Geon
Donor
Nitpick: should it be Patient Zero? Otherwise a very chilling update.
Marc A
Marc A
Thanks for the correction. It's taken care of.
Geon
How Silent Fall the Cherry Blossoms
- Thread starter Geon
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Marc A
Thanks for the correction. It's taken care of.
Geon
Geon
Donor
The LACG
And here is the latest update.
Date: November 7, 1944
Place: Los Angeles
Time: 11:00 a.m. [PST]
At about the same time that Louise Jennings was rushing home to help her husband the task group from Ft. Detrick arrived by army air transport and was whisked to an office in city hall with officials from the LAPD, LAFD, and the army. The group of men included doctors, scientists, and army specialists in germ and chemical warfare. The men were quickly briefed on the situation regarding the suspicions nature of the bombs dropped on Los Angeles on November 5th.
The meeting lasted one hour. At the end of it the group from Ft. Detrick formed what would become known simply as the Los Angeles Crisis Group; or as the military (who seemed to have an obsession with acronyms) called it LACG. The group would include not only the initial group from Ft. Detrick but representatives from the LAPD, the LAFD, Mayor Bowron’s* office, the city health department, and a representative from the local defense area garrison. They would later that day be joined by representatives from the OSS and the FBI
Several decisions were made at the conference. First, small groups of men from the health department would be sent out to the areas where the bombs fell. They would carefully interview people in the area regarding unusual occurrences in the area taking particular note of any strange illnesses in people or animals. Second, word would be sent to the hospitals and to area doctors to report any patients who were admitted or treated with symptoms that seemed unusual or if large number of patients exhibited the same symptoms. Third, all those who first responded to the areas where these bombs hit would be ordered to report for full medical examinations, this included police and fire personnel as well as the air raid wardens for those areas. At the present time it was decided to not report anything to the press. If this was what the task group feared any report might be magnified by the press creating a full-fledged panic. In all of their investigations the members of the LACG would caution those involved in this investigation to avoid saying anything or acting in any way that would trigger a panic.
The LACG’s actions would later be credited for their quick actions that day.
It cannot be overemphasized enough that the quick and decisive action of the LACG in dealing with this crisis was instrumental in saving many lives. The Los Angeles Outbreak was devastating but without the quick action of the LACG in the early hours of the crisis it could well have been catastrophic.
From the summary of the Senate Report on the Los Angeles Outbreak, 1947.
Each member of the task group hoped that all of these precautions would prove unnecessary. Unfortunately for them their hopes would be quickly snuffed out like a candle.
* Mayor Fletcher Bowron, Mayor of Los Angeles from 1938 to 1953 in our timeline.
And here is the latest update.
Date: November 7, 1944
Place: Los Angeles
Time: 11:00 a.m. [PST]
At about the same time that Louise Jennings was rushing home to help her husband the task group from Ft. Detrick arrived by army air transport and was whisked to an office in city hall with officials from the LAPD, LAFD, and the army. The group of men included doctors, scientists, and army specialists in germ and chemical warfare. The men were quickly briefed on the situation regarding the suspicions nature of the bombs dropped on Los Angeles on November 5th.
The meeting lasted one hour. At the end of it the group from Ft. Detrick formed what would become known simply as the Los Angeles Crisis Group; or as the military (who seemed to have an obsession with acronyms) called it LACG. The group would include not only the initial group from Ft. Detrick but representatives from the LAPD, the LAFD, Mayor Bowron’s* office, the city health department, and a representative from the local defense area garrison. They would later that day be joined by representatives from the OSS and the FBI
Several decisions were made at the conference. First, small groups of men from the health department would be sent out to the areas where the bombs fell. They would carefully interview people in the area regarding unusual occurrences in the area taking particular note of any strange illnesses in people or animals. Second, word would be sent to the hospitals and to area doctors to report any patients who were admitted or treated with symptoms that seemed unusual or if large number of patients exhibited the same symptoms. Third, all those who first responded to the areas where these bombs hit would be ordered to report for full medical examinations, this included police and fire personnel as well as the air raid wardens for those areas. At the present time it was decided to not report anything to the press. If this was what the task group feared any report might be magnified by the press creating a full-fledged panic. In all of their investigations the members of the LACG would caution those involved in this investigation to avoid saying anything or acting in any way that would trigger a panic.
The LACG’s actions would later be credited for their quick actions that day.
It cannot be overemphasized enough that the quick and decisive action of the LACG in dealing with this crisis was instrumental in saving many lives. The Los Angeles Outbreak was devastating but without the quick action of the LACG in the early hours of the crisis it could well have been catastrophic.
From the summary of the Senate Report on the Los Angeles Outbreak, 1947.
Each member of the task group hoped that all of these precautions would prove unnecessary. Unfortunately for them their hopes would be quickly snuffed out like a candle.
* Mayor Fletcher Bowron, Mayor of Los Angeles from 1938 to 1953 in our timeline.
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Artatochor
Banned
What would Hitler's response be, if the news leaked out? Imagine if he praises it, or even tries to chip in with his own efforts(sneaking a submarine with bioweapon deck gun shells?)
No Marshall plan, I reckon. No recovery aid to Japan, naturally, either. Presuming China ends up Communist like it did in OTL, there won't be much countries left to drive the global economy.
No Marshall plan, I reckon. No recovery aid to Japan, naturally, either. Presuming China ends up Communist like it did in OTL, there won't be much countries left to drive the global economy.Geon
Donor
Donovan and a Footnote
Here is another brief update.
Pay especial attention to the footnote. It is a small hint of how popular culture will respond to the events portrayed here.
Geon
Date: November 7, 1944
Location: Washington, D.C. (Office of the OSS)
Time: 2:15 p.m. [EDT]
“Bill” Donovan had returned to his office from his meeting with FDR with a cold chill in the pit of his stomach. The Japanese or Germans launching a chemical/biological warfare attack against American cities was one of the nightmare scenarios that even men like General William Donovan tried very hard not to think of. Now that scenario might be playing out in Los Angeles.
The president had asked if the Japanese were capable of such an attack. General Donovan admitted honestly that while rumors had been flying about Japanese biological and chemical warfare experiments there was no clear unequivocal proof. What General Donovan hadn’t told Roosevelt was that he had started receiving reports through OSS Detachment 202 stationed in China that the Japanese were conducting tests on human subjects including American POWs at a laboratory near Canton.
At present all Donovan had was hearsay and second-hand reports. Those reports however were unsettling in the extreme. If even a tenth of them were to be believed then this laboratory was a chamber of horrors worse then anything portrayed in those movies starring Boris Karloff* and Bela Lugosi.
Donovan had started to take action even before he left the White House, ordering a representative he knew was LA at the time to sit in on the meeting of the Ft. Detrick task force. He also sent word he wanted to speak with OSS Detachment 202’s head immediately to learn more about this Cantonese laboratory and just how many of the stories coming out of that place were true or not.
Sadly, the stories General Bill Donovan had heard about Unit 731’s experimental laboratory in Canton weren’t just as bad as he feared they would be worse then he ever imagined.
* Interesting Note – Boris Karloff would later be nominated for an Oscar for best Supporting Actor for 1947 in a film based on the events that occurred in the Canton Laboratory. Karloff played the infamous Dr. Ishii and the film was entitled appropriately Unit 731. The film would also boost the career of a young rising star in Hollywood, namely James Arness, who would play one of the subjects of Dr. Ishii’s demented experiments.
Here is another brief update.
Pay especial attention to the footnote. It is a small hint of how popular culture will respond to the events portrayed here.
Geon
Date: November 7, 1944
Location: Washington, D.C. (Office of the OSS)
Time: 2:15 p.m. [EDT]
“Bill” Donovan had returned to his office from his meeting with FDR with a cold chill in the pit of his stomach. The Japanese or Germans launching a chemical/biological warfare attack against American cities was one of the nightmare scenarios that even men like General William Donovan tried very hard not to think of. Now that scenario might be playing out in Los Angeles.
The president had asked if the Japanese were capable of such an attack. General Donovan admitted honestly that while rumors had been flying about Japanese biological and chemical warfare experiments there was no clear unequivocal proof. What General Donovan hadn’t told Roosevelt was that he had started receiving reports through OSS Detachment 202 stationed in China that the Japanese were conducting tests on human subjects including American POWs at a laboratory near Canton.
At present all Donovan had was hearsay and second-hand reports. Those reports however were unsettling in the extreme. If even a tenth of them were to be believed then this laboratory was a chamber of horrors worse then anything portrayed in those movies starring Boris Karloff* and Bela Lugosi.
Donovan had started to take action even before he left the White House, ordering a representative he knew was LA at the time to sit in on the meeting of the Ft. Detrick task force. He also sent word he wanted to speak with OSS Detachment 202’s head immediately to learn more about this Cantonese laboratory and just how many of the stories coming out of that place were true or not.
Sadly, the stories General Bill Donovan had heard about Unit 731’s experimental laboratory in Canton weren’t just as bad as he feared they would be worse then he ever imagined.
* Interesting Note – Boris Karloff would later be nominated for an Oscar for best Supporting Actor for 1947 in a film based on the events that occurred in the Canton Laboratory. Karloff played the infamous Dr. Ishii and the film was entitled appropriately Unit 731. The film would also boost the career of a young rising star in Hollywood, namely James Arness, who would play one of the subjects of Dr. Ishii’s demented experiments.
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I'm liking this. (Well, I don't really like it, but you know what I mean) It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. One more addition to my subscription list.
On the bright side, it means that whatever the Japanese have released has burned out at least in the Los Angeles area by 1947.
On the ugly side, it means that iTTL Dr. Ishii (as the role played by the 1947 Oscar Winner for Best supporting Actor) will replace... *Santa Claus* (IOTL, 1947 Best Supporting Actor winner was Edmund Gwenn who won it for playing Kris Kringle in "Miracle on 34th Street". This was Gwenn's most noted role.)
Geon
Donor
Naraht
Edmund Gwenn still wins the Oscar for "Miracle on 34th Street," in 1947. Note that I said Boris Karloff was nominated for the Oscar of Best Supporting Actor, not that he actually won.
Geon
Geon
Donor
Children's Hospital
Here is a rather sober update.
I will try to shy away from this too often but it was a thread left hanging that needed to be closed.
Date: November 7, 1944
Location: Los Angeles (Children’s Hospital)
Time: 3:00 p.m. [PST]
As teams from the LACG were beginning to fan out all over Los Angeles a 7 year old boy was admitted to Los Angeles Children’s Hospital. The boy had a very high fever, nausea and vomiting. In addition he was suffering from muscle cramps and had swollen lymph glands. His mother had become very concerned for her son as his symptoms got no better overnight. The family doctor had been summoned and had quickly decided to have the boy admitted to the Children’s Hospital.
The first doctor in the hospital to look the boy over noted the symptoms and quickly diagnosed the culprit, it was no surprise, for the disease in question had been endemic to the area for some time and cases like this occasionally appeared. If the symptoms could be treated quickly enough the boy would probably make a full recovery. Of course, the health department would have to be notified and the boy placed in an isolation ward but hopefully the prognosis was a good one. The doctor had already seen a memo that was being circulated through the hospital that any unusual occurrences of disease should be reported immediately. However, this case would not be reported for another two days. By that time five more children from the 2nd grade classroom where the boy had made his innocent show-and-tell the day before would be sharing the isolation ward with him. This young boy would survive and later be known as Patient 3. Many of his classmates sadly would not.
Here is a rather sober update.
I will try to shy away from this too often but it was a thread left hanging that needed to be closed.
Date: November 7, 1944
Location: Los Angeles (Children’s Hospital)
Time: 3:00 p.m. [PST]
As teams from the LACG were beginning to fan out all over Los Angeles a 7 year old boy was admitted to Los Angeles Children’s Hospital. The boy had a very high fever, nausea and vomiting. In addition he was suffering from muscle cramps and had swollen lymph glands. His mother had become very concerned for her son as his symptoms got no better overnight. The family doctor had been summoned and had quickly decided to have the boy admitted to the Children’s Hospital.
The first doctor in the hospital to look the boy over noted the symptoms and quickly diagnosed the culprit, it was no surprise, for the disease in question had been endemic to the area for some time and cases like this occasionally appeared. If the symptoms could be treated quickly enough the boy would probably make a full recovery. Of course, the health department would have to be notified and the boy placed in an isolation ward but hopefully the prognosis was a good one. The doctor had already seen a memo that was being circulated through the hospital that any unusual occurrences of disease should be reported immediately. However, this case would not be reported for another two days. By that time five more children from the 2nd grade classroom where the boy had made his innocent show-and-tell the day before would be sharing the isolation ward with him. This young boy would survive and later be known as Patient 3. Many of his classmates sadly would not.
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Ah. Oddly enough, iOTL, Arness was in a minor role in one of the four unsucessful nominees (Farmer's Daughter)
Also, as far as I can tell, iOTL the first person nominated for Best Supporting Actor for playing a *real life* bad guy was either 1960 (Winning) Peter Ustinov playing the owner of Spartacus's Gladitorial School or 1996 James Woods playing Byron De La Beckwith in Ghosts of Mississippi.
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Otis R. Needleman
Banned
Yes, and as word of these little children dying from Japanese germs gets out, the US attitude will truly be, "These sons-of-bitches must PAY!" And the Japanese WILL pay, worse than they ever imagined.
The more I read this the more I think that Japan is going to simply cease to exist.
At best balkanised into dozens of warring microstates of widely differing ideologies and with large portions sliced off into the US, USSR, and China, at worst permanently rendered completely uninhabitable.
At best balkanised into dozens of warring microstates of widely differing ideologies and with large portions sliced off into the US, USSR, and China, at worst permanently rendered completely uninhabitable.
MarshalBraginsky
Banned
Here is how I'd imagine a Balkanized Japan:
State of Satsuma (former Satsuma domain, controlled by China)
State of Choshu (former Choshu domain, OTL Yamaguchi Prefecture, controlled by USA)
State of Ezo (Hokkaido and northern Honshu, controlled by the USSR)
State of Satsuma (former Satsuma domain, controlled by China)
State of Choshu (former Choshu domain, OTL Yamaguchi Prefecture, controlled by USA)
State of Ezo (Hokkaido and northern Honshu, controlled by the USSR)
Otis R. Needleman
Banned
I hear you but don't see it happening. It's all going to be ours. We'll tell Stalin and the Chinese they're welcome to send liaisons, but Japan's our fiefdom for the foreseeable future.
sharlin
Banned
I'm wondering about the disease, there's no 'ring around the rosey' so its probably not black death. I don't think its something like Ebola because that kills too quickly.
I assume the ability to crossbreed germs/bio agents didn't exist at the time? Anthrax maybe? I dunno.
Great updates, I feel terribly sorry for anyone affected by this, on both sides of the pacific.
I assume the ability to crossbreed germs/bio agents didn't exist at the time? Anthrax maybe? I dunno.
Great updates, I feel terribly sorry for anyone affected by this, on both sides of the pacific.
Whatever it is, we know it's being spread by insect bites, and it's (probably) something that's been documented as being worked on by Unit 731 (or at a push, one of the other Japanese bioweapons research units). I've already mentioned Tularemia, aka Rabbit Fever, and Typhus. I now notice that the organism responsible for Scrub or Bush Typhus (Orientia tsutsugamushi) was first isolated in Japan in 1930, it's spread by insect bite, and in 1944 there are no antibiotics or effective vaccines (like influenza, there are many strains and antibodies to one will not necessarily protect against any others, so vaccine development is not going to be easy, indeed even today there's no licenced vaccine). It's not an easy organism to work with in the lab (it's an obligate intracellular parasite, so can only be grown inside a living organism at this time), but it's not impossible.
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