A few words from the author: readers are appreciated, reviewers are appreciated even more.

Enjoy

December 1, 2009; 1409 local time; Outskirts of Kyoto, Japan

Keitaro leaned on his shovel and wiped the sweat from his brow, he had now worn the JSDF (called the DF from now on) uniform for a little over a week. He and his bunkmates had a strict schedule, military training on sundays through wednesdays, and civil service thursdays through saturdays. Kentaro and Shirai were in his bunkhouse, which helped a little with the homesickness.

Keitaro didn't understand why he had to go into the military if he was helping with public works projects. DF personel all over Japan were working on various things. Some were improving roads, some were fixing bridges, others were maintaining historical shrines, but the majority of the projects that the DF was working on seemed to be tsunami defences. Keitaro and his bunkmates were working on special bunkers to give the people on the outskirts of Kyoto a safe place to run to if a tsunami approached. Apparently the outskirts of Kyoto were lacking proper protection from tsunamis (1). He had seen other bunkers like these that had already been completed. They looked like they were made to repel invaders rather than repel waves.

The bunkers he had seen looked like pillboxes. They resembled bricks made out of concrete with slits about a foot tall and five feet long all around three of the four walls. Keitaro had been given a tour of one of them. The slits on the outsides could be closed with steel doors that hung on the top, they were made watertight with rubber gaskets. The true genius of it all was underneath the hatch in the middle of the floor, all the bunkers would be connected by a long tunnel. These tunnels would also have different rooms that would branch off the main tunnel. Keitaro saw kitchens, bunkrooms, and infirmmaries. Keitaro also noticed that every room had an "emergency supply storage room", the man told them that it was for food, medical supplies and the like; but Keitaro could have sworn he had seen guns inside one. All of the rooms and sections of the tunnel could be sealed off from the other parts if it flooded.

Keitaro continued digging the hole, reflecting on how much he preferred doing the civil service instead of training. It wasn't that he couldn't to put up with it physically, it was that he hated latrine duty, which he was usually stuck with. He decided to occupy his mind with something that didn't involve toilets, he wondered why there were so many "signal flare launchers" in Kyoto and why they looked suspiciously like anti-aircraft guns. His commanding officer told him that they were at one point obsolete AA guns, and that it was nothing to worry about.

December 4, 2009; 1129 local time; The Oval Office, Washington D. C., United States

President Harold T. Shrub leaned back in his chair, today was a good day. The situation in Iraq was stablalized and the majority of the troops had returned home, he had met with several heads of state during a goodwill tour and made several agreements that helped ease tensions with many nations, he even got congress to pass a few reforms on the immigration policies.

This good mood lasted until his meeting with the joint chiefs of staff when a startling discovery was revealed. As the president sat around a table with his trusted advisors and generals, he was presented with several disturbing satellite images taken over the Ningxia Hui autonomus region of China near the city of Yinchuan (2). These images revealed several very large unidentifiable objects and an area of devastation near them.

"What the hell am I looking at exactly?" the President asked.

"Mr. President, our analysts suggest that these are some sort of new war machine, but we can't be certain." One of the men responded.

"Why don't we ask Bejing?" Another man said.

"No, because if it is a new war machine that they're building, they can't know that we know about it." The president said. "For right now we should keep a close eye on it, keep me posted if anything new happens."

"There is another item of buisness, Mr. President, we recieved a message from Tokyo requesting military aid. The only catch is, it has to be under the table." Another man said, reading a dispatch.

"I see. . . hmmmmmmm. . ." The President said as he rubbed his chin. "I have an idea. We could send the U.S.S. Missouri (3) and Iowa to on a goodwill tour of Japan to 'commemorate the 65th anniversery of the end of World War II. Make sure that they are armed and manned. We could also send some of our Parris Island drill instructors to 'advise' the JSDF training. We can also send the battlegroup in Korea just outside of Japanese waters."

"Will do sir." Another official said.

December 4, 2009; 1245 local time; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, United States

The afternoon sun shone down on Pearl Harbor making the waters glisten. A massive ship was moored on a dock facing toward the U.S.S. Arizona memorial, it had three giant turrets that each held three massive 16 inch guns. Two of the turrets were on the bow side and the other one was on the stern side. It had two prominent masts, smoke stacks and structuring in the middle. The hull was a dull battleship grey and the American flag waved proudly from its spot on the forward mast.

The battleship U.S.S. Missouri was preparing to disembark for her goodwill tour in Japan. Her hull had gotten a new coat of paint, her engines were tuned up and purring like a giant metal kitten, her machinery was fixed and she was fully loaded with live 5 inch shells,16 inch shells, and tomahawk cruise missles. Many of the sailors were suspicious of the true reasons for going to Japan, but they thought that it had something to do with Korea.

At last the seaborne behemoth was fired up, plumes of smoke billowed out from her stacks, the mooring ropes were taken off and thrown to the dock. "Mighty Mo" was ready to go and serve her country again, the people on the dock waved goodbye as the old battleship headed out to sea, followed by two Ticonderoga class AEGIS cruisers.

America's chess pieces would soon be in place, now came the time to wait and see if China would make their move.

(1) Kyoto is an inland city, far enough inland to not need protection from the vast majority of tsunamis.

(2) In 2006 there was an internet phenomenon where somebody claimed to have found a secret PLA (People's Liberation Army) facility using Google Earth. The Chinese government claims it is a tank training facility.

(3) The Japanese government surrendered onboard the U.S.S. Missouri.