I Became Stalin?!

Chapter 74

The new year had arrived, but the public opinion in favor of war in the United States did not subside. 

On the contrary, it burned even stronger.

Especially, the Americans were truly enraged at Japan.

The preemptive attack by Germany on Panama was within the range of ‘understanding’. 

Even if the Gatun Dam collapsed, and the American ships were attacked and sunk, the damage to the Americans was not that great.

To begin with, Panama was legally a US territory, but it was far from <our land> in the minds of most Americans.

And the United States had not fought very fairly against Germany either. 

It was a well-known fact that the United States claimed to be a neutral country while giving one-sided support to Britain, and often attacked German submarines.

“The United States is just paying the price for sending our proud U-boat crewmen to the bottom of the sea!”

Goebbels shouted in his propaganda broadcast.

Of course, even if that was true, it was not enough to say anything in favor of Germany in the current US public opinion, but it was also difficult to treat all Germans as traitors, who made up a huge proportion of the population.

The US government knew very well that many Germans had been loyal to the United States in the last war.

But Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was different. 

The way they delivered their propaganda was similar, and the fact that they launched a surprise attack was also similar.

But the Pacific Fleet, which was the pride of the United States, had become a pile of scrap metal in one surprise attack and sank to the bottom of Pearl Harbor. 

And that was by those damned yellow monkeys who had been rubbing their palms and acting cowardly until yesterday, saying that there would be no war.

“We will kill those slant-eyed bastards, and more slant-eyed bastards, and we will kill slant-eyed bastards until they give up the war!!”

“Death to the slit-eyed monkeys! A hundred monkey deaths for one American blood!”

Radical demonstrations continued day after day.

The ruling party, the Democratic Party, and the opposition party, the Republican Party, did not try to calm down this public opinion. 

Rather, they fanned it more.

The Democratic Party wanted to get the support of the people in the war they were leading. 

The Republican Party, on the other hand, had to take an active stance to emphasize the incompetence of the administration.

The demonstrations went on endlessly day after day, and demonstrations with torches and placards took place in major cities and towns across the country without exception. 

Some civilized people listed the massacres and atrocities committed by Germany and argued that this was nothing but discrimination based on racial prejudice, but they had to shut their mouths in front of the pouring curses and stones.

“The government hereby enforces Executive Order 9066 to protect the national security by…”

The situation was boiling with anxiety. Small-scale clashes broke out everywhere. 

Japanese-Americans were attacked at work, at school, and at their residences.

Stones flew endlessly at store windows run by Japanese people, and most of them had to choose to close down. 

They couldn’t just hide at home either.

From neighborhood thugs to retired veterans, they staged ‘uprisings’ by throwing torches and Molotov cocktails at Japanese homes.

The attackers were diverse.

Chinese immigrants who had been at war with Japan often took the lead to avoid any possible attacks or criticisms that might fall on them.

There were hardly any Japanese-Americans in the South, but most of the attacks on them were involved with local KKK groups. 

They were dragged to the police for a formal investigation, but they eventually walked out proudly with cheers from their supporters in front of smiling police chiefs or sheriffs shouting “Long live America!”

The victims? They had to walk out of the back door of the police station as if fleeing from intimidating police officers and jeering citizens.

The Roosevelt administration issued Executive Order 9066 as if it had been waiting for this, which would imprison all Japanese-Americans for ‘investigation’ and ‘protection’.

If all people from ‘enemy countries’ were imprisoned, America would have to stop. Just by excluding people from Germany, Italy, France, Spain four countries alone would have meant locking up about 30% of America’s population somewhere in a mountain valley. But it seemed possible to lock up a handful of Japanese-Americans.

There was also a ‘reason’. 

The Japanese were exposed to intense terror and attacks, and the US government had a duty to protect their bodies and property. 

Whether they actually did so or not was another matter.

***

The reaction of Japanese-American residents was divided into two extremes.

“Ha! Dirty nose-picking Yankee bastards! Freedom and equality my ass! You are all just as lowly as dogs!”

Until yesterday, the US government promised freedom and coexistence, but now they issued an executive order to put only Japanese-Americans in internment camps. 

Many Japanese-Americans clenched their teeth at the act of singling out and imprisoning only people of color, while not discriminating against Europeans who were too many and white.

“Please, please, please! We are Americans too! We love America! We have nothing to do with Japan!”

On the other hand, some Japanese-Americans begged for mercy. 

They had been born and raised in America, and had never even set foot in Japan. 

They had no connection or loyalty to Japan, and they only wanted to live peacefully as Americans.

Of course, no one listened to their complaints. 

Rather, they jumped up and down, accusing them of being traitors. 

The ‘treachery’ of the Japanese-Americans had already decorated the media splendidly.

An incident occurred where a few young Japanese immigrants protected a Japanese fighter pilot who had crash-landed in Hawaii after the air raid, and had a gunfight with the native Hawaiians. 

This incident spread to the shocked Americans and contributed to fueling the public opinion.

Their names and personal information were exposed, and among the media outlets that participated in the criticism parade were not only cheap tabloids but also prestigious newspapers. 

No, everyone except the Japanese-Americans wanted to catch and kill them.

“Your Honor! As a prosecutor who guards the law enforcement of the United States of America, I am confident that these defendants are traitors who do not deserve a word of sympathy! I demand the maximum penalty, death penalty, for them.”

“Death penalty! Death penalty!”

“Waaaaah!”

Their trial was swift, and as the judge looked coldly at the defendants, the prosecutor demanded death penalty for all of them. 

Despite the requirement of silence in the courtroom, the spectators shouted for death penalty. 

Kill all those dirty yellow monkeys! Even the judge let their noise go.

There were a lot of Japanese immigrants in Hawaii, and quite a few of them had been sending donations to the Imperial Japanese Army Association.

Also, a considerable number had joined the ‘Imperial Comrade Association’ and declared that they would not cooperate with the US war, so public opinion was literally on fire.

The pilots who had crash-landed were already killed by angry residents, and three of the six young Japanese first- and second-generation immigrants were also killed. But those who were dragged to court were not the ‘killers’, the natives, but the young Japanese-Americans who had been with the Japanese pilots.

They were charged with spying and attempted murder of native Hawaiians for sympathizing with Japan’s surprise attack on the United States and providing information and shelter, and the judge did not sentence them to death as demanded by the prosecutor, but sentenced them to heavy sentences for all three.

And the US Army that survived the Pearl Harbor attack began to send tens of thousands of Japanese-American residents to internment camps on the mainland.

Some tried to sell their property and immigrate to South America where their compatriots lived, but they were also imprisoned on charges of spying.

“We are Americans! We were born and raised in America, and we will be loyal to America as Americans, no matter where our ancestors came from!”

Not all Japanese-Americans had given up their loyalty to America. 

Many second- and third-generation Japanese-Americans did not have a sense of identity as Japanese.

Nevertheless, the government tried to take them to internment camps, and they resisted collectively. We will not avoid the war, enlist us instead! We will prove our loyalty!

The US military was negative about the Japanese-Americans’ resistance. 

The US military intelligence and the FBI had half-concluded that the cooperation of the Japanese-Americans was crucial to the success of the Pearl Harbor attack, and they were wary of them becoming spies for Japan after enlisting.

FBI Director Edgar Hoover vehemently opposed them, saying that there would be spies among those who wanted to enlist.

“Spies, spies, damn spies! These parasites are lurking in America. We cannot let these parasites of society move to the army!”

The US Department of Defense also shared a negative perception. 

In the end, those who were loyal to America had to gather in a separate camp to be ‘verified’ of their loyalty.

Although it was called a camp, it was qualitatively different from the places where most Japanese had to go, which were just buildings erected on barren land in the central inland. 

It was at the level of a US military base, but the security was strict. 

Especially, the Japanese-Americans who came from the Hawaii Coast Guard had to be assigned to solitary cells and monitored by heavily armed US soldiers.

General Mo of the Army showed interest in them, but… he also had to turn his attention elsewhere after being investigated by the military intelligence agency.

“Can you take responsibility if there is a mass desertion from the Japanese-American unit? Are you also trying to help the enemy of America?”

He had to back down in front of Hoover’s fierce reaction.

***

“What? Did something like that happen?”

In the actual history of Pearl Harbor, there was also a ‘Niihau incident’ where a pilot who landed on Niihau Island tried to protect one person.

Nevertheless, I never imagined that they would shove all the Japanese-Americans into internment camps.

Roosevelt must have been really pissed off.

Of course, I could understand. Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack was more successful than in actual history, inflicting fatal damage on the Pacific Fleet.

Unlike in real history, where they only sank battleships without losing a single aircraft carrier, here they lost all aircraft carriers except for Enterprise, which was the core of the initial counterattack, and even battleships were damaged, making the Pacific Fleet almost evaporate.

“Wow… Did they say I couldn’t stop it even if I told them?”

It was hard to imagine how the Pacific War would go.

The US military had lost almost all aircraft carriers that could maintain the front line. 

Even if it was Enterprise, which was the best training ship in history, it was only one ship. 

It didn’t help much here either, but anyway Britain was also smashed.

Until 1943 or 1944 when American supplies poured out, America would probably suffer a lot.

We Soviet Union also had to deal with Japan well. 

Hitler would be jumping around, right? 

He smashed Britain and Panama for nothing, but Japan still flirted with Soviet Union and stabbed him in the back. 

Hitler must be running around grabbing his neck in Berlin, haha.

“By the way, public opinion against Japan seems to be burning up.”

“Yes, Comrade Secretary. They say they want to put all Japanese in gulags.”

In real history, America formed a unit of Japanese-Americans who swore loyalty to America, called Nisei (second generation) unit. 

They fought hard to prove their loyalty and performed well in the war.

But blocking even the formation of such a unit seemed like cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face. 

Well, it didn’t seem like something I had to worry about. 

Anyway, if America’s huge supplies came out… Germany and Japan wouldn’t be able to stop it no matter what they did.

The moment nuclear bombs were developed, America might bomb Tokyo – hot. The war might end sooner!

But there would be seeds of division within America. 

America, which values freedom and civil rights, creates gulags like us Soviet Union and shoves its own people into them… 

This would reduce one thing that America could use against us later.

“Comrade Beria, why don’t you go and teach them our advanced gulag management skills?”

“Pfft, pffft…”

Some burst into laughter at the sudden joke. 

Beria smiled and pushed up his glasses as if he was trying to remember their faces one by one. 

They quickly lowered their tails and pretended not to laugh… Why did you laugh then?

Executive Order 9066, issued by Roosevelt, which allowed the internment of ‘enemy aliens’ in real history, was changed into a law that targeted only Japanese-Americans. 

I could understand that. The European front had become enemy territory except for Britain, Ireland, and Soviet Union.

But the Americans were too angry, and they acted as if they would throw all the Japanese-Americans into the wasteland, not to mention Siberian gulags.

No, it was not just acting. They actually did it.

The Japanese immigrants and their second-generation children, who made up nearly a third of Hawaii’s population, were all dragged to the deserts of Arizona and Utah.

They said that all Japanese-American women of the second generation, except those who married ‘American’ people such as whites or natives, and even infants who were still breastfeeding, were taken away to be investigated for anti-national spy activities…

Where did they learn such methods? I had nothing to say. Soviet Union, Germany, Japan, they all did that.

Of course, it was not as bad as the extermination camps or labor camps made by Germany or Japan, but just places with poor facilities in the middle of nowhere. 

Was that a relief? 

Somehow it seemed to me that they were making a fuss over nothing.

“Ah, also convey this to America. I ‘request’ them to manage so that Koreans who are from Japan’s colony are not treated as Japanese-Americans and taken to internment camps. If there are any Koreans who are rejected from enlistment… our Korean legion welcomes them anytime.”

One of the war heroes of World War II, Colonel Kim Young-ok, could also suffer from the ignorance of the field workers. 

America could distinguish between Koreans and Japanese-Americans, but not everyone on the front line was so thoughtful and careful.

Even if they enlisted, it might be better for them to join the Soviet army composed of Koreans rather than suffer from intangible disadvantages because they were colored or similar to Japanese-Americans. 

There were also conflicts here, as there were Soviet-borns, Chinese-borns, Manchurian-borns, and even mainland-borns who escaped from being conscripted by Japan.

Of course, they couldn’t openly clash, and they seemed to develop camaraderie in the fierce and harsh training… but if we added Americans to this mix? 

It might be fun and interesting from above, but it seemed like a headache for the field workers.

But so what? 

I’m not a field worker. 

Hehehe.

Even if it provokes Japan, Japan wouldn’t dare to wage war on us.

Japan was fighting against America and China, and it would be suicidal to wage war against Soviet Union as well, which had hundreds of millions of troops (even if they were on the other side of Eurasia).

Even if they wanted to fight, could they come all the way from the Far East to Siberia and then to European Russia?

The lend-lease would be cut off, but the effects of receiving the infrastructure facilities were slowly showing up, so it wouldn’t be a life-threatening level.

“Let’s end today’s meeting here. How about a movie? Comrade Bolshakov has prepared a movie made by our friends, the Americans.”