AN: Edited by Gremlin Jack, perfect_shade and Nla Eid
1951, July 6th:
Dammit. Dammit. Dammit! The alarm clock didn't go off, and we had barely an hour left to prepare! But if we skip breakfast and just fly to the airport using our orbs, we could make it on time.
I shook Visha to wake her up.
"Mmmh. Not yet."
I sighed and moved to shake her more forcefully, but that turned out to be a trap as she hugged me tightly in response.
"Gah! Visha, we have a flight to catch!"
"Just a quick one." She smiled.
"We can always do that later. Look, we're going to waste money buying new tickets. I could buy you a gift or something when we get to South Bharat."
Visha kissed me and pushed me aside to get out of bed. "You've been there for months now. I'm excited to see what the gift will be."
Great, now I'll need to think of something that won't disappoint her.
Turns out it didn't matter if we were late. All of the outbound flights were canceled right before ours was scheduled to take off. An airport employee came up to our group.
"What's going on?" Visha asked while I was making sense of the employee's announcement.
"The Imperial Airforce ordered all flights that have not taken off yet to be grounded until further notice. He does not know when our flight will be rescheduled."
"Is it because of the Kinmen and Matsu Islands being shelled?"
"No, not at all."
When we returned back to the airport, there was a sense of confusion and tension. I walked over to a pay phone, but it seemed the telephone network was down.
"Let's head back to our hotel." Visha said.
I looked out the window facing towards the airport's entrance.
"I think we should stay here for now. It looks like the army is moving in to block the road to the airport. We could fly, but that would draw their attention."
"Let's get a snack then and figure out what to do next."
The public announcement system crackled as we walked.
I turned to Visha to translate the news to her. There had been a "special incident" in Edo, and the airport will be shut down for an undetermined time. The local authorities will assist in escorting everyone back to their homes and hotels.
As we were walking past a TV, the news broadcast suddenly came on. No mentions about the "special incident" and the news anchor looks like they had a very bad day given the profuse sweating and the appearance of something disturbing them.
"The coast guard reported that they lost contact with one of their ships in the East Jiuzhou Sea that was responding to a distress call. Earlier today, a fishing trawler off the coast of Fukue Island reported that they caught something unusual, and soon reported that they were under attack by divers emerging out of the water and opening fire on them."
The news broadcast then abruptly ended.
"I hope that wasn't the same fishing trawler that we were on that other day." Visha softly spoke.
My jaws almost dropped when I saw someone walk towards us. Of all the people, Miss Caldwell was here.
"Millie!" Visha yelled in greeting, which the American returned. After a brief round of pleasantries, Visha then asked, "What are you doing here?"
"I've been busy reporting on stuff elsewhere." Cadwell smiled. "Now that it seems the new flashpoint is Formosa Republic, I was hoping to make my way over there until they canceled the flights. I guess I'll just take a boat over there instead. What are you two doing here?"
"Heading to South Bharat to avoid the drama here." I shrugged.
"Tanya von Degurechaff, avoiding a potential war?" Miss Caldwell had a look of confusion.
"She just wants to retire to a quiet life." Visha giggled. "Or at least try to."
Cadwell nodded, "Hm. Fair enough. Decades of war and politics must get exhausting at some point."
Some time passed with us exchanging stories of what the three of us had been up to, and as everyone was escorted out of the airport, we all had to walk through the army checkpoint to board buses.
Then one of the soldiers' faces had a look of confusion and he tapped on an officer's shoulder to get their attention.
"You two, come with me." The officer demanded.
"For what?" Visha asked as Millie started up her recorder.
"For your safety. A state of emergency had been declared."
"Why did you ground the flights out of the country then?" I asked.
"You were not supposed to be here in the first place! We'll arrange a special flight to South Bharat. But first, I need you two to surrender your computational orbs."
"Absolutely not." I responded. "We have diplomatic immunity as former Chancellor and Deputy Chancellor, which includes the right to carry orbs for our self-protection. We haven't done anything illegal to require us to hand over our orbs."
One of the soldiers raised a rifle. Visha and I immediately powered up our shield spells. There was shouting and all of the army personnel were now pointing weapons at us. Millie seemed to be unnerved with recording the scene.
"Please, come with us."
"Can you explain what is going on? And how rude of you to point your weapons at us." I responded as I continued to run the orb. "Everything was fine when we came to the airport."
"I don't know. We are just following orders to close off the airport."
"Why are you so concerned about us?"
"For your safety."
There was more shouting and someone pointed at something.
It was a car rapidly approaching the blockade while driving on a flat tire, and it screeched to a halt when one of the soldiers fired a warning shot.
More army vehicles pulled up, now trapping the car between the checkpoint and them.
For a minute, nothing happened other than the army personnel yelling at the vehicle's occupants to get out.
The first person to step out of the car was the Emperor, and then his two bodyguard mages. And that was when everything descended into chaos. The army personnel performed zarei first, or kneeling while bowing, to the Emperor, and then immediately afterwards argued with each other over what to do next.
I decided to walk towards the Emperor and bowed to him, Visha soon followed suit.
"Your majesty," I begin, "What is happening?"
The Emperor had a sour look on his face, "The military has turned against me. They took control of all of the radio broadcast stations. My entire cabinet had been arrested or gone into hiding."
"I could take you somewhere safe or to help deal with the coup. Where do you want to go?"
"The NHK, it is the biggest broadcasting station in Edo and the only one with television broadcast. It is heavily guarded by the army though."
One of the officers shouted, "Your highness, please, come with us for your safety."
"And be locked in a golden cage?!" He shot back as Akinese mages arrived. I couldn't read their encrypted magic communications, but I could tell that they were arguing. A few of them pointed their rifles at us, a few pointed their rifles at them and the rest were generally confused.
"The Emperor requested to go to the NHK broadcasting station." I said. "We are going there."
"You can't do that. I would have to authorize lethal force!" The officer shouted.
"And kill a former head of state and your Emperor?" I snapped back. "Let's assume you do end up killing us both. What then? Do you think Germania would shrug their shoulders? Or how about your friends, relatives and ancestors when everyone knows that you gave the order?"
There was an awkward silence, so I continued on.
"Where is your honor?!"
I could see the gears grind in the officer's head. About a minute passed, and he sighed.
"All of you can go. I'm not going to stop you."
Then a junior officer shot the officer, and just managed to shout "down with the emperor" when someone else shot him in retaliation, kicking off a shootout between everyone. In the midst of the chaos, the bodyguard mages tossed their pistols at Visha and I, grabbed the Emperor and took off flying towards the NHK station. Visha grabbed Millie as we trailed behind the bodyguards.
On our way to the NHK station, a fighter plane buzzed past us. We picked up the radio comms through our orb that was demanding us to get out of the air, but eventually the pilot gave up and left us alone.
A group of Akinese mages also arrived, but they opted to shadow us. One of the bodyguards opened up comms with the group to ask what are they doing, and the mages responded that they had orders to stop the Emperor, but they don't know how to do that without risking harm to the Emperor so they're just going to observe us.
As we approached the station, Visha spun up her optical orb.
"The army at the station seems preoccupied with holding off protestors and the local police that had joined the protestors' side. We could land on the roof of the station and make our way downstairs."
"I'll make that suggestion to the bodyguard mages. I don't see any more air threats other than the mage group that had been following us the whole time. Also, I'm going to be distracting everyone, so you'll need to escort the Emperor"
Visha nodded. Upon translating what Visha said to the bodyguards, they agreed with the plan. After we landed on the roof, the mage group that was following us decided to leave.
As Visha, Millie and the others made their way into the station, I jumped off the roof, hovered over the crowds below and spun up a sound amplification spell.
"Good afternoon everyone!"
Many of the people looked up in confusion. Alright, that seemed to have calmed things down a bit.
"I know things have been stressful. The communists across the ocean stirring up chaos and threatening war with their indiscriminate shelling of the Formosa Republic. The endless wars in the European colonies to the south with the European powers slowly losing against the locals clamoring for independence. The Germanian government being bent on building as many city busting weapons as possible. And the Unified States returning back to their splendid isolation."
I paused for a bit to let my words sink in before continuing.
"But right now, all of you have an opportunity. To improve the Akitsushima Dominion through your hard work. To build a better future for your children. But that is not possible if you throw away your democracy, which is what the coup plotters are aiming to do by removing the one person who stands between them and a military dictatorship. The Emperor."
"You're not welcome here, gaijin." someone interrupted.
I looked down to search for the source of the insult. It was some high ranking officer.
Ah, an old-school hardline nationalist. I figured they were not happy to see any Germanian military presence on their soil and only saw the alliance as nothing more than an agreement that the CSR is a threat.
A voice spell came from Visha. "We're dealing with some guards so we can start the broadcast. Buy us more time."
"Well a democracy allows dissenting voices." I responded back to the officer as I lowered myself to stand next to a statue on an elevated concrete platform so I could still have eyes on everyone. "So let's hear why you disagree with me."
The officer went on a rant about how the Emperor needed protection from his corrupt advisors that were too scared to allow the Akinese military to end communism once and for all.
Yep, definitely a hardline nationalist. Probably the same type of idiots that forced Japan to endure extra months of suffering when everyone's attention was focused on them after Germany's defeat. Also the same idiots that sent the Yamato battleship out into the ocean one last time, as a target practice for American aircraft.
"You believe that you can solve the problems through blood and fire." I interrupted. "Through a decisive campaign that would overwhelm the CSR and force them to seek peace." He nodded in reply.
Right, just like how my predecessors in my previous life thought that a decisive strike on Pearl Harbor would be enough to force the United States to seek peace, or if they won enough battles in China, they could force them to surrender.
"And what do you think will happen when the CSR refuses to surrender? They didn't submit when the Albish was firebombing their homeland with impunity."
"They will change their mind when our soldiers march into their capital." the officer shot back. "Germania has promised to the world that they will use their city destroying weapons, which would clear out any major opposition."
"Is that the victory you seek? To exterminate people?" I pointed at him. "That would be the perfect propaganda for the communists to use for rallying their population. To paint the Akinese and Germanian as the ultimate monster."
"Have you gone soft on communism to be so concerned with their lives?" he sneered back.
I glared at him before I refocused on keeping the crowd engaged.
"Only a simple minded officer only looks at body counts to gauge their success. A competent one wins through minimal effort. Such as making the enemy doubt their own cause instead of giving them reasons to fight to the last person. To make them go home without firing a shot. That is the ultimate victory."
He was about to say something, but I quickly cut him off. That's what happens when someone who has not been constantly speaking to the public tries to take on a seasoned politician.
"Akitsushima Dominion could be the shining beacon of democracy and economic progress, while the communists will stagnate in their failures of their own making. The Chinese people will see that and ask their government why they can't have the same prosperity. After all, all of us had been jealous of a neighbor who always seemed to be doing better."
That got some chuckle out of the crowd.
"What if they attack us instead?!" The officer demanded.
"You're worried about a country that only built a few knockoff frigates that move so slow that sailboats could keep up with them, and also still doesn't have jets?"
"They have augmented mages that wi-"
"Unlike building planes, once you shoot the mages down over the water, they're going to have to wait for the next batch of mages to come of age. Nine pregnant women can't make a baby in one month. It would be stupid of the communists to commit all of their mages in a single front. Do you think South Bharat and OZEV will simply idle?!"
Once again he was about to say something, but I continued on.
"You're a coward for being afraid of an incompetent military force, and you're using that fear for your own personal gain!"
"We're ready for the broadcast!" Visha's voice spell rang. "I'm going to transmit what he is saying so everyone outside of the building can hear it"
"And with that, I will now allow the Emperor to speak. Alternatively, you can also watch him on TV." I bowed while adjusting my voice spell to broadcast the Emperor's words.
1951, July 9th:
Right after the Emperor's speech, the coup against him quickly collapsed when much of the military, police force and the populace revolted against the coup leaders, who had all opted to commit suicide rather than face the mobs.
He had asked Visha, Millie and I to stay at his palace residence while he went about restoring his government. New people had to be appointed as the coup plotters had executed some of the office holders. The Kenpeitai was in turmoil when it was revealed that some of their senior members knew about the coup but chose not to warn anyone. Overseas, the CSR ceased their artillery bombardment of Kinmen and Matsu Islands and publicly condemned the coup.
While Millie was off interviewing people and trying to document the political upheavals as much as possible, Visha and I spent our time exploring the imperial palace's areas that are off-limits to the public with a palace staff member acting as the tour guide. I tried to maintain a calm external composure, but internally, I was screaming and ecstatic at this opportunity.
When we walked past one of the gardens, someone came up to us and bowed to us.
"Good morning!" I greeted him before bowing in response.
"Tanya von Degurechaff, Viktoriya Serebryakov, it is pleasant to meet you both. My name is Kōichi Arata, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal."
Lord Keeper? It sounds quite familiar. Yes, it was the history classes from high school in my previous life.
"It's a beautiful place." Visha said, which I promptly translated. He nodded and pointed towards one of the buildings. "The Emperor has finished his errands and is ready to meet you for lunch. Follow me."
After exchanging pleasantries to start our lunch, with me trying my best to remember all of the proper Japanese etiquette that I normally use when dining with senior company executives, we started talking about various state related topics.
"I've played the recording of your speech that other day a few times. You did mention some interesting things." the Emperor spoke, before taking a sip of tea. The Lord Keeper sat off to the side recording our conversation with his writing.
Fortunately I know how Japan advanced through the decades to 2013, and what worked and what led to economic disasters such as the events leading up to the Lost Decade and the following zombie banks and companies. I just need to avoid sounding like a lunatic. A major issue is that even though the Akitsushima Dominion went through an economic disaster, they didn't have foreigners completely change their economic system by force, which means much of the old economic systems are still in place. And the coup demonstrated that the Emperor can only exercise only so much power before pushing people over the edge.
"I believe Akitsushima Dominion can become an economic powerhouse of the world by reforming government policies and opening up trades, which I can go into detail about later. As for the stance against the CSR, a direct invasion of them would exhaust the Akinese economy."
"I'm assuming there are reasons why you seemed to leave out nuclear weapons in your speech?"
"It's all about setting a precedent. When another country develops nuclear weapons, and they watch Germania wipe another country off of the map earlier, that nuclear armed country will believe it would be acceptable to use nuclear weapons for the smallest reason. If a communist country develops a nuclear weapon and believes that they need to launch their weapons first to avoid annihilation, then it would be a complete disaster for everyone."
"So how would you use it?"
"Defensively. If Germania's homeland itself is being threatened, the enemy would have to weigh the risk of a nuclear weapon being used against their invading force."
He nodded silently, then asked, "Would Germania give their nuclear technology to their allies? Including if the CSR develops their own mass destruction weapon?"
I was afraid of this topic. Nuclear proliferation is a monster just waiting to be released from a can.
"I don't know what the current Germanian administration plans on doing." I responded with a shrug, in hopes of sidestepping that thorny topic.
"I wasn't asking about them, I was asking what you would do if you were still in office."
Dammit!
While I ran ideas through my head of how to best answer that question, Visha spoke up. "Could that just end up pushing the CSR into also sharing their mass destruction weapons with their allies, thus triggering proliferation of such weapons?"
"The CSR asked to not have any nuclear weapons stationed in the Formosa Republic." The Emperor smiled a bit. "I suppose I could have my ambassador ask them to not share their mass destruction weapon with their allies."
They have their own weapons of mass destruction? How did they acquire their own nuclear weapons? I was about to ask when the Emperor frowned and spoke once more.
"Although speaking of the Formosa Republic and mass destruction weapons, the CSR sent a diplomatic envoy over to us to discuss the issue with the two islands."
"What are the envoy's demands?" Visha asked.
"They reiterated that they won't tolerate living in fear of being hit with nuclear weapons stationed in the Formosa Republic. Our ambassador requested the CSR to pay reparations to the deceased fishermen's families from the submarine incident, and for the CSR to reduce their military forces next to the two islands for him to accept the proposal of having the two islands be heavily demilitarized."
He sighed before continuing. "Bringing up the submarine incident caused the CSR's envoys to lose their compsures. Although maybe I should have just dropped the request for compensation because when the submarine was battling the coast guard ship, the coup plotters were confused as they knew that there weren't supposed to be any Akinese submarines in that area, and assumed that if the unknown submarine was trying to sink the coast guard ship instead of identifying itself as a friendly, it was meant to rescue me."
He smiled a bit. "It never occurred to them that it was a foriegn submarine. That caused chaos in their planning as they were scrambling to find who gave the order for a submarine to go underway, which submarine was it, and to task a large number of Akinese aircraft and ships to hunt the submarine."
"It seems that the CSR might have something to hide." I chortled. "And what an unlucky coincidence for the coup plotters. No plan survives first contact with the enemy."
"There was another thing the communists revealed." The Emperor lowered his voice. "They have been working on biological weapons."
Visha froze while I nearly choked on a piece of food. I mentally facepalmed at President Paul's aggressive nuclear actions. He thinks scaring the communists will get them to comply because they have no nuclear weapons, and instead the CSR is lashing out in fear by resorting to the only alternative mass destruction method they could think of.
"To wipe out humanity?" Visha asked.
"More than that." The Emperor shook his head. "They showed footage of their biological weapons tests on prisoners, livestock and crops. And a ground launch of a rocket that was larger than the one they had used to shoot at our photoreconnisance jet. They insisted that the people who suggested biological weapons development only got official approval after the Germanian President went public with the nuclear weapons."
"Even without the missiles, sleeper agents or mages sent on one way missions could cause massive havoc with those biological weapons." Visha said. "But do they have a cure for their own weapons?"
"They said they have no idea how to cure the very diseases that they are creating. Maybe they are lying about that, but if they started their biological weapons program in direct response to Germania making their nuclear weapons public, I suppose that didn't leave them a lot of time to worry about surviving the aftermath."
"Mutually assured destruction." I laughed, and then sighed at having to go through this again.
"What do you mean?" The Emperor asked.
"They're seeking to create a stalemate." I replied. "If Germania or anyone else uses nuclear weapons to annihilate the CSR, the CSR will unleash their biological weapons to doom the entire world. It's like dealing with a hostage situation where the hostage taker is holding a deadman's switch on explosives strapped to the hostages. And as Miss Serebryakov pointed out, it would only take a few sleeper agents to enact the CSR's vengeance."
"So how should Akitsushima Dominion proceed?"
"If you think the submarine belonged to the CSR, is it worth trying to extract reparation from them? What did the Imperial Navy find in that sunken submarine anyways?"
"I took a personal interest in that case. According to them, the submarine set our coast guard ship on fire with their surface cannon, dived when our anti-submarine aircraft and destroyers arrived, and slammed into the rocky bottom of the shallow waters. After our navy broadcasted an underwater morse code message telling them to surrender, there was an underwater explosion. The navy reported that they could not find any signs of torpedoes or torpedo launchers among the wreckage, but they did notice that the bow section had some sort of an underwater deployment hatch with what appeared to be diving kits in it. While everything seemed to be pointed towards being an Albish submarine, something seems off."
Visha nudged me. "Tanya, do you remember our discussion in Hawaii? Where you mentioned about mage infiltrators being a potential threat to the Americans?"
Yes. And It would be something that I would use to great effect were I in their shoes… so If the CSR has fleets of those submarines… I looked at her with horror.
"If the submarine had no torpedo launchers, then they would have built it specifically for deploying underwater mages! The only country that used underwater mages on a massive scale is the CSR!"
"The Akinese military also believes that the Chinese have augmented A and B tier mages that can use their augmentations for sustained periods of time." The Lord Keeper spoke up. "They don't have any other explanations of the massive mana that was used by the Chinese for their shootdown attempts against our reconnaissance jets."
We all sat in stunned silence for several seconds.
"We need to do something about their submarines." the Emperor said.
I went ahead and suggested the same anti-submarine tactics idea that I had previously pitched to Lieutenant General Campbell back in Hawaii, and suggested contacting the Americans to ask them for a joint project as the Americans would want to protect Hawaii from the CSR's submarines as well. I also suggested playing along with the CSR's attempted "it's an Albish submarine design" deception by stirring up a minor international controversy with the Albish over the submarine and pretending to be unaware of the CSR's submarines, while concealing the Akinese anti-submarine warfare development. He seemed receptive to the idea, and eventually asked how to handle the current crisis so he could focus on the future submarine threat.
"I suppose your ambassador could try asking for a reciprocal scale down of military forces on both sides of the water." I responded. "The CSR is probably spending a lot of resources maintaining their naval defense forces, and would want some sort of an assurance before they are willing to calm down. As for the Germanian government, you should let them know about the CSR's biological weapons development if they weren't already informed by the CSR."
"As for my military?"
"A conflict right now with the CSR would be unpredictable with all of the new capabilities they are showing off. A better course of action would be to reform your military to be more defensive instead of hoping to try to knock out the CSR in a 'decisive strike', while being able to counter any strategies that the CSR might implement. Reforming the economy and learning about new technologies and concepts through trades with other countries would also allow your military to maintain a technological edge over the CSR. The military would be less likely to stage a coup against someone who helped bring prosperity to the nation. Seeking a partnership with the Unified States would also help provide additional support in the event that there is a war."
"The Americans have expressed no interest in getting involved with foriegn affairs, such as the events in the Pacific after they let the Phillipines become independent."
"That was the same problem I faced more than a decade ago. By establishing economic relations with them, such as allowing Volksauto to establish an automotive plant on their land, that helped ensure the Unified States would at least passively support Germania to preserve their economic interest. They would have definitely not wanted Germania to fall and thus lose their export market. I have also personally invested in an American company after seeing how they could revolutionize the electronics and computer industry, which would help the free world maintain a technological advantage over the communists."
"I see. What do you think of Germania or the Unified States agreeing to joint technology development?"
"For Germania, I believe the Germanian government would be open to that. A strong Akitsushima Dominion would be another front that the CSR would have to keep their attention divided. The Americans might be more hesitant, but will soften up once there are some trade relations established. Especially if they see an opportunity that benefits them."
He leaned back a bit as if he was deep in thought, then offered a hand to me.
"I thank you for the talks we had today. My schedule is busy for the next few weeks, but I wish to remain in contact with you two, and also wish you success with your future journeys."
He then motioned to the Lord Keeper, who walked over to a side table and retrieved a tea set.
"A gift from the imperial family." The Emperor said as the Lord Keeper offered the tea set to me.
1951, July 14th, early morning in Edo at a hotel:
A lot had changed in a blink of an eye.
Last evening on live TV, Akitsushima Dominion and the CSR signed a treaty agreeing that no weapons of mass destruction were to be stationed on Formosa Island or within 200 kilometers of it. It also included a provision where the two countries would later negotiate over the CSR being capped on how much military assets they could station within 100 kilometers of Formosa Islands, including artillery guns, and the Akitsushima Dominion would also be capped on how much they could station on the islands.
I breathed a sigh of relief at a potential war being averted. Of course, all this is doing is kicking the can down the road as I'm all too bitterly familiar with the Taiwan situation in my previous life. If there was no hope of peacefully resolving that issue in 2012 or beyond, there's no hope of doing the same in the 1950's in this world.
I heard the door slide open and Visha walked in with breakfast food she bought from the street vendors, and a roll of newspaper
"Tanya, I found a newspaper stand that was selling papers from Germania." she said as she set the food on a table. "The front desk also had mail for us."
I got out of bed and walked over, and stared at the headline of the newspaper.
"Diet deadlocked again on a defense restructuring bill that the military hates, tell me something new." I groaned.
Visha pointed at the next headline. My jaws dropped.
GWP officially disbanding and a large number of members leaving the GDU.
Simultaneously, the President had responded to the deadlock by utilizing his emergency powers to push the bill through. His justification was that with the CSR now pursuing their mass destruction weapons program, Germania would need nuclear weapons for its security as conventional forces can't stop biological weapon attacks. The Diet attempted to impeach the President, but they were so divided that they could not obtain enough votes for the impeachment to go through.
"That madman." I muttered. "And of course he argues that it's just a one time emergency power use to clear a deadlock."
"I suppose when we get back to Germania, it's going to be a different place." Visha responded.
"There's going to be a lot of catching up on the politics in Germania to determine how President Paul managed to come on top of all of this chaos." I said as Visha opened the mail.
"Huh, an invitation from Volksauto." Visha murmured as she scanned through it. "It's a joint letter from Anton Ehrlich, CEO of Volksauto, and Akbar Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, Chairman of the Tata Industries. They had established a joint venture named Tata Motors and invited us to visit them for the opening of the automotive plant in South Bharat."
"Really, now?" I hummed as I took the letter from her and looked it over. Hm. Well, I could use a sense of normalcy that a business meeting could bring to distract me from the brewing storm that was Germanian politics.
AN:
Context for the Yamato battleship's fate: wiki/Operation_Ten-Go
From my understanding of AYWPR, Germania's constitution is essentially a mirror of Weimar Republic's constitution: threads/a-young-womans-political-record-youjo-senki-saga-of-tanya-the-evil.660569/page-62#post-49518303
"The president of the republic was by constitutional design not involved much in the day to day matters of government. Although the position was elected, its duties were similar to those traditionally entrusted to a constitutional monarch. He was to use his abilities to facilitate the creation of a stable government and to dismiss the Diet and call for new elections if the government were to lose its way. He could exercise further powers in the event of an emergency, although the idea of kicking off his presidential term by declaring an emergency was rather distasteful."
wiki/Weimar_Constitution#Weaknesses
"The allocation of presidential powers was deeply problematic. The Weimar Constitution allowed the president to dismiss the chancellor, even if the chancellor retained the confidence of the Reichstag. Similarly, the president could appoint a chancellor who did not have the support of the Reichstag. Further, the government structure was a mix of presidential and parliamentary systems, with the president acting as a "replacement Kaiser" and assuming some of the powers the monarch would have wielded. Article 48, the so-called Notverordnung (emergency decree) provision, gave the president broad powers to suspend civil liberties with an insufficient system of checks and balances. This presented an opportunity that Adolf Hitler was quick to seize once he became chancellor (see Reichstag fire)."
"The use of a proportional electoral system without thresholds to win representation has also been cited. This system, intended to avoid the wasting of votes, allowed the rise of a multitude of splinter parties, many of which represented the extreme ends of the political spectrum, which in turn made it difficult for any party to establish and maintain a workable parliamentary majority. This factionalism was one contributing factor in the frequent changes in government. Shirer cites the presence of some 28 political parties in the 1930 national elections; Otto Friedrich cites 40 different groups in the Reichstag in 1933. There was no threshold to win representation in the Reichstag, and hence no safeguard against a quick rise of an extremist party. It was possible to win a seat in the chamber with as little as 0.4 percent of the vote."
As one of my story editors noted on that constitution situation:
"Once the Chancellor is head of a minority government, the President becomes far more influential. If the regular legislature is paralyzed with indecision, the President can declare an emergency and pass laws by decree, effectively becoming a monarch. If the parliament tries to oppose his decrees, he can dismiss them, and rule as a monarch while a new election takes place. If the political power is fractured between enough parties, getting together the 75% necessary to impeach the President is effectively impossible."
Context for Tata: wiki/J._R._D._Tata
"As his mother was French, he spent much of his childhood in France and as a result, French was his first language. He attended the Janson De Sailly School in Paris.[3] One of the teachers at that school used to call him L'Egyptien.[4]"
"He attended the Cathedral and John Connon School, Bombay. Tata was educated in London, Japan, France and India.[5] When his father joined the Tata company he moved the whole family to London. During this time, J. R. D.'s mother died at the age of 43 while his father was in India and his family was in France."
wiki/Tata_Motors#History
"Tata Motors was founded in 1945, as a locomotive manufacturer. Tata Group entered the commercial vehicle sector in 1954 after forming a joint venture with Daimler-Benz of Germany."