Tokyo, Japan, has recovered from the 1923 earthquake after more than two years of reconstruction.

In an office of the Tokyo Municipal Agency for Cultural Affairs, a staff member is reading a novel intently.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a desertion during working hours, they take their work very seriously.

This office is in charge of the censorship of books, and all books published in Tokyo are censored by them, so reading novels is a major part of their work.

They read novels in a different way than ordinary readers, and they flip through books very quickly, and they don't care about the details at all.

The only thing to be concerned with is whether there is anything unfavorable to the government in the novel.

They have a large number of forbidden words stored in their minds, and once they find similar words in a book, they will stop and scrutinize them, or they will simply reject them and not allow them to be published.

In fact, it's not a good job, and I have to go through a lot of book manuscripts every day, which makes my head dizzy.

They hate the writers of the present day so much, they borrow the way Western novels are written, and they write novels that are getting longer and longer, and they don't know the beauty of brevity at all.

How good the writers used to be, either writing short stories or haikus, concise and clear at a glance.

The most annoying to the censors were writers who were adept at using metaphors and substitutions, which used this method to circumvent forbidden words and cause great trouble for their censorship efforts.

Because of this, the Agency's welfare package is good, but it makes the examiners complain.

On this day, an examiner picked up a manuscript from a publishing house, available in English and Japanese.

The publisher also attached an explanation.

Explain that this is a novel manuscript by an American author. It has been translated into Japanese, and the content is more sensitive. I would appreciate an answer from the Agency for Cultural Affairs as to whether it could be published.

The examiner became curious, as an old examiner. I have read countless books, but I have not seen the manuscripts of American writers.

He opened the manuscript and flipped through it.

He just started in censor mode, scanning ten lines at a glance, but there seemed to be something wrong, the storyline takes place in the United States, but there are Japanese things everywhere.

Immediately after, he was shocked, the setting of this story is too powerful.

World War II broke out. Japan and Germany divided the world, and the Americans had to grovel to the Japanese and flatter and curry favor, and this lofty setting made the examiners instantly feel a sense of substitution.

That's a really good book!

If you look at the novel "The Man in the High Castle" from the perspective of a Japanese, it is definitely a cool article, and from the perspective of an American, it is an abusive article.

The censor unloaded the censorship mode, entered the reader mode, and read the novel carefully.

He didn't do anything for a day. Just read the novel, and it was very refreshing to read.

Although the Japanese are portrayed as villains in "The Strange Man of the High Castle", there is also a description of the Japanese spirit of bushido, which is very suitable for the taste of the Japanese. It can be used as a model for obscene novels.

At this time, in order to alleviate the pressure at home, Japan urgently needed to expand abroad, and this novel fitted the voice of the Japanese people.

After reading it. The censors understood the publisher's concerns.

After the Meiji Restoration, Japan learned Western technology. As a result, the national strength has increased greatly, and it is considered a strong country in Asia. But compared with the Western powers, there is still a certain gap.

Moreover, Japan has insufficient resources and a small population, so it is okay to bully weak countries, but it is not enough to deal with strong countries.

Japan's neighbors in Asia are Japan's targets.

But this novel is really good, and it would be a shame not to publish it.

The censor also noted that there were two worlds mentioned in the book, one in which Japan had won and the other in which Japan had lost, which was probably also a concern for the publisher.

If Japan loses the war, it will end up in the same fate as the Americans.

At that time, it was the Americans who ruled Japan, and it was the turn of the Japanese to grovel to the Americans and flatter them, and that kind of life was really terrifying.

The examiner is unable to make the decision, so he submits the manuscript according to the procedure and lets the officials of the Agency for Cultural Affairs make a decision.

The officer, who was also unable to decide, continued to submit to the higher authorities, and finally the manuscript was sent to the Emperor of Japan.

This has to do with the strict social hierarchy in Japan, and this kind of obscene fiction that fits the Japanese can be used to please the emperor.

At this time, they thought it was just a science fiction novel written by an American.

Since the Great Guanzhong earthquake, the Japanese government has quietly formulated a policy of foreign expansion, and China is Japan's primary target, for which they have made a lot of preparations.

Two points are written about Japan's future wars in "The Man of the High Castle".

One was cooperation with Germany, and the other was the air raid on Pearl Harbor in the United States, thus occupying the United States.

As for the war in Asia, there is no mention of it, so it is not clear from this novel how Japan is arranging in Asia.

After reading it, the Japanese emperor did not return it to his subordinates, but put it on the shelf and placed it in the imperial palace, and he did not think that a science fiction novel written by an American would have much reference value.

Of course, this novel should not be published so as not to provoke unnecessary diplomatic disputes.

A manuscript of "The Man of the High Castle" was presented to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and the censor, a fanatical militarist, thought that this was the future of Japan.

Japan will not only have to carve up the world with Germany, but also defeat Germany and eventually dominate the world.

He handed over the manuscript to militaristic groups within the Japanese government, most of whom were war maniacs who ignored the countries of the world and always fantasized about world domination.

They could not help but applaud the Japanese attack on the US Pearl Harbor fleet in the novel, which completely dismantled the US Navy's strength in the Pacific.

Not only that, but they also seriously thought about the feasibility.

Most of these people were subordinate to the Japanese military department and were responsible for formulating operational strategies.

The military department is the military command hub for Japan's foreign wars, independent of the government and parliament, and directly responsible to the emperor.

So, in the Japanese military headquarters, there were different voices.

Should China be invaded first or the United States first, when is the best time to attack the United States, and what if the feasibility of a two-front war is known to the United States?

At this time, the Japanese military headquarters was still only doing war deductions, and the war had not yet begun.

Over time, when they discover that this is not just a novel, but most likely a prophetic book, they try to destroy the other manuscripts while looking for the author of the manuscript.

What they were most concerned about was whether to attack Pearl Harbor or not.

Obviously, the U.S. government also has a manuscript in its possession and knows about Japan's plan to attack Pearl Harbor, so should this plan be shelved, or should it be carried out in advance?

The future has changed, and no one knows what to do next. (To be continued.) )