That is true (hoping that the new Russian Empire stays on that side and not wants to retake some former territories later on) and that is why Rommel or the Ottomans wouln't get any major reinforcements for the front in North Africa or Mesopotami/ Middle East as long as the Eastern Front/ Crusade is prioritised.
The Co-Prosperity Sphere
- Thread starter CountofDooku
- Start date
Chapter 159: Borneo inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere: The Sultanate of Brunei
Chapter 159: Borneo inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere: The Sultanate of Brunei
With the Japanese liberation of Borneo, plans were put into action to reunify and liberate the whole island as a new member state of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Since the Japanese had different plans for British Malaysia (occupation by Siam/Thailand, Liberation as a new member state or Japanese colonialist), they also had different plans for Borne and the rest of South-East Asia. While the Japanese dreamed of their own vision of British Sarawak (a Malay Mohammedan majority nation ruled by a Malay/ Hindu caste and a white, British Raj at the top) were they would replace the British as the new rulers and the liberation of different smaller states on Borneo, the majority preferred a united island under a single state that would be able to hold their own against Western Colonialism and the Allies while at the same time being too weak to escape Japanese dominance and influence. The Japanese found a all to willing ally and collaborator in the British Protectorate of Brunei, a Malay state that saw itself as the successor state of the Bruneian Empire( or Empire of Brunei, also known as Sultanate of Brunei/Borneo or Negara Brunei, or Kesultanan Melaya Brunei/Borneo) that once had control of the whole island (at least along the coast), a traditional Malay kingdom and later sultanate.
A new protectorate treaty was made between the Japanese Empire and the Kesultanan Melaya Brunei, similar to the one the British had with Brunei before. The defence of the Sultanate would depend mostly on the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy, the Sultanate also promised to raise it's own Japanese Officer and Commander trained forces to help the Japanese defenders and to free Co-Prosperity forces for other parts of South-East Asia or the Pacific. Borneo had a significant number of oil refineries and even if some were destroyed by the British in a scorched earth policy, the Japanese managed to repair and capture most of them. Petroleum and rubber therefore remained the Sultanates most vital export good, while copra, tobacco, pepper and rota and remained strong exported goods for other parts of the Co-Prosperity Sphere as well. The Japanese Military Administration prepared the Sultanate of Brunei for control of the whole island. Like Europeans under the British in Sarawak the Japanese planned to use mainly Japanese officers to run districts and provinces, using Japanese methods and culture, as well as Japanese as a diplomatic and school educated speech beside Malay for communication. The Japanese Military Administration decided the whole island into new divisions and established new schools and build new infrastructure to better use the resources and to continue assimilation into the Japanese way of life, as it was planned with the whole Co-Prosperity Sphere on the long run. The so called Sultanate/ Brunei Rangers served as a para-military addition to the Japanese forces and became the core of the later Kesultanan Melaya Brunei own army and navy.
The Tokyo-based Asahi Shimbun newspaper and Osaka-based Mainichi Shinbun newspapers began publications Borneo, Malay and the Celebes Island during the occupation. They carried news on behalf of the Japanese Empire and the new protectorate government and member state of the Co-P Sphere. Following their occupation, the process of assimilation of Japanese culture was being conducted with Japanese propaganda displayed throughout the Bornean territories and slogans such as "Asia for Asians" and "Japan, the light of Asia" are delivered in a concrete terms to all the island population. Ethnocentrism played a role in the push for this plan with Japanese values, world view, culture, spirit, the-all-revered emperor/ sultan worship and the mild guidance of Japanese father race. Through the process of Japanisation (Nipponisation), schoolchildren and adults are being instructed by the Japanese authorities to go to nihon-go classes that were established around the island to learning Japanese language. Students had to wear uniform and a peak cap with a blue Sakura, which later will be replaced by a red and yellow one as the students attained higher grades. A general assembly in the school hall would be held every day before classes began and the Japanese national anthem was played with students singing with gusto followed by bowing to the Japanese and Brunei Sultanate flags before marching off to their classrooms. This was done to make the population to “think, feel and act like Japanese”. The indegenous treatment however focused on a long plan strategy, as local people were not their enemies, but allies of the Japanese and an administrative directive on 14 March 1942 declared that:
Local customs, practices and religions shall not be interfered with too directly for the time being. The impact of the war on native livelihood should be alleviated where possible and within the limits set by the need for rendering occupational forces self-sufficient and securing resources vital to national defence.
A different principle applied to the local Chinese mainly due to their aid in the Chinese Civil War for Chiang's United Front. They were considered by the Japanese as the only community that could offer a serious challenge to Japanese authority over Brunei in the furute. The main objective, where the local Chinese are concerned, therefore utilised their existing commercial organizations and practices to the advantage of Japanese policies. Measures were taken to sever political ties among the Chinese residents of the various areas as well as between them and mainland China in all of Japanese liberated South-East Asia. Attempts were also made to inculcate pro-Japanese, pro- Co-Prosperity Sphere and anti-Western feelings with local government officers are required to attend Japanese night classes. Unlike their counterparts in North Borneo and Sarawak which are previously ruled by European officers, Brunei Sultan Ahmad Tahuddin's throne was retained by the Japanese and he did not receive any reductions in salary. Malay government officers are usually remained at their posts and many local officers continue to work under the new pro-japanese Sultanate. Many important and high ranking positions however were only filled with Japanese administrators (sometimes even military ones). Under the Japanese occupation, Borneo was divided into new governate provinces (shus). All shus had a Japanese provincial governor (residents, modeled after British ruled Surawak) or if there was none the administration remained in the hands of the local people with Japanese surveillance. Each of the province consisted of prefectures or ken (県). Some major towns such as Jesselton and Sandakan are renamed to “Api” and “Elopura” respectively.
Once Borneo was secured by Marquis Toshinari Maeda, control of the rest of British Borneo fell to the Sultanate Government under strict observation and veto by Toshinari Maeda and later Lieutenant General Masataka Yamawaki. In mid-March 1942, the navy detachment was redeployed to Cebu of the Japanese Philippine Executive Commission, that soon after gave Philippine government control to the KALIBAPI. The 4th Independent Mixed Regiment (also known as the Nakahata Unit) under Colonel Nakahata Joichi took over the task of mopping up operations, maintaining law and order, and establishing the new Sultanate government. On 6 April 1942, the unit came under Lieutenant General Marquis Toshinari Maeda's Borneo Sultanate Defence Army who in turn became responsible for the island area. The headquarters was initially at Miri, but Maeda considered it unsuitable and moved headquarters to Bandar Brunei (Brunei Town, later renamed to Bandar Seri Begawan). In July, the Nakahata Regiment was reorganized into two 500-man battalions, the 40th and 41st Independent Garrison Infantry Battalions. Maeda was however killed along with Major Hataichi Usui and Pilot-Captain Katsutaro Ano in an air crash while flying to Labuan Island on 5 September 1942. The Japanese then renamed the island as Maida Island (前田島 Maeda-shima) as a remembrance to him. Maeda was subsequently replaced by Lieutenant General Masataka Yamawaki from 5 September 1942 onward. Yamawaki the formerly Director of the Resources Mobilisation Bureau; who was appointment in 1942 did his best to establish Borneo as a significant location for storage of supplies and development of supporting industry.
Law enforcement in the new Sultanate of Borneo fell to the notorious Kenpeitai, where they were directly responsible to the Military Commander and the Japanese War Ministry instead of the Sultan. They had virtually unlimited power, and frequently used torture and brutality as their normal mode of operation. The Kenpeitai headquarters were in a two-storey bungalow Brunei Town. Japanese and Sultanate Justice became synonymous with punishment out of all proportion to the offense, where they revived the pre-war civil court system from November 1942, with local magistrates applying the Sarawak Penal Code. Additionally the Borneo Defence Army was strengthened with additional units and renamed the official Army of the Sultanate. While many Japanese Shinto, Indian Hindu and Europeans remained dominant in the Sultanate's administration, the majority of the population was Mohammedan Malay and continued to grow, as the Japanese and Siamese/Thai started to resettle the Malay Mohammedan population to the Sultanate of Brunei/Borneo, where the Sultan was quiet open to get more citizens to create a strong Malay Mohammedan Empire once again. With support of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Japanese Merchant Fleet, the Malay States population (2,940,000 citizens of the Federated Malay States, 1,894,000 Malayans, 670,000 Chinese, 370,000 Indian and 6,000 Europeans) was slowly but steady resettled to the Brunei Sultanate island of Borneo (100,000 to 200,000 each year) were they would complete the native population of 3,089,000 for a total population of 6,029,000 in the end. This created the first and largest Mohammedan state inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere, but the Japanese secretly planned a new sample colonial state in Borneo. Compared to the Philippines, Vietnam, Siam/Thailand and even Java the population of Borneo was quiet small and the huge island was planned to be settled in large amounts by Japanese once the war was won and South-East Asia secured for the Co-Prosperity Sphere, until Borneo would be in it's majority Japanese (20,000 in the first year, 40,000 in the second year, 60,000 in the third year, 80,000 in the forth year and 100,000 each following year untill the Japanese were the majority). The new flag (inspired by these used for the new chinese states) for the Sultanate of Brunei/Boneo combined the old independent Brunei flag with some new stripes at the sides, these stood for the original name of the region as a tropical island, but also for the non-Malay minorities, while red represented the Japanese liberators and yellow the Malay maority.
Airfields were constructed all over Borneo by prisoners of war and conscripted labour from various locations, including from Brunei, Maeda-shima, Ranau and Elopura. Before the Japanese occupation, there were only three airfields in Kuching, Miri and Bintulu of Sarawak, while in North Borneo there was none. Due to this, the Japanese planned to construct a total of twenty-six airfields in different parts of Borneo to strengthen its defence, of which seven would be located in Api, Elopura, Keningau, Kudat, Tawau, Maeda-shima and Lahad Datu. The Japanese also launched a series of trunk road projects in Borneo, where the roads between Ranau with Keningau and Kota Belud with Tenghilan will be improved as well a new road linking Kudat and Kota Belud will be constructed. As these roads passed through wide mountainous areas, a large number of romusha (laborer) are needed to realize the projects. Lieutenant General Masataka Yamawaki even started to creat an indigenous army consisting of around 1,300 men at first, with most of them stationed in Kuching while the others in Miri, Api and Elopura with task to maintaining order and peace, as well as intelligence gatherings and recruiting. Brunei harbour was also used by the IJN as a refuelling depot.
The Japanese had major prisoner of war (POW) camps at Kuching, Ranau, and Sandakan, plus smaller ones at Dahan and other locations. Batu Lintang camp held both military and civilian prisoners. Inside the camps many of its occupants died as a result of forced marches from Sandakan to Ranau. In total, the Japanese are believed to have held an estimated 11,860 prisoners and internees at all camps in northern Borneo, with only 1,387 managed to survived in Batu Lintang camp and only six in the forced marches until the end of the war. Japanese Zaibatsu were used for monopolizing essential goods and resources, while the Japanese authorities enforcing a food self-sufficiency policy. All resources including foodstuffs were primerely reserved for Co-Prosperity Sphere forces with low excess given to local populace under small rations. Through two well-established zaibatsu of Mitsui Morin and Mitsui Bussan, foodstuffs such as rice, maize, tapioca, sweet potatoes and coconut oil were monopolized including in purchase and distribution, while sago supplies controlled by the Mitsubishi's Tawau Sangyo. Those who are caught stealing or smuggling will be punishable by death. The IJA together with IJN work hardly to resuscitate the oil industry to contribute to Imperial Japanese and Co-Prosperity war effort.
The Chinese community was the most economically exploited for Japanese benefit mainly due to their aid for Chiang's United Front and contributions to the China Relief Fund and British war efforts, with the elites in major towns bore the heaviest burden and those with lesser resources went bankrupt. The Gunseibu adopted a principle to exercising control over Chinese commercial network. Chinese towkays were utilised to serve the needs of Japanese military, with those who are unwilling were forcibly encouraged. The demands was in line with overall Japanese policy in a document titled ‘Principles Governing the Implementation of Measures Relative to the Chinese’ (Kakyō Kōsaku Jisshi Yōryō) issued by the Japanese headquarters in Syonanto (昭南島Shonanto) in April 1942.
In early 1942, the first branch of Yokohama Specie Bank began to be opened in Kuching through the former Western bank building of Chartered Bank. The Japanese Southern Development Treasury also open an office to oversee investment throughout Borneo as well two Japanese insurance companies, Tokyo Kaijo Kasai and Mitsubishi Kaijo Kasai began their operations. Most motor car as well as buses and lorries were confiscated by Japan Transport Co. with small compensation are given as a return. The Japanese recruited labor workers to construct airfields with those agreed to do so will be given extra food ration and payment, while those detained by the Japanese authorities are forced to work as forced labor. The POWs who worked to build the airstrip also received a small salary weekly that could be enough to purchase an egg. The Japan did their best to transform Borneo as the supplier of raw materials and for its own investment place.
Before the invasion, the Japanese government had printed new yen notes for the use in all occupied territories in Southeast Asia to replace other local currencies. As there is a increasing currency inflation during the war, the value of this money fluctuated erratically thus exchange with the former British Borneo dollars is useless. This partly inflation coupled with Allied disruption of Japn's economy forced the Japanese administration to issue banknotes of larger denominations and increase the amount of money in circulation from January 1942 onward.
Effects of the occupation varied widely among the residents with the Japanese allowed Malays to maintain their positions in the civil service and another local post although their activities are still being supervised. Despite some positive treatment in the work field, other Malays were still abused together with the Chinese as well the indigenous natives. In response to a directive from Shōnantō in 1942, the poor treatment towards indigenous natives began to be alleviated as they are not perceived to be the main enemies for Japan. With the sparse and widely dispersed local population in Borneo, the Japanese gunseibu had little choice but rely to rōmusha abroad, mainly from Indoand China under the management of the Borneo Labour Business Society.
Chinese skilled workers of carpenter were brought from Shanghai, Huangzhou and Shantou while later the Javanese from Java island were also brought to Borneo as labor workers. Although the Javanese were also provided with board and lodging as the Chinese, they did not receive a good treatment as the latter that were considered as skilled workers. Most of the Javanese are being sent to Brunei and Maeda-Shima, while the upper classes Chinese immigrants worked in boat-building industry in Kuching and Elopura. Other local Chinese became inevitable targets of Japanese authorities, with any hostilities outbreak will be met with severe consequences. Many young Chinese males avoided from being captured as forced labor, while young Chinese females were terrified from being taken as comfort women. A few coastal inhabitants fled to the interior or other coastal districts and with such persistent threats, some Chinese decided to formed and participate in a revolt with the indigenous people. In response to the Jesselton Revolt in September 1943, Japanese kenpeitai raid the Chau Kee Sundry Shop in Tenghilan of North Borneo to searching the members of the revolt where a proprietor was found in possession of a National Chinese United Front flags and summarily executed.
As both Chosen and Taiwan had been under the domination of Japan for an indefinite amount of time, many citizens of both territories worked under the Japanese military. These people were then sent to Borneo to work as prison guards to replace the existing Japanese guards. In addition to their lack of knowledge and training for the treatment of POWs, many of them were involved in brutalising the POWs where the treatment of POWs are much worsened after the replacement of Japanese guards by the Taiwanese.
On the west coast of North Borneo, a resistance movement-led by Albert Kwok, a Chinese from Kuching, who after working with the China Red Cross moved to Jesselton in 1940. He was specialized in treating ailments although not officially a doctor and after serving with the Kuomintang and the Chinese United Front under Chiang Kai-shek, he decide to formed a resistance movement and began to collaborate with local indigenous groups as a consequence of the poor treatment towards local ethnic Chinese in North Borneo. In January 1942, Kwok want to establish contact with the Australians or Americans in eastern North Borneo but was unable to walk across the island jungle more further when he reached Pensiangan where he saw a large presence of Japanese troops. He need to establish relations with the Allied movements, especially the United States Forces in the Philippines (USFIP) as it is the only sole armed resistance movement in the region at the time which are supplied with firearms. After managed to establishing contact with the American forces in the Philippines, he began to depart to Tawi-Tawi for training, during when he return to North Borneo he already had three pistols, a box of hand grenades and was promised to be given more weapons. However, as the plan to retrieve more weapons had failed, Kwok had to launch a revolt at Api with his members armed with only parang, spear and kris. Though they were poorly equipped, the attack still managed to kill at least 50–90 Japanese soldiers and temporarily overtake Api, Tuaran and Kota Belud from the Burmese Sultanate. As the Japanese began to retaliate, Kwok along with other members began to retreat into their hide-out and celebrate the birthday of Sun Yat-sen, the founder of Kuomintang and subsequently the Republic of China by hoisting the national flag and singing the national anthem of the Republic of China on 12 November. Furore by the hostilities shown by local communities, the Sultanate forces and Japanese launch a ruthless counter-offensive by machine-gunning people in coastal settlements from Kota Belud to Membakut that were family members of rebels and guerrilla fighters. They even bombed some small towns that openly joined these enemy forces, while almost all villages in the area burnt down with around 2,000–4,000 innocent civilians were executed. After been threatened with more civilians being killed if the leader of the uprising did not turn themselves in, Kwok finally surrendered with several of his top members where he and some 175 peoples who for the most part had nothing to do with the uprising are subjected to execution order of the Japanese on 21 January 1943.
Since the falling of the uprising, the Sultan as well as his allied Japanese became more merciless and conducting regular reprisals with the local inhabitants in North Borneo could no longer afford another uprising as the Japanese became so active in surveillance. Captain Lionel Matthews, an officer of Australian Army Signals Corps who was held as a prisoner of war by the Japanese in Elopura from August 1942 onward later escaped and directed an underground intelligence organization to get medical supplies, food and money into the camp, as well to setting up a radio link with the outside world. He collected information to relay to these contacts which then passed to Chinese-Filipino traders and helped organize prisoner escapes with American-supported guerillias in the Philippines. Although this was soon discovered by the Japanese, he continued to display his loyalty towards his services by not revealing anything about the movement while been tortured until he was executed.
With the Japanese liberation of Borneo, plans were put into action to reunify and liberate the whole island as a new member state of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Since the Japanese had different plans for British Malaysia (occupation by Siam/Thailand, Liberation as a new member state or Japanese colonialist), they also had different plans for Borne and the rest of South-East Asia. While the Japanese dreamed of their own vision of British Sarawak (a Malay Mohammedan majority nation ruled by a Malay/ Hindu caste and a white, British Raj at the top) were they would replace the British as the new rulers and the liberation of different smaller states on Borneo, the majority preferred a united island under a single state that would be able to hold their own against Western Colonialism and the Allies while at the same time being too weak to escape Japanese dominance and influence. The Japanese found a all to willing ally and collaborator in the British Protectorate of Brunei, a Malay state that saw itself as the successor state of the Bruneian Empire( or Empire of Brunei, also known as Sultanate of Brunei/Borneo or Negara Brunei, or Kesultanan Melaya Brunei/Borneo) that once had control of the whole island (at least along the coast), a traditional Malay kingdom and later sultanate.
A new protectorate treaty was made between the Japanese Empire and the Kesultanan Melaya Brunei, similar to the one the British had with Brunei before. The defence of the Sultanate would depend mostly on the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy, the Sultanate also promised to raise it's own Japanese Officer and Commander trained forces to help the Japanese defenders and to free Co-Prosperity forces for other parts of South-East Asia or the Pacific. Borneo had a significant number of oil refineries and even if some were destroyed by the British in a scorched earth policy, the Japanese managed to repair and capture most of them. Petroleum and rubber therefore remained the Sultanates most vital export good, while copra, tobacco, pepper and rota and remained strong exported goods for other parts of the Co-Prosperity Sphere as well. The Japanese Military Administration prepared the Sultanate of Brunei for control of the whole island. Like Europeans under the British in Sarawak the Japanese planned to use mainly Japanese officers to run districts and provinces, using Japanese methods and culture, as well as Japanese as a diplomatic and school educated speech beside Malay for communication. The Japanese Military Administration decided the whole island into new divisions and established new schools and build new infrastructure to better use the resources and to continue assimilation into the Japanese way of life, as it was planned with the whole Co-Prosperity Sphere on the long run. The so called Sultanate/ Brunei Rangers served as a para-military addition to the Japanese forces and became the core of the later Kesultanan Melaya Brunei own army and navy.
The Tokyo-based Asahi Shimbun newspaper and Osaka-based Mainichi Shinbun newspapers began publications Borneo, Malay and the Celebes Island during the occupation. They carried news on behalf of the Japanese Empire and the new protectorate government and member state of the Co-P Sphere. Following their occupation, the process of assimilation of Japanese culture was being conducted with Japanese propaganda displayed throughout the Bornean territories and slogans such as "Asia for Asians" and "Japan, the light of Asia" are delivered in a concrete terms to all the island population. Ethnocentrism played a role in the push for this plan with Japanese values, world view, culture, spirit, the-all-revered emperor/ sultan worship and the mild guidance of Japanese father race. Through the process of Japanisation (Nipponisation), schoolchildren and adults are being instructed by the Japanese authorities to go to nihon-go classes that were established around the island to learning Japanese language. Students had to wear uniform and a peak cap with a blue Sakura, which later will be replaced by a red and yellow one as the students attained higher grades. A general assembly in the school hall would be held every day before classes began and the Japanese national anthem was played with students singing with gusto followed by bowing to the Japanese and Brunei Sultanate flags before marching off to their classrooms. This was done to make the population to “think, feel and act like Japanese”. The indegenous treatment however focused on a long plan strategy, as local people were not their enemies, but allies of the Japanese and an administrative directive on 14 March 1942 declared that:
Local customs, practices and religions shall not be interfered with too directly for the time being. The impact of the war on native livelihood should be alleviated where possible and within the limits set by the need for rendering occupational forces self-sufficient and securing resources vital to national defence.
A different principle applied to the local Chinese mainly due to their aid in the Chinese Civil War for Chiang's United Front. They were considered by the Japanese as the only community that could offer a serious challenge to Japanese authority over Brunei in the furute. The main objective, where the local Chinese are concerned, therefore utilised their existing commercial organizations and practices to the advantage of Japanese policies. Measures were taken to sever political ties among the Chinese residents of the various areas as well as between them and mainland China in all of Japanese liberated South-East Asia. Attempts were also made to inculcate pro-Japanese, pro- Co-Prosperity Sphere and anti-Western feelings with local government officers are required to attend Japanese night classes. Unlike their counterparts in North Borneo and Sarawak which are previously ruled by European officers, Brunei Sultan Ahmad Tahuddin's throne was retained by the Japanese and he did not receive any reductions in salary. Malay government officers are usually remained at their posts and many local officers continue to work under the new pro-japanese Sultanate. Many important and high ranking positions however were only filled with Japanese administrators (sometimes even military ones). Under the Japanese occupation, Borneo was divided into new governate provinces (shus). All shus had a Japanese provincial governor (residents, modeled after British ruled Surawak) or if there was none the administration remained in the hands of the local people with Japanese surveillance. Each of the province consisted of prefectures or ken (県). Some major towns such as Jesselton and Sandakan are renamed to “Api” and “Elopura” respectively.
Once Borneo was secured by Marquis Toshinari Maeda, control of the rest of British Borneo fell to the Sultanate Government under strict observation and veto by Toshinari Maeda and later Lieutenant General Masataka Yamawaki. In mid-March 1942, the navy detachment was redeployed to Cebu of the Japanese Philippine Executive Commission, that soon after gave Philippine government control to the KALIBAPI. The 4th Independent Mixed Regiment (also known as the Nakahata Unit) under Colonel Nakahata Joichi took over the task of mopping up operations, maintaining law and order, and establishing the new Sultanate government. On 6 April 1942, the unit came under Lieutenant General Marquis Toshinari Maeda's Borneo Sultanate Defence Army who in turn became responsible for the island area. The headquarters was initially at Miri, but Maeda considered it unsuitable and moved headquarters to Bandar Brunei (Brunei Town, later renamed to Bandar Seri Begawan). In July, the Nakahata Regiment was reorganized into two 500-man battalions, the 40th and 41st Independent Garrison Infantry Battalions. Maeda was however killed along with Major Hataichi Usui and Pilot-Captain Katsutaro Ano in an air crash while flying to Labuan Island on 5 September 1942. The Japanese then renamed the island as Maida Island (前田島 Maeda-shima) as a remembrance to him. Maeda was subsequently replaced by Lieutenant General Masataka Yamawaki from 5 September 1942 onward. Yamawaki the formerly Director of the Resources Mobilisation Bureau; who was appointment in 1942 did his best to establish Borneo as a significant location for storage of supplies and development of supporting industry.
Law enforcement in the new Sultanate of Borneo fell to the notorious Kenpeitai, where they were directly responsible to the Military Commander and the Japanese War Ministry instead of the Sultan. They had virtually unlimited power, and frequently used torture and brutality as their normal mode of operation. The Kenpeitai headquarters were in a two-storey bungalow Brunei Town. Japanese and Sultanate Justice became synonymous with punishment out of all proportion to the offense, where they revived the pre-war civil court system from November 1942, with local magistrates applying the Sarawak Penal Code. Additionally the Borneo Defence Army was strengthened with additional units and renamed the official Army of the Sultanate. While many Japanese Shinto, Indian Hindu and Europeans remained dominant in the Sultanate's administration, the majority of the population was Mohammedan Malay and continued to grow, as the Japanese and Siamese/Thai started to resettle the Malay Mohammedan population to the Sultanate of Brunei/Borneo, where the Sultan was quiet open to get more citizens to create a strong Malay Mohammedan Empire once again. With support of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Japanese Merchant Fleet, the Malay States population (2,940,000 citizens of the Federated Malay States, 1,894,000 Malayans, 670,000 Chinese, 370,000 Indian and 6,000 Europeans) was slowly but steady resettled to the Brunei Sultanate island of Borneo (100,000 to 200,000 each year) were they would complete the native population of 3,089,000 for a total population of 6,029,000 in the end. This created the first and largest Mohammedan state inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere, but the Japanese secretly planned a new sample colonial state in Borneo. Compared to the Philippines, Vietnam, Siam/Thailand and even Java the population of Borneo was quiet small and the huge island was planned to be settled in large amounts by Japanese once the war was won and South-East Asia secured for the Co-Prosperity Sphere, until Borneo would be in it's majority Japanese (20,000 in the first year, 40,000 in the second year, 60,000 in the third year, 80,000 in the forth year and 100,000 each following year untill the Japanese were the majority). The new flag (inspired by these used for the new chinese states) for the Sultanate of Brunei/Boneo combined the old independent Brunei flag with some new stripes at the sides, these stood for the original name of the region as a tropical island, but also for the non-Malay minorities, while red represented the Japanese liberators and yellow the Malay maority.
Airfields were constructed all over Borneo by prisoners of war and conscripted labour from various locations, including from Brunei, Maeda-shima, Ranau and Elopura. Before the Japanese occupation, there were only three airfields in Kuching, Miri and Bintulu of Sarawak, while in North Borneo there was none. Due to this, the Japanese planned to construct a total of twenty-six airfields in different parts of Borneo to strengthen its defence, of which seven would be located in Api, Elopura, Keningau, Kudat, Tawau, Maeda-shima and Lahad Datu. The Japanese also launched a series of trunk road projects in Borneo, where the roads between Ranau with Keningau and Kota Belud with Tenghilan will be improved as well a new road linking Kudat and Kota Belud will be constructed. As these roads passed through wide mountainous areas, a large number of romusha (laborer) are needed to realize the projects. Lieutenant General Masataka Yamawaki even started to creat an indigenous army consisting of around 1,300 men at first, with most of them stationed in Kuching while the others in Miri, Api and Elopura with task to maintaining order and peace, as well as intelligence gatherings and recruiting. Brunei harbour was also used by the IJN as a refuelling depot.
The Japanese had major prisoner of war (POW) camps at Kuching, Ranau, and Sandakan, plus smaller ones at Dahan and other locations. Batu Lintang camp held both military and civilian prisoners. Inside the camps many of its occupants died as a result of forced marches from Sandakan to Ranau. In total, the Japanese are believed to have held an estimated 11,860 prisoners and internees at all camps in northern Borneo, with only 1,387 managed to survived in Batu Lintang camp and only six in the forced marches until the end of the war. Japanese Zaibatsu were used for monopolizing essential goods and resources, while the Japanese authorities enforcing a food self-sufficiency policy. All resources including foodstuffs were primerely reserved for Co-Prosperity Sphere forces with low excess given to local populace under small rations. Through two well-established zaibatsu of Mitsui Morin and Mitsui Bussan, foodstuffs such as rice, maize, tapioca, sweet potatoes and coconut oil were monopolized including in purchase and distribution, while sago supplies controlled by the Mitsubishi's Tawau Sangyo. Those who are caught stealing or smuggling will be punishable by death. The IJA together with IJN work hardly to resuscitate the oil industry to contribute to Imperial Japanese and Co-Prosperity war effort.
The Chinese community was the most economically exploited for Japanese benefit mainly due to their aid for Chiang's United Front and contributions to the China Relief Fund and British war efforts, with the elites in major towns bore the heaviest burden and those with lesser resources went bankrupt. The Gunseibu adopted a principle to exercising control over Chinese commercial network. Chinese towkays were utilised to serve the needs of Japanese military, with those who are unwilling were forcibly encouraged. The demands was in line with overall Japanese policy in a document titled ‘Principles Governing the Implementation of Measures Relative to the Chinese’ (Kakyō Kōsaku Jisshi Yōryō) issued by the Japanese headquarters in Syonanto (昭南島Shonanto) in April 1942.
In early 1942, the first branch of Yokohama Specie Bank began to be opened in Kuching through the former Western bank building of Chartered Bank. The Japanese Southern Development Treasury also open an office to oversee investment throughout Borneo as well two Japanese insurance companies, Tokyo Kaijo Kasai and Mitsubishi Kaijo Kasai began their operations. Most motor car as well as buses and lorries were confiscated by Japan Transport Co. with small compensation are given as a return. The Japanese recruited labor workers to construct airfields with those agreed to do so will be given extra food ration and payment, while those detained by the Japanese authorities are forced to work as forced labor. The POWs who worked to build the airstrip also received a small salary weekly that could be enough to purchase an egg. The Japan did their best to transform Borneo as the supplier of raw materials and for its own investment place.
Before the invasion, the Japanese government had printed new yen notes for the use in all occupied territories in Southeast Asia to replace other local currencies. As there is a increasing currency inflation during the war, the value of this money fluctuated erratically thus exchange with the former British Borneo dollars is useless. This partly inflation coupled with Allied disruption of Japn's economy forced the Japanese administration to issue banknotes of larger denominations and increase the amount of money in circulation from January 1942 onward.
Effects of the occupation varied widely among the residents with the Japanese allowed Malays to maintain their positions in the civil service and another local post although their activities are still being supervised. Despite some positive treatment in the work field, other Malays were still abused together with the Chinese as well the indigenous natives. In response to a directive from Shōnantō in 1942, the poor treatment towards indigenous natives began to be alleviated as they are not perceived to be the main enemies for Japan. With the sparse and widely dispersed local population in Borneo, the Japanese gunseibu had little choice but rely to rōmusha abroad, mainly from Indoand China under the management of the Borneo Labour Business Society.
Chinese skilled workers of carpenter were brought from Shanghai, Huangzhou and Shantou while later the Javanese from Java island were also brought to Borneo as labor workers. Although the Javanese were also provided with board and lodging as the Chinese, they did not receive a good treatment as the latter that were considered as skilled workers. Most of the Javanese are being sent to Brunei and Maeda-Shima, while the upper classes Chinese immigrants worked in boat-building industry in Kuching and Elopura. Other local Chinese became inevitable targets of Japanese authorities, with any hostilities outbreak will be met with severe consequences. Many young Chinese males avoided from being captured as forced labor, while young Chinese females were terrified from being taken as comfort women. A few coastal inhabitants fled to the interior or other coastal districts and with such persistent threats, some Chinese decided to formed and participate in a revolt with the indigenous people. In response to the Jesselton Revolt in September 1943, Japanese kenpeitai raid the Chau Kee Sundry Shop in Tenghilan of North Borneo to searching the members of the revolt where a proprietor was found in possession of a National Chinese United Front flags and summarily executed.
As both Chosen and Taiwan had been under the domination of Japan for an indefinite amount of time, many citizens of both territories worked under the Japanese military. These people were then sent to Borneo to work as prison guards to replace the existing Japanese guards. In addition to their lack of knowledge and training for the treatment of POWs, many of them were involved in brutalising the POWs where the treatment of POWs are much worsened after the replacement of Japanese guards by the Taiwanese.
On the west coast of North Borneo, a resistance movement-led by Albert Kwok, a Chinese from Kuching, who after working with the China Red Cross moved to Jesselton in 1940. He was specialized in treating ailments although not officially a doctor and after serving with the Kuomintang and the Chinese United Front under Chiang Kai-shek, he decide to formed a resistance movement and began to collaborate with local indigenous groups as a consequence of the poor treatment towards local ethnic Chinese in North Borneo. In January 1942, Kwok want to establish contact with the Australians or Americans in eastern North Borneo but was unable to walk across the island jungle more further when he reached Pensiangan where he saw a large presence of Japanese troops. He need to establish relations with the Allied movements, especially the United States Forces in the Philippines (USFIP) as it is the only sole armed resistance movement in the region at the time which are supplied with firearms. After managed to establishing contact with the American forces in the Philippines, he began to depart to Tawi-Tawi for training, during when he return to North Borneo he already had three pistols, a box of hand grenades and was promised to be given more weapons. However, as the plan to retrieve more weapons had failed, Kwok had to launch a revolt at Api with his members armed with only parang, spear and kris. Though they were poorly equipped, the attack still managed to kill at least 50–90 Japanese soldiers and temporarily overtake Api, Tuaran and Kota Belud from the Burmese Sultanate. As the Japanese began to retaliate, Kwok along with other members began to retreat into their hide-out and celebrate the birthday of Sun Yat-sen, the founder of Kuomintang and subsequently the Republic of China by hoisting the national flag and singing the national anthem of the Republic of China on 12 November. Furore by the hostilities shown by local communities, the Sultanate forces and Japanese launch a ruthless counter-offensive by machine-gunning people in coastal settlements from Kota Belud to Membakut that were family members of rebels and guerrilla fighters. They even bombed some small towns that openly joined these enemy forces, while almost all villages in the area burnt down with around 2,000–4,000 innocent civilians were executed. After been threatened with more civilians being killed if the leader of the uprising did not turn themselves in, Kwok finally surrendered with several of his top members where he and some 175 peoples who for the most part had nothing to do with the uprising are subjected to execution order of the Japanese on 21 January 1943.
Since the falling of the uprising, the Sultan as well as his allied Japanese became more merciless and conducting regular reprisals with the local inhabitants in North Borneo could no longer afford another uprising as the Japanese became so active in surveillance. Captain Lionel Matthews, an officer of Australian Army Signals Corps who was held as a prisoner of war by the Japanese in Elopura from August 1942 onward later escaped and directed an underground intelligence organization to get medical supplies, food and money into the camp, as well to setting up a radio link with the outside world. He collected information to relay to these contacts which then passed to Chinese-Filipino traders and helped organize prisoner escapes with American-supported guerillias in the Philippines. Although this was soon discovered by the Japanese, he continued to display his loyalty towards his services by not revealing anything about the movement while been tortured until he was executed.
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Chapter 160: Huikoku inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere
Chapter 160: Huikoku inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere:
The new center of Hui Chinese (Mohammedans) inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere was located inside the former Yinchuan Province of the former Republic of China. Yinchuan was originally a county under the name of Fuping in the 1st century BCE; its name was changed to Huaiyuan in the 6th century CE. After the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907, it was occupied by the Tangut Western Xia Empire and was made the capital of the empire, also causing a mass immigration of the entire native Chinese population from their newly proclaimed capital. After the destruction of the Xi-Xia dynasty by the Mongols in 1227, Yinchuan was mercilessly pillaged by the Mongols with its population totally slaughtered. The Mongols called the city Iryai. With the collapse of their empire, the native Tanguts of Yinchuan completely assimilated into the Han population as Lan-Yin speakers and largely continued remaining in this city. Genghis Khan died here in 1227, in a battle. Under the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, it was the prefecture of Ningxia. During the Dungan revolt (also called the Tongzhi Hui Revolt or Hui Minorities War) Dungan forces massacred 100,000 people in Yinchuan.
In 1928, when the province of Ningxia was formed from part of Gansu, it became the capital city. Later in 1941 the Japanese Empire and the Co-Prosperity Sphere established a Hui autonomous region here, with Yinchuan once again became the capital. Already traditional a administrative and commercial center Hui (Mohammedan Chinese) traveled to the new state of Huikoku from all over the Co-Prosperity Sphere (with the exaction of Brunei, Yikoku and other Mohammedan Co-Prosperity Sphere member states like Celebes, Java and Sumatra) and many regions of China. Many, mostly the Hui, came of their own free will to live in a own,nation, independent from China finally, others were encouraged or forced to leave their traditional home regions to resettle in Huikoku, whenever the Hui were unpopular or unwanted in some region. With the Hui came new traders, commercial enterprises and even some Co-Prosperity Sphere Japanese, Chinese, Mongol and Manchurian conglomerates settled in Yinchuan. While they were already some handicrafts but no modern industries in Yinchuan, with the new settlers, commerce and money new industries and even the first factory opened in Yinchuan.. The city had since then been grown considerably.
When extensive coal deposits were discovered on the eastern bank of the Yellow River near Shizuishan, 100 km (62 mi) to the north, Shizuishan quickly became the coal-mining center. Of Huikoku, expanding it's economy, resources and influence in the region. Yinchuan, however, remained for the most parts largely non-industrial, unlike many other cities inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere that were under great efforts heavily modernized and industrialized by now. The immediate plains area, intensively irrigated by a system developed as long ago as the Han (206 BC–AD 220) and Tang (618–907) dynasties, was also extremely productive. This made Yinchuan the chief agricultural market and distribution center for this area and also deals in animal products from the herds tended by nomads (also including the Mongols and the northern neighbor state of Mengjiang) in the surrounding grasslands. Yinchuan was also a market for grain and had mills, as well as rice-hulling and oil-extraction plants. The wool produced in the surrounding plains supplies a woolen-textile mill. Yinchuan quickly became a center for the Hui minority peoples, who rose from a third of the population to it's majority in the city and the new nation of Huikoku. Yinchuan quickly served as a major trade route between Western cities such as Ürümqi and the Eastern coast of China as well as the northern state of Mengjiang and southern regions all the way to Tibet.
While most Hui Mohammedans were of Sufi groups, the majority of Mohammedans in East Turkestan (mostly Uyghur, Kazaks and some other minorities) were in their majority Sunni Mohammedans. Some Hui even followed Gedimu, a old non-Sufi mainstream tradition that opposed unorthodoxy and religious innovation. Others were parts of the Hanafi Madh'hab while some even had female imams inside their ranks. All these groups living together in Yinchuan not only created a slowly mixing culture, but also much diversity, cultural and religious arguments and clashes. Soon Huikoku was known as Huijian (Mohammedan territory) inside the majority of China. Unknown to the Hui the Japanese planned to use them for their own goals in China. The Hui and the existence of the state of Huikoku was supposed to get the large Mohammedan population of the regions that were formerly the Chinese warlord region known as the Ma Clique to rebel against Chiang Kai-shek faction, the Chinese United Front. The Japanese know because of defectors and Wang Jingwei allied spies inside Chiang's ranks that the Mohammedan majority inside the northwest of his regions had major issues with the infidel and atheistic Chinese Communist that had sided with Chiang's Nationalists. The Huikoku Mohammedans trained under Japanese instructors, officers and commanders to form their own small forces. Because of their limited numbers most of the operation done by the Huikoku forces were mostly infiltration and sabotage missions, as well as the recruiting, arming and training of fellow Hui pro-Japanese, pro-Co-Prosperity Sphere and pro-Huikoku rebels to harass the Chinese United front from within by uprisings, sabotage and even civil unrest.
Huikoku survived until 1944, when the Mengjian Expeditionary Force surprisingly attacked them. Before the direct invasion by the 3rd Mengjiang Army with their 20,000 men, all cavalry at this time with little heavy equipment, Mengjiang started it's surprise attack on Huikoku by a bombarding the city of Yinchuan with their small Mengjiang air force (bombers and fighters combined). The bombardment and the fire it caused destroyed most of the city, before Mengjiang forces even directly assaulter Huikoku with their militia, security forces, and normal regiments. Mengjiang forces as well as some Han Chinese support troops (the Grand Han Righteous Army) took part in the attack. The main reason for this treason was that the Japanese Operation Ichi-go Sakusen (Operation Ichi Go/ Operation Number One) had by then succeeded as a campaign to crush the Chinese United Front in a series of major battles. This meant that the plan for a Hui uprising and the expansion of Huikoku wasn't needed and desired inside the Japanese plans any more. Instead the Mengjiang Army with it's 20,000 men together with 6,000 Grand Han Righteous Army men accompanied by a 40,000 men numbering Han Chinese Army of Wang Jingwei's National Han Chinese Republic, 18,000 Yikoku men and a 38,000 men Tibetan Empire Army attacked the remnants of Huikoku, the New Ma Clique rebels and the Chinese United Front by three sides to decide and conquer the area between their nation states. All of their armies were armed with Japanese, Chinese or captured Soviet and British weapons of the United Front, supported by their own and Japanese aircraft, and in their majority led by Japanese officers. Most of the Japanese soldiers fighting for Mengjiang, the National Han Chinese, or Tibet often were dressed as these individual Co-Prosperity Sphere members to deny any Japanese direct involvement in the Chinese Civil War ever since the beginning of it.
The Mengjiang Army invading was led by the native Mengjian Commander Li Shouxin that was a pro-Japanese Commander and member of the Mengjiang Khanate National Army. Their forces continued the politic of scorched earth and salted fields that they already had started in Mengjiang and conquered territories in Inner Mongolia, Outer Mongolia and East Turkestan. Whenever Khan Demchugdongrub felt, that his Mengjiang (Mongol) pupulation inside the Mengjiang Khanate wasn't pure enough, because Han, Uyghur, Kazaks and other minorities besides his mongols lived their, their tents, farms, towns and even cities were mercilessly pillaged by the Mengjiang Army and their population entirely slaughtered if they did not manage to escape and flee before. With the conquest of Yinchuan, the new Khan ordered the city to once again be renamed Iryai (a rebuild Mengjiang colonial city), like his ancestors called it. The place where Genghis Khan was believed to have died in 1227 was turned into a huge mausoleum, together with a shrine and park, where the Mengjiang soldiers that died during the conquest were honored. Iryai would become one of the most prosperous, perfectly planned and constantly growing Mengjoang colony city that once day surpassed even Yinchuan, whose ruins lay beneath it.
The new center of Hui Chinese (Mohammedans) inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere was located inside the former Yinchuan Province of the former Republic of China. Yinchuan was originally a county under the name of Fuping in the 1st century BCE; its name was changed to Huaiyuan in the 6th century CE. After the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907, it was occupied by the Tangut Western Xia Empire and was made the capital of the empire, also causing a mass immigration of the entire native Chinese population from their newly proclaimed capital. After the destruction of the Xi-Xia dynasty by the Mongols in 1227, Yinchuan was mercilessly pillaged by the Mongols with its population totally slaughtered. The Mongols called the city Iryai. With the collapse of their empire, the native Tanguts of Yinchuan completely assimilated into the Han population as Lan-Yin speakers and largely continued remaining in this city. Genghis Khan died here in 1227, in a battle. Under the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, it was the prefecture of Ningxia. During the Dungan revolt (also called the Tongzhi Hui Revolt or Hui Minorities War) Dungan forces massacred 100,000 people in Yinchuan.
In 1928, when the province of Ningxia was formed from part of Gansu, it became the capital city. Later in 1941 the Japanese Empire and the Co-Prosperity Sphere established a Hui autonomous region here, with Yinchuan once again became the capital. Already traditional a administrative and commercial center Hui (Mohammedan Chinese) traveled to the new state of Huikoku from all over the Co-Prosperity Sphere (with the exaction of Brunei, Yikoku and other Mohammedan Co-Prosperity Sphere member states like Celebes, Java and Sumatra) and many regions of China. Many, mostly the Hui, came of their own free will to live in a own,nation, independent from China finally, others were encouraged or forced to leave their traditional home regions to resettle in Huikoku, whenever the Hui were unpopular or unwanted in some region. With the Hui came new traders, commercial enterprises and even some Co-Prosperity Sphere Japanese, Chinese, Mongol and Manchurian conglomerates settled in Yinchuan. While they were already some handicrafts but no modern industries in Yinchuan, with the new settlers, commerce and money new industries and even the first factory opened in Yinchuan.. The city had since then been grown considerably.
When extensive coal deposits were discovered on the eastern bank of the Yellow River near Shizuishan, 100 km (62 mi) to the north, Shizuishan quickly became the coal-mining center. Of Huikoku, expanding it's economy, resources and influence in the region. Yinchuan, however, remained for the most parts largely non-industrial, unlike many other cities inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere that were under great efforts heavily modernized and industrialized by now. The immediate plains area, intensively irrigated by a system developed as long ago as the Han (206 BC–AD 220) and Tang (618–907) dynasties, was also extremely productive. This made Yinchuan the chief agricultural market and distribution center for this area and also deals in animal products from the herds tended by nomads (also including the Mongols and the northern neighbor state of Mengjiang) in the surrounding grasslands. Yinchuan was also a market for grain and had mills, as well as rice-hulling and oil-extraction plants. The wool produced in the surrounding plains supplies a woolen-textile mill. Yinchuan quickly became a center for the Hui minority peoples, who rose from a third of the population to it's majority in the city and the new nation of Huikoku. Yinchuan quickly served as a major trade route between Western cities such as Ürümqi and the Eastern coast of China as well as the northern state of Mengjiang and southern regions all the way to Tibet.
While most Hui Mohammedans were of Sufi groups, the majority of Mohammedans in East Turkestan (mostly Uyghur, Kazaks and some other minorities) were in their majority Sunni Mohammedans. Some Hui even followed Gedimu, a old non-Sufi mainstream tradition that opposed unorthodoxy and religious innovation. Others were parts of the Hanafi Madh'hab while some even had female imams inside their ranks. All these groups living together in Yinchuan not only created a slowly mixing culture, but also much diversity, cultural and religious arguments and clashes. Soon Huikoku was known as Huijian (Mohammedan territory) inside the majority of China. Unknown to the Hui the Japanese planned to use them for their own goals in China. The Hui and the existence of the state of Huikoku was supposed to get the large Mohammedan population of the regions that were formerly the Chinese warlord region known as the Ma Clique to rebel against Chiang Kai-shek faction, the Chinese United Front. The Japanese know because of defectors and Wang Jingwei allied spies inside Chiang's ranks that the Mohammedan majority inside the northwest of his regions had major issues with the infidel and atheistic Chinese Communist that had sided with Chiang's Nationalists. The Huikoku Mohammedans trained under Japanese instructors, officers and commanders to form their own small forces. Because of their limited numbers most of the operation done by the Huikoku forces were mostly infiltration and sabotage missions, as well as the recruiting, arming and training of fellow Hui pro-Japanese, pro-Co-Prosperity Sphere and pro-Huikoku rebels to harass the Chinese United front from within by uprisings, sabotage and even civil unrest.
Huikoku survived until 1944, when the Mengjian Expeditionary Force surprisingly attacked them. Before the direct invasion by the 3rd Mengjiang Army with their 20,000 men, all cavalry at this time with little heavy equipment, Mengjiang started it's surprise attack on Huikoku by a bombarding the city of Yinchuan with their small Mengjiang air force (bombers and fighters combined). The bombardment and the fire it caused destroyed most of the city, before Mengjiang forces even directly assaulter Huikoku with their militia, security forces, and normal regiments. Mengjiang forces as well as some Han Chinese support troops (the Grand Han Righteous Army) took part in the attack. The main reason for this treason was that the Japanese Operation Ichi-go Sakusen (Operation Ichi Go/ Operation Number One) had by then succeeded as a campaign to crush the Chinese United Front in a series of major battles. This meant that the plan for a Hui uprising and the expansion of Huikoku wasn't needed and desired inside the Japanese plans any more. Instead the Mengjiang Army with it's 20,000 men together with 6,000 Grand Han Righteous Army men accompanied by a 40,000 men numbering Han Chinese Army of Wang Jingwei's National Han Chinese Republic, 18,000 Yikoku men and a 38,000 men Tibetan Empire Army attacked the remnants of Huikoku, the New Ma Clique rebels and the Chinese United Front by three sides to decide and conquer the area between their nation states. All of their armies were armed with Japanese, Chinese or captured Soviet and British weapons of the United Front, supported by their own and Japanese aircraft, and in their majority led by Japanese officers. Most of the Japanese soldiers fighting for Mengjiang, the National Han Chinese, or Tibet often were dressed as these individual Co-Prosperity Sphere members to deny any Japanese direct involvement in the Chinese Civil War ever since the beginning of it.
The Mengjiang Army invading was led by the native Mengjian Commander Li Shouxin that was a pro-Japanese Commander and member of the Mengjiang Khanate National Army. Their forces continued the politic of scorched earth and salted fields that they already had started in Mengjiang and conquered territories in Inner Mongolia, Outer Mongolia and East Turkestan. Whenever Khan Demchugdongrub felt, that his Mengjiang (Mongol) pupulation inside the Mengjiang Khanate wasn't pure enough, because Han, Uyghur, Kazaks and other minorities besides his mongols lived their, their tents, farms, towns and even cities were mercilessly pillaged by the Mengjiang Army and their population entirely slaughtered if they did not manage to escape and flee before. With the conquest of Yinchuan, the new Khan ordered the city to once again be renamed Iryai (a rebuild Mengjiang colonial city), like his ancestors called it. The place where Genghis Khan was believed to have died in 1227 was turned into a huge mausoleum, together with a shrine and park, where the Mengjiang soldiers that died during the conquest were honored. Iryai would become one of the most prosperous, perfectly planned and constantly growing Mengjoang colony city that once day surpassed even Yinchuan, whose ruins lay beneath it.
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Chapter 161: The Xikang Mission
Chapter 161: The Xikang Mission:
Just like the Japanese and the Co-Prosperity Sphere tried to use Huikoku for their fight against the Chinese United Front to finally conquer the rest of China that was still loyal to Chiang's government. To do so, the Tibetan Empire as well as to a much lesser extent Yikoku and Wang Jingwei's National Han China (or Hankoku) send Buddhist monks as diplomats to convince the Xikang (also Sikang or Hsikang) Army that joining the cause of the Co-Prosperity Sphere against Chiang and the United Front. Not all of them were truly monks, but some also disguised Japanese and Co-Prosperity Sphere soldiers and spies just posing as peaceful monks. Their mission was as much diplomatic as it was intelligence gathering. Because the government and military in Tokio planned on using the Xikang Army as their allies, they ordered the border forces of National Han China, Yikoku and Tibet to not engage into any border conflicts and also ordered them for now and to not provoke or escalate any border conflicts that could lead to a open war against Xikang. This mission however took some time, but the Japanese didn't care, as the Chinese Civil War was in kind of a stalemate right now and spending some time with diplomatic meetings, was better then spending more lives without any significant change of the station. Therefore Tokio had ordered to try to end the war with a more diplomatic approach for now, mostly because many forces not already involved in the Chinese Civil War or the Soviet border were used in the Pacific and South-East Asia against the Allies.
Just like the Japanese and the Co-Prosperity Sphere tried to use Huikoku for their fight against the Chinese United Front to finally conquer the rest of China that was still loyal to Chiang's government. To do so, the Tibetan Empire as well as to a much lesser extent Yikoku and Wang Jingwei's National Han China (or Hankoku) send Buddhist monks as diplomats to convince the Xikang (also Sikang or Hsikang) Army that joining the cause of the Co-Prosperity Sphere against Chiang and the United Front. Not all of them were truly monks, but some also disguised Japanese and Co-Prosperity Sphere soldiers and spies just posing as peaceful monks. Their mission was as much diplomatic as it was intelligence gathering. Because the government and military in Tokio planned on using the Xikang Army as their allies, they ordered the border forces of National Han China, Yikoku and Tibet to not engage into any border conflicts and also ordered them for now and to not provoke or escalate any border conflicts that could lead to a open war against Xikang. This mission however took some time, but the Japanese didn't care, as the Chinese Civil War was in kind of a stalemate right now and spending some time with diplomatic meetings, was better then spending more lives without any significant change of the station. Therefore Tokio had ordered to try to end the war with a more diplomatic approach for now, mostly because many forces not already involved in the Chinese Civil War or the Soviet border were used in the Pacific and South-East Asia against the Allies.
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Chapter 162: The Red Torii
Chapter 162: The Red Torii:
The International Red Cross as well as the Red Crescent (as it existed inside the Neo-Ottoman Empire and shortly later the Persian Empire) were international humanitarian movement founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering. Despite this noble goal the Red Crescent under the Neo-Ottomans and the Persian Shah quickly as well as the Red Cross in Axis Central Power ruled Monarchist Europe quickly turned into organizations that were used by the National Monarchist or Fascist Royalist governments to work as organizations inside their country like some extended arm of their political movements and ruling elite. The Germans forced their part of the Red Cross under the Red Spiked Helmet, while the Austrian Hungarians had their similar organized Red Steel Helmet and most minor Axis Central Powers had other organizations like it. The Neo-Ottoman Red Crescent never gave any protection and service to minorities the Caliph wanted to resettle or directly annihilate from the face of his Caliphate and the Earth.
Inside the Japanese Empire and the Co-Prosperity Sphere this Axis Central Power idea of reusing the Red Cross for their own propaganda and national purpose fell on fertile ground and was soon adapted for their use inside the ideology construct of Coprospism in 1940. They combined their Red Cross version with the idea of cultural and ideological colonialism and Japanisation, by creating the Red Torii, named after the traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to sacred. This Red Torii organisation was closely linked with the building of medical practices, hospitals and even schools by the Japanese throughout the Co-Prosperity Sphere. All these buildings under the management, financial, technological, or other support by the Red Torii always included a Shinto Temple or at least a smaller Shinto Shrine, sometimes directly inside the buildings, or at least close by in the surrounding garden or neighboring buildings. Education and medical service inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere were thereby directly linked with Japanese culture domination, assimilation, or influence of other cultures since 1940. But while the concept was introduced so early, by 1941 only Manchukuo, Mingjiang, Yenkoku, National Han China and Taikoku had the organization in their borders to some extent. This changed with the beginning of the Second Great War in Asia and the Pacific in 1941 when the Co-Prosperity Sphere member states forced the Red Cross and similar organizations to become absorbed and part of the Red Torii or were declared illegal inside their countries. With the beginning of 1942 however and strongly supported by the Imperial Japanese Army and the local Co-Prosperity Sphere governments and armies they helped to create and support, the Red Torii took over and was greatly expanded. The Red Torii then became widespread in all member states of the Co-Prosperity Sphere and mostly there where the Co-Prosperity Sphere armies and navies were stationed in the liberated and occupied former American and European colonies of the Western Powers.
The International Red Cross as well as the Red Crescent (as it existed inside the Neo-Ottoman Empire and shortly later the Persian Empire) were international humanitarian movement founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering. Despite this noble goal the Red Crescent under the Neo-Ottomans and the Persian Shah quickly as well as the Red Cross in Axis Central Power ruled Monarchist Europe quickly turned into organizations that were used by the National Monarchist or Fascist Royalist governments to work as organizations inside their country like some extended arm of their political movements and ruling elite. The Germans forced their part of the Red Cross under the Red Spiked Helmet, while the Austrian Hungarians had their similar organized Red Steel Helmet and most minor Axis Central Powers had other organizations like it. The Neo-Ottoman Red Crescent never gave any protection and service to minorities the Caliph wanted to resettle or directly annihilate from the face of his Caliphate and the Earth.
Inside the Japanese Empire and the Co-Prosperity Sphere this Axis Central Power idea of reusing the Red Cross for their own propaganda and national purpose fell on fertile ground and was soon adapted for their use inside the ideology construct of Coprospism in 1940. They combined their Red Cross version with the idea of cultural and ideological colonialism and Japanisation, by creating the Red Torii, named after the traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to sacred. This Red Torii organisation was closely linked with the building of medical practices, hospitals and even schools by the Japanese throughout the Co-Prosperity Sphere. All these buildings under the management, financial, technological, or other support by the Red Torii always included a Shinto Temple or at least a smaller Shinto Shrine, sometimes directly inside the buildings, or at least close by in the surrounding garden or neighboring buildings. Education and medical service inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere were thereby directly linked with Japanese culture domination, assimilation, or influence of other cultures since 1940. But while the concept was introduced so early, by 1941 only Manchukuo, Mingjiang, Yenkoku, National Han China and Taikoku had the organization in their borders to some extent. This changed with the beginning of the Second Great War in Asia and the Pacific in 1941 when the Co-Prosperity Sphere member states forced the Red Cross and similar organizations to become absorbed and part of the Red Torii or were declared illegal inside their countries. With the beginning of 1942 however and strongly supported by the Imperial Japanese Army and the local Co-Prosperity Sphere governments and armies they helped to create and support, the Red Torii took over and was greatly expanded. The Red Torii then became widespread in all member states of the Co-Prosperity Sphere and mostly there where the Co-Prosperity Sphere armies and navies were stationed in the liberated and occupied former American and European colonies of the Western Powers.
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Next some NKVD Soviet Elite forces, the new Teutonic Order (TTL SS) in the baltics and other fun. 
Next some NKVD Soviet Elite forces, the new Teutonic Order (TTL SS) in the baltics and other fun.
Warning - hype levels approaching critical...
Chapter 163: The Crusade – Neo-Ottoman Jihad Caucasus Campaign
Chapter 163: The Crusade – Neo-Ottoman Jihad Caucasus Campaign:
The Caucasus Campaign was a Axis Central Power campaign by the Neo-Ottoman Empire, the German Empire and later the Kingdom of Georgia and the Kingdom/ Emirate of Azerbaijan against the Soviet Union (most direct against the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic). Under the command of General Halil Kut the Turkish Soviet Socialist Republic was quickly crushed and the former Armenian Army was officially renamed the Caucasus Army (German: Dritte Orientarmee, Third Orient Army) when the old Turkis-Soviet borders were reached. With the Germans, Austrian-Hungarians, Finnish and Romanians starting the main push in the western Soviet Union, Neo-Ottoman forces prepared to attack what they believed to be the Soviet Unions weak underbelly. One of the main goals of the campaign was to reclaim the area the Ottoman Empire had dominated in the Caucasus in 1918 after the fall of the Russian Empire. Because of this the advancing plans for the Axis Central Power forces saw operations trough out most of the 1936 abolished Transcaucasian SFSR and into the southern Russian plains. Thanks to the Soviets and Stalin's own politics and actions in the region public opinion was split between pro-Soviet supporters and pro-Axis Central Power, who welcomed the invaders as liberators.
Just like various other ethnic minorities who lived in the Soviet Union under Stalin, tens of thousands of Armenians had been executed or deported. In 1936, Beria and Stalin worked to deport Armenians to Siberia in an attempt to bring Armenia's population under 700,000 in order to justify an annexation into Georgia. Under Beria's command, police terror was used to strengthen the party's political hold on the population and suppress all expressions of nationalism. Many writers, artists, scientists and political leaders, including the writer Axel Bakunts and the celebrated poet Yeghishe Charents, were executed or forced into exile. Because of this, the Armenia SSR played a vital role in the Imperial German Army and Neo-Ottoman Army plans for the region. Armenia was providing food, manpower and war materiel to the Soviet giant. An estimated 300–500,000 Armenians would serve overall in the war, almost half of whom did not return. The Armenian forces and the Soviet Army in the Armenian SSR numbered between 60-80,000 at the start of the Eastern Crusade/Jihad. Armenia would have one of the highest death tolls, per capita, among the other Soviet republics. And while some Armenians were awarded with the rank of Hero of the Soviet Union, formed partisan groups to combat the Germans, with over forty Armenians were promoted to the rank of general. The soviet aircraft designer Artem Mikoyan was an Armenian. The 89th Tamanyan Division, composed of ethnic Armenians, distinguished itself during the war. But while many Armenians welcomed the Axis Central Powers invasion in their Soviet region, most would soon regret this decision. It quickly turned out that the Neo-Ottomans and their Azerbaijan (the Azerbaijan Kingdom that formed from the Azerbaijan SSR) allies had already secretly made plans to split up the Armenian SSR between each other. Further more the Neo-Ottomans intended to directly annex the region and populate it with Turks, so many Armenians were either deported into the south of the Ottoman Empire (were many died on the death march), further north into the new Russian Empire or directly killed in their former homeland.
The Azerbaijan Socialist Soviet Republic on the other hand played a crucial role in the strategic energy policy of Soviet Union. Much of the Soviet Union's oil on the Eastern Front was supplied by Baku. By a decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in February 1942, the commitment of more than 500 workers and employees of the oil industry of Azerbaijan was recognized with orders and medals. Operation Ottoman Caspia carried out by the Neo-Ottoman Empire Army, the German Imperial Army allies and their secretly Azerbaijanian Mohammedan allies inside the Azerbaijan SSR and Azerbaijan army started massive sabotage missions against the Soviet Unions oil supply and saw most of the 130,000 Azerbaijan soldiers that defended the border region defect to the Axis Central Powers together with the majority of the Azerbaijan SSR that became the Kingdom (more correct the Emirate) of Azerbaijan that became a Neo-Ottoman Protectorate that was later integrated into the Neo-Ottoman Empire via personal-union. Of the overall 800,000 Azerbaijanis that would fight along the Eastern Front, the majority (640,000) would do so inside the ranks of the Axis Central Powers. Of the 400,000 Azerbaijan death during the conflict 260,000 would be on Axis Central Powers side and the rest on side of the Soviet Union. Azeri national formations of the Red Army included the 223rd, 227th, 396th, 402nd and 416th Rifle Divisions. Azeri Major-General Hazi Aslanov overthrew the communist government of Azerbaijan under Mir Jafar Baghirov Abbas and joined with the Neo-Ottomans and Germans in the Axis Central Powers. On 31 March 1931 the oil industry of the Azerbaijan SSR, which supplied over 60% of the total Soviet oil production at the time, was awarded the Order of Lenin. The republic gained the second Order on 15 March 1935 during the observation of its 15th anniversary. At the end of the second five-year plan (1933–1937) Azerbaijan appeared at 3rd place in the Soviet Union by its capital investment size. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan produced 23,5 million tons of oil during the first year of the war, a record for the entire history of its oil industry. By the end of 1941, thousands of Azerbaijanis had joined the People's Volunteer Corps. Mobilization affected all spheres of life, particularly the oil industries. A week after fighting began, the oil workers themselves took the initiative to extend their work to 12-hour shifts, with no days off, no holidays, and no vacations until the end of the war. With the coup of Hazi Aslanov the Eastern Crusade, Caucasus Jihad or Caucasus Campaign became partly a civil war for Azerbaijan, with the small majority of the civilians and military joining the Axis Central Powers side, quickly supported by incoming Neo-Ottoman an German troops to cut of the Soviet Forces in the southern front against Turkey. They took control of most of Azerbaujan and declared the independent Kingdom/ Emirate of Azerbaijan to become a Neo-Ottoman Protectorate, fighting alongside the Axis Central Powers against the Soviet Union.
The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic was not as important strategically, economically and military, as the Azerbaijan SSR, but Stalin's Georgian homeland had great value for the invasion plans. The majority of Georgians was unlike the other Soviet Socialist Republic supportive of their Georgian brother Stalin as the Leader of the Soviet Union. The Georgian SSR had expanded it's territory on behalf of it's neighbors and hoped to do so once again after the Azerbaijan SSR and the Armenian SSR welcomed the German and Turkish soldiers with open arms. Against these traitors, the Georgian SSR once again deported Chechen, Ingush, Karachay, Balkarian, Azeri and Armenian minorities from within it's territory into Siberia. The at start of the war only 110,000 Soviet Georgian forces would grow to over 700,000 fighters (from which 350,000 were killed) for the Red Army by the end of the war. The Georgian SSR as a vital source of textiles and munitions was a main target for the Axis Central Powers, but unlike the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR, this part of the Caucasus Campaign was not led mostly by Neo-Ottoman forces with some supporting German elements (like the right flank capturing Armenia, Azerbaijan and northwestern Persia was). This western part of the Caucasus Front (later known as the Georgian Front) was led in it's majority by Imperial German Forces of the Dritte Orientarmee (Third Orient Army) and hoped to get the Georgians to join their cause. But the support for Stalin was strong and instead of crushing the Soviet Forces in the Georgian SSR with their back at the Caucasian Mountains, the Soviet Union managed to supply (partly poorly) these mostly cut off army over the mountains and with local industries.
While the Red Army in the Georgian SSR had to retread westwards towards the Abkhazia SSR and the northwest of the Georgian SSR, allowing the Neo-Ottoman Empire to annex the Adjar SSR and parts of Georgia directly, these Soviet Forces managed to hold their own at the Caucasus Front for now. Sadly just like in the Armenian SSR, (where the German High Command had hoped to install a Anti-Soviet Armenian Kingdom, but then the Neo-Ottomans quickly annexed the whole territory) the Axis Central Power plans for Georgia differed just as much. With the capture of Tbilisi, the by now German Caucasus Army (Third Orient Army), declared the independent Kingdom of Georgia (for now only ruling in Georgian SSR territory occupied by the Axis Central Powers) to be their ally against the Soviet Union, while the Neo-Ottoman Empire had hoped to annex and resettle the region just like they had with the Armenian SSR, by driving out or killing the Christian Georgians and settle Turks and other loyal Mohammedan vassals there. But this time the Germans beat the Ottomans to their plans with the declaration of a independent Kingdom of Georgia.
The Caucasus Campaign was a Axis Central Power campaign by the Neo-Ottoman Empire, the German Empire and later the Kingdom of Georgia and the Kingdom/ Emirate of Azerbaijan against the Soviet Union (most direct against the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic). Under the command of General Halil Kut the Turkish Soviet Socialist Republic was quickly crushed and the former Armenian Army was officially renamed the Caucasus Army (German: Dritte Orientarmee, Third Orient Army) when the old Turkis-Soviet borders were reached. With the Germans, Austrian-Hungarians, Finnish and Romanians starting the main push in the western Soviet Union, Neo-Ottoman forces prepared to attack what they believed to be the Soviet Unions weak underbelly. One of the main goals of the campaign was to reclaim the area the Ottoman Empire had dominated in the Caucasus in 1918 after the fall of the Russian Empire. Because of this the advancing plans for the Axis Central Power forces saw operations trough out most of the 1936 abolished Transcaucasian SFSR and into the southern Russian plains. Thanks to the Soviets and Stalin's own politics and actions in the region public opinion was split between pro-Soviet supporters and pro-Axis Central Power, who welcomed the invaders as liberators.
Just like various other ethnic minorities who lived in the Soviet Union under Stalin, tens of thousands of Armenians had been executed or deported. In 1936, Beria and Stalin worked to deport Armenians to Siberia in an attempt to bring Armenia's population under 700,000 in order to justify an annexation into Georgia. Under Beria's command, police terror was used to strengthen the party's political hold on the population and suppress all expressions of nationalism. Many writers, artists, scientists and political leaders, including the writer Axel Bakunts and the celebrated poet Yeghishe Charents, were executed or forced into exile. Because of this, the Armenia SSR played a vital role in the Imperial German Army and Neo-Ottoman Army plans for the region. Armenia was providing food, manpower and war materiel to the Soviet giant. An estimated 300–500,000 Armenians would serve overall in the war, almost half of whom did not return. The Armenian forces and the Soviet Army in the Armenian SSR numbered between 60-80,000 at the start of the Eastern Crusade/Jihad. Armenia would have one of the highest death tolls, per capita, among the other Soviet republics. And while some Armenians were awarded with the rank of Hero of the Soviet Union, formed partisan groups to combat the Germans, with over forty Armenians were promoted to the rank of general. The soviet aircraft designer Artem Mikoyan was an Armenian. The 89th Tamanyan Division, composed of ethnic Armenians, distinguished itself during the war. But while many Armenians welcomed the Axis Central Powers invasion in their Soviet region, most would soon regret this decision. It quickly turned out that the Neo-Ottomans and their Azerbaijan (the Azerbaijan Kingdom that formed from the Azerbaijan SSR) allies had already secretly made plans to split up the Armenian SSR between each other. Further more the Neo-Ottomans intended to directly annex the region and populate it with Turks, so many Armenians were either deported into the south of the Ottoman Empire (were many died on the death march), further north into the new Russian Empire or directly killed in their former homeland.
The Azerbaijan Socialist Soviet Republic on the other hand played a crucial role in the strategic energy policy of Soviet Union. Much of the Soviet Union's oil on the Eastern Front was supplied by Baku. By a decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in February 1942, the commitment of more than 500 workers and employees of the oil industry of Azerbaijan was recognized with orders and medals. Operation Ottoman Caspia carried out by the Neo-Ottoman Empire Army, the German Imperial Army allies and their secretly Azerbaijanian Mohammedan allies inside the Azerbaijan SSR and Azerbaijan army started massive sabotage missions against the Soviet Unions oil supply and saw most of the 130,000 Azerbaijan soldiers that defended the border region defect to the Axis Central Powers together with the majority of the Azerbaijan SSR that became the Kingdom (more correct the Emirate) of Azerbaijan that became a Neo-Ottoman Protectorate that was later integrated into the Neo-Ottoman Empire via personal-union. Of the overall 800,000 Azerbaijanis that would fight along the Eastern Front, the majority (640,000) would do so inside the ranks of the Axis Central Powers. Of the 400,000 Azerbaijan death during the conflict 260,000 would be on Axis Central Powers side and the rest on side of the Soviet Union. Azeri national formations of the Red Army included the 223rd, 227th, 396th, 402nd and 416th Rifle Divisions. Azeri Major-General Hazi Aslanov overthrew the communist government of Azerbaijan under Mir Jafar Baghirov Abbas and joined with the Neo-Ottomans and Germans in the Axis Central Powers. On 31 March 1931 the oil industry of the Azerbaijan SSR, which supplied over 60% of the total Soviet oil production at the time, was awarded the Order of Lenin. The republic gained the second Order on 15 March 1935 during the observation of its 15th anniversary. At the end of the second five-year plan (1933–1937) Azerbaijan appeared at 3rd place in the Soviet Union by its capital investment size. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan produced 23,5 million tons of oil during the first year of the war, a record for the entire history of its oil industry. By the end of 1941, thousands of Azerbaijanis had joined the People's Volunteer Corps. Mobilization affected all spheres of life, particularly the oil industries. A week after fighting began, the oil workers themselves took the initiative to extend their work to 12-hour shifts, with no days off, no holidays, and no vacations until the end of the war. With the coup of Hazi Aslanov the Eastern Crusade, Caucasus Jihad or Caucasus Campaign became partly a civil war for Azerbaijan, with the small majority of the civilians and military joining the Axis Central Powers side, quickly supported by incoming Neo-Ottoman an German troops to cut of the Soviet Forces in the southern front against Turkey. They took control of most of Azerbaujan and declared the independent Kingdom/ Emirate of Azerbaijan to become a Neo-Ottoman Protectorate, fighting alongside the Axis Central Powers against the Soviet Union.
The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic was not as important strategically, economically and military, as the Azerbaijan SSR, but Stalin's Georgian homeland had great value for the invasion plans. The majority of Georgians was unlike the other Soviet Socialist Republic supportive of their Georgian brother Stalin as the Leader of the Soviet Union. The Georgian SSR had expanded it's territory on behalf of it's neighbors and hoped to do so once again after the Azerbaijan SSR and the Armenian SSR welcomed the German and Turkish soldiers with open arms. Against these traitors, the Georgian SSR once again deported Chechen, Ingush, Karachay, Balkarian, Azeri and Armenian minorities from within it's territory into Siberia. The at start of the war only 110,000 Soviet Georgian forces would grow to over 700,000 fighters (from which 350,000 were killed) for the Red Army by the end of the war. The Georgian SSR as a vital source of textiles and munitions was a main target for the Axis Central Powers, but unlike the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR, this part of the Caucasus Campaign was not led mostly by Neo-Ottoman forces with some supporting German elements (like the right flank capturing Armenia, Azerbaijan and northwestern Persia was). This western part of the Caucasus Front (later known as the Georgian Front) was led in it's majority by Imperial German Forces of the Dritte Orientarmee (Third Orient Army) and hoped to get the Georgians to join their cause. But the support for Stalin was strong and instead of crushing the Soviet Forces in the Georgian SSR with their back at the Caucasian Mountains, the Soviet Union managed to supply (partly poorly) these mostly cut off army over the mountains and with local industries.
While the Red Army in the Georgian SSR had to retread westwards towards the Abkhazia SSR and the northwest of the Georgian SSR, allowing the Neo-Ottoman Empire to annex the Adjar SSR and parts of Georgia directly, these Soviet Forces managed to hold their own at the Caucasus Front for now. Sadly just like in the Armenian SSR, (where the German High Command had hoped to install a Anti-Soviet Armenian Kingdom, but then the Neo-Ottomans quickly annexed the whole territory) the Axis Central Power plans for Georgia differed just as much. With the capture of Tbilisi, the by now German Caucasus Army (Third Orient Army), declared the independent Kingdom of Georgia (for now only ruling in Georgian SSR territory occupied by the Axis Central Powers) to be their ally against the Soviet Union, while the Neo-Ottoman Empire had hoped to annex and resettle the region just like they had with the Armenian SSR, by driving out or killing the Christian Georgians and settle Turks and other loyal Mohammedan vassals there. But this time the Germans beat the Ottomans to their plans with the declaration of a independent Kingdom of Georgia.
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The capture of the Baku oil fields is a coup for the Axis. As long as they can hold it against Allied airstrikes from the Middle East, then they have all the oil they want.
I wonder if we'll see a mass emigration of Armenians to the US?
I wonder if we'll see a mass emigration of Armenians to the US?
Chaper 164: Beria's Brigades
Chaper 164: Beria's Brigades:
With treasonous individuals and movements like Azerbaijan, or the huge amount of Ukrainian and White Ruthenian former Red Army soldiers that joined the Axis Central Powers instead of staying Prisoners of War, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin was quickly but steady smelling treason and enemy spies in every corner of his remaining empire. To ease his suspicions of various left over Soviet Leaders that had by now survived the Great Purge, Stalin ordered Lawrenti Beria to assemble a force utterly devoted to himself and the Comintern Ideals. This fanatic, loyal and devote units would serve under the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (Народный комиссариат внутренних дел, Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del), abbreviated NKVD (НКВД) the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. Original established in 1917, the NKVD was originally tasked with conducting regular police work and overseeing the country's prisons and labor camps. It was disbanded in 1930, with its functions being dispersed among other agencies, only to be reinstated as an all-union ministry in 1934. The functions of the OGPU (the secret police organization) were transferred to the NKVD in 1934. Now, the very same organization would serve under Beria to form political commissars inside the remaining forces, (just like the regular NKVD already observed the communist party and the government).
Immediately beginning his work Beria did as Stalin had told him, gathering the most loyal forces of the NKVD around him and Stalin to form a elite force of NKVD soldiers that would soon be placed in the most vulnerable and important offices and ranks of the Red Army inside the Soviet Union. While some of these served as guards and assassins to important members of the Red Army they had to watch over, other outright replaced them. While this straightened the loyalty of the overall remaining Red Army and Soviet Union government greatly, it put some people in positions they were not qualified for. This and Stalin's growing paranoia greatly created some problems from inside that would lead to the Second Great Purge later during the Eastern Crusade and lead to the Axis Central Powers and Co-Prosperity Sphere victory over the Soviet Union that would turn the tide in this global conflict. Beria's Brigades when put together to fighting Brigades, were soon among the best trained and best equipped elite forces of the Red Army inside the Soviet Union.
With treasonous individuals and movements like Azerbaijan, or the huge amount of Ukrainian and White Ruthenian former Red Army soldiers that joined the Axis Central Powers instead of staying Prisoners of War, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin was quickly but steady smelling treason and enemy spies in every corner of his remaining empire. To ease his suspicions of various left over Soviet Leaders that had by now survived the Great Purge, Stalin ordered Lawrenti Beria to assemble a force utterly devoted to himself and the Comintern Ideals. This fanatic, loyal and devote units would serve under the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (Народный комиссариат внутренних дел, Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del), abbreviated NKVD (НКВД) the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. Original established in 1917, the NKVD was originally tasked with conducting regular police work and overseeing the country's prisons and labor camps. It was disbanded in 1930, with its functions being dispersed among other agencies, only to be reinstated as an all-union ministry in 1934. The functions of the OGPU (the secret police organization) were transferred to the NKVD in 1934. Now, the very same organization would serve under Beria to form political commissars inside the remaining forces, (just like the regular NKVD already observed the communist party and the government).
Immediately beginning his work Beria did as Stalin had told him, gathering the most loyal forces of the NKVD around him and Stalin to form a elite force of NKVD soldiers that would soon be placed in the most vulnerable and important offices and ranks of the Red Army inside the Soviet Union. While some of these served as guards and assassins to important members of the Red Army they had to watch over, other outright replaced them. While this straightened the loyalty of the overall remaining Red Army and Soviet Union government greatly, it put some people in positions they were not qualified for. This and Stalin's growing paranoia greatly created some problems from inside that would lead to the Second Great Purge later during the Eastern Crusade and lead to the Axis Central Powers and Co-Prosperity Sphere victory over the Soviet Union that would turn the tide in this global conflict. Beria's Brigades when put together to fighting Brigades, were soon among the best trained and best equipped elite forces of the Red Army inside the Soviet Union.
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Chapter 165: The Reborn Teutonic Knights – the Teutsche/ Deutsche Order
Chapter 165: The Reborn Teutonic Knights – the Teutsche/ Deutsche Order:
With the recreation of the German Empire out of the Nazi State, not all elements of the racial and ideological Nazi Party were eliminated, reeducated, thrown in prisons or killed. The remnants of the old guard gathered what was left of them around some of the parts of the new Imperial German Army and government. Not all of them had abolished their dreams of a German Empire in the east that would serve as a unbreakable German state from the Ural towards the English Chanel. While the Reichskolonialbund was pressing for the return of German colonies, this mostly military and administration men adjusted their own goals and dreams as the Ostamt (Eastern Office), the Germanisation Department and other societies that aimed for similar goals. With the creation of the United German Duchy and it's new subdivisions, the newly merged Deutsche Order/ Teutsche Order (Teutonic Order/Knights, German Order/Knights) managed to expand his influence past the once again German and Prussian states of West Prussia and East Prussia that they wished to re-germanise and settle with Germans instead of Polish people that in their plans had to live in what was left of the Polish State. Some of this plans even involved annexing more territory of the Polish Kingdom at it's western border for Germany. But besides that the Teutonic Order focused it's main activities on the United Baltic Duchy, to once again create a military German state against the dangers of the east (the Soviet Union and it's yellow hordes as the propaganda called it). Supported by the Germans in Südlivland (South Livonia), Nordlivland (North Livonia), Lettgallen (Latgale), Estland (Estonia) and mostly Kurland (Courland), the Teutonis Order planned to help the German Government increase the German population in the Region. At the same time the Teutonic Order used former German and other old castle's, places and mansions for it's headquarters, members housing, and storage. They were lead by the Großmeister (Grand Master, the German General for the United Baltic Duchy) and each province was lead by a Landmeister (Realm Master) who himself commandet the Komture (Commanders) of the different castle's, bunkers and units.
The main goal of the Teutonic Order was to slowly transform the United Baltic Duchy into a new Teutonic Order State, another German Province that would one day become part of the German Empire itself. Because of that very openly known goal, the Teutonic Order was at first banned as a organization inside the United Baltic Duchy, but with German Protection and influence in the state growing the former Baltic States became more and more depending on the German Empire. Soon it's whole defence, economy and foreign politics were closely merged with the German Empire, the German Emperor and the German's Economic Union within the Monarchistic Block of Europe that was the Axis Central Powers. Because of this the ban of the Teutonic Order was lifted and it's members and activities, partly supported and financially backed by Germany increased significant. With the invasion of the Soviet Union the Teutonic Order gathered it's paramilitary forces inside the United Baltic Duchy and supported the Eastern Crusades, calling it the continuity of the original Teutonic Order work in the region. Well trained and equipped the Teutonic Order version of the Imperial German Armored Sturminfantry (IGAS troops) soon became infamous around the Eastern Front as one of the most ruthless, most fanatic and best fighting forces of all involved Axis Central Powers.
With the recreation of the German Empire out of the Nazi State, not all elements of the racial and ideological Nazi Party were eliminated, reeducated, thrown in prisons or killed. The remnants of the old guard gathered what was left of them around some of the parts of the new Imperial German Army and government. Not all of them had abolished their dreams of a German Empire in the east that would serve as a unbreakable German state from the Ural towards the English Chanel. While the Reichskolonialbund was pressing for the return of German colonies, this mostly military and administration men adjusted their own goals and dreams as the Ostamt (Eastern Office), the Germanisation Department and other societies that aimed for similar goals. With the creation of the United German Duchy and it's new subdivisions, the newly merged Deutsche Order/ Teutsche Order (Teutonic Order/Knights, German Order/Knights) managed to expand his influence past the once again German and Prussian states of West Prussia and East Prussia that they wished to re-germanise and settle with Germans instead of Polish people that in their plans had to live in what was left of the Polish State. Some of this plans even involved annexing more territory of the Polish Kingdom at it's western border for Germany. But besides that the Teutonic Order focused it's main activities on the United Baltic Duchy, to once again create a military German state against the dangers of the east (the Soviet Union and it's yellow hordes as the propaganda called it). Supported by the Germans in Südlivland (South Livonia), Nordlivland (North Livonia), Lettgallen (Latgale), Estland (Estonia) and mostly Kurland (Courland), the Teutonis Order planned to help the German Government increase the German population in the Region. At the same time the Teutonic Order used former German and other old castle's, places and mansions for it's headquarters, members housing, and storage. They were lead by the Großmeister (Grand Master, the German General for the United Baltic Duchy) and each province was lead by a Landmeister (Realm Master) who himself commandet the Komture (Commanders) of the different castle's, bunkers and units.
The main goal of the Teutonic Order was to slowly transform the United Baltic Duchy into a new Teutonic Order State, another German Province that would one day become part of the German Empire itself. Because of that very openly known goal, the Teutonic Order was at first banned as a organization inside the United Baltic Duchy, but with German Protection and influence in the state growing the former Baltic States became more and more depending on the German Empire. Soon it's whole defence, economy and foreign politics were closely merged with the German Empire, the German Emperor and the German's Economic Union within the Monarchistic Block of Europe that was the Axis Central Powers. Because of this the ban of the Teutonic Order was lifted and it's members and activities, partly supported and financially backed by Germany increased significant. With the invasion of the Soviet Union the Teutonic Order gathered it's paramilitary forces inside the United Baltic Duchy and supported the Eastern Crusades, calling it the continuity of the original Teutonic Order work in the region. Well trained and equipped the Teutonic Order version of the Imperial German Armored Sturminfantry (IGAS troops) soon became infamous around the Eastern Front as one of the most ruthless, most fanatic and best fighting forces of all involved Axis Central Powers.
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I wonder which Nazis are still in positions of power. I doubt Wilhelm would purge them all - just the insane ones like Hitler. it wouldn't surprise me of Goebbels still ran the propaganda department of the German Empire.
And of course Goebbels would probably have to tone it down on the anti-Semitism.
Wilhelm III would make him a count after the war is done, lol
Doubt it, probably just a baron, or even just a knight.
Chapter 166: Yoshiko Kawashima
Chapter 166: Yoshiko Kawashima:
Yoshiko Kawashima (川島芳子 Kawashima Yoshiko, born on 24 May 1907) was a Chinese princess of Manchu descent. She was raised in Japan and served as a spy for the Japanese Kwantung Army and puppet state of Manchukuo during the Chinese Civil War and later the Asian-Pacific War in the Second Great War. She is sometimes known in articles under the pseudonym "Eastern Mata Hari". Kawashima was born in the Aisin Gioro clan, the imperial clan of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty. Her birth name was Xianyu and her courtesy name was Dongzhen (literally "eastern jewel"). Her Sinicised name was Jin Bihui, but she is best known by her Japanese name, Kawashima Yoshiko (Chuandao Fangzi). Kawashima was born in Beijing in 1907 as the 14th daughter of Shanqi (善耆; 1866–1922), a Manchu prince of the Aisin Gioro clan, the imperial clan of China's Qing dynasty. Her mother was one of Shanqi's concubines. Shanqi was a descendant of Hooge, the eldest son of Huangtaiji (the second ruler of the Qing dynasty). Shanqi was also the tenth heir to the Prince Su peerage, one of the 12 “iron-cap” princely peerages of the Qing dynasty.
After the Xianhai Revolution overthrew the Qing dynasty in 1911, Kawashima was given up for adoption at the age of eight to her father's friend, Kawashima Naniwa, a Japanese espionage agent and mercenary adventurer. She was raised and educated in the Kawashima family house in Matsumoto, Japan. Her stepfather changed her name to "(Kawashima) Yoshiko". As a teenage girl, she was raped by her stepfather's father and later had an affair with her stepfather himself. Kawashima's biological father, Shanqi, died in 1922. As Kawashima's mother had no official identity as Shanqi's concubine, she followed Manchu tradition and committed suicide to join Shanqi. Kawashima was sent to school in Tokio for an education that included judo and fencing and then lived a bohemian lifestyle for some years in Tokyo with a series of rich lovers, both men and women.
In 1927, Kawashima married Ganjuurjab, the son of Inner Mongolian (later Mengjiang) Army general Jengjuurjab, who led the Mongolian-Manchurian Independence Movement based in Ryojun. The marriage ended in divorce after only two years, and Kawashima moved to the foreign concession in Shanghai. While in Shanghai, she met Japanese military attaché and intelligence officer Tanaka Ryukichi, who utilised her contacts with the Manchu and Mongol nobility to expand his network. She was living together with Tanaka in Shanghai at the time of the Shangahi Incident of 1932. After Tanaka was recalled to Japan, Kawashima continued to serve as a spy for the general Doihara Kenji. She undertook undercover missions in Manchuria, often in disguise, and was considered "strikingly attractive, with a dominating personality, almost a film-drama figure, half tom-boy and half heroine, and with this passion for dressing up as a male. She possibly did this in order to impress the men, or she may have done it in order to more easily fit into the tightly-knit guerrilla groups without attracting too much attention".
Kawashima was well-acquainted with Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty, who regarded her as a member of the imperial family and welcomed her into his household during his stay in Tianjin. It was through this close liaison that Kawashima was able to persuade Puyi to become a ruler for Manchukuo, a puppet state created by the Japanese in Manchuria. However, Kawashima privately criticized Puyi for being too amenable to Japanese influence and let to him demanding more independence in Manchurian Imperial politics. After Puyi became Emperor of Manchukuo, Kawashima continued to play various roles and, for a time, was the mistress of Tada Hayao, the chief military adviser to Puyi. She formed an independent counter insurgency cavalry force in 1932 made up of 3,000-5,000 former bandits to hunt down anti-Japanese guerilla bands during the Pacification of Manchukuo, and was hailed in the Japanese and Co-Prosperity Sphere newspapers as theJoan of Arc of Manchukuo. In 1933, she offered the unit to the Japanese Kwantung Army for Operation Nekka (the Defence of the Great Wall, where Manchukuo captured the Chinese province of Rehe from Warlord Zhang Xueliang and annexed it).
Kawashima became a well-known and popular figure in Manchukuo (and later the rest of the Co-Prosperity Sphere), making appearances on radio broadcasts, and even issuing a record of her songs. Numerous fictional and semi-fictional stories of her exploits were published in newspapers and also in the pulp fiction press. However, her very popularity was a great support for the Kwantung Army and the new State of Manchukuo with it's role inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere. While her utility as an intelligence asset was long gone, her value as a propaganda symbol for Japanese military's exploitative policies in Manchukuo as a base of operations against China and the Soviet Union continued. Kawashima's unit fought bravely in the Chinese Civil War alongside other Manchu forces supporting Wang Jingwei's Shanghai government and later continued to serve inside the Manchuria and Mengjiang Army. She participated in the Suiyuan Campaign and later the Gobi Desert Campaign.
While still facing some resistance and mistrust, Kawashima's actions and victories talked for themselve and she helped to improve the image and role of women inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere greatly thanks to her own press, propaganda and legend. This would later lead to women helping as workers in factories and farms during the Second Great War and also some of the first female military unit's that fought alongside men for the Co-Prosperity Sphere for the conflict. While a sensation for the time being, this small steps would later in the 50ies and 60ies lead to the full emancipation of woman inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere, just like it did in parts of the Western Worlds in America and Europe.
Yoshiko Kawashima (川島芳子 Kawashima Yoshiko, born on 24 May 1907) was a Chinese princess of Manchu descent. She was raised in Japan and served as a spy for the Japanese Kwantung Army and puppet state of Manchukuo during the Chinese Civil War and later the Asian-Pacific War in the Second Great War. She is sometimes known in articles under the pseudonym "Eastern Mata Hari". Kawashima was born in the Aisin Gioro clan, the imperial clan of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty. Her birth name was Xianyu and her courtesy name was Dongzhen (literally "eastern jewel"). Her Sinicised name was Jin Bihui, but she is best known by her Japanese name, Kawashima Yoshiko (Chuandao Fangzi). Kawashima was born in Beijing in 1907 as the 14th daughter of Shanqi (善耆; 1866–1922), a Manchu prince of the Aisin Gioro clan, the imperial clan of China's Qing dynasty. Her mother was one of Shanqi's concubines. Shanqi was a descendant of Hooge, the eldest son of Huangtaiji (the second ruler of the Qing dynasty). Shanqi was also the tenth heir to the Prince Su peerage, one of the 12 “iron-cap” princely peerages of the Qing dynasty.
After the Xianhai Revolution overthrew the Qing dynasty in 1911, Kawashima was given up for adoption at the age of eight to her father's friend, Kawashima Naniwa, a Japanese espionage agent and mercenary adventurer. She was raised and educated in the Kawashima family house in Matsumoto, Japan. Her stepfather changed her name to "(Kawashima) Yoshiko". As a teenage girl, she was raped by her stepfather's father and later had an affair with her stepfather himself. Kawashima's biological father, Shanqi, died in 1922. As Kawashima's mother had no official identity as Shanqi's concubine, she followed Manchu tradition and committed suicide to join Shanqi. Kawashima was sent to school in Tokio for an education that included judo and fencing and then lived a bohemian lifestyle for some years in Tokyo with a series of rich lovers, both men and women.
In 1927, Kawashima married Ganjuurjab, the son of Inner Mongolian (later Mengjiang) Army general Jengjuurjab, who led the Mongolian-Manchurian Independence Movement based in Ryojun. The marriage ended in divorce after only two years, and Kawashima moved to the foreign concession in Shanghai. While in Shanghai, she met Japanese military attaché and intelligence officer Tanaka Ryukichi, who utilised her contacts with the Manchu and Mongol nobility to expand his network. She was living together with Tanaka in Shanghai at the time of the Shangahi Incident of 1932. After Tanaka was recalled to Japan, Kawashima continued to serve as a spy for the general Doihara Kenji. She undertook undercover missions in Manchuria, often in disguise, and was considered "strikingly attractive, with a dominating personality, almost a film-drama figure, half tom-boy and half heroine, and with this passion for dressing up as a male. She possibly did this in order to impress the men, or she may have done it in order to more easily fit into the tightly-knit guerrilla groups without attracting too much attention".
Kawashima was well-acquainted with Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty, who regarded her as a member of the imperial family and welcomed her into his household during his stay in Tianjin. It was through this close liaison that Kawashima was able to persuade Puyi to become a ruler for Manchukuo, a puppet state created by the Japanese in Manchuria. However, Kawashima privately criticized Puyi for being too amenable to Japanese influence and let to him demanding more independence in Manchurian Imperial politics. After Puyi became Emperor of Manchukuo, Kawashima continued to play various roles and, for a time, was the mistress of Tada Hayao, the chief military adviser to Puyi. She formed an independent counter insurgency cavalry force in 1932 made up of 3,000-5,000 former bandits to hunt down anti-Japanese guerilla bands during the Pacification of Manchukuo, and was hailed in the Japanese and Co-Prosperity Sphere newspapers as theJoan of Arc of Manchukuo. In 1933, she offered the unit to the Japanese Kwantung Army for Operation Nekka (the Defence of the Great Wall, where Manchukuo captured the Chinese province of Rehe from Warlord Zhang Xueliang and annexed it).
Kawashima became a well-known and popular figure in Manchukuo (and later the rest of the Co-Prosperity Sphere), making appearances on radio broadcasts, and even issuing a record of her songs. Numerous fictional and semi-fictional stories of her exploits were published in newspapers and also in the pulp fiction press. However, her very popularity was a great support for the Kwantung Army and the new State of Manchukuo with it's role inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere. While her utility as an intelligence asset was long gone, her value as a propaganda symbol for Japanese military's exploitative policies in Manchukuo as a base of operations against China and the Soviet Union continued. Kawashima's unit fought bravely in the Chinese Civil War alongside other Manchu forces supporting Wang Jingwei's Shanghai government and later continued to serve inside the Manchuria and Mengjiang Army. She participated in the Suiyuan Campaign and later the Gobi Desert Campaign.
While still facing some resistance and mistrust, Kawashima's actions and victories talked for themselve and she helped to improve the image and role of women inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere greatly thanks to her own press, propaganda and legend. This would later lead to women helping as workers in factories and farms during the Second Great War and also some of the first female military unit's that fought alongside men for the Co-Prosperity Sphere for the conflict. While a sensation for the time being, this small steps would later in the 50ies and 60ies lead to the full emancipation of woman inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere, just like it did in parts of the Western Worlds in America and Europe.
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