Tokyo, Japan — Autumn, 1930
The war in Korea had not gone in Japan's favor.
The Russians had mobilized 100,000 men at the onset of their invasion. Meanwhile, Japan had only 30,000 soldiers defending the region when war was declared.
Those defenders were long dead; replaced piecemeal by reinforcements drawn from the home islands and other colonies, desperately flung into the meat grinder to hold back the advancing Russian steel tide.
Worse still, Japan's attempt to strike into the Bismarck Sea had ended in utter catastrophe. "Disaster" was the understatement of a century.
The Germans, despite inferior numbers, had not only held their position; they had annihilated the Japanese fleet, and every marine deployed alongside it.
The Emperor, already kept alive past his natural lifespan by foreign medicines, had grown increasingly frail.
He had never wanted war with Germany. Yes, he had felt insulted when Bruno refused to kneel before him during a diplomatic visit years ago.
