"Oil, rubber, ore, rice, and countless war materials are being transported back to China from South Asia, and factories are working day and night to produce guns, ammunition, airplanes, and combat vehicles for another three months...... No, in two months, we will be able to launch a 'destruction' operation, break through the Yangtze River defense line of the Chinese army, climb over the mountains, penetrate the hinterland, and fight on both sides with the Yunnan-Burma corps advancing north, destroying all the resistance of the Chinese army, and thus turning the huge China into a solid rear of the empire! At this time, if you want us to stop fighting with the Chinese people, you can't agree! Strike the army now to let the hunter abandon the bow in front of the forest and break the rope on the bank of the fisherman's river, which is really a waste of all the previous efforts, and it must not be agreed! ”

Before the Imperial Cabinet meeting, Minister of War Sadao Araki spared no effort to instill his views with his colleagues. The cause of the Pen~Fun~Cabinet www.biquge.info incident was that Foreign Minister Kenkichi Yoshizawa, who was on behalf of the Japanese Government to Berlin to attend the Allied Summit, sent back an urgent telegram, saying that the Allied Summit had adopted a resolution by a two-thirds majority, urging the Japanese side to hold an armistice meeting with the Chinese representatives as soon as possible in the name of the Allied camp, and if the Japanese Government refused to implement it, then the Allied General Headquarters would consider taking measures to restrict trade and even impose economic sanctions on Japan, and provide more humanitarian aid and necessary diplomatic support to the Chinese side.

After receiving an urgent telegram, Japan's current Prime Minister Takeshi Inukai immediately convened a cabinet meeting, but the discussion lasted from the evening until late at night and did not reach a unanimous conclusion. Because of the importance of the matter, Inukai Yi reported to the emperor overnight, and the two talked in secret for more than an hour, and Emperor Showa finally decided to convene a meeting of the emperor the next morning to discuss the matter with the cabinet ministers.

With dark circles under his eyes and a tired face, Dog Yangyi snorted beside him: "Foreign Minister Fang Ze sent another telegram this morning, saying that the Irish government is planning to provide Soviet Russia with new fighters, combat vehicles, and a large number of artillery and trucks to help Soviet Russia expand the size of the Far Eastern Front. Do they think that the Russians can change the nature of the foreign power by putting on the garb of Bolsheviks? Thirty years ago, we were able to defeat the Russian army with inferior military strength, and thirty years later, we will definitely defeat the Russian army with superior military strength! ”

"That's it!" Sadao Araki replied loudly.

Admiral Minister Okaku Censheng stated angrily: "After the occupation of Manchuria, the Philippines, and the East Indies, our oil, rubber, steel, and coal have been completely self-sufficient, and the Europeans think that their trade restrictions and economic sanctions can threaten us, then they are wrong, the Japanese Empire is no longer the Japanese Empire, we have nothing to fear, as long as Europe does not fall directly to our opponents, we can definitely defeat the United States independently!" ”

In this way, the decision of the Allied summit was nothing to worry about, but the reality was not as simple as Okaku Cen Sheng suggested. Modern warfare does not only rely on the quantity of industrial raw materials such as oil, rubber, steel, and coal, but also on science and technology, especially military science and technology, which play an indispensable role in warfare. In the half century since the Meiji Restoration, the reason why Japan has been able to make rapid progress in the industrial field is because of the learning and imitation of the advanced technology of European and American countries, and half a century later, that is, in the 10-20s, they basically caught up with the footsteps of the middle powers of Europe and the United States, and only then did they begin to learn the route of combining imitation and independent research and development. Later, with the advent of the era of the Great Navy, in order to catch up with the European and American powers, Japan spent more than half of its military spending on the navy, and they spared no effort to build super capital ships comparable to those of the Western powers, and at the same time enhanced the strength of aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft units through outsourcing, thinking that they had entered the ranks of the first-class powers. At the beginning of the war against the United States and Britain, the Japanese army was devastated, swept through the Philippines, Malaya, and half of India, and then defeated the US-British coalition forces in the battle for Australia and New Zealand, and it was not until the Hawaii Campaign that the Japanese army, which had rapidly expanded its self-confidence, tasted a lesson -- the Japanese naval aviation, which was still using biplane fighters, was beaten out of temper by the US-made "Eagle Falcon" rushing to the front line, and the Marine Corps and the Army Landing Force, which adopted the traditional mode of operation, paid an extremely heavy price in advance of the US army's coastal defense fortifications.

It was not until Japanese military observers observed the Allied troops' combat operations in the Bahamas and Cuba at close range, and sent home a detailed report on what they had seen and heard, that senior military officials and cabinet officials realized what a striking gap they had in the field of military technology from a truly first-class power. Later, the Japanese Combined Fleet regrettably lost the battle in the Eastern Pacific, and those who still kept their heads clear-headed had become more and more aware that Japan had no hope of a quick victory over the United States, and that the continuation of the war would only allow the Western allies to take advantage of it, so they put forward a new strategy of promoting peace talks with the United States and seeking a quick victory over China, but the US Government made it clear that the peace talks must be premised on Japan's abandonment of its occupation of the Hawaiian Islands, which made it difficult for the Japanese military and political circles and the people at home to accept it, and the Pacific War had to continue. Obtaining advanced military technology from the Western allies has become a top priority for the Japanese military, especially new fighters and radar equipment. Once the Western allies restrict trade, it will inevitably affect the Japanese military's armament innovation plan, making it difficult for them to take advantage of the head-on confrontation with the United States.

As if the majority of the people were inclined to reject the "unreasonable demands" of the Allied Headquarters, the Cabinet officials came out to summon the ministers to take their seats and wait for everyone to sit safely, and Emperor Showa walked into the conference hall with a serious face and a slow pace.

The ministers stood up respectfully and saluted.

After taking his seat, the 34-year-old Emperor Showa raised his chin slightly and said in a deep tone: "I have been thinking about it all night, and I feel that this matter should be cautious. ”

The mood changed suddenly.

All eyes were on the superior with a grim expression. At the end of 1926, the 25-year-old crown prince Hirohito officially succeeded to the throne as the 124th emperor, and changed the Yuan Showa with the sentence "the people are clear, and the concord is all nations" in the Shangshu. With the accession to the throne by the healthy and energetic emperor, all of Japan, from top to bottom, is hopeful for the new era to come.

Emperor Showa, who served as regent for many years, had actually been in power for many years, and his accession to the throne was just a change of status to continue ruling the country. After the ambitious Hirohito set the goal for Japan to intensify its economic aggression against the United States and East Asian countries and to seize Australia militarily, there was only one country left around Japan with a vast territory, rich resources, and a large population, but weak national strength and slaughter, which was the ultimate goal of the first 20 years of the Showa era.

In response to the ambition of the new emperor, both the cabinet members and the high-ranking generals of the armed forces expressed their willingness to contribute everything they had unreservedly and devote their lives to assisting the emperor in the realization of this great ideal.

But before Hirohito's ambition could be implemented, the global economic crisis broke out!

The source of the economic crisis is not the newly defeated United States or the economically backward Russia, not to mention the outbreak of Japan, a major player in East Asia, beyond everyone's expectations, the crisis caused by overproduction has swept Europe with an unstoppable momentum, especially in Germany, which has just experienced a decade of golden development, the influx of a large number of African workers has provided abundant labor for the development of various economic industries, but it has also inevitably brought many negative effects, such as employers prefer to hire cheap African labor, and the unemployment rate of native citizens has increased; On the other hand, cartels in all walks of life have amassed a large amount of wealth and means of production in society, and industrial growth and the redistribution of social wealth have become less balanced than before. Industrial growth was concentrated in a few of the more profitable sectors. The local mineral mining and leather industries are under-employed, and industry mergers are prevalent; Cheap crops in France, Poland and Africa were reduced by local agricultural incomes in Germany, and the land-clinging Junkers had to face the disadvantages of falling crop prices. Many farmers choose to go to Africa to pan for gold, and the rural areas are showing a recession, and rural purchasing power is declining year by year.

While most of Europe was busy dealing with the economic crisis, the Japanese did not last long, and the deformed situation of Japan's economic development over the years was far more serious than that of Europe -- the peasants were not valued in Japan in the first place, and the backward agriculture soon after the Russo-Japanese War showed that it was not suitable for the needs of economic development and foreign expansion, and the influx of rice from Thailand, Vietnam, India, and other places aggravated the turmoil of the Japanese peasant class, and the continued low price of rice made the peasants dare not expect the expensive salt, oil, and cloth at all. Poor peasants are often poorly clothed; Heavy industry and shipbuilding have been the targets of government support since the Meiji era. The large amount of resources obtained from Southeast Asia also supported the continued development of these industries, but the Southeast Asian countries in Japan's sphere of influence did not need to buy large quantities of Japan's heavy industry products, and in the Americas and Oceania, Japan's heavy industry products were basically uncompetitive in front of the Germans, and the shipbuilding industry was the same, so Japan's heavy industry and shipbuilding industry basically relied on their own countries, especially their own navy, to have their current abnormal prosperity.

Japan's economy has continued to develop in recent years, but the pace of development is far from keeping pace with the growth of military spending, and Japan's participation in the international shipbuilding race has put tremendous pressure on Japan's already poor finances. After sending an inspection delegation to inspect the naval battle between Germany and the United States, the senior generals of the Admiralty realized that their battleships and battle cruisers had fallen behind the three-dimensional tactics of the Western powers in terms of tactics, so they urgently needed to build a number of new aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft that could ensure Japan's status as a naval power, resulting in a continuous increase in military spending, and in the early 30s, the Japanese government was on the verge of bankruptcy......

At the beginning of his ascension to the throne, Hirohito certainly did not want to inherit the "unfortunate" title of Emperor Taisho at the same time as inheriting the throne, just when the ambitious monarch was at a loss, a golden opportunity came, the two camps around the Azores to carry out a fierce confrontation, the situation once came to the brink of war, Japan, Soviet Russia, these strong neutral countries with greater regional influence became the object of competition between Germany and the United States and Britain, in this situation, Japan had the courage to launch the chariot, It opened the prelude to the war of aggression against China, and then took advantage of the fierce competition between the two camps to send troops southward at the right time, and inexorably swept Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Today, the Aleutian Islands and Alaska in the north, the Indian Ocean in the south, the Yangtze River in China in the west, and Hawaii and the Polynesian Islands in the east, the vast area stretched as far as the eye can see, has become the sphere of influence of this military empire.

(End of chapter)