Thanks for the map, its far better than what I have been able to perform to date.
A New Balance
- Thread starter Jim Smitty
- Start date
Unit 317
Pingfang
Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department, Unit 317, Main Building
January 8 1938
It was a cold day here in Pingfang. It was around -18C outside with fine layer of snow on the ground with a light layer of overcast of clouds above. It was a truly nasty day in Pingfang. Yet for the Japanese Commander of Unit 317 he was getting ready to brave the nasty weather to greet the guest that were coming to his base. Calling them guest, as he thought was the wrong term. They were coming to work with his unit as it could offer things that their civilians back at home would be fairly unhappy about if they were doing it in their homelands, or even in their colonies. So they had come to an agreement to host a team here at Pingfang in return for their notes.
The Japanese annexation of Manchuria was a sore spot for many on the international diplomatic stage. Very few nations worldwide had given diplomatic recognition of the annexation of what was meant to be a buffer state between Japan and Russia. Well before Russia became the Soviet Union. Yet that when out the window when the Japanese invaded the Kingdom of Manchuria in 1930 and annexed it a year later. As of the start of the new year only a grand total of six nations[1] with the Imperial Federation granted recognition only late last year[2]. As such very few foreign nationals ever travelled to Japanese Manchuria.
Now a team of top flight British scientist were travelling to this heavily guarded base deep in Manchuria. Control of the limited numbers of foreign nationals in Manchuria kept them away from Pingfang, and for good reason. Pingfang was home to one of the most secret weapon programs in Japan at the moment. Japan was working with biological agents in order to create a weapon that was deadly. Some of Japan’s top minds were at Pingfang or some of the other sub-camps working on different ideas to create deadly bio weapons.
Japan wasn’t alone with their efforts to create bio weapons. Eight[3] nations were all working on the goal of deadly germs to be used in the next war. Some of these programs were well funded, fairly well balance along with being ethical, notably the Germans with their efforts at creating bioweapons. Others such as Brazil and the Ottoman Empire were bare bone programs that were designed to allow them to build up their expertise in the area for later growth once more funding was ready.
Then there was the Japanese Program. Most of the world leaders had something of an idea that Japan had their own bioweapons program, but if they knew the scope and total lack of ethnics in it, they would be beyond shocked. The Japanese were using human subjects to test their bio agents to see how they would do and once they served their use they would be killed and have their bodies burned. They were using captured bandits, criminals, homeless Han Chinese, and since the start of the second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese Prisoners of War. Not even the Soviet Union which was known for its violence against its own people when that far in testing their bioagents.
As the British learned of the Japanese efforts at Pingfang they decided to try and hitch up. The idea of using even prisoners who were under court orders of death for testing bioagents would had caused a major sink in the British Home Islands. Yet the ECP wanted to tested their weapons on humans. After a few rounds of talks the British and Japanese came to an agreement that stopped short of a full on joint program, but allowed the British to make use of Japanese bases and test subjects. That team was reaching Pingfang on this cold and general crappy day.
[1] Haiti*, Mexico*, United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary, South America, and the Imperial Federation
*They did so more to piss the US off than anything else.
[2] This was part of deal stuck between London and the Imperial Federation for something else.
[3] The British Empire, Soviet Union, Soviet Spain, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Japan, and the Ottoman Empire
Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department, Unit 317, Main Building
January 8 1938
It was a cold day here in Pingfang. It was around -18C outside with fine layer of snow on the ground with a light layer of overcast of clouds above. It was a truly nasty day in Pingfang. Yet for the Japanese Commander of Unit 317 he was getting ready to brave the nasty weather to greet the guest that were coming to his base. Calling them guest, as he thought was the wrong term. They were coming to work with his unit as it could offer things that their civilians back at home would be fairly unhappy about if they were doing it in their homelands, or even in their colonies. So they had come to an agreement to host a team here at Pingfang in return for their notes.
The Japanese annexation of Manchuria was a sore spot for many on the international diplomatic stage. Very few nations worldwide had given diplomatic recognition of the annexation of what was meant to be a buffer state between Japan and Russia. Well before Russia became the Soviet Union. Yet that when out the window when the Japanese invaded the Kingdom of Manchuria in 1930 and annexed it a year later. As of the start of the new year only a grand total of six nations[1] with the Imperial Federation granted recognition only late last year[2]. As such very few foreign nationals ever travelled to Japanese Manchuria.
Now a team of top flight British scientist were travelling to this heavily guarded base deep in Manchuria. Control of the limited numbers of foreign nationals in Manchuria kept them away from Pingfang, and for good reason. Pingfang was home to one of the most secret weapon programs in Japan at the moment. Japan was working with biological agents in order to create a weapon that was deadly. Some of Japan’s top minds were at Pingfang or some of the other sub-camps working on different ideas to create deadly bio weapons.
Japan wasn’t alone with their efforts to create bio weapons. Eight[3] nations were all working on the goal of deadly germs to be used in the next war. Some of these programs were well funded, fairly well balance along with being ethical, notably the Germans with their efforts at creating bioweapons. Others such as Brazil and the Ottoman Empire were bare bone programs that were designed to allow them to build up their expertise in the area for later growth once more funding was ready.
Then there was the Japanese Program. Most of the world leaders had something of an idea that Japan had their own bioweapons program, but if they knew the scope and total lack of ethnics in it, they would be beyond shocked. The Japanese were using human subjects to test their bio agents to see how they would do and once they served their use they would be killed and have their bodies burned. They were using captured bandits, criminals, homeless Han Chinese, and since the start of the second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese Prisoners of War. Not even the Soviet Union which was known for its violence against its own people when that far in testing their bioagents.
As the British learned of the Japanese efforts at Pingfang they decided to try and hitch up. The idea of using even prisoners who were under court orders of death for testing bioagents would had caused a major sink in the British Home Islands. Yet the ECP wanted to tested their weapons on humans. After a few rounds of talks the British and Japanese came to an agreement that stopped short of a full on joint program, but allowed the British to make use of Japanese bases and test subjects. That team was reaching Pingfang on this cold and general crappy day.
[1] Haiti*, Mexico*, United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary, South America, and the Imperial Federation
*They did so more to piss the US off than anything else.
[2] This was part of deal stuck between London and the Imperial Federation for something else.
[3] The British Empire, Soviet Union, Soviet Spain, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Japan, and the Ottoman Empire
Cryostorm
Monthly Donor
This is pretty much what Japan, with this particularly infamous unit no less, and Germany did OTL, hell the US, the syphilis experiments, and other nations were not exactly clean either.Wow, this is a dark world.
The OTL Japanese unit was 731, here it has a different number. OTL the British and Germans did biowarfare work, some before WWII. There has been some peculation that during WWI there was some use of biological agents against animals (specifically horses/glanders) and spreading typhus on the Eastern Front/Balkans. The evidence I've seen for this in WWI is very unconvincing.
But the Brits never experimented on LIVE HUMANS! This is a huge difference.
If I could suggest something, I'd say download Paint.net. I've found it to be much more agreeable and of a good quality to edit images how you want. It's also free...
Cease Fire
USS Houston CL-79
Gulf of Urabá
January 21 1938
The Colombian Communist had decided they weren’t going to take back the land that the United States of America had taken to create this bastard child of the Panamanian Republic by force. This was after three failed attacks and one major American counterattack that had caused the Communist to finally ask the US for a meeting to agree to a cease fire. There was also the fact the United States was currently blockading their coast that help push them to ask for these talks. The rest of the Com Block was currently unable to send any support to the Colombian Communist because of the American blockade. And the only other Communist nation in the new world Peru didn’t have the naval muscle to try and for the US to end it either. The Communist in Colombia knew they needed the help of their communist brothers to bring the glories of the revolution to Colombia and the only way they could make this happen was if they made the deal with the US.
With the nature of the meetings the US decided to hold them on one of their warships instead of bring the Communist into the new nation they were defending. Both sides understood that full on recognizing wasn’t happening anytime soon. The US hated the communist with a passion and the communist hated the Yankee Pig Dogs as they called them with an equal passion. If it hadn’t been for the Japanese unprovoked invasion of China, the US would had fully mobilized and crushed the communist in Colombia. Otherwise there would had been no talks, it would had just seen the US marching its army to Bogota and doing what they had to restore the Republic of Colombia. But that wasn’t meant to be as Japan was a much more dangerous foe than the Communist were.
Little respect was shown as the communist leaders sent to the Houston made their way up to the ladders to get to the deck. Then again, the Colombians weren’t showing much respect back to their host. The dislike was mutual and no one was acting like it wasn’t. The talks were short and to the point. There was no effort by the Colombians and only a weak effort by the United States to try and find something better than a cease fire. The US made the weak effort mainly to see if they Colombians would agree to anything other than a cease fire. Once the Colombians were clear they would only accept a cease fire, things when from there.
It took only a little under three hours to hammer out a cease fire agreement. The US was able to keep all of the land south of the Darien Gap that they had captured during their counter offensive and bring that into the newly created Republic of Panama[1]. The US also took legal control of the Guano Island claims that they currently had territorial disputes with Colombia over. Colombia wasn’t giving up on having those islands returned to Colombian control at a later date, but they understood that they had no means of getting to those islands right now. The Colombian Navy was a nonfactor. Many captains in the Colombian Navy had used their ships to escape the Communist. Those who had come out for the revolution had that favor returned by the USN sinking their ships. The biggest ships in the Communist Navy was launches and whale boats. But the agreeing was signed to end the shooting and the blockade.
[1] Map Below, the black line is basically a DMZ between the Republic of Panama and the Democratic Republic of Colombia. Its not perfect, but close to how that border between the two is.
Gulf of Urabá
January 21 1938
The Colombian Communist had decided they weren’t going to take back the land that the United States of America had taken to create this bastard child of the Panamanian Republic by force. This was after three failed attacks and one major American counterattack that had caused the Communist to finally ask the US for a meeting to agree to a cease fire. There was also the fact the United States was currently blockading their coast that help push them to ask for these talks. The rest of the Com Block was currently unable to send any support to the Colombian Communist because of the American blockade. And the only other Communist nation in the new world Peru didn’t have the naval muscle to try and for the US to end it either. The Communist in Colombia knew they needed the help of their communist brothers to bring the glories of the revolution to Colombia and the only way they could make this happen was if they made the deal with the US.
With the nature of the meetings the US decided to hold them on one of their warships instead of bring the Communist into the new nation they were defending. Both sides understood that full on recognizing wasn’t happening anytime soon. The US hated the communist with a passion and the communist hated the Yankee Pig Dogs as they called them with an equal passion. If it hadn’t been for the Japanese unprovoked invasion of China, the US would had fully mobilized and crushed the communist in Colombia. Otherwise there would had been no talks, it would had just seen the US marching its army to Bogota and doing what they had to restore the Republic of Colombia. But that wasn’t meant to be as Japan was a much more dangerous foe than the Communist were.
Little respect was shown as the communist leaders sent to the Houston made their way up to the ladders to get to the deck. Then again, the Colombians weren’t showing much respect back to their host. The dislike was mutual and no one was acting like it wasn’t. The talks were short and to the point. There was no effort by the Colombians and only a weak effort by the United States to try and find something better than a cease fire. The US made the weak effort mainly to see if they Colombians would agree to anything other than a cease fire. Once the Colombians were clear they would only accept a cease fire, things when from there.
It took only a little under three hours to hammer out a cease fire agreement. The US was able to keep all of the land south of the Darien Gap that they had captured during their counter offensive and bring that into the newly created Republic of Panama[1]. The US also took legal control of the Guano Island claims that they currently had territorial disputes with Colombia over. Colombia wasn’t giving up on having those islands returned to Colombian control at a later date, but they understood that they had no means of getting to those islands right now. The Colombian Navy was a nonfactor. Many captains in the Colombian Navy had used their ships to escape the Communist. Those who had come out for the revolution had that favor returned by the USN sinking their ships. The biggest ships in the Communist Navy was launches and whale boats. But the agreeing was signed to end the shooting and the blockade.
[1] Map Below, the black line is basically a DMZ between the Republic of Panama and the Democratic Republic of Colombia. Its not perfect, but close to how that border between the two is.
Oh yeah, the Japanese are no different here than OTL but if the Brits are going down the dark road, I wonder who else will too that didn't do so in OTL?
The guy running Unit 317, is not Col Ishii as he has been butterflied. Basically anyone worldwide who wasn't born by 1876 ITL has been butterflied and those between the POD and 1876 its really hit and miss. Ishii was born OTL in 1892, so he is not coming along. However someone is running Unit 317, and the question is he better or worse than Ishii as he is not based on him?
Well, the Brits are going down a darker route, but others are going to be better viewed by history as well. Only time will tell. But I will say this, history is written by the victors and they always write themselves up as the good guys.
Map Post Great War
Heres a map of the world in January, 1918, after the end of the First World War.
Some parts of the map were speculation, such as Spain, China and Russia, but overall I think it stays true to the content of this timeline and story.
Some parts of the map were speculation, such as Spain, China and Russia, but overall I think it stays true to the content of this timeline and story.
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