastern Hemisphere and remain vigilant for possible Abyssal attacks on any of the Asian countries. The two other fleets would link up in the United Kingdom and sail to the Mediterranean with the British fleet to meet with the German and Italian fleets.
My personal biggest surprise was the relatively little amount of attention the council paid to the European fleets. Everyone was so focused on resolving "the Japanese question" that the British, Italian, and German fleets were set on the backlogs. But to conclude the meeting, the council did make an agreement to deploy the European fleet personnel to anywhere where they were needed at a moment's notice to defend against future Abyssal attacks in Europe. I suppose the threat of countries like Britain, Germany, and Italy possessing fleets pales in comparison the giant that is Japan...or "the bull in the china shop", if this joke makes any sense.
But this will mean that eventually, given time enough, the Japanese fleets may figure out that we are keeping five of their destroyers. Of course this is not a guarantee, but what are the chances that they will find out? What will happen if they do find out, and how will Japan react? Not positively in the slightest, of course, that's not even a question. I suppose it is more a matter of how far their demands will go. I really need to contact the Americans about this issue...this is my most important task. While I am fine with returning the Japanese girls back to their home country, I would much prefer them to stay at least for a little while longer, instead of a few short weeks.
We will be staying the night here in London and be flying back home early in the morning tomorrow. Never have I wanted to see my daughters so much - I am really beginning to regret pursuing a life of politics, but then again, I suppose without my position, I would have never met most of them to begin with.