Chapter 1657 War Strategy
Unfortunately, this situation only lasted until before World War I. Now, the power of the European nobility has declined significantly. Wilhelm II of Germany is nothing more than a figurehead, and the Habsburg family is left with only the Kingdom of Dalmatia as a marginal entity in Europe.
In other countries, the aristocracy also declined significantly, or was simply wiped out. Russia and France are typical examples. Spain was also in dire straits, although perhaps no one would have guessed that Franco of Spain was a "royalist".
Among the major European powers, only the British royal family still retains some prestige, but it is also declining, especially due to the previous succession issues, which further damaged the image of the British royal family.
This had a significant impact on East Africa. For example, if Wilhelm II had remained in power, even if he didn't like East Africa, his rule wouldn't have been as bad as Adolf's.
However, the collective decline of European monarchies also foreshadowed that even without Adolf, someone else would have emerged. Before Adolf, the Junkers had already betrayed Wilhelm II once.
The intricacies of this matter are something I, Kawasaki Ichiro and Koizumi Tsutomu, have little idea about; they are still indulging in wishful thinking.
"East Africans are indeed incredibly lucky, but when virtue does not match position, disaster is inevitable. Kawasaki-kun, I think this is also the unfortunate aspect of East Africa."
"They control the Pacific region, so much land, but they have absolutely no capacity to develop and govern it."
"These colonies' superior conditions have been wasted, so it's better for the Empire to take them over in the end."
"The East Africans can't hold on to it, just like their Belitung Island military fortress. This so-called premier military base in Southeast Asia is more of a name than a reality, full of flaws, and far inferior to Singapore, which is controlled by the British."
Singapore is not far from Belitung Island, only 600 kilometers away.
The Singapore military base is also the largest naval base in the UK, with one of the world's largest dry docks, capable of berthing and maintaining the entire Royal Navy Far East Fleet, including battleships and aircraft carriers.
It was considered an "impregnable fortress," the ultimate symbol of Britain's efforts to safeguard its Far Eastern interests and control the strategic Strait of Malacca.
However, the Singapore naval base is still undergoing renovation and expansion. It may have to wait until next year to truly replace Belitung Island and regain its position as the number one naval base in Southeast Asia.
However, the British Royal Navy in Singapore is also a good reference point for the East African Navy on Belitung Island, both of which are strategic locations that Japan focuses on monitoring in the South China Sea.
Therefore, I won't go into details about the situation of these two strategic locations; Kawasaki Ichiro and Koizumi Tsutomu are very familiar with them and know a great deal about them.
Koizumi Tsutomu praised without reservation, saying, "The British Royal Navy in Singapore is clearly more well-trained than the East African Pacific Fleet, and truly deserves the title of the world's number one navy."
"Although the Royal Navy is declining now, it has a much richer history and more fine traditions than the upstart East African Navy."
"Compared to the East African Pacific Fleet, perhaps the Royal Navy is more worthy of being our powerful competitor and enemy in the South Pacific in the future."
Kawasaki Ichiro then said, "The US and Philippine navies in the South Pacific are not bad either."
"Although the United States only has one colony, the Philippines, it manages it better than East Africa."
"The East African Navy is poorly armed, its officers and soldiers are lax, and its ships are not properly maintained, making them vulnerable to collapse at the slightest touch."
On the surface, the intelligence that Kawasaki Ichiro and Koizumi Jiga received was indeed very accurate, but they could hardly imagine that this was exactly what East Africa deliberately wanted the Japanese government to know.
In recent years, the East African Pacific Fleet has indeed been in a state of rapid decay.
In order to make the charade seem real, East Africa deliberately relaxed its oversight of the Pacific Fleet and further reduced its deployment.
Even the quality of the Pacific Fleet's sailors has significantly declined due to the deliberate manipulation by the East African Navy.
Instead of replenishing the Pacific Fleet, they withdrew many of its elite troops, leaving behind those who, while not necessarily incompetent, were at least not very capable.
Therefore, the Pacific Fleet has indeed become a "retirement" base for the East African Navy, with equipment, personnel, inspections, and discipline all declining.
However, no matter how much the Pacific Fleet has fallen, it is still a force to be reckoned with.
Kawasaki Ichiro said, "We cannot underestimate our enemy because of their depravity."
"The East African Navy may not be doing well in many aspects, but their warships are all real. To be honest, the Pacific Fleet's battleships and cruisers would be considered valuable assets in the Empire."
"If it were in our hands, we would definitely take good care of it. Only countries like those in East Africa would not cherish it and waste it."
"From now on, what the Empire needs to do is to annihilate this main force of the East African Navy in the Pacific at the lowest possible cost."
"We have many enemies. East Africa is just one of the more important ones. Ahead of East Africa are countries such as the United States, Britain, and even the Soviet Union."
"Especially the Americans, whose navy is second only to the Empire in the Pacific region, and the overall strength of the American navy is no worse than ours."
"This also means that if we rashly start a war with the United States, the US Navy can send its Atlantic naval forces to support the Pacific theater at any time through the Panama Canal."
"This is very disadvantageous for us, but we must also take the future of the U.S. Navy as a whole into account."
"The Americans don't have any mortal enemies in the Atlantic, so they are very likely to be able to safely transfer their Atlantic naval forces to the Pacific."
Kawasaki Ichiro's consideration is reasonable. The United States has many disputes in the Atlantic, but it does not have any enemies in the strict sense.
Even East Africa, which is vying with the United States for influence in the Americas, can at most be considered a competitor of the United States, not an enemy.
Unless East Africa intends to attack the U.S. mainland and launch a full-scale war against the United States, which is clearly impossible.
Regardless of whether the United States or East Africa is competing in the Atlantic, the "battlefield" will at most be in other countries and regions, and will definitely not be on their own soil.
The competition between East Africa and the United States in the Atlantic has been deliberately kept within certain limits by both countries, with the competition being more about mutual tug-of-war than anything else.
In contrast to the relationship between the United States and East Africa, the relationship between Germany and the Soviet Union was a case in point; these two countries were truly mortal enemies in reality.
Both Germany and the Soviet Union wanted to destroy the other and ensure that the other could never recover, because the two countries shared a border and were both located on the European continent.
For both countries, the other's existence is the greatest threat to their national security.
The United States and East Africa are separated by the Atlantic Ocean and belong to the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, so the relationship between the two countries is by no means a life-or-death struggle, but rather a matter of how to "divide the spoils" between two robbers or accomplices.
The plates in front of East Africa and the United States are full of food, with food from Europe, North Africa, West Africa, the Caribbean, and South America all belonging to the tables of both countries.
Therefore, the main difference between East Africa and the United States is who gets more and who gets less, rather than a life-or-death crisis. In fact, given the conditions of the two superpowers themselves, they could live a good life without any problems.
To put it bluntly, East Africa and the United States are like two people who are not hungry to begin with; they are unlikely to fight to the death over food on their table.
It was for this reason that Ichiro Kawasaki had to believe that the United States was the biggest obstacle on Japan's path to rise.
He said, "East Africa is objectively stronger than the United States, but East Africa is not a Pacific nation after all, not to mention that the East African navy is so degenerate now. So as long as it is handled properly, East Africa will not pose a fatal threat to the empire's world strategy in the future."
"The Americans are completely different. The United States is also a Pacific coastal country, and there is an unavoidable conflict of interests between us. It is impossible for the United States to allow the empire to dominate the Pacific. Its military strength is also stronger than that of the empire."
"Therefore, we must conserve our energy to deal with the United States, and we must swiftly eliminate threats from other countries from the Pacific Ocean."
After hearing this, I had a different opinion, or rather, I thought Kawasaki Ichiro was too radical.
He said, "Kawasaki-kun, I think the Empire should prioritize dealing with East Africa and the United States. Once we resolve these two issues, other countries will pose no threat to the Empire at all."
"Take Britain for example. They are likely to be bogged down in Europe by Germany and unable to attend to the changes happening in the Far East."
"We want to deal with all the enemies in the Pacific at once, but we may not be able to do so. So it's better to focus on the key ones and proceed step by step."
Kawasaki Ichiro responded to his concerns by saying, "According to the intelligence of the Reich, Germany may not regard Britain as an enemy, so we cannot place our hopes on the assumption that the British may not be able to attend to the Far East."
"If Britain were to intervene in the Far East situation in the future, it would definitely cause us a lot of trouble."
"Britain's naval power in the Far East is not to be underestimated, not to mention Australia's loyalty to Britain."
"At the same time, Koizumi overlooked one point, namely that if we take action against Southeast Asia, we will inevitably break off relations with Britain."
"Britain's resources in Southeast Asia were an essential source of nourishment for the rise of the empire. Northern Kalimantan was the largest core oil-producing region in Asia. In addition, Myanmar was also an important oil-producing region controlled by Britain. These were all indispensable sources of oil for us."
"Then we must also secure Australia's iron ore, coal, and other resources."
"In the Pacific, Australia has the richest and easiest-to-mine iron ore deposits, and the iron ore deposits of the Far Eastern empires are incomparable to those of Australia."
"At the same time, we must ensure that Southeast Asia can exclude East Africans, and then all of Britain's colonies will inevitably be under our control. Singapore and Australia may become springboards for East Africans to fight back against the empire in the future."
"As long as we control these strategic locations, the possibility of East Africa returning to the Pacific will be greatly reduced. If we can force the United States to withdraw from the competition in the Pacific direction before then, we can completely lock East Africa in the Indian Ocean and prevent it from going east."
The British-controlled oil-producing region, specifically northern Kalimantan, is now the largest oil-producing region in Southeast Asia, with East Africa playing a significant role in its development.
Since the 1920s, East Africa has accelerated its imports of oil from the British Kalimantan colony, thereby driving British capital to continuously increase production in this oil-producing region.
Moreover, the British were happy to see this happen, and they were not worried that it was an East African conspiracy.
Accelerating the development of oil resources in northern Kalimantan would first bring substantial benefits to Britain. Not to mention East Africa, the dependence of other countries in the Far East on oil would ensure that Britain would have no trouble selling the oil it extracted there.
Secondly, precisely because of the threat in East Africa, Britain is accelerating the development of local oil resources, since oil resources are buried in this land. Britain's global hegemony has collapsed, and the maintenance of Britain's interests around the world is full of uncertainty.
Therefore, it is reasonable for Britain to monetize the local resources while it still has control over northern Kalimantan.
If this land were to fall into the hands of East Africa in the future, Britain would have nowhere to turn to cry.
Due to the influence of the two factors mentioned above, Britain had no concerns whatsoever about oil extraction in northern Kalimantan. With the added impetus from East Africa, northern Kalimantan rapidly became the largest oil-producing region in Southeast Asia and the Far East within the last decade, followed by East Africa and Dutch colonies.
This alone was enough to prompt Japan to launch a war against Britain. Only by acquiring oil-producing regions could Japan break free from its dependence on strategic resources.
Because, apart from oil, Japan can obtain most other resources from other places, and even the Far Eastern Empire can meet most of Japan's resource needs, such as coal and iron ore...
As for why Japan still covets Australia's resources, there are many reasons for this.
Firstly, East Africa's long-term propaganda has made Australia extremely well-known in Japan. Through deliberate manipulation of public opinion in East Africa, Australia is now seen by Japan as a "land of gold" as the Americas were to Europe during the Age of Exploration.
Moreover, taking over Australia is indeed feasible for Japan, since Australia has a very small population. Isn't this just like the Americas when facing Europe back then?
Although there were Native Americans in the Americas, their numbers were not large, and their population density was far lower than that of Eurasia. Due to limitations in productivity, they were even unable to control the vast plains of North America.
The same logic applies to Australia. Given Australia's population, Japan believes that a small military force would be enough to overthrow this vast country.
Secondly, Japan has already prepared for the possibility of offending the British in the future, and even if Australia does not side with Britain, it may become a ticking time bomb.
Apart from the Strait of Malacca and the Sunda Strait, the only sea route to Southeast Asia is through Australia. Therefore, to guard against Britain and East Africa, Japan should strike first and bring Australia under its control.
Finally, there's Australia's abundant resources. East Africa's resources are no exaggeration; they're real. How could Japan not be envious of these resources? Putting aside everything else, Australia's land alone is enough to make Japan make up its mind.
Like Germany, Japan's pressing need for land has fueled their greed.
Germany's 600,000 square kilometers of land and nearly 70 million people were considered too densely populated by Germans, so Germany hoped to acquire more of what is known as "land under the sun."
Japan's intense desire for land surpasses even Germany's, given that Japan's mainland is only about 300,000 square kilometers, yet its population is as high as 70 million.
Moreover, Japan's land resources are far more scarce than those of Germany. The country is mostly mountainous with very little plains. In addition, Japan faces frequent disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes, which makes Japan feel even more insecure.
(End of this chapter)
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