27.6.2014
Before our early afternoon flight scheduled right after lunch back to Berlin, Sir Sinclair asked us to visit the Mi-6 headquarters to come speak with him one final time before departing. The simple fact of the matter was that he wished to glean our opinion of the proposal put forth yesterday by the Japanese representatives and eventually compromised by the United Nations council. Although he and Prime Minister Porter had ended up voting in favor of the compromise, now more formally known in-council as the Japanese Globalization Agreement (intentionally given a misleading title so that third party members will not immediately figure out its true intentions in case of an intelligence leak), he asked my husband and I if we truly did support it. To start us off, Sir Sinclair himself proclaimed that he felt very nervous about the JGA, both in regards to the implications of the JGA and the Japanese fleet itself. This was already widely discussed in the meeting, but for the sake of listing them out, Sir Sinclair repeated them anyway.
Through the JGA, Japan could be trying to establish a subtle but global pro-Japanese campaign similar in basic theory to the "soft-power" campaigns that we have seen Japan run to varying degrees of success in the past. These "soft-power" campaigns involved the Japanese federal support and funding of programs that spread Japanese traditional and modern/pop culture across the world, through popular entertainment mediums such as Japanese music and manga/anime and other such assets from the well-known Japanese entertainment industry. However, Japan has also run a few "hard-power" campaigns as well: recently, in the years leading up to their more recent remilitarization, Japan has been sending small groups of JMSDF troops to assist in the conflicts in the Middle East, sprinkled in with relief aid programs (I still find that photograph of a military transport truck with a decal of Astro Boy utterly hilarious for some reason to this day). So many of the nations in the UN council believe that the JGA may either be a huge step towards Japan's ultimate goal of successfully spreading pro-Japanese propaganda around the world or be Japan's next "hard-power" campaign itself.
The main reason why this would have a good chance of working, Sir Sinclair reasoned, was because of a combination of the Abyssal threat and what Sir Sinclair dubbed the "hero potential" of the fleet personnel. Both the Abyssals and the fleet personnel are currently shrouded in mystery, he observed. The general global public has no idea what "ship girls" or "fleet personnel" or "naval personnel" or "the Abyssals" really mean or are; they simply know about the terms and lingo that we politicians are using because that is all that they have to work with, and without factual evidence at the ready, there are bound to be rumors and fabrications flying about until some sort of official statement can be made. But because none of the representatives in the UN council showed any such willingness to make any kind of official statement, either because they themselves knew nothing about either the Abyssals or ship girls or, if they did know, found it in their benefit not to reveal anything, more than likely the public will have to receive their first facts about both the Abyssals and fleet personnel in the next public conflict that arises. And when this happens, if events unfold as Sir Sinclair fears they might, then the Japanese fleet personnel will intervene in an Abyssal attack in progress, defeat the Abyssals, and receive global recognition for their valiant actions. And even though Japanese naval contact with civilians of any other country than their own is specifically outlawed, there is no feasible way for the United Nations to enforce that, because keeping eyes over the fleet would be a huge waste of time, effort, supplies, and money. What we were going to do to watch over them? Use satellites? Preposterous, where on earth would we be getting a handful of satellites to track the progress of three different Japanese fleets sailing around the world at once? So inevitably, the Japanese fleets will protect people all around the world from possible Abyssal attacks and receive praise and recognition for their heroic actions. On top of which, these fleet personnel themselves are in fact quite superhuman. Sir Sinclair stated that he has seen what a ship girl can do for himself: they can be the very definition of a movie-esque "hero" straight out of a comic book: a super-powered young woman fighting a force of evil to protect the citizens of the world, no matter where the enemy may strike. This is a perfect setting for a comic book plot, and the very odd thing to consider is that such a basic premise and faithful execution on the part of the Japanese naval personnel can yield dividends for the public image back home in Japan, thus improving the image of Japan for the rest of the world and thus making it much more difficult for the United Nations to keep Japan's growing military hegemony in check.
Of course, naturally, this would require a perfect unfolding of events in the near future that occur with impeccable timing. Unlikely would Sir Sinclair's predictions come true exactly as stated, if at all. But our British colleague still feared that Japan still stands to gain much from the JGA. Even if the Japanese do not gain as much improvements to their national image as he himself projected, they would still gain a considerable amount, because with the JGA's itinerary, the public would soon realize that there are much more Japanese ship girls than ship girls of any other nationality. Therefore, they would realize that Japan would be the strongest country in terms of anti-Abyssal defense capabilities and turn to the Japanese for protection against the Abyssals: the real question would be how efficiently and effectively the Japanese military command or the Japanese fleets themselves would be in detecting, seeking, and destroying the enemy threat around the world. If they did their job just as planned or better, then the whole world would be for Japan. If not, then the whole world would begin pointing fingers and blame Japan for their inability to protect the world. The more Sir Sinclair discussed this matter with us in depth, the more I realized the JGA truly could be an all-or-nothing political gambit on Japan's part.
Lastly, Sir Sinclair made a few comments about the Japanese naval personnel themselves. Because he has been spending some time with the British fleet, he remarked a little bit moodily that he would have to give the Japanese fleets his consolation. They would have to leave their home country in ten days' time now to sail around the world fighting an enemy that they only knew, and upon their shoulders rested the colossal responsibility of bringing home glory and fame for their people and government, which they themselves may never see until they returned home, if they returned home. Because who would know if the Abyssals would manage to prove dangerous and formidable enemies and whittle down the numbers of the Japanese fleets? Sir Sinclair said that he'd been told by the Seal Team Six operatives that ship girls can be repaired back to life if sunk, but only if their bodies were successfully recovered from the scene of their sinkings. If the Japanese fleets sustain losses during their world tour, how would they be able to replace their losses or repair their casualties? That was never stated in the terms of the JGA. Would Seal Team Six cover that missing element of the agreement, or would they never know, or worse, would they not care to know due to their new hostilities towards the country of Japan for basically seizing control of an entire fleet of their patented products?
Gernot and I told Sir Sinclair that we did not have a solidified, concrete opinion on the whole matter yet; we just wanted to establish our own fleet back home as a well-disciplined and well-trained force of fleet personnel whom we could deploy against the Abyssals in case they were to attack Germany or any other European power, to whom we would gladly lease the services of our ship girls. But if there was one thing we could tell him, it was that we felt strongly about maintaining the condition of our own fleet as well as we could. We asked if Sir Sinclair himself had spent any time at all interacting with the British ship girls outside of their training, and other than a few brief moments, he said no. We both suggested that he spend some time with them. There was much more to the ship girls than their natures as superhuman young women with the power to fight Abyssals effectively.
We left him with this and departed for home. Never have I wished to return home from an overseas business trip than today, to be able to see my daughter and family. As neither my husband nor I have extended family beyond Retia's grandparents (the two of us are both single children), the ship girls really have become our family, and should our Japanese guests end up staying for any extended period of time, they, too, could become part of our family as well.
During our flight back to Berlin, though, I couldn't help but think about how I would react if I ever found out one of our ship girls ever sank or died in combat. Ever since Sir Sinclair mentioned the notion to us, it has been stuck in my mind and I have not been able to get rid of it. As a parent of a one-year-old daughter, I oftentimes have had fears of something terrible happening to my daughter...for example, a car hitting Retia and killing her, perhaps a vaccination gone horribly wrong because Retia's body may have a rare allergy to a certain vaccination and end up crippled or worse, or, because her parents are involved in politics, an political enemy kidnapping her and holding her for ransom, possibly worse as well. Those were the paranoid fears I had but managed to suppress after months of being a mother, and admittedly, following our reception of our German ship girls, those fears are much suppressed since then. But I still know those fears I had, as I can bring them up as freshly as I had felt them the first times. And with them in mind, I compared them to what I might feel if I heard news that one of my German ship girls has died. I don't know how I would feel, in all honesty. No doubt I would feel very sad, but just how sad in comparison to how I would feel if something terrible had happened to Retia? Maybe half as sad, three quarters as sad, or just as sad? It is hard to say for sure, and I do hope I never will have to find such an answer...I hope.
Luckily for us, we arrived home first before the girls could return from their training. Frau Lauren promised us she would babysit our daughter for us in our absence, meaning that we did not have to bother our good friend Khal with more babysitting appointments, although we know he does not mind at all. To surprise them, we cooked them a more traditional German dinner for tonight, hendl and Flädlesuppe, two dishes we have not cooked in quite some time, so it was quite enjoyable for my husband and I to cook old dishes together. Giving my husband and I another reason to cook together, just as we had during our days in university - I really do owe my ship girls much more than I sometimes consider. And to our relief and joy, our Japanese guests thoroughly enjoyed the food we made, and we all spent a happy Friday evening together playing an assortment of card games and board games.
For now, Gernot and I have agreed not to ask the Japanese destroyers about their current situation and the truth regarding their deployment here to Germany - we had meant to call the Americans, but after seeing how happy our whole family, the Japanese girls included, were to see us again, we much preferred to spend time with them all than to let our jobs get in the way of our ability to be a family, just for one cool Friday night.
For tomorrow, though, Prinz Eugen discussed with us the possibility of heading out to downtown Berlin to show our guests around and take them for a shopping trip. We gave them permission to do so and offered to come along, because we also need to buy some more toilet paper, toothpaste, and some more napkins for the kitchen table. The Japanese girls all seemed very excited for this trip tomorrow, for they wanted to see what a downtown city was like.