The Rise of the Third Reich

On the afternoon of December 9, 1941, Tokyo, Imperial Palace.

In the magnificent Sengusa-ken, Emperor Hirohito, dressed in military uniform, sat on a Western-style throne, smiling as he listened to Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, Chief of the General Staff Sugiyama Hajime, and Chief of the Navy General Staff Nagano Osami report on the latest war situation.

Unlike the general impression of people after World War II in another time and space, Emperor Hirohito was not a vase who didn't care about worldly affairs, but the actual leader of Japan in World War II. The three major culprits of Japan's war, Hideki Tojo, Sugiyama Hajime, and Nagano Osami, were actually selected by Emperor Showa to take office.

The first person to be promoted to the throne of Chief of the General Staff and the number one figure in the army was Sugiyama Hajime, who was known as the "fool Moto" - although this person was "stupid", he could understand the emperor's intentions. As soon as he came to power, he actively prepared for the war against Britain and the United States, and led the comprehensive transformation of French Indochina and the infiltration of the Kingdom of Siam.

Then, with the intervention of Emperor Showa, Admiral Nagano Osami became the Chief of the Naval General Staff. He was one of the few people in the Japanese Navy who advocated going to war with the United States. Among the three candidates who might succeed Prince Fushimi Hiroyoshi as the Chief of the Imperial Family (letting the imperial family step down from the position of Chief was actually Hirohito's plan to avoid war responsibility), Gengo Hyakutake and Mitsumasa Yonai were both advocates of avoiding war with the United States. If they came to power, there would be no way to fight the war.

After becoming the Chief of the Naval General Staff, Nagano Osami immediately submitted a report - "The Attitude that the Imperial Navy Should Take Under the Current Situation", advocating to advance to Thailand and southern French Indochina (now Vietnam), to ensure the oil resources of Dutch Indochina (now Indonesia), and publicly advocated to fight the United States at all costs. Moreover, he also proposed the argument that "even if there is a certainty of victory over the United States, this certainty will become smaller and smaller as time goes by. It is already difficult to hold on... Since conflict is inevitable, the later the time, the more disadvantageous it will be", and advocated going to war as soon as possible.

The person who was finally pulled up to the throne of Prime Minister by the Emperor was Hideki Tojo, who was only a lieutenant general at the time (in order to enhance Tojo's prestige, Emperor Showa also promoted Tojo to general).

After Tojo became Prime Minister, all the military and political power in Japan was controlled by the hardliners who advocated war against the United States. In the two imperial meetings on November 2 and November 30 and the court appearance on October 5, Tojo, Sugiyama and Nagano successively reported to the Emperor on the battle plan and preparations for the war, and also analyzed the changes in the strength of the United States and Japan, as well as the various situations that Japan might need to face. Of course, this also included the time and outline of the battle plan for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Today, Tojo, Sugiyama and Nagano entered the palace early in the morning with great joy and began to report to Emperor Showa on the unprecedented victory of the navy on the first day of the war.

"...From the current situation, the battleship force of the US Pacific Fleet has been paralyzed. Five of the nine battleships have either sunk or been completely destroyed and unable to leave the port. One of the remaining four is undergoing major repairs on the mainland. Another three escaped Pearl Harbor early this morning, but the First Mobile Fleet will definitely sink them all.

In addition, bombers taking off from Taiwan also carried out devastating bombings on US military bases in the Philippines! Clark Airport has been completely bombed..."

Navy General Staff Chief Nagano Osami and Chief of Staff Sugiyama Gen have finished their reports, and now it is the turn of Prime Minister Hideki Tojo to summarize.

Although Japan's start in the Pacific War in this time and space was not smooth at all (compared with another time and space), it was defeated in some places such as Guam-Saipan, and Taiwan was bombed. The losses of the Army Air Force 5th Corps and the Naval Base Air Force 11th Air Force responsible for air strikes on the Philippines were relatively serious. However, Hideki Tojo still felt that victory was in sight. After all, Pearl Harbor was now a sea of ​​fire, and the US Pacific Fleet would not be able to use the base for at least the next 12 months.

This means that Japan will have at least 12 months of initiative, enough to establish an absolute defense circle including the resource-producing areas of Southeast Asia and many important Pacific islands!

Just when Tojo Hideki shook his head and said that after the establishment of the absolute defense circle, the Japanese Empire will be among the world's first-class powers. Suddenly, there was a hurried sound of footsteps from outside the Thousand Kinsas. Walking so loudly was obviously against court etiquette. The short-statured Minister Kido Yukiichi who served beside the emperor frowned, bowed to the emperor, and walked silently outside the Thousand Kinsas.

After about 2 minutes, Kido's shouting suddenly sounded: "Baga! How is this possible? Are the army and navy all idiots?"

Hearing this, the emperor, Tojo, Sugiyama, Nagano and a living god were all stunned. What medicine did this Kido take? How dare he openly insult the invincible Japanese navy and army in the palace? Isn't he afraid of being punished by heaven?

When the three men and one god were wondering, they saw Kido Koichi running in, not bowing to the Emperor to admit his mistake (a mistake in front of the Emperor), but grabbing the Emperor's arm and dragging him somewhere. He was still talking incoherently: "Oh no! Oh no! The Americans sent planes to bomb Tokyo..."

American planes bombed Tokyo! ?

How is this possible!

As soon as the word "impossible" popped up in Tojo, Sugiyama and Nagano's minds, the terrible sound of the bomb exploding rang out.

"The bombing is complete! The bombing is complete... The bombs are all dropped on the Emperor's head!"

"Wow, I saw the bomb exploded, right in the Japanese capital, what a beautiful scene!"

"This will surely kill a lot of Japanese!"

Colonel Doolittle heard a paging voice in his headset, which was the captains of the B-17 bombers who had just finished dropping bombs.

The 35 B-17 bombers commanded by Colonel Doolittle took off from Guam Airport at 3 a.m. today, and the cabin of each aircraft was full of fuel tanks. In order to reduce weight as much as possible, the self-defense machine guns were removed, and the crew members were reduced to 4 people.

The aircraft immediately adopted radio silence after taking off, and then flew at the most economical speed and altitude for 10 hours, and only broke into the sky over Tokyo at an altitude of more than 10,000 meters at around 1:20 p.m.

At this time, Japan had already had practical air search radars because it had introduced technology from Germany. So these B-17s were detected by Japanese radars as soon as they entered Tokyo Bay. However, because Japan's homemade radar technology was still relatively backward, the detection distance was relatively short. Therefore, the intercepting aircraft was not given enough time to take off, and these B-17s flew to an altitude of nearly 11,000 meters. It was difficult for the Type 1 fighters deployed near Tokyo to fly that high.

Moreover, the Japanese did not expect that their capital would be bombed so soon, so they did not deploy many heavy anti-aircraft guns in Tokyo that could fire shells to an altitude of more than 10,000 meters.

So 35 B-17s flew over Tokyo almost unimpeded and dropped more than 70 tons of high-explosive bombs!

Seeing a group of "small" fireballs rising from the densely packed Japanese buildings on the ground. Doolittle's mood suddenly improved, and he shouted to the radio operator on the plane: "Send a telegram to Manila: The air raid was successful, and the Japanese emperor's palace is being bombed!"

...

"What? There was a bomb falling in the Imperial Palace? How dare the Americans do this?"

In the "Yamato Hotel", Yamamoto Isoroku heard the bad news and trembled all over. Although the capitals of all the participating countries in Europe had been bombed by planes, no one in the Japanese Empire, which was determined to dominate the Pacific, dared to imagine that one day a bomb produced in the United States would fall into the palace of the Japanese emperor.

This evil act of attempting to kill the "present god" was simply an enemy of 100 million Japanese citizens (so-called, but not so many in reality)!

"Unforgivable!"

"American devils should die!"

"Kill all American devils!"

"Hang Roosevelt!"

The staff officers of the Combined Fleet who were attending a meeting in the commander's office all shouted as if their hair had exploded. Chief of Staff Ugaki Chan coughed and glanced at everyone sternly, and no one continued to shout.

Ugaki said to Isoroku Yamamoto: "The ones who attacked Tokyo were B-17s, and they should have taken off from Guam."

"Guam?" Isoroku Yamamoto frowned, "But Guam is nearly 2,500 kilometers away from Tokyo, which means 5,000 kilometers round trip... How could B-17 have such a long range?"

"The telegram said that these B-17s flew straight north after bombing Tokyo and disappeared over the Sea of ​​Japan."

"Going to the Soviet Union?" Isoroku Yamamoto immediately thought of where these planes went.

Ugaki nodded and said: "The Foreign Minister has urgently met with the Soviet ambassador and asked the Soviet Union to hand over all B-17 pilots who landed in its territory to us for disposal!"

"What did the Soviets say?" Isoroku Yamamoto asked hurriedly.

"The Soviet ambassador said that no B-17 aircraft landed in the Soviet Union..."

Yamamoto Fifty-six was stunned, and then he let out a long breath, "Not bad."

Ugaki looked at Yamamoto in confusion, and Yamamoto smiled bitterly and said: "My empire has already provoked a behemoth, can it provoke the Soviet Union again? If the Soviet ambassador said that the American planes had arrived in Vladivostok, but the Soviet Union decided to send them back to the United States. What can Minister Togo say? Dare to declare war? Now the Soviets say that no B-17 has landed, which means that Stalin does not want to break up with my empire."

When he said this, his face had become gloomy. "But the position of the Soviet Union and the United States in the same camp is already very clear. If my empire cannot achieve an overwhelming victory in the Battle of Hawaii, the Soviet Union is very likely to take a more hostile stance towards my empire."