I Became Stalin?!

Chapter 43

The young people’s expressions were serious. 

The thirty or so people who had gathered here were all armed with a steel-like conviction that they were carrying the future of their country on their shoulders. 

The fate of our nation depends on the outcome of our work! 

How can we handle the national crisis that hangs on the balance?

When they first entered the organization called the Total War Research Institute, they didn’t even know what this place was doing. But after six months of learning and discussion, they had become loyal patriots who worried about the war and the future of their country.

The current situation was extremely difficult for the Japanese Empire. 

The war with China, which seemed to end easily, showed no signs of stopping.

President Jiang Jieshi of the Nationalist Party, who seemed to collapse at any moment due to the civil war among the warlords, declared an endless resistance and continued to resist while fleeing and moving his capital. 

Even if we conquered North China and razed Nanjing to the ground, even if we occupied Shanghai and pacified Wuhan, even if we pushed them to the very end, they declared an endless resistance.

The invincible Imperial Army never lost a battle, but they could not say they were winning the war either. 

The communist bandits built their own liberated areas in the hinterland and harassed the Imperial Army with sporadic guerrilla tactics. 

The Great Wall, which had once stopped the Mongol army’s hooves, also blocked Japan’s advance in the opposite direction.

The one million Imperial Army was becoming like a pebble thrown into an endless sea of people on the Chinese continent.

In the meantime, the four countries of America, Britain, France and Australia pressured Japan and implemented an oil embargo to help China.

The supply of materials for the Imperial Army began to suffer more and more. 

The stock of fuel to run the fleet would soon run out, and the Allied fleet would not even be able to sortie and would only die in port. 

How could we sacrifice ourselves for our country and repel the foreign enemies, let alone face such an end?

“War with America is inevitable. We cannot avoid it any longer. Even if we mobilize all our forces for a decisive battle with America, we will only perish miserably without oil to move them! We have to wage war at some point to break free from the shackles that bind our ankles.”

“I agree, but even if we invade Southeast Asia and obtain oil fields, our capacity to transport materials is extremely insufficient. The current friendly fleet is completely focused on preparing for a one-time decisive battle, and if the Anglo-American fleet attempts to destroy our transport fleet as a result… It will be like moving water with a bucket that has a hole in it.”

They all started to think seriously again. Through field trips and discussions based on their own materials, they were able to face the fundamental problems of the Japanese Empire.

Modern war was a ‘total war’ where nations poured out all their industrial and human resources. But Japan’s national power was not enough to subdue China, which was torn apart by warlords, let alone America, which had enormous production and national power.

Some of them had had a rare opportunity to visit America. 

And they all unanimously praised America’s enormity. 

America was a place that had vast territories, where countless people lived, and where huge factories produced countless goods.

A researcher who was a former employee of Japan Steel explained it this way. 

A single steel mill in a city called Detroit produced as much steel as Japan’s annual steel production.

It was hard to imagine for Japan, which lacked iron, good quality iron, and had to scrape pots and spoons to make guns and put them in furnaces.

That iron became American tanks that crushed the Imperial Army’s tanks, battleships and planes that sank the Imperial Navy’s fleet, and enemy bullets that killed our soldiers. 

If we had ‘spirit’, which the military high command emphasized so much, could we break steel with our soft flesh?

Oil was also like that. America dug up jungles where Indians lived in South America and pumped out oil.

Japan? Manchuria, Korea, Taiwan, none of them had a drop of oil. 

There was a rumor that oil came out of Manchuria, but no matter how much they dug, oil did not come out. 

Wasn’t it because they had been driven to this point by trying to get oil from southern colonies of Britain and France?

Japan and America had a fundamental difference in ‘weight class’ and this made all the researchers at the Total War Research Institute rack their brains.

“But… The British fleet that would be the biggest obstacle in attacking Southeast Asia has practically sunk under the Mediterranean Sea? According to what I received from our embassy in Berlin, Rommel and his Afrika Korps will soon have control of the Suez Canal. If the British Home Fleet and Eastern Fleet want to support each other now, they have to go around the huge African continent.”

The only outsider suddenly opened his mouth. 

He always preferred to be quiet while listening to the discussion with the help of an interpreter, but sometimes he made a claim like this. 

Everyone listened to his opinion. 

If it was a naval battle, and if it was the commerce raiding that Japan feared so much, there were few people who could match him.

Britain hated him, and Germany, his ally, made him a hero. 

The U-boat ace, Gunter Prien, had come to this foreign country and become an advisory researcher at the Total War Research Institute.

In front of his experience, the naval officers who had some career expressed their respect, and the civilians, bureaucrats and other researchers were amazed.

“That’s true, but isn’t the Eastern Fleet alone enough to be a threatening enemy?”

One of the researchers said that.

How much can I tell? Gunter Prin, the German embassy’s financial attaché in Japan, gave me a lot of data and secrets and told me to use them at the research institute, but I was always confused about how much I could say.

“Japan will have nothing to fear from the British and Dutch fleets in the Indian Ocean if it annihilates the existing ships of the Eastern Fleet. The homeland government has informed me that they have agreed with the French government to set up a U-boat base in Madagascar, a French colony, and unofficially lend up to… 100 U-boats to support Japan’s southern operation.”

The audience all gasped and cheered. 

A U-boat fleet! 

The 250 U-boats were the top priority weapon to dry up and kill Britain, the best maritime power.

Last year, around mid-June, U-boat engineers who secretly entered Japan via the Soviet Union trained Japanese engineers and brought several of the world’s best German-made machine tools. 

Using them, the Japanese Combined Fleet succeeded in commissioning a considerable number of U-boats.

But the Führer would support as many as 100 U-boats? 

It didn’t matter if they were all old-fashioned small U-boats. 

If there were submarines that could sink the Anglo-American fleets by roaming among the many small islands in the south, Japan could sufficiently protect its oil supply routes.

“Also, this is from the Navy Ministry… The United States has lent three battleships from its Pacific Fleet to support Britain and turned them to the Atlantic direction. But still, in the Atlantic, our Axis fleet is dominating.”

Another small cheer went up. 

The US Pacific Fleet was truly formidable. 

It was enough to compete with Japan’s entire fleet by ramming it.

But if the core battleship moved to the Atlantic to suppress Germany, an ally country, it was reasonable to challenge them on this side. Divide and conquer! 

Sun Tzu always said to attack a small enemy with a large army.

“But will the United States come to the negotiating table after its fleet is annihilated?”

“If we annihilate their fleet and block their shipping on both sides with Japan and Germany, wouldn’t it be possible to inflict enormous damage on the United States?”

“I’m skeptical. But after the fleet is annihilated, there will be no great power that will hinder the execution of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Wouldn’t our empire just have to annihilate isolated China, manage the south, and prepare for future battles?”

The basic intention of the upper echelon was to annihilate the US fleet and make them admit defeat and come to the negotiating table. 

They were generally skeptical about this opinion, but they thought that after Britain’s fleet fell, only the United States could check Japan’s Combined Fleet.

What if they don’t come out to negotiate? 

They had no means of exerting force to break their will against Japan. 

In the endlessly wide Pacific Ocean, if they hunted down individual ships isolated after their fleet was annihilated by submarines or battleship power, the US capacity would end under blockade!

Except for some of the most skeptical ‘US advocates’, most of the staff at the Total War Research Institute agreed with this.

“But will the US fleet come out for a decisive naval battle as we want…”

Prin had something to say about that too. When he raised his hand again, everyone started listening to him for Germany’s secret information.

If he could sink Royal Oak of Britain’s Navy at Scapa Flow, he could find a way to destroy a fleet hiding in a vast sea or hiding in a heavily armed Pearl Harbor. 

And he began to explain the operation that Führer prepared as a trump card.

Hideki Tojo, Prime Minister of Japan, read with interest the report that came up to him.

The head of Total War Research Institute, an army general, stood politely in front of him and waited for his orders. 

Thump, thump, thump. 

Tojo tapped his desk with his knuckles and turned over one page after another.

“Ho…”

Sometimes he let out a small sigh when he saw what he wanted, and sometimes he frowned or scratched his temples when he didn’t like it. After reading carefully until the last page of the report, Tojo gestured to him.

“So, is this what your mock cabinet came up with?”

“Yes! That’s right, Your Excellency!”

“Hmm…”

As he hesitated, he fidgeted with his hands nervously. When he was about to bite his lips, Tojo asked again.

“I can’t tolerate defeatism that thinks we can’t win our war. This achievement is heavily influenced by such defeatist thinking.”

“Sorry… sorry Your Excellency!”

“No. Of course it’s important to know your enemy and yourself when you go to war… But…”

He tapped his desk again. But he could tell by his expression that he was not satisfied.

“The belief in victory! That’s the most important thing before the war. How can the invincible imperial army lose to the weak Yankees who are corrupted by the capitalist consumer culture? Each one is an elite warrior, armed with the Yamato spirit to defend the Emperor at all costs. We have no defeat!”

“Yes, Your Excellency! I will keep that in mind!”

“There are some good points here. We must learn and use the U-boat operation of Germany, our ally. The Anglo-Americans may disrupt our supply fleet and cause problems for our supply. I will order the navy to deal with that. And… are these statements from the financial attaché reliable?”

“Yes, Your Excellency. The German ambassador confirmed that the financial attaché receives confidential information directly from the homeland intelligence agency. The reliability is impeccable.”

“Then, of course, our allies’ victory is beyond doubt. Führer Hitler is truly a leader sent by heaven. He can come up with such amazing strategies to annihilate the Anglo-Americans…”

Tojo closed his eyes slightly and muttered a prayer as if thanking Buddha. Then he opened his eyes wide and asked a question to his staff who was sitting next to him.

“What do you think we should do about the Soviet Union?”

“The Soviet Union, Your Excellency? The Soviet Union is currently fighting a fierce battle with Germany, and the allied countries joining our Axis will continue to increase. Now that the Mediterranean is in our Axis hands, Turkey and Iran, and the resistance forces in the British Middle East colonies will join the German army to cooperate in punishing the Soviet Union.”

“Yes, very good. But from our perspective, the Soviet Union is…?”

“In my humble opinion, it is advantageous to maintain inviolability as long as the Soviet Union takes a cooperative attitude with our country. China’s imperial army is one in a hundred elite, but there are so many Chinese people and the front is wide and they are calling for reinforcements. In this situation, opening a war on the Soviet front is…”

The staff trailed off, but Tojo nodded. 

The human resources to be dispatched to the army were completely insufficient.

It would take a hundred million troops to fill the vast Chinese continent from the Yangtze River to Manchuria! 

He knew that well. The Pacific Ocean was wide, but unless each island had an army force and was fortified, it could be covered by a naval fleet. But opening a war on the Soviet front was premature.

“Good! I will report this to His Majesty the Emperor. You all must prepare for war with the belief in victory!”

“Thank you, Your Excellency!”