The Co-Prosperity Sphere

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 585: The Roots, Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Western Buddhism

After his mission in the Kalmyk territory, the former Buddhist Monk and Kempeitai member Yasugami Tanakio traveled trough out south and south-east Asia. There he visited former Buddhist sides in Afghanistan, like the Buddhas of Bamyan and the Stupa of Takht-e Rostam, where he learned about Buddhisms first arrival in 305 BC, when the Greek Seleucid Empire made a alliance with the Indian Maurya Empire, resulting in a Greco-Buddhism florishing under the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (250 BC to 125 BC) and the Indo-Greek Kingdom (180 BC to 10 AD) in what would later be parts of Russia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Exchanges between them and the Chinese had been red by Yasugami Tanakio before who had read that Lokaksema had traveled to the Chinese capital of Luoyang as one of the first to translate Mahayana Buddhist scriptures into Chinese, followed by Mahayamsa who had led 30,000 Buddhist monks from the Greek city of Alasandra (Alexandria of the Caucasus) over 150 km north from what would later be Kabul in Afghanistan all the way to Ceylon, for the dedication of the Great Stupa in Anuradhapura. The Greco-Bactrian King Menander I, or Milinda, who ruled 165 BC - 135 BC, was a renowned patron of Buddhism immortalized in the Buddhist text the Milinda Panha. The famous Persian Buddhist monastery in Balkh in northern Afghanistan, known as Nava Vihara (New Monastery), functioned as the center of Central Asia Buddhist learning for centuries. The Buddhist religion in Afghanistan only started fading with the arrival of Islam in the 7th century and finally ended during the Ghaznavids in the 11th century. Yasugami Tanakio therefore learned that once again western imperialism and monotheism had destroyed Buddhism in this countries, like they tried to do in south-east and east Asia too during the colonial times. In Afghanistan Yasugami Tanakio made contact with some anti-Western, anti-British, anti-Russian and anti-Colonial groups, yes even had a meating with King Zahir Shah, who he promised that alongside the Co-Prosperity Sphere, Japan would support a resurrection of the Durrani Empire (also known as the Sadozai Kingdom or Afghan Empire that once before had ruled all of Afghanistan and the Mohammedan border region of Indian Raj known as Pakistan.

Reaching the border to the British Raj itself, Yasugami Tanakio disguised himself as a Chinese merchant and traveler Xuan Yazhu, thanks to his fluid speaking of Chinese from his Buddhist study and temple years in China before and during the Chinese Civil War. There Buddhism had started around 2,300 years ago under the Mauryan king Ashoka, being a part of Bactria, the Indo-Greek Kingdom and the Kushan Empire, as well as in India, the Mauryan Empire of Ahsoka, the Paka Empire in the Punjab region and the Indus River Valley. There the Buddhist scholar Kumāralabdha of the Taxila was comparable to Aryyadeya, Aśvaghosa and Nagarjuna. Here Yasugami Tanakio visited the Takht-i Bahi a Buddhist monastery complex, as well as the Stupas in Amlukdara, Shingarda,Taxila, and Mingora. Most of the remaining Buddhists of the time were located in Sindh and Punjab. Further into British Raj or India, Yasugami Tanakio learned more about the first Buddhist branches and split into Dharmaguptaka, non-Dharmaguptaka Vibhajyavāda, Pudgalavāda, non-Pudgalavāda Sarvāstivāda and Mahāsāṃghika schools as the early Buddhist major Branches. There the practice of Buddhism as a distinct and organized religion lost influence after the Gupta reign, around the 7th century CE and declined from the land of its origin in around 13th century, but not without leaving a significant impact. Except for Himalayan region and south India, Buddhism almost became extinct in India after the arrival of Islam in late 12th century, something that Yasugami Tanakio saw as another example of aggressive anti-Asian, anti-Coprospist influence and interfering from the West. The Huns and later the Turkish Mohammedans destroyed many of the Buddhist art and culture in later India. Even the great Buddhist University at Nalanda in 1198 was destroyed, leaving Buddhism to fade even more with the reemerging of ancient Hindu/ Hindi tribal religion and shamanism among the ruling class and dynasties, leading to the funding and spreading of their temples and shrines instead of Buddhist ones.

Studying the history of the rise and fall of Buddhism in South Asia, the former Buddhist Monk and current Kempeitai Officer Yasugami Tanakio realized that while the polytheistic, shamanistic Hindu/ Hindi religion was still very similar to other traditional regional faith and believes in East Asia and South-East Asia, a Buddhist dominated India would have turned this Second Great War for Japan's Empire and the Co-Prosperity Sphere, as he believed the various still anti-British, anti-British and anti-Western Mohammedan and Hindu/Hindi religious and ethnic groups in British Raj would have welcomed the Azad Hind liberation movement even more and by now already have risen up against the British. Therefore Yasugami Tanakio who had studies and connected to the local societies and cultures during his travels in South-East Asia believed that a more Buddhist Indian Subcontinent would be beneficial for the Japanese War effort and it's after war hegemony in the region. Getting inspiration and influence from the Northern (Vajrayana) Buddhism, of Tibet and Mongolia, the Eastern (Mahayana) Buddhism of Chinese States like Manchukuo, Yankokuo, Hankoku, Taikoku and Yukoku, Vietnam, Korea and Japan and the Southern (Theravada) Buddhism of Burma, Siam/ Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, Yasugami Tanakio chose his Buddhist Dharma name during his time as a Monk Daikaku Butsukei (Great Enlightenment, Carry the Buddha) and took inspiration by Japanese Buddhists Sects like the Honmon Hokkeshu and Sokka Gakkai.

However, Yasugami Tanakio worked closely with the Kempeitai and Japanese Military members like Kanji Ishiwara, who like him were members of the Nichirenism, Japanese Buddhist Nationalism, inspired to use the Indian Intellectual around Subhas Chandra Bose as well as the masses of Untouchable (formerly called "acchoot" अछूत in Hindi), so called Dalits, the fifth varna of the Indian four-fold varna system (also known as Panchama and Avarna, meaning in Sanskrit those without varna). They did not belong ot one of the four major Varna and were a part of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, making up ten to thirty percent of the overall population in Azad Hind, British Raj, India and Pakistan. Under Yasugami Tanakio/ Daikaku Butsukei they were targeted for his new Indian Buddhist National Sect, the Western (Punuyana) Buddhism, named after the Sanskrit word of punarbhava and the Pali word punabbhava, meaning re-becoming, becoming again, re-born (punarjanman) and re-death (punarmrityu), a name Yasugami Tanakio/ Daikaku Butsukei found very fitting for the rebirth and resurrection of Buddhism in it's former South Asian Place of Origin. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (born 14 April 1891), popularly known as Babasaheb Ambedka, who was born a Dalit and had converted to Buddhism in 1935, now helped the Japanese Yasugami Tanakio/ Daikaku Butsukei form their own branch of Western/ Indian Buddhism, also known as the Dalit Buddhist movement (or Neo-Buddhist movement). The Social Movement and National Buddhist path they formed started to get massive support in 1943, after the Japanese and Azad Hind had liberated Assam and Bengal, leading to the converting of million Dalits in Agartala, Calcutta, Chittagong and Dacca. This would mark the beginn of the massive spread of Buddhism back into India, Pakistan and other parts of South Asia, as well as start the popularity and growing influence of Buddhism outside of Asia that would soon follow beginning in the 1950ies.

(mass conversion of Hindu/ Hindi to Buddhism in 1950)

(mass conversion of Hindu/ Hindi to Buddhism in 1980)

(flag of the Western Punuyana Buddhism, or Dalit Buddhist movement, also known as Neo-Buddhist movement)

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 586: Hitler's former Cabinet – A tale of Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich was born in 1904 in Halle an der Saale to composer and opera singer Richard Bruno Heydrich and his wife, Elisabeth Anna Maria Amalia Heydrich. His father was Protestant and his mother was Roman Catholic. His two forenames were patriotic musical tributes: "Reinhard" referred to the tragic hero from his father's opera Amen, and "Tristan" stems from Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Heydrich's third name, "Eugen", was his late maternal grandfather's forename (Professor Eugen Krantz had been the director of the Dresden Royal Conservatory). Heydrich's family held social standing and substantial financial means. Music was a part of Heydrich's everyday life; his father founded the Halle Conservatory of Music, Theatre and Teaching and his mother taught piano there. Heydrich developed a passion for the violin and carried that interest into adulthood; he impressed listeners with his musical talent. His father was a German nationalist who instilled patriotic ideas in his three children, but was not affiliated with any political party until after the First Gteat War. The Heydrich household was strict. As a youth, he engaged his younger brother, Heinz, in mock fencing duels. He excelled in his schoolwork, especially in science, at the "Reformgymnasium". A talented athlete, he became an expert swimmer and fencer. He was shy, insecure, and was frequently bullied for his high-pitched voice and rumoured Jewish ancestry. The latter claim earned him the nickname "Moses Handel." In 1918, the First Great War ended with Germany's defeat. In late February 1919, civil unrest, including strikes and clashes between communist and anti-communist groups, took place in Heydrich's home town of Halle. Under Defense Minister Gustav Noske's directives, a right-wing paramilitary unit was formed and ordered to "recapture" Halle. Heydrich, then 15 years old, joined Maercker's Volunteer Rifles (a paramilitary Freikorps unit). When the skirmishes ended, Heydrich was part of the force assigned to protect private property. These events left a strong impression; it was a "political awakening" for Heydrich. He joined the Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund (National German Protection and Shelter League), an anti-Semitic organisation. As a result of the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, hyperinflation spread across Germany and many lost their life savings. Halle was not spared. By 1921, few townspeople there could afford a musical education at Bruno Heydrich's conservatory. This led to a financial crisis for the Heydrich family.

In 1922, Heydrich joined the German Navy (then called the Reichsmarine), taking advantage of the security, structure, and pension it offered. He became a naval cadet at Kiel, Germany's primary naval base. On 1 April 1924 he was promoted to senior midshipman (Oberfähnrich zur See) and sent to officer training at the Naval Academy Mürwik. In 1926 he advanced to the rank of ensign (Leutnant zur See) and was assigned as a signals officer on the battleship SMS Schleswig-Holstein, the flagship of Germany's North Sea Fleet. With the promotion came greater recognition. He received good evaluations from his superiors and had few problems with other crewmen. He was promoted on 1 July 1928 to the rank of sub-lieutenant (Oberleutnant zur See). The increased rank fuelled his ambition and arrogance. Heydrich became notorious for his countless affairs. In December 1930 he attended a rowing-club ball and met Lina von Osten. They became romantically involved and soon announced their engagement. Lina was already a Nazi Party follower; she had attended her first rally in 1929. In 1931 Heydrich was charged with "conduct unbecoming to an officer and gentleman" for breaking an engagement promise to a woman he had known for six months before the von Osten engagement. Admiral Erich Raeder dismissed Heydrich from the navy that April. The dismissal devastated Heydrich, who found himself without career prospects. He received severance pay of 200 Reichsmarks a month (the equivalent of 44 USD) for the next two years. He married Lina in December 1931.

On 30 May 1931, Heydrich's discharge from the navy became legally binding, and on 1 June he joined the Nazi Party in Hamburg. Six weeks later, on 14 July, he joined the SS with the rank of Untersturmführer. His Party number was 544,916 and his SS number was 10,120. Those who joined the Party after Hitler's seizure of power in January 1933 faced suspicions from the so called Alte Kämpfer (Old Fighters; the earliest party members) that they had joined for reasons of career advancement rather than a true commitment to the National Socialist program. Heydrich's date of enlistment in 1931 was early enough to quell suspicion that he had only joined to further his career, but was not early enough for him to be considered an Old Fighter. In 1931, Heinrich Himmler began setting up a counterintelligence division of the SS. Acting on the advice of his associate Karl von Eberstein, who was von Osten's friend, Himmler agreed to interview Heydrich, but cancelled their appointment at the last minute. Lina ignored this message, packed Heydrich's suitcase, and sent him to Munich. Eberstein met Heydrich at the railway station and took him to see Himmler. Himmler asked Heydrich to convey his ideas for developing an SS intelligence service. Himmler was so impressed that he hired Heydrich immediately. Although the starting monthly salary of 180 Reichsmarks (the equivalent of 40 USD) was low, Heydrich decided to take the job because Lina's family supported the Nazi movement, and the quasi-military and revolutionary nature of the post appealed to him. At first he had to share an office and typewriter with a colleague, but by 1932 Heydrich was earning 290 Reichsmarks a month (the equivalent of nearly 65 USD), a salary he described as comfortable. As his power and influence grew throughout the 1930s, his wealth grew commensurately; in 1935 he received a base salary of 8,400 Reichsmarks (equivalent to 1,867 USD) and an allowance of 12,000 Reichsmarks (equivalent to 2,667 USD) and by 1938 his income increased to 17,371 Reichsmarks (equivalent to 3,860 USD), annually. Heydrich later received a Totenkopfring from Himmler for his service.

On 1 August 1931, Heydrich began his job as chief of the new 'Ic Service' (intelligence service). He set up office at the Brown House, the Nazi Party headquarters in Munich. By October he had created a network of spies and informers for intelligence-gathering purposes and to obtain information to be used as blackmail to further political aims. Information on thousands of people was recorded on index cards and stored at the Brown House. To mark the occasion of Heydrich's December wedding, Himmler promoted him to the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer (major). In 1932, rumors were spread by Heydrich's enemies of his alleged Jewish ancestry. Wilhelm Canaris said he had obtained photocopies proving Heydrich's Jewish ancestry, but these photocopies never surfaced. Nazi Gauleiter Rudolf Jordan claimed Heydrich was not a pure Aryan. Within the Nazi organization such innuendo could be damning, even for the head of the Reich's counterintelligence service. Gregor Strasser passed the allegations on to the Nazi Party's racial expert, Achim Gercke, who investigated Heydrich's genealogy. Gercke reported that Heydrich was "… of German origin and free from any coloured and Jewish blood". He insisted that the rumours were baseless. Even so, Heydrich privately engaged SD member Ernst Hoffmann to further investigate and dispel the rumors.

In mid-1932, Himmler appointed Heydrich chief of the renamed security service—the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). Heydrich's counterintelligence service grew into an effective machine of terror and intimidation. With Hitler striving for absolute power in Germany, Himmler and Heydrich wished to control the political police forces of all 17 German states. They began with Bavaria. In 1933, Heydrich gathered some of his men from the SD and together they stormed police headquarters in Munich and took over the organization using intimidation tactics. Himmler became the Munich police chief and Heydrich became the commander of Department IV, the political police. In 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, and through a series of decrees became Germany's Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor). The first concentration camps, which were originally intended to house political opponents, were established in early 1933. By year's end there were over fifty camps. Hermann Göring founded the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei,Secret State Police) in 1933 as a Prussian police force. When Göring transferred full authority over the Gestapo to Himmler in April 1934, it immediately became an instrument of terror under the SS's purview. Himmler named Heydrich to head the Gestapo on 22 April 1934. On 9 June 1934, Rudolf Hess declared the SD the official Nazi intelligence service.

Beginning in April 1934, and at Hitler's request, Heydrich and Himmler began building a dossier on Sturmabteilung (SA) leader Ernst Röhm in an effort to remove him as a rival for party leadership. At this point, the SS was still part of the SA, the early Nazi paramilitary organisation which now numbered over 3 million men. At Hitler's direction, Heydrich, Himmler, Göring, and Viktor Lutze drew up lists of those who should be killed, starting with seven top SA officials and including many more. On 30 June 1934 the SS and Gestapo acted in coordinated mass arrests that continued for two days. Röhm was shot without trial, along with the leadership of the SA. The purge became known as the Night of the Long Knives. Up to 200 people were killed in the action. Lutze was appointed SA's new head and it was converted into a sports and training organisation.

With the SA out of the way, Heydrich began building the Gestapo into an instrument of fear. He improved his index-card system, creating categories of offenders with colour-coded cards. The Gestapo had the authority to arrest citizens on the suspicion that they might commit a crime, and the definition of a crime was at their discretion. The Gestapo Law, passed in 1936, gave police the right to act extra-legally. This led to the sweeping use of Schutzhaft (protective custody), a euphemism for the power to imprison people without judicial proceedings. The courts were not allowed to investigate or interfere. The Gestapo was considered to be acting legally as long as it was carrying out the leadership's will. People were arrested arbitrarily, sent to concentration camps, or killed. Himmler began developing the notion of a Germanic religion and wanted SS members to leave the church. In early 1936, Heydrich left the Catholic Church. His wife, Lina, had already done so the year before. Heydrich not only felt he could no longer be a member, but came to consider the church's political power and influence a danger to the state.

On 17 June 1936, all police forces throughout Germany were united, following Hitler's appointment of Himmler as Chief of German Police. With this appointment by the Führer, Himmler and his deputy, Heydrich, became two of the most powerful men in the internal administration of Germany. Himmler immediately reorganised the police into two groups: the Ordnungspolizei (Order Police; Orpo), consisting of both the national uniformed police and the municipal police, and the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police; SiPo), consisting of the Geheime StaatsPolizei (Secret State Police; Gestapo) and Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police; Kripo). At that point, Heydrich was head of the SiPo and SD. Heinrich Müller was the Gestapo's operations chief. Heydrich was assigned to help organize the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. The games were used to promote the propaganda aims of the Nazi regime. Goodwill ambassadors were sent to countries that were considering a boycott. Anti-Jewish violence was forbidden for the duration, and news stands were required to stop displaying copies of Der Stürmer. For his part in the games' success, Heydrich was awarded the Deutsches Olympiaehrenzeichen or German Olympic Games Decoration (First Class).

In January 1937, Heydrich directed the SD to secretly begin collecting and analyzing public opinion and report back its findings. He then had the Gestapo carry out house searches, arrests, and interrogations, thus in effect exercising control over public opinion. In February 1938 when the Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg resisted Hitler's proposed merger with Germany, Heydrich intensified the pressure on Austria by organizing Nazi demonstrations and distributing propaganda in Vienna stressing the common Germanic blood of the two countries.

The German Military Coup against Hitler and the Nazi Regime in 1938 lead to the killing or arresting of leading Nazi and Nazi close organization members, like the SA, SD, SS and others. Heydrich was shot in the shoulder during the coup, when Reichswehr military soldiers rushed into his office to arrest him. He survived and was trialed as one of the main Nazi Government members responsible for the enslavement of Germany under a increasing Nazi tyranny and dictatorship. Heydrich was found responsible and guilty of being a major part in the Nazi's ability to take power by intimidating and blackmail. This combined with his dishonorable discharge from the Navy, the pride of everything the German Empire stood for, painted Heydrich in a much darker light, for the Aristocrat and Militaristic judges who were quickly convinced that he was one of the main criminals responsible for the Nazi terror and Hitler's regime itself. As a result of his sentencing to death, Reinhard Heydrich was shot by a German military firing squad two weeks later.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 587: The Battle of Malaita

The Battle of Malaita can not be understood without looking at the island's history. Most of it truly began after Auki was established as a government station for the British Solomon Islands Protectorate in 1909, as headquarters of the administrative district of Malaita. The government began to pacify the island, registering or confiscating firearms, collecting a head tax, and breaking the power of unscrupulous war leaders. One important figure in the process was District Commissioner William R. Bell, who was killed in 1927 by a Kwaio, along with a cadet named Lillies and 13 Solomon Islanders in his charge. A massive punitive expedition, known later as the Malaita massacre, a retributive raid, ensued; at least 60 Kwaio were killed, nearly 200 detained in Tulagi, the protectorate capital and many sacred sites and objects were destroyed or desecrated. The systematic destruction and desecration of important Kwaio ancestral shrines and ritual objects made thus a event of extreme significance for the Kwaio people, and has greatly affected their way of life ever since. Resentment about this incident continued and had a great impact later on, when the Japanese invaded the Island of Malaita.

Malaita would play a major role during the Solomon Island Campaign, after Auki became the new capital of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, after the Japanese had captured Tulagi island. Shortly after that, Malaita too was raided, but major forces only landed after the Allies and Americans captured Henderson Field on Guadalcanal and the Japanese needed another major base in the area. The Japanese, Chosen and Taikoku forces landed in the north of Malaita, capturing Malu'u, Silolo, Manabo, Suilione and Folatana. At first little fighting happened on the island of Malaita, but the Japanese landing and reports about them establishing a airfield in the north near Manabo and Sulione directed new Allied forces onto the island, as American, New Zealand and Australian forces landed on Malaita too. The British Protectorate Government even enlisted native Malaitans (similar to how it was done in the rest of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands) to fight in battalions, who would later form the Maasina Ruru (Marching Rule) self-determination movement, that quickly spread across the Island. Participants united across traditional religious, ethnic, and clan lines, lived in fortified nontraditional villages, and refused to cooperate with the British. The organization of the movement on Malaita was considerable. The islands was divided into nine districts, roughly along the lines of the government administrative districts, and leaders were selected for each district. Courts were set up, each led by a custom chief (alaha'ohu), who became powerful figures. The British initially treated the movement cautiously, even praised aspects of it, but when they found there could be no common ground between their government and the movement, yes that parts of it sided with the landing Japanese, retaliated firmly, with armed police patrols, insisting that the chiefs recant or be arrested. Some did recant, but many, mostly the Kwaio and northern tribes like the Kwara'ae, Fataleka, Baegu, Lau, Baelelea and To'abaita sided openly with the Japanese against the British because of the Malaita massacre.

As a result the British and Americans who lead the Allied operation charged many members of this tribes and their leaders with treason, robbery and terrorism, convicting them to forced hard labor as a punishment for their crimes, only alienating more natives this way. The Japanese who allied with this natives and used them as scouts, yes even trained and armed then as supportive militia. This alliance allowed the Japanese to quickly assault along the western coast, taking the cities of Dala and Fote, rushing towards the capital Auki, that the British Administration hastily evacuated. The Allies tried to defend their position there, but the Japanese air and naval supremacy, combined with the enemy Kwaio tribe, who's territory Allied reinforcements had to pass, forced them to evacuate Auki after a week of fighting, so that their remaining forces in the city would not be totally surrounded and annihilated. With Kwaio scouting and support further Japanese troops of the SNLF (Special Naval Landing Forces) landed in their territory on the east side of the island at Atoifi, bringing the whole north firmly under Japanese control. The Americans and Allies meanwhile were torn by splitting their remaining reserves and reinforcements between Guadalcanal and Malaita, lacking transport ships, supplies and heavy equipment for both after the Japanese had destroyed their major supply fleet and navy forces in the area during the Battles of Savo.

Meanwhile the Japanese brought fresh forces, supplies and equipment from Truk (much of them originally meant for the operations against the Hawaiian islands, heading east from captured Kire and Midway along the volcanic island chain towards Hawaii, now slowing down that operation plans). In alliance with Kwaio and other Malaitan tribes, supplied with fresh troops, the Japanese attacked alongside the central island into Dorio tribal territory and onto Asimane, at the same time their new major assault on Henderson Field in Guadalcanal happened, hoping to surprise and overwhelm the Americans. The Japanese even allowed the Malaita to establish regional organized federal councils and government to rule themselves, knowing it would help them look like liberators, even if the massive use of this and other Solomon islands for future Japanese colonists was already planned at this moment. The Americans had meanwhile build their own new airfield on small Malaita island, where the local 'Ara'are, Lau and Sa'a tribes were at least still partly loyal to the Allies. While outnumbered and pushed back, the Allies managed to hold a position on the south-eastern tip of Malaita island, were they fought alongside 'Are'are tribal warriors and auxiliary militia in a guerrilla war to slow down the Japanese, while preparing their last defense in the city of Apio on small Malaita alongside their Australian, New Zealand, 'Ara'are, Sa'a and Lau allies. At the same time just like they did on Guadalcanal after loosing Henderson Field, being pushed east on the Island there, the Allies prepared the overall evacuation of Guadalcanal and Malaita should things go down any further. This also meant that they put resources onto San Christobal, their new center of operations and overall HQ in the Solomon Island Campaign, while the neighboring islands on Santa Cruz and Rennell were heavily fortified and established as future bases for a Allied counterattack along the Solomones, knowing that when Guadalcanal and Malaita would fall into Japanese hands, their direct naval supply lines to Australia and New Zealand were in danger from Japanese long-range naval bombers and navy ships.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 588: Imperial German Companies: Lloyd-Hapag

(Lloyd-Hapag L-H Logo)

One of the major German Imperial Companies to rise after the Second Great War was Lloyd-Hapag, a shipbuilding company originating from the Hamburg-Amerikanische Paketfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft (Hamburg American Line) for shipping across the Atlantic Ocean was founded in Hamburg. In 1912, Hapag built the first of their "Big Three" ocean liners; the Kaiser (Imperator), followed by her sister Vaterland (Fatherland). The third sister, Bismark, was under construction at the outbreak of the First Great War and was completed after the war for the White Star Line as the Majestic. These were the first liners to exceed 50,000 gross tons and 900 feet in length. During the First Great War, the majority of Hapag's fleet of 175 ships were wiped out, and most of the surviving ships (including the "Big Three") had to be turned over to the winning side as war reparations. After war's end, Hapag rebuilt its fleet with much smaller ships than before the war, but their fleet was again mostly wiped out during the Second Great War. The Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) was formed in 1856 in the City-State of Bremen, offering passenger and cargo transportation between Bremen and New York, with an emphasis on emigration to the United States. Service started in June with the Bremen, the first of three steamships, and the company established its American base at Hoboken, New Jersey. NDL eventually built a large fleet of ships that carried many thousands of emigrants westwards, with a peak of 240,000 passengers across the Atlantic in 1913 alone. The outbreak of the First Great War resulted in the internment of its 135-vessel fleet at Hoboken, which status was changed to confiscation when the US entered the war in 1917. Likewise, its Hoboken base was confiscated, and turned over to the US Navy, which used it as a transshipping point for the duration. Operations were resumed in 1922, when NDL was able to purchase its former base from the United States Alien Property Administrator. NDL launched a new Bremen and Europa in 1929–30. At the start of the Second Great War, NDL repeated the First Great War experience, with its fleet again being confiscated when the US entered the war in 1941. The lone exception was the Bremen, which raced across the Atlantic, and achieved protection at Murmansk in 1939, later moving on to her namesake city where she remained for the duration of the war. Regular passenger service would resumed in 1945 with the Germania, Bremen and the Axis Central Powers Europa as their first new ships build. Service continued as before, but it was decided that there were too many competitors in a transportation (mainly Deutsche Luft Hansa AG or German Air Hanse Corporation, shortened DLH or GAH, Teutonenwerft, known as Teutonic Yards, TW or TY and Kaiserliche Werke Kiel, known to the majority of the population in common speech simply as the Kaiserwerke, or KWK) environment inside of Germany and the rest of the Axis Central Powers, with the airlines soon taking the most frequent customers away. This resulted in NDL’s merger with the Hamburg-America Line in 1950. Until then NDL had attained several speed records over the years. Among them, was the record for the run between Southampton and New York of eight days in 1881, which was set by the Elbe, and held until 1900; and the record for the fastest transatlantic crossing set by the new Bremen in 1929 (Blue Riband).

Hapag and NGL continued to compete until establishing a joint-venture container line in 1948 in order to share the huge investments related to the containerization of their fleets. Both companies finally merged on September 1, 1950 under the name Lloyd-Hapag, their stylized L in the left top half of the H becoming one of their most major and easily recognizable signs. Two years later Lloyd-Hapag would expand their business by founding the Lloyd-Hapag Flug (marketed as LlHa Flight, Lloyd-Hapag Flight or LHF in English speaking countries close to the German Empire soon after). These airline added some regular passenger flights as well, allowing Lloyd-Hapag to compete with their strongest opponents, airlines in the 1960ies. In the 1980ies this would lead to Lloyd-Hapag Express (shortened LHE, or LHEx), a low-fare, high-frequency airline that would grow into a enormous company itself owned by Lloyd-Hapag as a sub-company. This would safe Lloyd-Hapag, who had struggled with the much faster growing concurrence like the German Air Hanse Corporation, Teutonic Yards and Kaiserwerke in the German Skandinavian countries, the Teutonic (Baltic) Sea and Northeast Europe, or the German Colonial Airlines (IGCA), the German African Airlines (GAA), Mittelafrica Airlines (MiAi, or MA) and Trans-Africa Air Transportation (TAAT) in the German-African trade with the major German and Axis Central Powers colonies. Because of this Lloyd-Hapag focused mostly on the trans-Atlantic trade once again and became the major Imperial German Company trading with the North American Remnant States of the former Untied States, England (including parts of the remaining British/ English Empire), as well as the Caribbean Sea and some trade between Europe, Latin America, South America and the West Coast of Africa (the last at least to some extent). Despite being mostly a civil shipment company, Lloyd-Hapag would also help build a huge amount of the Imperial German Hochseeflotte (High Seas Fleet) and the parts of the German Empire's new civil merchant fleet, something that helped Lloyd and Hapag to survive in their most troubling years during and shortly after the war, unil their fusion into Lloyd-Hapag.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 589: The Hòa Hảo

Huỳnh Phú Sổ faced a great deal of trouble when he began to spread the ideas of his religion. The Buu Son Ky Huong religion was described by its adherents as "committed to the world". The basis of the Buu Son Ky Huong religion was the Buddha Master's claim to be a messenger from Heaven who had come into the world to warn mankind of the imminence of apocalypse. The key to this cult was simplicity, flexibility, and frugality. No one could plead lack of means or difficult circumstances as a justification for not carrying out his own religious duties and for relying instead on monks, but these duties were kept to a minimum. The Buddha Master's advocacy of ritual frugality probably attracted many poor peasants by allowing them to turn practical necessity into religious virtue. Because of the overwhelmingly domestic nature of the cult, the French observer Georges Coulet called it in 1926 the " Third Buddhist Order, " explaining that it was neither monastic nor congregational but mostly lay. However, he observed, there were days when adepts were expected to gather in pagodas that belonged to the sect: " This cult is sensibly a Buddhist cult. It consists of the observance of fasts and abstinence, of the daily recitation of prayers, of invocations which must be said at certain hours of the day or night: it imposes visits to mountain pagodas on the fifteenth day of the first, seventh, and tenth months of the Annamite year. Fasts and abstinence can be once a month, once every two months, once a week, once every two weeks, or perpetual Offices are celebrated thrice a day: at dawn, noon, and dusk. At these times, candles are lit on the altar, and joss-sticks are placed in the incense-burner; the caretaker of the temple gives several strokes of the bell and the faithful perform several prostrations in front of the altar, bowing their heads to the ground. Prayers are said in low voice; a few beads are recited. Finally, in exchange for a contribution in money or goods, amulets are distributed by a monk of the pagoda; these amulets preserve from death, illness, and misfortune.

The founder of the Hoa Hao was Huynh Phu So, who took for the name of his sect the village of Hoa Hao, in the Thot Not District of what is now An Giang Province. So's background is not completely known; but most authorities agree that he was a mystic who saw a vision instructing him to launch a new religion. He organized his sect in 1930, declared himself a prophet, and began to preach a doctrine based on simplicity and faith. Within a year, he had gathered a following of over 100,000 converts; and through his preaching, he established contact with another two million people in the Mien Tay region. The earliest followers of the Hoa Hao were not just landless peasants impoverished by colonialism but small holders and there are those who work in transport, light industry and trade. The leaders of the Hoa Hao faith were recruited from schoolteachers, itinerant drivers and motor coach and river launch conductors, people on the nodes of the most important communicative pathways of colonial society. Today, some of the most cosmopolitan people in the delta, boat captains, traders, café owners and physicians, belong to this religion. Taylor has found members of the faith, like many residents of the Mekong delta, to have wide horizons. They are informed about and engaged with current developments, interested in news of the outside world, focused on social work, improving the physical infrastructure of their locale and the building of a moral community. Huynh Phu So taught that each member of the sect could achieve direct communion with the Lord Buddha, and that internal faith was more important than external ceremony. Moreover, the care of the living has priority over the welfare of the dead. Huynh Phu So restated that the doctrine was lay-oriented, and he advocated the reduction of cultist expenses not only in the practice of Buddhism but also on all ceremonial occasions. He attacked the custom of overspending at the New Year, of bankrupting one's family at funerals and weddings, and of trying to outdo one's neighbors in conspicuous consumption. It was wrong to conceive of religious piety as something separate from the rest of life, as a set of exercises that were to be performed on an occasional basis. Huynh Phu So's stated objective was to "combine the ideal of universal love and charity with a new method of organizing society in order to serve better our people and mankind.” But he had no real understanding of the workings of a complex social system and therefore could not evolve a strategy for bringing about the new order of things, except through the violent expansion of his sect. Huynh Phu So embroidered the idea that money is the source of evil, both for those who had not enough and for those who had too much.

While Huynh Phu So is regarded by most commentators as a traditionalist, and indeed many of his teachings support such an interpretation, he also had a well-defined modernizing vision, evident, for example in his imprecation against superstition. No Vietnamese leader of the time possessed personal charisma to quite the same degree as Huynh Phu So. A measure of Huynh Phu So's powers of persuasion is that he made his mark as a healer despite his own well-publicised ill-health. Throughout his career, healing remained an important feature of his work; a substantial number of pamphlets describing the herbal remedies employed by Huynh Phu So still exist. So divided diseases into two categories: those that were the result of ordinary ill-fortune, and those that were the result of karmic retribution. The latter was not amenable to treatment; only repentance could alleviate it. Each of these new recruits were people of little education, interested in action rather than in doctrinal or political questions. They put themselves entirely at the service of Huynh Phu So. By August 1940, the Can Tho authorities were alarmed by their activities and by the destabilizing influence of Huynh Phu So. He was summoned for a psychiatric examination at Can Tho hospital. Huynh Phu So was taken to Cho Quan hospital in Cho Lon and put under the care of a Vietnamese doctor named Nguyen van Tam. The latter's verdict was more charitable: "This monk has never presented signs of agitation or insanity. He is mentally weak, with a disharmony of the intellectual faculties." In spite of being considered "mentally weak," So converted several of the hospital wardens and, more important, his own doctor. For a man who had never had any qualms about being called the Mad Monk, this was a resounding triumph which the sect exploited to the full. The doctor became a devoted follower of Huynh Phu So.

A large part of his teachings was Vietnamese nationalism, a dangerous idea in that time of French colonial rule. As the popularity of Hòa Hảo grew, Huỳnh Phú Sổ made a series of prophecies about the political future of Vietnam. He said that the "true king" would return to lead Vietnam to freedom and prosperity, which caused most Hòa Hảo to support the Nguyễn pretender: Marquis Cường Để, living abroad in Japan. During the Second Great War the Hòa Hảo supported the Japanese occupation and planned for Cường Để to become Emperor of Vietnam. However, this never happened and the Hòa Hảo came into conflict with the communists both because the Việt Minh were anti-Japanese and because of their Marxist opposition to all religion. When the Empire of Vietnam formed, they made arrangements with the Head of State and later Emperor Bảo Đại, much like those made by the Cao Đài religion and the Bình Xuyên gang, which were in control of their own affairs and gained local authonomy (with support of the Imperial Japanese Navy) in return for their nominal support of the Bảo Đại regime. Hoa Hao religion combines the two kinds of Buddhism into one orientation: prescribing that all should strive to become monks for life but doing so at home and supporting themselves rather than turning into a caste of specialists permanently dependent on the community. The proscription on displaying Buddha statues on the household altar is borrowed from Islam's proscription on the worship of images. The presence of a significant Mohammedan community in the local area has an impact on the Hoa Hao religion. A large community of ethnic Cham converts to Islam live in close proximity to Hoa Hao village. The surrounding area is full of mosques and its residents number many devout Mohammedans. Huynh Phu So, the founder of the Hoa Hao went to school in Tan Chau, in a heavily Mohammedan area. The influences are evident in the Hoa Hao's religious practices; doctrine and architecture; the approach to prayer and preaching houses. A number of the towers, such as the one located by the Mekong River in Tan Chau town, have ornate sculpted decorations in an Mohammedan style and domed roofs. The Hoa Hao religion has been open to a range of different influences, including Marxism and Japanese-style modernization ideology. For example, the combination of nationalist sentiments with the cult of heroes, the concept of a supreme being and Japanese State Shinto and Buddhist Nationalist religion could be found all over the sect. When the Viet Cong started openly attacking the Imperial Vietnamese Nation State, the Hoa Hao supported the Emperor and together they, and the Japanese, joined forces with the Cao Đài religion the Bình Xuyên gang to secure the Mekong Delta, from communist activity. Huynh Phu So issued a pamphlet called "Guidelines for the Practice of Religion" (Ton Chi Hanh Dao), in which he codified Hoa Hao cultist practices and for the first time imposed rules on admission into the sect. His adepts were exhorted to uphold the Three Bonds: between ruler and subject (transmuted into patriotism), father and son, and husband and wife. They were to observe the Five Virtues of benevolence, loyalty, propriety, intelligence, and integrity. Above all, they were to live in accord with one another. Whatever the usefulness of such a code of ethics in a modern, industrial society, it was quite effective within the confines of the average Hoa Hao village. Among themselves, the adepts relied on trust and did not bother to put doors on their houses to guard their belongings.

When Huynh Phu So died by a bomb explosion of the Viet Cong (some claimed the Japanese Military had staged) the Hoa Hao became fanatically anti-communist during the high of the Vietnamese Civil War. The Empire of Vietnam and the Japanese recovered his remains and build a martyr's shrine in Saigon in his honors. This made the city one of the major religious centered for the Hoa Hao, who had before agreed to accept Bảo Đại as the ruler of all Vietnam, under the condition for their autonomy and that Cường Để would be next in line to the throne (something that never happened, as Bảo Đại outlived Cường Để, leading to many later Hoa Hao claiming that Cường Để descendants, not those of Bảo Đại). A deal made possible by the contacts of the Kempeitai Officer Yasugami Tanakio, negotiating between the Hoa Hao, the Vietnamese Empire and the Imperial Japanese Navy. This barbarous, supposedly Viet Cong act resulted in the Hoa Hao vowed to wage eternal war against the Communists and other opposing forces. Their loyalty to Vietnamese nationalism, independence and autonomy now made them natural allies of the Vietnamese Empire and the Imperial Japanese Navy during the conflict. During this time Huynh Phu So had hoped that his sect would become the de facto ruling power throughout most of Nam Bộ (former Cochinchina or Nam Kỳ). To do so the Hoa Hao turned their attention inward, both to solidify their sectarian strength and to increase their political influence in the Delta. The Vietnamese Empire and the Japanese Navy, to oppose the Viet Cong, soon gave the Hoa Hao territorial hegemony in the southwestern Delta. Huynh Phu So for his part was willing to engage in alliances with the colonialists in return for support against the Viet Cong. Eventually the Japanese provided arms for some 20,000 Hoa Hao troops.

The Hoa Hao had long been suspicious of the Viet Cong, and had actively fought them for years and were just like their Imperial Vietnamese and Japanese supporters in strong opposition of the return of the French or any other Colonial Power or Allied forces ever since the Second Great War. As in their prior maneuverings, their action was primarily a move to solidify their own control of the western Delta. Strengthened by Japanese armaments, the Hoa Hao now turned against the Communists and their supporters, intending to drive out this foreign influence as well, much like the French before. For them it was clear that religious autonomy and the attendant political freedom demanded by the Hoa Hao were incompatible with Viet Cong plans. Before long, Huynh Phu So had been preaching with growing frenzy against the Viet Cong, which he now perceived as an even greater threat to the sect than the possible return of the French. The struggle with the Viet Minh became a fanatical religious war. So preached that any Hoa Hao killing ten Viet Minh would have a straight pathway to heaven. Even after the Vietnamese Civil War, the Hoa Hao would hold onto their arms, and organized militia forces to defend the geographical heartland of their movement from any outside influence and dominance. The Hoa Hao were too strong a force to allow the Hue government the luxury of continued political or religious warfare. As a result, the Hoa Hao were thereafter left alone, and won tacit permission to maintain a kind of sovereignty in the Delta. In return, the Hoa Hao recognized the authority of the Vietnamese Emperor. No longer devoting their military forces to the struggle against a French central government or the Communist Viet Cong, they were able to resume their feud with the Communists. The Hoa Hao took full advantage of this new-found independence to wage total war against the remaining Communists and any of their possible followers in Southern Vietnam. While political influence was welcome, the Hoa Hao had also achieved their primary goal-religious independence. Being a Hoa Hao was no longer a bar to participation in government, and the sect was no longer subject to religious discrimination by the orthodox Buddhist hierarchy. But it was the military strength of the Hoa Hao that gave the sect its strongest lever of influence, and its ability to provide a high degree of local security in the provinces it controlled. Huynh Phu So insisted on being referred to by his proper name of So and on using for his sect the name of his native village of Hoa Hao which meant "peace and plenty." He would no longer be one of many healers and preachers but the prophet of a distinct religious movement with its own name, built on the Buu Son Ky Huong tradition rather than simply part of it.

As the sect had expanded rapidly under Japanese protection, Huynh Phu So's apostles recruited on his behalf, even later long after his death, using the familiar mixture of doom-laden predictions and veiled threats against those who did not join and distributing cures and amulets. By 1943, the Hoa Hao sect was thus moving in the direction of greater institutionalization. The death of Huynh Phu So thus marked the end of the Hoa Hao millenarianism and the beginning of purely communal politics. Within the Hoa Hao communities, the preachers of old were replaced by lay administrators who were elected and unpaid. Healing was now the province of a health service operated free of charge by the sect. Evangelizing took the form of religious and academic education. The sect opened schools at all levels, and in the early 1960s it even established a university all over Vietnam. Modern Japanese technology in fact provided the sect with a new tool of mass indoctrination when the focus of Hoa Hao village life, the reading-room, was connected to a public-address system. The sayings of Patriarch Huynh were thus broadcast daily over loudspeakers. Charity also became organized: the sect offered relief for veterans and prisoners, for victims of floods and fire, for old people and orphans. Life in Hoa Hao villages continued to be led along simple lines. The adepts were guided by Huynh Phu So's teachings concerning cultist practices and daily conduct, and they kept the number of ceremonies low and the expenses connected with them minimal. Neither adepts nor leaders were particularly interested any longer in promoting radical change or even in pursuing the violent expansion of the sect. Their energies were now devoted to the preservation of the communitarian style of life which was the other Buu Son Ky Huong ideal. But communitarianism proved ill-suited to the social complexities of an urban environment. Furthermore, the adepts are virtually leaderless. The establishment of the sectarian infrastructure helped preserve their cohesion, but the corollary de-emphasis on charisma made it harder to mobilize the collectivity of the adepts into action.

The Hoa Hao works images of globes into their iconography which is an aesthetic expression of universalism reflecting an imagining of the spatial condition as global. This symbol has a mnemonic function as one of the four injunctions of the Hoa Hao faith is to recognize one’s debt to humanity. Yet it is also a reminder to followers that the propagation of the Hoa Hao faith is considered a sacred mission in order to reform mankind. This value is also reinforced in the prescribed color for the altar cloth and flag, which is brown. As brown is considered the combination of all colors, it is used to symbolize human harmony and the connectedness and interdependence of all people. Hoa Hao Buddhism is generally considered an apocalyptic religion: believers are held to anticipate the impending destruction of the world and seek refuge provided by faith. This illuminates the history of violence in which the Hoa Hao have been involved. The ultimate goal of the Hoa Hao religion is the preservation of their religious identity and independence. Temporary alliances with past enemies were formed only as a means of survival and to gain strength for the future. Originally concerned only with religious autonomy, the Hoa Hao became a nationalist anti-French movement before the Second Great War; then increasingly anti-Communist as it struggled for supremacy with the Viet Cong; then overtly pro-Japanese for purely tactical reasons. The Hoa Hao even joined the United Buddhist Front, a Imperial Vietnam coalition of Buddhist Parties and Groups aiming to influence politics in their favor. But the ultimate goal of the movement was always to control its own destiny without interference from any outside source. That was the main reason the Hoa Hao shifted alliances with the Vietnamese Empire and Emperor over their own candidate and that was why they so openly supported the Japanese, who were greatly interested in supporting their autonomy and way of live throughout the decades. After all the Japanese saw fellow Buddhist Nationalists and later even Coprospists in the Hoa Hao movement and realized that they not only gave them a political and military power base in the strategically and economically important region of Saigon and South Vietnam (Nam Bộ or Cochinchina also known as Nam Kỳ) , but their more traditionalist, simple way of life in the villages and towns also prevented the further modernization and industrialization of parts of the region, keeping Vietnam overall much more depending on Japanese goods and trade.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 590: The Imperial Russian State Duma Election of 1942 (Fifth Duma)

With the proclamation of the new Russian Empire, some of it's older traditional and even newer institutions returned as well. However despite Tsar Vladimir being declared the new Tsar it was quit ambiguous what would become of the new state for quit some time. Would it be a Aristocratic Republic, a Statocratic Government, a Constitutional Monarchy, a Military Dictatorship a more Republican, or a Centralist State. The only thing clear was that all Socialist or Communist Parties, like the Russian Socialist Democratic Parts (the later Mensheviks and Bolsheviks), the Social Revolutionary Party, the Labour Group (Trudoviks) and all other Soviet Union institutions and organizations would be banned and outlawed. This left partied like the Progressive Parts, the Constitutional Democratic Party (also known as Kadets, a liberal constitutional monarchist and moderate republic party), the Centre Party, the Octobrist Party (liberal-reformist and constitutional monarchists), the Nationalists and the Rightists out of the former Fourth Duma. Others, like the various Non-Russian National Groups and their coalition were either not represented, or remained unimportant this time, because the Russian Empire inside the Axis Central Powers was a majorly Russian Ethnic State that in the words of Tsar Vladimir had to be slimming to not once again get so big, that it's own power and mass weakened it like Goliath who had lost against David. Inside this new Senate, also a number of other new parties and faction emerged, hoping their time had come. These parties included the Whites a more militarist faction of the Kadets with Generals and Admirals in their highest Party levels, who wished for a Statocratic Government, or a Military Dictatorship. Then there was the so called Young Army Party, their splinter faction that was more open for democratic and republican elements and changes. The Orthodox Party of Russia was a political element of the Russian Orthodox Church, partly supported by elements of the Aristocrat Party and even the Tsars own Tsarists in hopes to unite State and Church into a more centralized and stronger State once and for all. Other Aristocrats and Tsarists were split between a possible Constitutional Monarchy and a Aristocratic Republic.

The Russian National Monarchist hoped for a all Russian Nation State and Monarchy, the Russian Orthodox Party was more in line with the Russian Orthodox Church Party, their Church, the Aristocrats and the Tsarist, but in the end did not truly care about the new Russian form of government, as long as the Russian and Orthodox character of the Nation State was secured and even implemented in it's new Constitution. The Pan Slavists meanwhile were a Neo-Slavist Party hoping to work closely with other Slavic Nations inside the Axis Central Powers, hoping to form their own strong block in opposition to the German and the Latin ones. More center parties were the Russian Liberal Party, the Just Civic Russia Party (JCRP), the Russian Constitutionalists and the Russian Republicans, while the National Royal Parlamentarists of Russia (NRPR) were national royalists. They were however not as radical as the Russian Union Party (RUP, a Statist, Centrist Party), the Russian Fascist Party, the Russian Nationalist Party, the Russian Monarchist Union (a splinter faction of the Aristocrat Party, the National Monarchists Party of Russia, the Russian Fascist Royalists or the United Russian Orthodox Front. The simple fact alone that the Russian People and other States liberated from the Soviet Union were allowed to vote inside the Axis Central Powers controlled regions was also a huge propaganda show, not only for their own citizens, but for those in the Allied Nations as well. It was meant to prove, that the Axis Central Powers were righteous liberators of the oppressed people in all of Eastern Europe, who have had to live under Soviet Union Tyranny. While receiving massive praise inside the Axis Central Powers, as well as parts of the Co-Prosperity Sphere (mainly Japan, Chosen, Manchukuo Yankokuo and Mengjiang) and even some pro-ACP, pro-C-PS, Nationalist, Fascists, Monarchist, Royalist or mixed groups inside the Allied Nations (mostly inside of England, the Commonwealth, Free France and the United States – here especially German, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian and Italian minorities or descendants), while other Allied Nations (like Mexico for example) were more openly pro-Soviet in their struggle during the Second Great War and the Eastern Crusade. What most did not know was that these first new Russian Imperial elections were neither free nor fair, as certain parties and ideologies were banned outright and White Commissaries quickly opened the ballot to check if someone dared to make his cross for the Socialist and Communist Parties, who were left on there despite them already being outlawed by then and most of their members arrested. Whoever dared to question this or even speak about it was seen as a Communist, pro-Soviet agitator, a danger to the new Russian Nation State, a partisan guerrilla in service of the Soviet Union and quickly dealt with.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 591: The Caodai

Caodaism (Vietnamese: Đạo Cao Đài, Chữ nôm: 道高臺) is a monotheistic syncretic religion officially established in the city of Tây Ninh in southern Vietnam in 1926. The full name of the religion is Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ (The Great Faith for the Third Universal Redemption). Cao Đài ( literally the "Highest Lord" or "Highest Power") is the supreme deity, believed by Caodaists to have created the universe. Caodaists often use the term Đức Cao Đài (Venerable High Lord) as the abbreviated name, whose full title is "Cao Đài Tiên Ông Đại Bồ Tát Ma Ha Tát" ("The Highest Power, Ancient Immortal, Great Bodhisattva"). The symbol of the faith is the Left Eye of God, representing the yang (masculine, ordaining, positive and expansive) activity of the male creator, which is balanced by the yin (âm) activity of Mother Goddess, the Queen Mother of the West (Diêu Trì Kim Mẫu, Tây Vương Mẫu), the feminine, nurturing and restorative mother of humanity. Adherents engage in practices such as prayer, veneration of ancestors, nonviolence, and vegetarianism with the goal of union with God and freedom from saṃsāra (cycle of life/ rebirth). Ngô Văn Chiêu, a district head of the French administration in Nam Bộ (former Cochinchina or Nam Kỳ), was the first to worship and receive messages from Cao Đài in 1921. He received a vision of the Divine Eye which is since then the symbol for Cao Đài as well as the focus for worship on all Cao Đài altars. Adherents maintain that on Christmas Eve 1925, God identified Himself to the first group of Cao Đài mediums, which included Phạm Công Tắc, Cao Quỳnh Cư, and Cao Hoài Sang. These three figures were to play an essential role in the growing religion as the three founding spirit mediums of the Hiệp Thiên Đài or "Palace Uniting Heaven and Earth". Phạm Công Tắc was the head spirit medium or Hộ Pháp ("Defender of the Dharma), while Cao Quỳnh Cư was the Thượng Phẩm (his Sacred Assistant) and Cao Hoài Sang was the Thượng Sanh (his Secular Assistant). On 7 Oct 1926, Lê Văn Trung (a former elected official of the Colonial Council of Nam Bộ (Cochinchina/ Nam Kỳ) and a member of the Conseil de Gouvernement de l'Indochine), and a leading group of 27 Caodaists, the first disciples of Cao Đài, signed the "Declaration of the Founding of the Cao Đài Religion" and presented it to the French Governor of Cochinchina. The Cao Đài faith brought together a number of once underground sects into a new national Vietnamese state religion.

Officially called the "Great Way of the Third Time of Redemption" (Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ), it became popular in its first few decades, gathering over a million members and converting a fifth to a fourth of the population of Nam Bộ (Cochinchina/ Nam Kỳ) by 1940. Their centers were mostly in the South (Nam Bộ/ Cochinchina/ Nam Kỳ) and Center (Trung Bộ, formerly Annam or Trung Kỳ). In the 1930s, the leader criticized the French colonial regime, though he also emphasized dialogue with the French. This stance was controversial, and contrasted with the liturgy of dozens of "dissident" branches of Caodaism that followed a more Taoist model. During the liberation of Vietnam as the Vietnamese Empire by the Japanese, throughout the Pacific War (as a part of the Second Great War) and the later Vietnamese Civil War, members of Cao Đài would political and military support the Vietnamese and Japanese against the French (and Allies in general) as well against the Viet Cong rebels. The official name of the Cao Đài religion (or Caodaism) is Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ. Translated directly it means: The Third Great Universal Religious Amnesty. (Đại Đạo – "Great Faith", Tam Kỳ – "Third Period", Phổ – "to announce" and Độ – "to save"). According to Cao Đài's dogma, this Third Period will be of intense religious activity which will unite God and humanity in ways not yet imagined. Cao Đài also states that the Third Amnesty will establish a new great faith for the salvation of living beings before the universal destruction. The primary objective of the Third Amnesty is the unity of all religions, which will bring mankind together in a universal family for universal peace. Caodaism teaches that, throughout human history, God the Father has revealed his truth many times through the mouths of many prophets, but these messages were always either ignored or forgotten due to humanity’s susceptibility to secular desires. Adherents believe that the age has now come when God speaks to humanity directly.

In the nineteenth century, Spiritism became established in Europe. The likes of Madam Blavatsky, Allan Kardec and Victor Hugo championed new religious possibilities. In Vietnam, the age-old traditions of Asian divination and mediumship began to mix with the new traditions of European Spiritism. To highlight this objective of unity, there is a representation of the Divine Covenant of The Third Amnesty (The Third Alliance) inside every Cao Đài Temple. This Covenant between Heaven and Earth is written and presented to humanity by the Venerable Saints, Victor Hugo, Sun Yat Sen and Trạng Trình Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm. Their mission is said to guide humanity into the way of the Third Amnesty. The Covenant is written in French: "Dieu et Humanité Amour et Justice; and in Chinese: 天上天下 博愛公平. This translates into English as: "God and Humanity [for] Love and Justice." "Cao Đài" refers to God the Father (the Supreme Being, the Creator, the Ultimate Reality of the Universe). Cao Đài Tiên Ông Đại Bồ Tát Ma Ha Tát, as God's full title, indicates a combination of the three main religions; Confucianism, Taoism, and Chinese Buddhism. "Cao Đài" in Vietnamese literally means "High Tower/Palace", that is, the place where God reigns over the universe. These words represent Confucianism, Tiên Ông is the largest rank in Taoism and Đại Bồ Tát Ma Ha Tát literally means Great Bodhisattva the Great Being (Mahasattva) in Buddhism. Together, they represent not only the unification of the three main religions but also the humility of God who presents himself as the lowest rank of Divinity.

Caodaists adopt the traditional Chinese idea of âm (yin) and dương (yang) duality constituting the harmonious balance of the universe. Before the creation of the universe there was the "dao", the infinite, nameless, formless, unchanging, eternal source. The negative and positive principles of the universe are the components of the eternal nature. There are two main Gods, the Cao Đài ("Highest Lord") and the Diêu Trì Kim Mẫu or Đức Phật Mẫu ("Holy Mother"). They represent respectively the yang and yin forces. Cao Đài is viewed as the heart of the universe, the common Father of all beings. He imparts part of Him into each living being, including even rocks, in the form of conscience. Đức Phật Mẫu is venerated as the Mother of the universe, responsible for giving visible forms, consciousness and emotions to all life. Ultimately, She has to follow the orders of "Đức Cao Đài", who is revered as the Supreme Being of both Heaven and Earth. All other Divine Beings are to obey the orders of these two Creators during the course of evolution of the universe. Each of them carries a specific role as designated by their Father and Mother. Any being who falls out against them is considered devils in nature. These devils are led by the most powerful being, named Kim Quang Sứ (Satan).

In terms of the cosmos, faithful Caodaists believe there are heaven and hell, which are the main destinations for souls after death. Heaven consists of thirty six planes and many heavenly realms upon each of them, e.g. the Realm of Saints, the Realm of the Holy Mother, the Realm of the Perfect Beings, the Divine Court Realm, The Paradise of Extreme Joy, Nirvana, etc. Meanwhile, hell has ten key realms to carry out punishments in accordance with sins of souls.In order to go to heaven, souls are required to cultivate their virtues and/or devote themselves to spiritual causes. Without merit from the latter, they cannot escape the cycle of birth and death, but can improve their virtues and merit gradually to reach better places in the universe, including the 72 planets (ours is the 68th), the 3,000 worlds, the four great cosmic regions, and the thirty six heavenly planes. True liberation can only be attained when souls reach Nirvana, i.e. the realm of Divine Beings with the most virtues, merits, and wisdom.

The father of the universe, Cao Đài, is believed to have communed with men since the beginning of times, revealing his will. According to Cao Đài doctrine, history is divided into three times (tam kỳ) of revelation. In the first two periods, there were teachings of Dipankara Buddha, sages, Phục Hy, Gautama Buddha, Laozi, Confucius and Jesus, who received the will of the Highest Power, and founded their respective religions to serve and/ or educate humanity. But due to the frailty of the messengers and the common men, the will of the Highest Power was misled into corrupted forms. Caodaists also believe that former revelations were culture-bound, being applicable only for certain ethnicities, and primarily intended for specific ages. The third and final form of revelation is disclosed through the teachings of the Cao Đài faith. Caodaists believe that there are various ranks of divine spirits: Thần ("angels"), Thánh ("saints"), Tiên ("Immortals"), and Phật ("Buddhas"). Each of these ranks can be further divided in the three grades of Thiên (Heavenly), Nhân (Human) and Địa (Earthly), forming a twelve-fold hierarchy that reflects the twelve-fold earthly hierarchy of the Caodaist church. Below those ranks are the spirits of matters, plants, animals and humans. All spirits may evolve to attain higher rank based on present deeds. Disembodied spirits fulfill a number of roles: they are benefactors of mankind, messengers and instructors of the truth. Quan Âm is regarded as the exemplary goddess of the Buddhas, Lý Bạch of the Immortals, and Quan Vũ of the Saints. Unknown to most outsiders, Joan of Arc is worshipped in the Cao Đài pantheon. She is seen as having guided the Faith at its inception and promoted full equality for women (via séances). The Cao Đài pantheon also has many other well-known figures, including Muhammad, Moses, Louis Pasteur, Shakespeare, and even Lenin. Victor Hugo is probably the most important European figure to play a role in the Caodai pantheon, since he gave many teachings and also the text of a number of important prayers. He himself practiced spiritism on the island of Jersey from 1852 to 1855, and predicted that he would become the prophet of a new religion to merge European and Asian mysticism.

The doctrines of the Cao Đài faith tends not only to reconcile all religious views, but also to adapt itself to all degrees of spiritual evolution. A basic principle of Caodaism is "All Religions are One". Cao Đài has been described from five different points of view:

1. From a moral point of view, Cao Đài Religion reminds people of their duties towards themselves, their family, their society (a broader family), then toward humanity (the universal family).
   
2. From a philosophical point of view, Cao Đài Religion preaches renunciation of honors, riches and luxury, in other words, deliverance from servitude to materialism in the attainment of full spiritual quietude of soul.
   
3. From the point of view of worship, Cao Đài Religion prescribes the adoration of God, the veneration of Divine Beings and the worship of ancestors.
   
4. From a spiritual point of view, Cao Đài Religion confirms, in harmony with other religions, the existence of the spirits and the soul, their survival beyond the physical body, and their evolution by successive reincarnations, according to the Karmic Law.
   
5. From the initiates' point of view, Cao Đài Religion communicates to worthy adherents and reveals teachings that enable them, by a process of spiritual evolution, to reach the ecstasies of happiness.

Believers worship God the Father, Holy Mother and the Divine Beings with all their heart. They also venerate the Great Religious Prophets of history and honour the ancestors. There are four daily ceremonies, that is, at 06:00, Midday, 18:00 and midnight, either at the temple or in front of the home altar. Monthly rituals take place on midnight of the 1st and 15th days of the lunar month. There is also a special anniversary ceremony once a year for God the Father, the Holy Mother, the five founders of the world’s major religions, and the founders of the Cao Dai religion. The rituals differ between places, depending on who they pray to.

• At the Holy See: Prayers include incense offering, ceremony opening, prayer to the Jade Emperor (God the Father), prayer to Dipankara Buddha (Buddhism), prayer to Thái Thượng Lão Quân or Taishang Laojun (Taoism), prayer to Confucius (Confucianism), one of the three jewel offering prayers (flower, wine, and tea), and the five pledges.
  
• At the Holy Mother temple: Prayers include incense offering, ceremony opening, prayer describing the role of the Holy Mother, prayer to express gratitude to the Holy Mother, one the three jewel offering prayers (flower, wine, and tea), and the five pledges.

There are also differences between monthly rituals, and anniversary ones. Ceremonial prescriptions such as actions, dress and music were organized in detail by God the Father. These include ceremonies for initiations, marriages and funerals. Particular attention is paid to death, and it has been revealed to the religion how the soul journeys towards heaven and how, on earth, co-religionists can pray for souls to help them on their way.

Cao Đài temples and religious buildings host a rich array of symbols, all of which are instructed by either God the Father or Divine Beings. No symbol is redundant, and none is meaningless. They each tell a different story that reveals the beliefs, values, cosmic secrets, prophecies, etc. When combined, they lay out the journey of the Tao throughout the history of mankind and the universe, as well as its way forward. In spirit and in pictorial representation, the Eye serves to remind Cao Đài believers that the God witnesses everything, everywhere, constantly. At the Holy See, there are in total 50 Divine Eyes of five different shapes; each carrying a different meaning related to various spiritual aspects. The One on the globe shows the Supreme Being above the North Star in the Ursa Minor constellation. The One on the façade of the Holy See has 35 rays of light which represent the three major religions and five main religious doctrines of the world. At the local Cao Đài Temples, the Divine Eye has 16 rays of light emanating from it. Nine radiate upward representing the nine levels of heaven, and seven radiating downward representing the seven emotions, which believers must control.

In accordance with the religious mission, the three colors of Cao Đài banner represent the three main religions of the world; yellow stands for Buddhism, blue for Taoism, and red for Confucianism. Under the Divine Eye is the religious emblem which also represents the essence of the three religions; the bowl of charity for Buddhist compassion and asceticism, the feather duster for Taoist purification; the Spring and Autumn Annals for Confucianist virtue and love. There are various Caodaist scriptures. Some of those belonging to the Holy See of Tây Ninh are: Kinh Thiên Đạo Và Thế Đạo ("Prayers of the Heavenly and the Earthly Way"), Pháp Chánh Truyền ("the Religious Constitution of Cao Đài Religion"), Tân Luật ("The Canonical Codes") and Con Đường Thiêng Liêng Hằng Sống ("Divine Path to Eternal Life"). This Canonical Codes and scripture sets out the rules and boundaries for different aspects of the religion, from a believer to the Pope, from education to marriage, etc. There are ten sections in the scripture with the following content:

1. Hierarchy of religious dignitaries
   
2. Initiation and ranks of believers
   
3. Establishment of a parish
   
4. The five interdictions
   
5. The four commandments
   
6. Education
   
7. Sanctions
   
8. Promulgation of laws and regulations
   
9. Secular rules
   
10. The house of meditation

The Phap-Chanh-Truyen (The Religious Constitution of Caodaism) was delivered to the religion as a series of divine messages. These are the guiding texts of the religion's organisation, stipulating the authority, responsibility, limits, as well as religious vestment for each rank in the religion. Caodaists worshipping in a temple. Priests are dressed in red, blue and yellow, followers in white. The organisational structure of the Caodaist church has similarities with that of a state. There are similarities between the hierarchy of the Caodaist clergy and that of the Catholic Church. Besides the Pope, the Caodaist hierarchy has Cardinals, Bishops, Priests and further ranks. Caodaism stresses equality among men and women in society. However, in the spiritual domain, ordained women may not attain the two highest positions: the Legislative Cardinal and the Pope. The church claims this is ordered by the Highest Lord, who declared that because Dương (Yang) represents male and Âm (Yin) corresponds to female, Yin cannot dominate Yang spiritually or else chaos ensues. The Religion is governed by two powers, the spiritual and earthly ones. The spiritual power (Bát Quái Đài): This is the heavenly council, that is, the Spirit and Soul of the New Religion. The council directs all activities of the universe. The council is the invisible part, made up of the Divine Beings, and directed by Duc Cao Dai (God the Father). The Divine Beings represent different religions of the world, including:

• Founders of five religions: Shakyamuni (Buddhism), Lao Tze (Taoism), Confucius (Confucianism), Jesus Christ (Christianity), Jiang Ziya (Geniism).
  
• Founders and teachers of Caodaism, who represent the doctrines of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism: Guanyin (Buddhism), Li Bai (Taoism), Guan Yu (Confucianism).

The earthly power: To avoid dictatorship, God divided the earthly power into two bodies – an Executive Body (Cửu Trùng Đài) headed by the Pope, and a Legislative Body (Hiệp Thiên Đài) headed by the Hộ Pháp (Protector of Laws and Justice). The former takes charge of the administration of the Religion and its missionary activities, while the latter oversees legislation, jurisdiction and communication with God or Divine Beings. There is also the Charitable Body placed under the supervision of the Legislative Body, and a Lay Committee of selected professional specialists among worthy followers.
The Cửu Trùng Ðài is the Executive Body of Caodaism which takes charge of the administration of the Religion and missionary activities. Head of Cửu Trùng Ðài is Giáo-Tông (Pope). The Giáo-Tông (Pope) represents God to watch over the preservation of His Religion in this world. Whatever his age, he is eldest brother and acts as a guide for the children of God. The Spiritual Power has decided that this is so. The Giáo-Tông (Pope) has the same powers as God to teach Virtue to all His Disciples. He is concerned with each one of them, he guides each one and takes care to ensure that each one does not transgress the Divine Laws (Thiên Điều). He obliges all disciples of God to conform strictly to the prescriptions of the New Codes (Tân Luật)... Since the Giáo-Tông (Pope) has full powers to replace God he must try to transform the life of suffering into an existence marked by happiness. This is the Exalted Task of the Giáo-Tông (Pope). There are nine ranks in its hierarchy:

• One Pope
  
• Three Censor Cardinals
  
• Three Cardinals
  
• Thirty six Archbishops
  
• Seventy two Bishops
  
• Three thousand Priests
  
• Student Priest (no limit)
  
• Subdignitaries (no limit)
  
• Followers (no limit)

For male dignitaries of the Executive Body, from the rank of Censor Cardinal to that of Student Priest, each echelon is subdivided into three branches corresponding to the three principal religions:

• Buddhist Branch: These dignitaries are dressed in yellow.
  
• Taoist Branch: These dignitaries are dressed in azure.
  
• Confucianist Branch: These dignitaties are dressed in red.

Dignitaries of the same echelon, either Confucianist, Taoist or Buddhist, have the same attributes. At the Holy See, there are three governing councils:

• The Popular Council: composed of Student Priests, Sub-dignitaries and representatives of adherents in the ratio of one delegate per 500 members. The Popular Council makes plans for the future.
  
• The Sacerdotal Council: composed of Priests, Bishops, Archbishops and Principal Archbishops. The Sacerdotal Council examines the plans made by the Popular Council.
  
• The High Council: composed of Cardinals, Legislative Body Cardinals and the Pope.

All plans made by the Popular Council and favoured by the Sacerdotal Council are submitted to High Council for approval. In addition, there is also a Central Administration body chaired by three Cardinals. Each of them is assisted by three Principal Archbishops to oversee three religious ministries:

• The Principal Archbishops of the Buddhist branch take care of finances, supply, and public works.
  
• The Principal Archbishops of the Taoist branch take care of education, health, and agriculture.
  
• The Principal Archbishops of the Confucianist branch take care of interior, rites, and justice.

The administrative network which functions throughout Vietnam consists of:

• The Religious Region (Trấn Đạo) comprising several provinces, headed by a Bishop who is called the Regional Religious Chief/ Khâm Trấn Đạo.
  
• The Religious Province (Châu Đạo) comprising several districts/delegations, headed by a Priest who is called Provincial Religious Chief/ Khâm Châu Đạo.
  
• The Religious District (Họ Đạo) comprising several villages, headed by a Student Priest who is called the Religious Chief of Delegation (Đầu Tộc Đạo/ Đầu Họ Đạo/ Đầu Phận Đạo).
  
• The Religious Village (Hương Đạo) headed by a Sub-dignitary who is called Village Religious Chief (Đầu Hương Đạo). He is assisted by one (or more) Phó Trị Sự (Deputy Chief for Administration of a religious village) representing the Executive Body and one (or more) Thông Sự representing the Legislative Body. The Religious Village is made up of Religious Hamlets (Ấp Đạo).

The Legislative Body (Hiệp Thiên Đài) has the duty of communicating with Divine Beings, to preserve the religious laws and listen to the complaints of the unhappy. It is headed by the Hộ Pháp (protector of laws and justice), and assisted by the Thượng Phẩm (Director of religious affairs) and Thượng Sanh (Director of secular affairs).

• Hộ-Pháp (護法) (The head of Legislative Body Affairs), is the one who unveils the Mystery of the Invisible and is the Maintainer of the Rules and Laws of the New Religion. He is the one who pronounces judgments on the dignitaries and adepts, elevates the dignity of the fervent through their merit and brings sanctions against those who have committed faults. The Hộ-Pháp holds control over the Legislative Body Power both exoterically and esoterically. He watches over the positive progress of the disciples in the Way of God, and guides all evolved souls to Bát-Quái-Đài for the union with Angels, Saints, Immortals and Buddhas.
  
• Thượng-Phẩm (上品) (The head of Religious Affairs), is the Representative of the Ho-Phap in the formation of virtuous souls of the Sacerdotal Council. He depends on the Hộ-Pháp in all his missions. In a word, the Thượng-Phẩm helps the Cửu Trùng Đài to live in an atmosphere of happiness; he reveals the Heavenly Voice to virtuous souls, and guides them to the Divine Phase of the Great Spirits, while closing behind them the door of regression. He considers the priestly laws to take up the defence of all office-bearers and adepts; he prevents all perversion of the Divine Rules, and helps all initiates to attain their aim. He is simultaneously the President of the Hall of Defence and protector of all disciples. The Thượng-Phẩm is "Leader of the Spiritual Power".
  
• Thượng–Sanh (上生) (The head of Secular Affairs), has control of all the laws and rules which relate to the worldly life of all adepts to guide them out of the sea of sufferings. He may present a formal complaint before the religious Tribunal against all those who impede the faithful as they move along the Way of God. He is the President of the Hall of Accusation.

Four "zodiacal dignitaries" under each of these branches carry the four key responsibilities of conservation, renovation, reformation, and legislation. They are further assisted by twelve technical academicians, including Bảo Huyền Linh Quân (Theosophy), Bảo Tinh Quân (Astronomy), Bảo Cô Quân (Orphanage), Bảo Văn pháp quân (Culture), Bảo Học Quân (Education), Bảo Y Quân (Health), Bảo Vật Quân (Science and Industry, Bảo Sĩ Quân (Literature), Bảo Sanh Quân (Social work), Bảo Nông Quân (Agriculture), Bảo Công Quân (Public Works), Bảo Thương Quân (Economics). Any local area having more than 500 believers is authorized to establish a Parish (Họ Đạo/ Tộc Đạo) with a Thánh-Thất (Temple, Church, Holy House) which is led by the authority of a dignitary. Parish/Parishes can be established only with the permission and authority of the Giao-Tong/ Pope. Twice a month, the first and the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, the believers must meet at the Thánh-Thất (Temple, Holy House) of the local area to attend the ceremony and listen to the teachings. Exception can be made for those with reasonable excuses. Ninety kilometers north-west of Saigon in Tây-Ninh Province is the Caodaist Holy See. At the center of this city stands the Great Divine Temple. This temple, like the religion, is a fusion of world influences. The Caodaist Holy See As is a major center of pilgrimage.

Similar to the Cao Đài religion and the Bình Xuyên gang, who had both made arrangements with the Vietnamese Empire under Head of State and later Emperor Bảo Đại, to get partly autonomy, religious acceptance as a independent religious group and not just a sect and be recognized as a official religion, just like the Cao Đài would too. While they all were not directly involved with one another and partly even opposed and rivaled one another in doctrines, spiritual or political influence. Unlike some other Buddhist inspired sects, cults and religions in the Vietnamese Empire, the Cao Đài never directly joined the United Buddhist Front, but worked closely with the government and other groups like them or the Hoa Hao, even if they were often rivaling one another. Most of this was thanks to the Vietnamese Civil War and the Viet Cong, as those atheist communists were viewed by many Vietnamese as dangerous traitors and enemies to true Vietnamese independence, culture, religion and tradition. Supported by the Vietnamese Empire and the Imperial Japanese Navy as well as partly the Imperial Japanese Army, the Cao Đài formed their own paramilitary during the Vietnam Civil War and under General Trình Minh Thế (born 1920) they became a radical anti-communist organization.

Born in the Tây Ninh Province and raised in the Cao Đài religion, Trình Minh Thế was trained in military officer school by the Japanese Kempeitai when Japan began using Cao Đài paramilitary troops and heavily supported the Cao Đài with finances and weapons to use them as a depending faction, hoping to influence the Vietnamese Empire, as a member of theCo-Prosperity Sphere, further from inside. Trình Minh Thếworked closely together with Kempeitai Officer and former Buddhist Monk Yasugami Tanakio and by 1944 Trình Minh Thế himself became a officer in the Cao Đài militia, that was like many other local militias and groups loosely integrated into the Imperial Vietnamese Army. By 1955 the Vietnamese National Monarchist and military leader Trình Minh Thế had become the leading General of the Cao Đài militia in the Vietnamese Civil War, fighting the communist Viet Cong as well as the some former French administrators and landowners, who had stayed in former Indochina, as they lived there for generations with their family and were now branded traitors by the Cao Đài. Trình Minh Thế's father and brother also served in their very own, independent Cao Đài militia group, making his family one of the most influential and powerful inside the Cao Đài and most of the Vietnamese Empire.

Their political, military and economical influence grew so much that rumors about a coup or takeover spread. Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem was rumored to take the power in Vietnam with the help of the Cao Đài. Some feared that this meant the powerful Caodaist movement wished to become State religion of the Vietnamese Empire and wished to replace all other religions and groups, including other Buddhist groups and sects like the Hoa Hao, however besides some Cao Đài radical sects, this was never the plan of the Cao Đài Giáo-Tông (Pope), who while wishing to become the major Vietnamese national religion and even state religion, believed this goal could be archived by preaching and conversion of people in a peaceful way, rather then by force and oppression of others. As a result Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem lost one of his potential most powerful allies thanks to mere rumors spreading, as the Vietnamese Imperial Government ordered the Cao Đài to disarm their militia or fully turn it into a heavily integrated part of the Imperial Vietnamese Army so it would be more firm under direct government control.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 592: A Uruguayan Coup

Starting in the 1850s German immigrants have made an important contribution to the development of Uruguay. During the First Great War, Uruguay sided against Germany and broke off diplomatic relations. Gabriel Terra became president in March 1931. His inauguration coincided with the effects of the Great Depression, and the social climate became tense as a result of the lack of jobs. There were confrontations in which police and leftists died. In 1933, Terra organized a coup d'état, dissolving the General Assembly and governing by decree. A new constitution was promulgated in 1934, transferring powers to the president. In general, the Terra government weakened or neutralized economic nationalism and social reform. Uruguay offered asylum to German Jews starting in 1935. In 1938, general elections were held and Terra's brother-in-law, General Alfredo Baldomir, was elected president. Under pressure from organized labor and the National Party, Baldomir advocated free elections, freedom of the press, and a new constitution. Baldomir declared Uruguay neutral, but on December 13, 1939, the Battle of the River Plate took place off the coast of Uruguay where British forces sunk the German Graf Spee. There was a Diplomatic Battle with Dr. Alberto Guani as Uruguayan Foreign Minister that ruled a 72-hour timeline for the ship to remain in Montevideo harbor. Most of the Graf Spee’s surviving crew of 1,150 were interned in Uruguay and Argentina and many remained after the war. A German Embassy official in Uruguay said his government has sent an official letter stating its position that Germany claimed ownership of the sunken vessel and would salvage it after the war (as the Imperial German Navy hoped).

By 1940 the German Empire had threatened to break of diplomatic relations with Uruguay, as diplomatic relations after the sinking of the Graf Spee froze. The German Empire later protested that Uruguay gave safe harbor to the Carnarvon Castle after it was attacked by a German raider. The ship was repaired with steel plate reportedly salvaged from the Graf Spee, even further degrading the diplomatic relations between Germany and Uruguay. On January 25, 1942 Uruguay broke diplomatic relations with the German Empire. Similar to Argentina and Brazil, Uruguay's government was very concerned because of the large numbers of German and Italian colonists in their countries (living mainly around Buenos Aires, nearly all of Uruguay and the southern Brazilian provinces of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Perana and parts of São Paulo. Because of this the Argentinian, Brazil and Uruguayan government, as well as the Allies (mainly America and Britain) heavily feared that these colonists together with local National Monarchists and Fascist Royalists groups could form a fifth column inside their countries. Neutrality was therefore their main objective in the first years of the Second Great War, as well as closely observing these groups to oppose any Axis Central Powers spy networks forming (something mainly Germany, Italy, Spain and to a extend France tried to do in all of America, but mainly Latin America).

The German Imperial Intelligence tried to use the German and Italian colonists, as well as pro-Axis Central Powers sympathizers among the local National Monarchists and Fascist Royalists for increasing pressure on the Uruguayan government in hopes to be granted naval bases in their Atlantic Battle and trade war against the Allies. The German Intelligence even armed the German and Italian colonists partly in secret, hoping that some form of coup would help their demands, but some rumors spread, a few of them even claiming that the German Empire intended to make a German Colony out of Uruguay. A total of 12 people were arrested for conspiracy and National Monarchist or Fascist Royalists Parties and Organizations banned within the German and Italian communities. The Uruguayan own domestic National Monarchist or Fascist Royalist activity was minimal or non existing at the same time, so the German plans could not rely on them. During the arrests in Montevideo a small firefight occurred, later being known as the Uruguayan Coup or Uruguayan Coup attempt as the Allied Propaganda exaggerate the firefight between the Uruguayan police and military on the one side and the German/ Italian Colonists, National Monarchists, Fascist Royalists and Conspirators on the other side to lure Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay further into the Allied camp, knowing that especially Brazil was still very afraid of foreign intervention and another possible revolution after it just had lived trought the Vargas Revolution between 2 October to 3 November 1930.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 593: Christianity in the Empire of Vietnam

Christianity first came to Vietnam during the 16th century, but only started to establish his own position in Vietnamese society under French Colonial Rule. Roman Catholics outnumbered Protestants seven to one, or two to one, exact numbers are later hard to find and quit contested after the Vietnamese Civil War. After the Japanese helped establish the Empire of Vietnam, Christian foreign missionaries (even French ones) were not allowed to proselytize or perform any religious activity anymore and the Vietnamese government in Hué even arrested everyone who did otherwise and were caught. The main reason for this was that Catholic missionaries were strengthening their influence during French Colonial times. The French tried to increase conversion to Catholicism by various methods, therefore linking it with their colonial oppression in Vietnamese history. The first to come to Vietnam were the Jesuits, exploring the region, followed by Franciscans, Dominicans and others, but those who followed the Jesuits never reached their influence. The Jesuits were determined to further increase the faith and influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Southeast Asia. Arriving around 1627, their activities quickly spread many fields, including helping to print the first Bible in 1651, growing influential individuals and circles quit soon. The Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes created a alphabet for the Vietnamese language from Latin script in the 17th century. With the French missionary priest and Bishop of Adran Pigneau de Behaine, Catholicism began to come to widespread prominence and played a key role towards the end of the 18th century. Who was engaged in civil war during this timer. Pigneau hoped, that with Nguyễn Ánh victory, he would gain concessions for the Catholic Church in Vietnam. To archive this victory Pigneau and other missionaries bought military supplies and enlisted European soldiers for Nguyễn Ánh and they took part in military operations. Thanks to that Nguyen conquered Vietnam and became Emperor Gia Long. He tolerated the Catholic faith and permitted unimpeded missionary activities out of respect to his foreign benefactors. The missionary activity was dominated by the Spanish in Tonkin and French in the central and southern regions. At the time of Pigneau's death, there were six European bishops in Vietnam. The population of Christians was estimated at 300,000 in Tonkin and 60,000 in Cochinchina. After the establishment of the Vietnamese Empire, the Vietnamese and Japanese Coprospists claimed that Emperor Gia Long was a traitor, who ruled Vietnam as a foreign puppet to make it a colony. Even National Han China under Wang Jingwei used this history and metaphor, to compare the Vietnamese traitor Nguyễn Ánh, who became Emperor Gia Long, with his opponents in the Chinese Civil War, Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong, who the National Han Chinese and Japanese propaganda claimed to try to become Chinese dictators, tyrants and emperors with the help of European, American or Soviet Union support, to finally make China a colony like India, that they had dreamed so long about.

Emperor Gia Long's and Pigneau's success at establishing the dominance of Catholicism over the classical Confucian system of Vietnam was not to continue unimpeded, however. Gia Long appointed Minh Mạng his successor for his deeply conservative Confucianism; his first son's lineage had converted to Catholicism and abandoned their Confucian heritage. A power struggle then developed between Minh Mạng and pro-Catholic, pro-Western officials who wanted to maintain the power they had been given by Gia Long. For the later Japanese and Vietnamese Empires Minh Mang was the first fighter against European colonialism, imperialism, religious and cultural destruction of the Vietnamese nation, so he became a famous propaganda figure during the Second Great War. During the Vietnamese Civil War, the Viet Cong also used him as a revolutionary fighter against the Emperor and tyrannical rule, even naming one of their branches, the Viet Minh in his honor. However as the atheist communists were not to found of the Catholics either, and their triple their alliance together with the democratic opposition against the Vietnamese Empires government, aristocracy and the Japanese would not last very long. Before that, back during the times of Minh Mang, 2,000 Vietnamese Catholic troops fought under the command of Father Nguyễn Văn Tâm in an attempt to depose Minh Mạng and install a Catholic "emperor". The revolt was put down, and restrictions were placed on Catholicism. Persistent rebellions occurred throughout the Nguyễn Dynasty, many led by Catholic priests intent on installing a Christian monarch. During the French colonial campaign against Vietnam from 1858 to 1883, many Catholics joined with the French in helping to establish colonialism by fighting against the Vietnamese government. Once colonial rule was established, the Catholics were rewarded with preferential treatment in government posts, education, and the church was given vast tracts of royal land that had been seized.

After the victorious overthrow of French colonial rule by the Japanese and the creation of the Empire of Vietnam, Catholicism declined in the North, where the Imperial Vietnamese government and the Japanese Army started portray them as pro-colonial traitors working with the Europeans and French against Vietnamese culture, religion, tradition and freedom. Their short-time allies, the Communists Viet Cong later categorized it as a reactionary foreign force too, opposed to both national liberation as well as social progress. No longer promoted by the new Vietnamese government and Japanese military authorities, unlike many Confucian, Buddhist and even Shintoists and other cults and sects, Catholicism declined all over Vietnam, but around nearly 762,837 to 813,526 or around ten percent of Bắc Bộ (former Tonkin or Bắc Kỳ) 7,784,000 population were Catholic or Christian at the End of French Colonial rule. They were a major backbone for the roughly 34,000 French civilians that lived in French Indochina, along with a smaller number of French military personnel and government workers. The most of them lived in the northern province, from the area around Hanoi along the coast all the way to Ron a little north of the imperial capital Hué. As Confucianism, Buddhism and Shintoism were promoted by the Imperial Vietnamese government and the Japanese, while Christians were portrayed as colonialist, imperial traitors working for the European (French) colonial powers their numbers declined to around 600,000 or 650,000. While new temples, pagodas and shrines were created all over Vietnam, secret christian churches were destroyed by paramilitary sect and Buddhist, Confucian and Shinto groups, who's religious leaders were even promoted to military ranks and regional autonomy for them to support the Imperial Vietnamese Government and the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Many Christian Vietnamese who were seen as scum, unlike the European Christians like the French were even branded and nicknamed Francos because of their supposed support of the French Colonial Regime and Tyranny because of it's close ties to the Christian missionaries. Many Christians who protested against this violet outbursts, persecution and being treated as second class citizens or criminals were quickly arrested by the Royal Vietnamese Police and the Royal Vietnamese Army and forced to work building roads, railways and the growing industry of the new Vietnamese Empire as forced labor alongside former French Colonial administration, officers and other arrested Allied Prisoners of War. While it was officially claimed that there was no religious persecution inside the Vietnamese Empire and that no religious activities of Christians inside the Vietnamese Nation State were hindered, partly to appease the Philippine Republic, another member state of the Co-Prosperity Sphere that was majorly Christian, as well as the European, Australian and North American Nations, that Vietnam traded with as a member of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. At the same time all christian missionary activity was forbidden by the government during the Vietnamese Civil War as well as the regular mess in their churches, claiming it was dangerous to do so because of the anti-christian Communist Viet Cong. Destroyed churches weren't even rebuild anymore and while some were left as ruins other were turned into temples, pagodas and shrines. Because of this many Catholics, even if not outright opposition to the Vietnamese Empire, it's government and independence, the oppression, forced labor, enforced conversion or other incidents, lead to many Christians allying with the communist guerrillas and the democratic opposition for some time until this alliance broke apart (luckily for the Vietnamese Empire).

Unlike the older and much bigger Catholicism, Protestantism first came to Vietnam in 1911 by the Canadian missionary Robert A. Jaffray in Da Nang, who came as part of the Christian Missionary Alliance, that would send over 100 missionaries to Vietnam to assist in the growing of their faith in the country. During the Vietnamese Civil War there were still 150,000 Christians in the Empire of Vietnam, many belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, the Imperial French Catholic Church, the Free French Catholic Church, the French Reformed Church, Anglican–Episcopalian, Christian and Missionary Alliance, Baptists, Church of Christ, Worldwide Evangelization Crusade, and Seventh-day Adventists. Other Catholic and Protestant associations were also represented in some social services and welfare agencies. Soon however Christian membership continued to decrease severely even if estimates between 50,000 and 160,000 people were still believed to be Christians in Vietnam. Most of them however were christian church communities in the central and northern highlands, were Christians had fled trough during the Vietnamese Civil War at the coast and started to have missionary activity with some of the local minority tribes and towns, like the Tho, White Tai, Red Tai, other Tribal Tai, Yao (or Man), Bo, So and Bru increasing their numbers a little bit once again. These tribal groups were in return for this persecuted, forced to abandon their christian faith or even treated as foreign Imperialist or Communist rebels and spies. Some were arrested and forced to work in the Vietnamese industry and build up infrastructure like during the Second Great War. Beating, torture and even starving behind bars was meant to force the remaining Vietnamese Christians to abandon their faith in favor of Buddhism, Confucianism or Shinto, despite the official claims and guarantees for freedom of religion. The Gialong Church and the Nguyễnnites tried to tie their christian faith to Vietnamese nationalism, in hopes the coprospist government and it's emperor might leave them alone to practice their faith privately at least. However the continued persecution and propaganda against Christians inside the Empire of Vietnam, lead to the so called Christian Crisis in 1954 to 1956 and again in 1965 to 1967, were Christian Priests trying to live the Gospel and worship God, protested the imperial government by lighting themselves up in fire as christian martyrs in public places. In Vietnam the Seventeenth-century Jesuit missionaries Girolamo Maiorica and Alexandre de Rhodes compiled the first catechisms and other Catholic texts in Vietnamese, in 1623 and 1651, respectively. However, per the usual policy of the Jesuit missions, the Bible was not translated. De Rhodes' work included an early Vietnamese alphabet that was used for later Christian texts. Some portions of the Bible may have been translated and printed in Thailand in 1872. Jean Bonet, author of a Dictionnaire Annamite-français, translated Gospel of Luke from French to Vietnamese in 1890. The first translation from Latin was that of Albert Schlicklin (1916), and the first from Greek that of William Cadman (New Testament 1923, Old Testament 1934). The Schilicklin and Cadman Bibles remain the basis of the standard Catholic and Protestant versions until the End of Catholic Faith inside of Vietnam. The organized work of United Bible Societies in Vietnam began in 1890. These societies distributed copies of the Bible and the New Testament in Vietnam until the proclamation of the Vietnamese Empire and the ban on christian missionary activities.

During the medieval rule of the Later Lê dynasty, Christians were tolerated. The level of tolerance, however, started to become more diverse when the Trịnh lords and Nguyễn lords divided the country. In particular, the Trịnh Lords were more hostile against the Christians and had expelled Christian missionaries out the country, something later Imperial Vietnamese and Japanese propaganda would constantly praise them and view them as role models for their own future plans for Vietnam. In contrast to the Trinh, its Nguyễn rivals were more tolerant to Christians, though not without skeptics. This resulted with more Christians in the south than in the north of Vietnam, a legacy that dated back from 17th century onward. Prince Nguyễn Ánh, who later became Emperor Gia Long and founded the Nguyễn dynasty from the remnant of old Nguyễn lords, were exclusively tolerant of Christians. However, persecution on Christians increased with the death of Gia Long, when successive Vietnamese Emperors imprisoned, murdered and oppressed Christians. Brutality caused by the Nguyễn rulers was so deadly that it was part of the reason that lead to the French conquering Vietnam from 1858 onward. Although many pre-20th century rebellions against France sought for unity of Vietnamese regardless of faith, most Vietnamese Christians supported France. Under the French rule, however, the French Government leaned in favor of Christians and oppressed non-Christians in the country. This bias treatment of France, once again, brought non-Christians united, antagonizing France and any Christians across the country, in particular, the Buddhists of Vietnam were extremely hostile against the French colonial Government and its Christian allies. The same was true for some Confucianists and Shinto groups as well as religious sects made up from these religions. And even the Viet Cong, who had become more and more communist were very hostile against Christians because of their pro-French sentiment. Bias treatments by France was the cause of religious sectarianism to be increased as anti-Christian violence. Imperial Vietnamese and Japanese Propaganda and officials even promoted and rewarded such behavior and many christian Vietnamese were enslaved, killed or forced out of their faith. Christians were oppressed even further the same way Buddhist, Confucian and Shinto faith and sects were promoted and exclusively given powerful official positions, autonomy and their own fanatic religious militia, that helped them increasingly dominate social-political-military life inside the Empire of Vietnam until the 1970ies. Until than christian holidays like Easter and Thanksgiving had long time not been celebrated and gathering at Churches has also not been seen for decades then. However the continued oppression of Christians as well as their short time ties to the communist Viet Cong and the other guerrilla groups who finance themselves by foreign support and opium farming gave them a even further unpleasant connection alongside their role to turn Vietnam into a French Colony. Imperial Vietnamese politics towards Christians therefore remained difficult, oppressive and sometimes hazardous until Christianity was claimed to be completely by the Vietnamese Emperor to be completely ended and whipped out by the 1970ies and 1980ies.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 594: Hellenopolis

While the Civil War against the communists. Socialists and democratic uprisings inside the Kingdom of Hellas was ongoing it wasn't seen as a resistance fight by all. Many National Monarchists, Fascist Royalists and overall aristocrats supported the Kingdom and actually wished for the reborn monarchy to continue either way, no matter if the Axis Central Powers or the Allies would win this war. They had lived under the conservative, anti-communist Metaxas regime before and their King George II, as well as his brother Paul had fled into British Exile. So the Axis Central Powers, mainly Austria-Hungary had installed another branch of the House of Wittelsbach to claim the throne. After the last King of Bavaria, Ludwig III of Bavaria had died and his son Prince Karl of Bavaria (German: Karl Maria Luitpold Prinz von Bayern) a Major General in the Bavarian Army died in 1921 Prince France of Bavaria (German: Franz Maria Luitpold Prinz von Bayern) became the new Bavarian King when the German Empire was restored. His heir was his first son Prince Ludwig of Bavaria (who would rule until his death in 2008), so his second son, the sixteen year old Prince Rasso of Bavaria (born 24 May 1926) was made King of Greece, the Greek Protectorate and puppet state of the Austrian Hungarian Empire by their Emperor. The Germans supported a Bavarian King and he would rule Greece trough troubling times until his death in 2011. The young King was heavily supported by Austrian-Hungarian and German advisers, as well as Prime Minister Ioannis Rallis and the new Royal Greek Army, gendarmery, police and militia (like the special new Security Battalions, the Tagmata Asfaleias) under commanders like General Georgios Tsolakoglou, Konstantinos Logothetopoulos, or Colonel Georgis Poulis. The new government quickly spread it's authority over the whole country with Austrian-Hungarian help and claim legitimate as the old King George II was a mere British Puppet they claimed. This new Greek Kingdom and Empire however would be truly free and proud, like they had once started to do from Ottoman Oppression under Otto I of Wittelsbach.

However with the new Greek Kingdom came changes unheard of before, as the right-wing Metaxas regime had outright banned banned books including the great works of Plato, Thucydides and Xenophon. To promote support, unity and strength for the Hellenic Kingdom, the new Hellenic State and the Axis Central Powers, all kind of propaganda posters were printed and statues erected all over Greece, most of them depicting the Hoplites of old, who should inspire the Greek to fight off the Persian Hordes (the Allies coming from the Middle East) as well as the northern Barbarians (the Communists Rebels and the Soviet Union). The new Greek Empire needed strong men and strong symbols, because of that a debate arose, to change it's capital, as the old capital Athens was seen as a to strong symbols of the democratic and republican elements opposing the monarchy. Many Greek National Monarchists and Greek Fascist Royalists favored Sparta as the new glorious capital, as a symbol for their strong and powerful new nation, but it's southern position made it the target of Allied bombing runs during the later stages of the war. It was however clearly seen as the city that represented the new movement and the spirit of the new Greek Nation State as a Kingdom and the Greek People inside of it overall. The Austrian-Hungarians and the Germans meanwhile favored another city, Thebes that had once dominated Greece too as a city-state and with it's more northern and central position seamed to be well easier to defend and govern from. However not all inside the Greek Kingdom cared much for the final decision of the King and the Prime Minister, as some already had other plans as Bulgaria had annexed Western Thrace and Macedonia in former Yugoslavia, places they claimed for their Kingdom themselves. As a compensation for that, many Greek National Monarchists followed the dream of Alexander the Great once again, turning their eyes east, wishing to annex Eastern Thrace and Ionia (the European Part and the Western Coast of the Neo-Ottoman Empire) as comparisons. These Extremists formed the Megalia Hellas Movement (Greater Greek Movement) to support all this claims and cared more about external expansion and power, then puny internal questions about their Kingdom like where to put it's capital. In the End Sparta would win and become the new capital, but because of it's location only used partly for the whole government during the Second Great War itself.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 595: In the Jungle, the mighty Jungle

Storming a strongly fortified Japanese defensive position deep in the jungle of Papua New Guinea, the American Marines and their Australian and New Zealand comrades had battled the Japanese in hard fights between the Vanap River and the Angabanga River, from coats to coast and across the mountain passes and ridges. The Japanese commanded their nearby forces from their forward base Tapini, with Wau as a secondary headquarter before the main one in the region at the capital Rabaul. The Allies meanwhile commanded their forces from the much closer Port Moresby, at the Gulf of Papua, were also the majority of their supplies came from. Most of it came directly from America over Samoa and Sidney by now as Japanese submarines, ships, naval bombers from Papua, Timor and Celebes/ Sulawesi had together with Japanese sea mines made the Torres Strait impassable for allied ships of any kind by now. The Australians were eager to defend their continent and home, while the Americans showed their own determination to drive back the Japanese forces. For months now the front on the island of Papua New Guinea had been in a near stalemate, with both sides firing artillery shells, mortar rounds, grenades, rockets and even airplane based bombs on the enemy positions. The once dense jungle had therefore thinned out drastically in the areas with the major fighting and parts of the entrenched and well fortified positions now looked much more like the Western Front in the Second Great War, then the tropical island paradise that Papua New Guinea had been before the First Great War. Between Kairuku and Morobe heavy fighting occurred and one of the heaviest contested regions was here on a still dense jungle hill, with heavily fortified Japanese positions and artillery. The Allies knew that ever since the Japanese had finished their railway across the northern islands coast, their supplies were coming in faster, securely landing at the central or western northern tip, far away from most Allied submarines and air-raids for now. The last path of their supply lines however was made over land, with a few trucks, jeeps or even bicycles and on food. While the Allies were yet still unable to directly target and destroy this northern railroad directly, because of heavy Japanese air superiority over the central part of the island and even increasingly in it's southeast, they knew that their more closer supply line at Port Moresby could turn the numbers in their favor, as long as they prevented the Japanese from cutting of their supply lines there by sea in the Solomon Islands or the Gulf of Papua with their Japanese submarines or naval bombers.

However when the dust of battle had settled and the fighting was over the Allies were quit surprised. For the first time however the Allies took a significant amount of Co-Prosperity Sphere Prisoners during a battle, as they overrun the now completely surrounded and cut off position of what they had labeled Cheese Hill, because of the immense amounts of tunnels the Japanese had been digging into it. What however was the weirdest part was the fact that all the prisoners were heavily bearded and nothing like typical Japanese soldiers they had encountered before. Unknown to them at first, they could not even communicate with this prisoners, as they seamed only to understand a few Japanese words and prime commands. It was only when a Japanese speaking native-born Japanese-Australian, who's family had four generations before migrated from Hokkaido and who worked in the Australian supply forces was questioned, that the mystery could be solved. He quickly realized that while these people came from Japan as part of a special army battalion, they were no Japanese, but Ainu, the natives of the Japanese Home Islands, who had been pressed into service for the Imperial Japanese Army and who had served as scouts of a special assault regiment for them after being trained to fight for the Japanese Empire, the same people that had driven them out of their native land and nearly extincted them. That was however a crime neither the Americans (who used Navajo coda talkers) nor the Australians (whose Aborigines fought the Japanese in New Guinea alongside other Australians) and New Zealand forces (who used Maori soldiers during the Battle of Fiji later in the Second Great War) could truly distance themselves from. These captured Ainu, who were pressed into service of the Japanese would ultimately end up being Prisoners of War for the Allies and viewed as worst traitors by their very few living captured Japanese comrades in this Pacific Prisoner of War camps at the East Coast of America during the Second Great War. After the Second Great War many were part of a prisoner exchange program, only to get the death penalty for their surrender to the enemies as it was seen as cowards and traitorous, a prove to many Yamato Nationalists that they served as enemy agents and spies within Japan and to further push a total Japanization campaign against all remaining Ainu culture, language, art and religion that would ultimately end them as a independent non-Japanese ethnic group in the 1960ies.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 596: A man of Steel?

Josef Stalin was nervous, more then ever before during the Second Great War. The Axis Central Powers had understand that the 174 ethnic groups inside the Soviet Union could be used against it. Around 88 of those hat more then 10,000 members, 41 more then 100,000 members. Because of this our most important mission to destroy their ethnic national feeling as a means to spread separatism inside the Soviet Union. Our plan was the communist, socialist ideal to manifest as their main ideology and at the same time use the national feelings of our Union of Socialist Soviet Republics to lure them into loyalty for our main cause, not their own national interests. In total eleven Socialist Soviet Republics (SSR) make up the Soviet Union, with the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic being the biggest and most dominant one. The main reason for the minor Socialist Soviet Republics at our borders, like the White Russian SSR (around 5,6 million population), the Ukrainian SSR (around 32 million population), the Georgian SSR (around 3,2 million population), Azerbaijan SSR (2,7 million population), Armenian SSR (1,2 million population), Kazakhstan SSR (around 70 million population), Uzbek SSR (5,5 million population), Kirghiz SSR (around 1,5 million population), Tajikistan SSR (around 1,5 million population), Turkmenistan (around 1,2 million population) was to function as buffer regions for our heartland, as well as to spread the socialist soviet revolution past our borders. With a partly autonomy for the cultural needs of these people, the Soviet Union under Stalin tried to get these ethnic groups more under direct control of the Soviet regime in Moscow and make staying inside the Soviet Union a good goal for them. However not all 17 autonomous republics, the 19 provinces and the 6 autonomous provinces and 5 territories inside the Russian SSR alone, while in total there were 22 autonomous republics, 34 provinces and 9 autonomous provinces. In theory each and everyone of these states were free to leave the Soviet Union at any time, but this right is a illusion as Moscow remained the right to secure their state defense and security, as well as all aspects of political administration. The Communist Party also had the last words in any national questions and on orders of Stalin it had the goal to destroy the regional, autonomic national feelings and ambitions and turn them into national feelings for the greater, overall Soviet Union. Stalin knew that the question of nationality, ethnic, race and religion posed threats to the Soviet Union, as this were the weakest parts of his multi-ethical, multi-religious state, it's thinnest chain part, were the Soviet Union could be split apart. The People's Commissariat for Nationalities therefore supported the use of the mother tongue in official business on par with Russian, the formation of Narkomnats, a Soviet of national affairs and the complete civil equality for all citizens on paper. In reality this often meant oppression of national, ethnic, cultural and religious traditions and differences to form a new, all-Soviet identity. The reality quickness with that the Axis Central Powers had managed to reawaken and use these differences as a means to agitate these ethnic groups against the Soviet Union and Stalin, made the dictator quit nervous. By 1942 over 60 million of Stalins around 167 million citizens were in Axis Central Powers controlled (liberated as they called it) territory in the western part of the Soviet Union.

Ever since the times of Peter the Great, only the western part of Russia had been of economical importance, while the massive Asian parts of the empire were mostly left untouched and unused. Stalin had tried to relocate the Industries to the Ural and Siberia, when the Axis Central Powers invaded the Soviet Union, however only many factories could be relocated. Around 93% of the Soviet coal production and industry, 98% of it's iron production and industry and 96% of all other industries were located in the European part of the Soviet Union. A new industrial center was tried to be established in the east before the Second great War by Stalin, but none of these plans had been finished until 1941. Around ¾ of all coal, chopper, zinc, lead and one fifth of all Soviet iron were located in areas soon overrun by the Axis Central Powers. Around 30% of the iron industry could be saved eastwards until then. The situation was even worse, as the Ukrainian SSR also had the majority of all grain and thereby the Soviet Union's major food production. The plan to relocate all this more northwards, or east to the Ural and the Caspian Sea had not been finished, when German, Austrian-Hungarian and Neo-Ottoman forces and their allies attacked the Soviet Union. The majority of the Soviet food production, heavy industries, coal, iron and their Caucasian oil production soon were completely in Axis Central Power hands. Not only that, but massive amount of the around 60 million citizens under Axis Central Powers controlled rule actually supported their newly formed independent states, where they were promised religious freedom, ethnic self-determination and independence. For Stalin that meant that around 3 to 6, maybe even 12 million more possible recruits could join the militia and army forces that the Axis Central Powers were building up against the Red Army in these areas. Meaning that given enough time and equipment produced by the Axis Central Powers, they could match the Red Armys own numbers and help the Axis Central Powers ignore their recent losses in manpower. With own immense hard work the Soviet Union produced fife times the tanks the Germans and Austrian-Hungarians did in 1942, similar to the amount of the United States, who had by then not fully mobilized. In the upcoming year of 1943 the Americans would already outproduce them, while the Soviets still produced nearly double the tank amount of the Germans and Austrian-Hungarians. The main Red Army problem by then was however the Axis Central Powers occupation of their main oilfields and the fact that most of their supplies, equipment and ammunition as well as fuel had by then be imported from the Allies over central Asia. Because of this the Germans could produce nearly as many new tanks then the Soviet Union in 1944, surpassing even Great Britain. While the Americans still produced more, their main problem was to ship these numbers to the Pacific and Europe, were Stalin desperately demanded a Second Front against the Axis Central Powers, leading to a speed up and rushing of their invasion plans. The highly industrialized United States by then outproduced the Germans with cheaper tanks and even could produce 3-4 in the same hours time the Soviets Produced the same amount. The massive German specialization of quality, many tank models on short runs of specifications driven by their Imperial German Army led to various models, but slowed down their production to a extent that the Americans could put out thirty tanks for one of theirs with the same manpower, hours and finances spend. However, Stalin knew that unless these numbers arrived at a true Western Front in Europe, they meant nothing, as the German Empire and Austria-Hungary alone outproduced the Soviet Union four to one in coal, as well as four or five to one in terms of steel between 1942 and 1943.

This combined with the heavy Soviet Red Army losses and failed counterattacks lead to Stalin mistrusting his Marshall's and Generals once again. The only good thing about this was Mother Russia itself, as he could easily abandon the former Chinese East Turkestan and the Outer Mongolian People's Republic. Railways and even regular modern roads were spare in this regions, one of the main problems of the Allies supplying Stalin, so they and the Soviets hastily build new infrastructure over all of central Asia. Stalin however did not care about these lost Asian territories and focused the remaining Siberian reserves and Red Army forces not needed against the Japanese led Co-Prosperity Sphere against the Axis Central Powers, to hold or even retake the European Part of the Soviet Union, that was vital for his victory and bare survival. This strategy however would only work if the Allies could relief him with a Second Front in Europe, forcing the Axis Central Powers to redirect their attention and best equipped and most skilled forces westwards to deal with such a invasion. Then with only the militia and their allies much weaker and much worse equipped forces left, the Red Army's own masses and will to fight until the death would be enough to beat back the invaders of the motherland hoped Stalin. The constant wait for such a second front and the Allies claim that they were not yet ready to do so however, started to raise further suspicions in Stalin. Like he by now suspected some of his incompetent Generals and Marshall's to secretly work for the Tzar and his Russian Empire, or any of the other Axis Central Powers, so Stalin grew most suspicious of all non-russian and non-georgian leaders, Stalin also started to suspect the Allies were working against him too. Believing them to have the same plans and mindset then he himself had, Stalin suspected them to wait until the Soviet Union, the Comintern and Red Army had been weakened by the Axis Central Powers and vice versa enough, so that the Allies could then deal with whoever would remain and archive a final, total victory to rule Europe, Asia and the world after the Second Great War. It did not help that the Americans and British even proposed one of their old plans again to massively bomb the Caucasian oil fields and southern Soviet Union infrastructure in a plan, that they called to be helpful to slow down and stop the Axis Central Powers from advancing quicker and using these resource. But Stalin wasn't that stupid he believed himself, he knew such a plan was also intended to weaken the already war-torn Soviet Union, so that he would be the weakest nation of any victory against the Axis Central Powers and the Co-Prosperity Sphere, even if the Allies would not directly be backstabbing and betray him outright.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 597: The Greatest Chinese Hero and Patriot

Many believed me to be a traitor, but history will be the judge of that, not the man of my time. I however believe that I had a vision, a vision how to safe china once and for all. The continued, ongoing, bloody and deadly Chinese Civil War that had started in 1927 had been gone out for far to long and some of it's major competitors. I knew the only way of bringing peace to China for good was the help of a foreign benefactor, foreign investors and advisors that could help me become the dominant faction in China. Unlike traitors like Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong however I would not turn to extreme measures. There was a reason my National Han Chinese Coprospist State, alias the Imperial Centralized Republic of China, the ICRC, the Han Empire, the Han Republic, Hankoku, Centralized China, the new or reborn Chinese Empire, Republic of China, or Imperial China was meant as a Federal Republic right from the start. Unlike Chiang and Mao I did not use too much foreign influence, ideologies and advisers to turn China into my very own westernized dictatorship for my own benefit. Our Industry was crippled from the Civil War, our Authority questionable, our government dishonest and China in disorder. So I chose a different path, a path that would not betray China's history, tradition and values completely. Because of that, I had allied myself with the Japanese, the only Asian Brother Nation that had managed to modernize and industrialize itself without completely abandoning it's tradition, culture, religion, spirit and arts. Our both nations had long, close ties and exchanges with one another during the centuries of our existence and with their help I was convinced that we could archive the same for China together. The Kuomintang under Chiang's Leadership had acted stupid, by flooding the Huang He (Yellow River), when my part of the Kuomintang in Shanghai allied with the Japanese, in a failing attempt to stop the Co-Prosperity Sphere from supporting my side. This stupid move not only killed millions of our own citizens and devastated our great nation, but also neighboring Yankoku.

It proved Chiang and his government to be nothing more then stupid criminals, whose power and ambitions were dangerous for all of China and could only escalate the Chinese Civil War. The same was true for Mao and his Communists, as they smashed our old traditions and what made us Chinese out of the window in their violent takeover and revolutionary rule in their territory. Meanwhile I, Wang Jingwei on the other hand have tried a different solution; with Japanese brotherly collaboration and sponsorship, just like a wiser, elder father or brother helped out his younger brother or son, the Japanese would help us create the new China, similar to how we once helped create this Japan before during our cooperate co-prosperity existence. With Japanese advisers and Yen, we would be able to modernize our economy, infrastructure and overall industry. At the same time our reborn Chinese Empire had to be a modern Republic with democratic element, regional provincial independence of our provinces and smaller states as well as a local development and autonomy all the way down to a regional, local level of every city, town and farm area. The Chinese people needed a fair, honest and just government, no outside overthrow of everything our proud nations history and traditions stood for, like Chiang and Mao did. In short, what we needed was a more true, more stable version of our beloved Chinese Republic, one for the people and our nation, helped build with the help of our Japanese and Asian brothers and friend inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Chiang and Mao's United Chinese Front might claim to represent the true China and call my government the Shanghai Clique, but the people living under it and our free Asian neighbors all now the truth. There is a reason the Allied Americans, European Powers and the Soviet Union support them, as they intended to use them for the transformation of China into a depending state and their very own colony. Some claim the same about me, but I have foreseen the future; who cares about Japanese economic and political dominance inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere for now? Once China's massive population had caught up with them on a economical, industrial level, our sheer size, similar hard work ethic and focus on the overall community will allow us to stay close together and unified as Chinese, even if our various Chinese breakaway states might claim to be their own independent nations for now. Once we have become a modern, unified nation once again, somewhere around the next ten, or twenty, thirty years, the Co-Prosperity Sphere will turn around us Chinese as it's center, not the Japanese Sun and we will not only have ended the Chinese Civil War, but become the dominant power in Asia and the rest of the world.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 598: The Austrian-Hungarian Ace

Born on February 23, 1918, Bernd Gallowitsch would become one of the most famous Austrian-Hungarian Air Force Aces of the Second Great War. Rewarded with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his extremely battlefield bravery and successful military leadership, he became famous during the Eastern Crusade, mainly in the Kingdom of Ukrainia and the Caucasian Region. During this daring missions, Gallowitsch would shoot down 64 enemy aircraft, mainly Soviet Union Red Army ones and destroy 23 of their tanks in around 480 combat missions. For his daring, heroic missions Bernd Gallowitsch was not only rewarded, promoted and decorated but made a figure of propaganda for the Austrian Air Force as a branch of the Austrian Army, who itself was a branch inside the Austrian-Hungarian Army. In 1942 Gallowitsch was part of the forces that provided aerial cover for the encirclement of the Georgian Red Army of the Soviet Union, the captured of the Caucasian Oil Fields and the stop of the Red Army counter-offensive in the northern Caucasus and Volga region. Being viewed as a ace and hero Gallowitsch soon lead his very own small wing and later squadron on the Eastern Front during the Eastern Crusade. The so called Gallowitsch Wing and the later Gallowitsch squadron was one of the most elite air force group of the Axis Central Powers during the Eastern Crusade and played a huge part in stopping the Soviet counter-offensive, across the Volga, by destroying many of the Soviet Union's pontoon bridges and ships that they tried to use to get over the river front. Despite this fame and victories, Bernd Gallowitsch would become even more be famous for flying one of the first jet fighters and leading one of the first jet fighter units of the Austrian Air Force and the combined Austrian-Hungarian Air Force. Bernd Gallowitsch would later write a book about aviation and aerial fights, titled “From above the Alps to the Caucasian Mountains” that would become a standard lecture for ongoing Austrian-Hungarian fighter and bomber pilots of the future. What fewer would know about Gallowitsch, was that he was a shareholder of the Austrian Airlines (AA), Austro Air (Au Air) and the Austrian Air Services (AAS). While Austrian-Hungarian in nature they were direct competitors of the Hungarian Airlines (HA), the Hungarian Air Transport Company (HATC) and the Magyar Air Services (MAS) in the Balkan Peninsula and Southeast Europe. This meant that after his military career retirement Gallowitsch would become massively involved in the air aviation that tried to better connect and integrate the Austrian-Hungarian Empire with it's depending puppet states and protectorates in the Balkan Peninsula and South-East Europe. Bernd Gallowitsch later died on December 13 1984 in Vienna and was rewarded a state funeral by the Austrian Chancellor and the Austrian-Hungarian Emperor.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 599: Imperial Japanese Navy: Armed Merchant Cruisers

Ever since the First Great War, when the Germans had used several merchant raiders, namely the Möwe (Mowe), Wolf and Seeadler with quit some success. 32 ships were sunken or damaged over the course of fifteen months by Wolf, while Möwe managed to sink 42 enemy merchant ships. Imperial Germany's raiders sank a total of over 300,000 tons of Allied shipping, while sending back captured prize ships containing important materials like rubber, whale oil or titanium that was otherwise unavailable to Germany. This German success was the mane reason for the Japanese Empire to convert two of it's passenger-cargo vessels (AIKOKU and HOKOKU MARU) originally two passenger-cargo vessels built for the Osaka Shipping Line’s South America route made so called armed merchant cruisers (AMC) out of them. At the outbreak of the Pacific War, Japan had already converted, or outright build 42 AMCs with the intention to disrupt the naval trade going to those parts of mainland China, that were not part of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. As merchant ships converted into armed vessels and employed either for convoy protection or commerce raiding, they were surprising and therefore often deadly. They were disguised as merchant ships, but equipped with hidden cruiser-size guns, false funnels, torpedo tubes, mines, floatplanes for scouting and wore false colors, markings and flags. Their appearance was used to trick enemy merchant ships into approaching thinking they were but harmless steamers. Their speed, combined with their floatplanes, enabled them to search large areas of ocean for prey. Once located, the auxiliary cruiser's big guns could defeat any merchant or smaller combatant. Their experience during the Chinese Civil War was so great, that Japan actually secretly armed much of it's civil ships with at least a deck gun - 152-mm/(6-inch)/50 cal. single mount guns, and a anti-aircraft gun - 76-mm (3-inch) or 80-mm (3.15-inch) single mount AA gun and 7.7-mm single mount MGs , sometimes even torpedo tubes and mines. Some of these were meant to be used against enemy merchant ships, others had the intention to protect the Japanese own transport fleet against enemy aircraft, ships or even submarines to a extent. All of this worked out like a charm during the Chinese Civil War, where most of the AMCs were raiding under Han Chinese National, Yankoku or Taikoku flags, often even crewed with civil ship crews or the naval forces of these Co-Prosperity Sphere states.

This changed greatly, when the same strategy was tried out against the Allied nations during the Pacific War, even if some of the Japanese AMCs enjoyed some early successes. However four of their ships, including the Hokoku Maru were quickly sunk and the growing need of replacement transports thanks to allied losses and more transports were needed to supply the Japanese and Co-Prosperity Sphere far-flung Pacific Empire. Some even talked about re-conversion of some of the AMCs, others simply wished to decrease their program to build new AMCs and rather focus on building more transport ships. By the end of 1942 around five of the AMCs had been sunk while one, the Hasu Maru crewed mainly by Chinese and Indians under Japanese Officers and Captain Ishikura Tadasaki raided the Indian Ocean and caused havoc to the surrounding East Indian Coast and West Australian Coast, by raiding allied ships, convoys and even naval harbors and bases across the Indian Ocean. Their most daring attack with the AMC Hasu Maru during this time was the raid of the Ceylon Convoy heading to the Allied forces on the Burmese-Indian front-line. In this operation Captain Tadasaki managed to use his Indian and Chinese crew to pose for him and become a part of the allied Ceylon convoy northwards. In the cover of the night, the Hasu Maru then prepared their weapons, using it's hidden torpedo tubes deck guns and anti-aircraft guns to unleash hell on the surrounding Allied merchant and transport ships from within their middle. Hasu Maru and Captain Tadasaki would finally end their raids alongside seven other AMCs in 1943 to allied ships.

However their daring raids and tactics inspired the Japanese Wokou Programm, that not only tried to continue the use of AMCs but actually upgrade these civil merchant vessel looking ships to seaplane and midget-submarine tenders, that would be able to patrol, search, and hunt to devastate even larger areas of the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, by serving as tenders and transports for seaplanes and midget-submarines with torpedoes to massively increase their range and are of operation, even behind enemy lines. With ongoing Japanese transport ship losses, these Wokou missions changed and their ships began to carry much more naval soldiers in attempts to not only raid and sink, but actually board and capture Allied merchant and transport ship convoys, so they could bring them and their resources back to Japan, were they could help keeping up with their own losses. The tactic was so successful that some Japanese Wokou Crew later knew the Japanese Liberty Ships like their own designs, while it forced the Allies to undergo various counter-measures. One of these measures was to only fill their transports in the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean (and later the Atlantic Ocean too, once the Axis Central Powers started similar captures) with enough fuel to get to one of the forward bases, or their target destination, but not the whole way back to the enemy coasts. Often this forces the Co-Prosperity Sphere and the Axis Central Powers to tow captured ships, making them slow traveling targets for Allied submarines and bombers, so that mainly the Japanese often used the captured Allied crew and Prisoners of War as a means to prevent such attacks.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 600: The Danube Federation

(Blue represents the Danube, White the Peace of the Unified Federation and Gold their Wealth and Growth working together)

Inside of Austria Hungary, King Otto (Franz Josef Otto, or Otto von Habsburg), knew of the problems and weakness of the former Austrian-Hungarian Empire regarding it's nationalities and ethnic groups. Like seen with the Russian Empire, the Chinese Empire or later Yugoslawia, multi-ethnic states could not survive while being democratic and republican he believed. Emperor Otto II therefore had pushed for the Untied States of Austria, or the United States of Austria-Hungary. He knew the loyalty of his subjects could be much better even of the Austrians and Hungarians were loyal to the Austrian and Hungarian part. Ethnicity, political, cultural and religious differences proved to be a hard task when trying to hold all of this together. Austrian-Hungarian unity was a means to dominate the Balkan Peninsula and South-East Europe while being a Great Power together. Then after the First Great War the various ethnic groups had their nation states fulfilled and became independent. However unhappiness soon broiled inside Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, as the people there soon felt patronized and ruled by the dominant Czech and Serbian ethnic groups, a fact Austria and Hungary would soon exploit. Under military and economic pressure and with the horrors of a Soviet Union invasion growing many of the former nation stated rejoined the reborn, strong Austian-Hungarian Empire as so called Protectorate States, wishing their internal independence and autonomy to be secured by a powerful ally in central Europe. To manage this, Austria-Hungary quickly used the same national feelings and ethnic bound that had once split it's Empire, to tie it closer together. Slovakian, Slovenian and Croatian independence was encouraged as new member States, to create a pro-Vienna, pro-Budapest opposition to any Czech and Serbian dreams of reviving Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia ever again.

More free then under their former Czech and Serbian masters, these new member states of the Untied States of Austria-Hungary could elect their own parliament and decide their internal affairs freely as long as they did not concern or endanger that of their overall multinational constitutional monarchy state. With the creation of Bohemia and Moravia the German States dominated in numbers and voices, while smaller ethnic groups like Slovenes (inside Caniola) Slovakians (inside Slovakia), Poles (inside Galicia), Ukrainians (inside Lodomeria, the former East Galicia) and Croats (inside Croatia) had their own independent ethnic provinces and states. All of those were encouraged to their own ethical, national independence as protectorates and later states. Some Czechs however dreamed off Czechoslovakia still, just as some Serbs wished for Yugoslawia to be recreated, while most Romanians in Transylvania wished to return of being a directly Romanian ruled Kingdom. However as the Czechs (Austria, Bohemia, Moracia and Slovakia), Serbs (Bosnia, Italian Greater Albania and Burlgaria) and Romanians (Hungarians in the west Hungary and east in Szeklerland, as well as Ukrainians in East Galicia/ Lodomeria) were now surrounded by pro Austrian-Hungarian groups that mostly had disliked how they had ruled between the First and the Second Great War, they did not outright rebel or misbehave to much in fear of losing their own benefits and freedoms they had just gained because of doing so. They even had nearly total internal independence and autonomy and Otto II even had made their native tongues the lingual-franca on pair with German and Hungarian.

However this ethnic groups all being happy for now did not mean much in the history of Austria-Hungary, so Otto II intended for more then just simply independent states and protectorates. Austrian and Hungarian propaganda greatly portrayed the Communist evil and a imminent Soviet Union Red Army invasion to conquer all of the Balkans, like Russia had tried for so long. Czechs and Serbs were thereby portrayed as the natural allies of such Communist ideas because of their long, close ties to the Russian Empire, further discrediting both groups in the eye of the rest, as Communist rebels fought in the southern Balkan and Greece to establish their own Proletarian Dictatorships during the Second Great War. Therefore the Eastern Crusade was portrayed as a necessary first strike, while it in reality was also a means of the German and Austrian-Hungarian National Monarchists and Fascist Royalists to get rid of the last opposition to their Hegemony over Europe. They however portrayed it as fight for liberty and justice, as they liberated the non-Russian ethnic groups of the Soviet Union and Otto II even granted the Ukrainians a open border to the Kingdom of Ukrainia as well as a vote in it's elections, while remaining part of Austria-Hungary. Luckily for Austria-Hungary the War in Africa and the East was still far away, no Allied bobmer could reach Austria-Hungary unlike Germany and the majority of troops fighting there were Austrian and Hungarian only, together with a few anti-Bolshevik volunteers. Unlike Germany and Italy, or even it's own allies and puppets Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, Austria-Hungary lacked a strong common national, cultural and ethnic identity, knowing full well that so many of them once before died for the ambitions and dreams of the Hapsburg Monarchy in the last Great War. Therefore the majority of the ethnic minorities only served in anti-partisan activities behind the front, or were fighting communist rebels and other traitors inside their own borders as a militia. So to get the majority of his population onboard, Emperor Otto II knew he lacked the charisma of a Hitler or Mussolini. While former Serbia was more or less a military-border once again with Austrian, Hungarian and even some Croatian, Boznian Mohammedan forces fighting any Communists and Serbian Nationalists Movements and Rebels there.

As a result Emperor Otto II had the vision of a new Empire, a Austrian-Hungarian United States that would encourage it's minorities to work for, not against it. Internal autonomy, self-determination and independent voting in a constitutional monarchy was only a first step in the right direction for Otto, as he revived the idea of Trialism, the idea that the Austrians, Hungarians and Croats would have a equal status and representation, to get the Croats on board to support the Empire. Otto meanwhile dreamed up a United States of Austria-Hungary that would embrace this idea even more. Therefore Otto would remain the Emperor, while at the same time being the King of Deutsch-Österreich (German Austria), in personal union with Deutsch-Böhmen (German Bohemia) and Deutsch-Mähren (German Moravia). At the same time Ungarn (Hungary) in personal union with Székely Land (Seklerland), Slowakenland (Slovakia), Galizien (Galicia), Lodomeria (Lodomerien or Wolhynien, also Ukrainien), Croatia-Slavonia (Croatia and Slavonia/ Kroatien und Slavnien) Bosnia-Herzegovinen (Bosnia-Herzegovina) and Serbien-Montenegro (Serbia-Montenegro) would each get their own independent King as his subject. To do so the former Protectorates, Ethnic States and Crownlands (Kronländer) would have to be turned into their own independent Kingdoms underneath him as the Emperor. Otto's brother Archduke Robert would become King Róbert I of Ungarn/Hungary, his other brother Archduke Felix of Austria would become King Feliks I of Slowakenland (Slovakia), Otto's next brother Karl Ludwig (Charles Louis) would become King Karl I or Carl I of Bosnia-Herzegovinen (Bosnia-Herzegovina), followed by Otto's last brother Rudolph, who would be names the King Rudolf I of Galizien (Galicia). As Otto had no other brothers, his father's Charles I/ Karl I brother (Otto's uncle) Archduke Maximilian Eugen of Austria's sons (Otto's cousins), Archduke Ferdinand of Austria became Ferdinand I of Lodomeria (Lodomerien/ Wolhynien/ Ukrainien), while his brother (Otto's second cousin) Archduke Heinrich of Austria became King Heinrich I or Henry I of Croatia-Slavonia (Croatia and Slavonia (Kroatien und Slavnien). The territory of Serbien-Montenegro (Serbia-Montenegro) meanwhile remained a Kingdom without a King, but under a military General as it's head for the duration of the Second Great War in a sort of Generalgouvernement/ General Governorate or military-border. These regional Kings were intended to give their Kingdoms a more unifying national sense while at the same time encouraging their growing loyalty of the Greater Empire of Austria-Hungary.

Emperor Otto's plans for the Dual Monarchy (Doppel-Monarchy) or Danubal Monarchy (Donaumonarchie) however did not end there, as he planned to incorporate the Kingdoms of Bulgaria, Romania and Greece into the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and the United States of Austria-Hungary (or Greater Austria). To do so Austria-Hungary established the so called Danube Federation as their own internal faction inside the Axis Central Powers to counter balance the German and Italy-Spanish Blocks. Cleverly using their new own Kings as means to form the individual national ideals and loyalty into a overall Austria-Hungarian one, Emperor Otto encouraged Bulgaria, Greece and Romania to join his Danube Federation, where free trade and a defensive pact would determent their future relationship to each other. With the United States of Austrian-Hungarian Scheckel (or USAH Scheckel) as a unifying currency for the overall region. Secretly it was Emperor Otto's plan to use the Danube Federation to further incorporate these independent Kingdoms as new States and Kingdom under himself as a Emperor of the whole Danubal/ Balkan Peninsula region. Often the United States of Austrian-Hungarian Propaganda therefore protracted the Soviet Union as the big enemy, barbaric hordes at their gates, that were ready to overrun Europe and enslave them all, as they already tried in the Balkans with their Communist supported uprisings, here and in the rest of the world, that would according to Vienna only increase, should the Soviet Union and it's Red Army not be stopped as soon as possible.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 601: Burma in Turmoil

The Imperial Japanese Army, the Royal Burmese Army and the Imperial Taikokuo Army inside of Burma had not only to deal with the Allied (mostly English and British Raj) forces along the Burmese-Indian Border Frontline, but also with internal uprisings of various ethnic, religious and even political groups and ideologies against the ruling Buddhist-Burmese Copropsist Nation State. Their main problem was the fact that the Shan State Communist Party (Burmese: ရှကွန်မြူနစ်ပါတီ; abbreviated SSCP), and the Mon National Liberation Army teamed up with the People's Revolutionary Party (PRP, or Socialist Burmese Party) as well as other socialist and communist influenced Student Groups and Rebel Groups, like the Anti-Fascist Royalist Organization (short AFRO) and many of them joined the Communist Party of Burma (Burmese: ဗမာပြည်ကွန်မြူနစ်ပါတီ; abbreviated CPB) that organized most of the ethnic minority uprisings and promised a fair, socialist multinational People's Republic of Myanmar in Burma, by overthrowing the hated Coprospist Monarchists with Allied help from supplies and weapons without even dreaming about letting the British take over once again after they had kicked out the Co-Prosperity Sphere. However the differences of linking the various rebel groups and ethnic tribes across all of Burma, while being physically separated by mountain ranges, Burmese ethnic loyalist land and the Royal Burmese Army alongside it's militia and Co-Prosperity Sphere supportive armies made it nearly impossible to form a strong and consisted resistance that would be able to pose a serious danger to the Burmese and Japanese Coprospists. Luckily for this resistance however, the 1943 Allied Offensives in Arakan and the Chindit's long range penetration deep into Burma posed a serious threat to the Japanese Empire and the Kingdom of Burma in this outer defense parameter of the Co-Prosperity Sphere, that would buy the Burmese uprising groups enough time to form the Anti-Fascist Royalist People's Freedom League (Burmese: ဖက် အဖွဲ့ချုပ်, abbreviated AFRPFL and also known as hpa hsa pa la by its Burmese acronym) as a first unified anti-government coalition of parties, rebels and uprising ethnic groups against the Coprospist Burmese Kingdom in 1944.

Their unified movement to resist against the Burmese Kingdom however would take another major hit, when after 1944 the Allies and the Comintern started to agree to peace talks and slowly got out of the Second Great War against the Axis Central Powers and the Co-Prosperity Sphere. To still remain the major political opposition and strong military resistance, against the Rangoon and later Mandalay governed Buddhist, Burmese Coprospist National State, the AFRPFL unified resistance movement started to invest in Opium to finance their operations and became masters of crafting new alliances and factions, whenever the Burmese Kingdom managed to strike a deal with one of the rebel groups to incorporate them into their state and armed forces. As a response the Burmese Kingdom tried ethnic cleansing and the Burmesezation of various ethnic minority regions, nearly bringing the country into a ethnic civil war with full ethnic cleansing, until the Burmese administration changed it's federal structure to self-administrated states (like Chin or Kachin) for the ethnic minorities, while the rest of the country would be administrated as provinces as they were Burmese dominated. This eased some of the tensions, while the continued Burmese Royal Army military campaign also had devastated most of the minority tribes power to fight by then, as many even used child soldiers, while those anti-Burmese rebels captured alive were used as force labor by the Coprospist Burmese Government to rebuild the damage done by the rebels. For nearly the next eighty years the Burmese industry and economy would heavily depend on this prisoners of war, or life-sentenced criminals of all kinds for cheap forces labor to compete inside the Co-Prosperity Sphere and the rest of the world, while the Burmese petroleum, bran, teakwood, cutch, minerals or even skins often only served to enrich the Burmese ruling ethnic group. This would remain one of the main reasons, why the Socialists and Communists organizations, parties and remained so long important for the minorities and the poor inside of the Burmese Kingdom for decades.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 602: Fascist Royalism: Romanian Michaelism (Mihaiism)

The ground work for the Romanian Fascist Royalism had been paved by the Royal Dictatorship of King Carol who had suspended the Constitution, seized emergency powers and declared martial lawafter the so called Goga-Codrenau pact, a plan of the Iron Guard to withdraw its candidates so that the anti-Semitic right would win the elections with a majority. Afterwards Carol proclaimed martial law and suspended all civil liberties under the grounds that the violent election campaign was running the risk of plunging the nation into civil war, while quickly getting rid of involved Prime Minister Goga in exchange for the Romanian Eastern Orthodox Church Patriarch Elie Cristea, who had widespread respect in the majorly orthodox country. Carol then drafted a more authoritarian and corporatist constitution, turning his nation into a de facto absolute monarchy, while legitimizing this step with a plebiscite under not so ideal conditions, as the verbal vote simply wrote down all who remained silent when asked if they were in support as yes votes. Carol then informed the Germans that he wished closer ties to their government and quickly afterwards did the same to Austria-Hungary too. In April 1938 he crushed the Iron Guard, by imprisoning their closest ally and Interior Minister Armand Călinescu trialing him for treason. However Carol's favor in the population was shrinking after he agreed to give Austria-Hungary back it's former territories in exchange for the Axis Central Powers supporting the remaining Romanian States integrity and independence, even guaranteeing so against Soviet Union claims. In exchange Romanian Oil would go to the Axis Cental Powers to form closer ties between the involved nations. At the same time Carol secretly plotted to place Romania into the British economic sphere. Chancellor Hitler then negotiated with Carol, demanding him to install Codrenau as Prime Minister, knowing that he could possible be replaced Carol killed all Iron Guard Leaders inside his prisons on 30 November 1938.

Afterwards the National Renaissance Front was formed as the only remaining legal party. The Axis Central Powers agreement and guarantees for Poland and other East European Nations against the Soviet Union brought Carol a little closer to their camp then. Around the same time Romanias old enemies Bulgaria and Hungary had surrounded the country with Axis Central Powers states, giving it no true chance then to sigh a economic treaty with Austria-Hungary and Germany, as the Axis Central Power influence on the Balkan Peninsula grew further. But just like in Poland before, Great Britain and France proposed Soviet Union Red Army forces to march trough this countries to defend them from German and Austrian-Hungarian ambitions. Something their governments were unwilling to accept as they did not trust Stalin to not annex them outright once his forces were inside their borders. Some like the German National Party (of the 800,000 people strong German minority), that joined the National Renaissance Front outright opposed King Carol and were in support of a Axis Central Powers guarantee for Romania, as the Soviet Union demanded Bessarabia from the kingdom. Carol meanwhile proposed a defense line around his country, only called the Imagiont Line by his subjects, as they suspected the line was considered to be a purely imaginary version of the Maginot line and that the money raised by higher taxes would go to the king's Swiss bank accounts. Still trying to negotiate between the Allies and the Axis Central Powers carol felt that a tamed Iron Guard could help support his rule, reforming it as the Royal Iron Guard and incorporating it as a paramilitary wing into the National Renaissance Front. With German and Austrian-Hungarian support Carol rejected the Soviet ultimatum for Bessarabia, knowing that the loss of the region without fight would be a national humiliation. That the British and French not guaranteed his independence the same way then Germany and Austria-Hungarian were willing to, brought him and his kingdom closer to the Axis Central Powers. By 1940 Carol's personal cult had reached extreme highs as did his his prestige.

Shortly after Carol invited a German military mission to train the Romanian Army and sworn in a new government headed by Ion Gigurtu with Sima Minister of Arts and Culture. Gigurtu had been a leading figure in the anti-Semitic National Christian Party in the 1930s, was a millionaire businessman with many connections to Germany and was a well-known Germanophile. For all these reasons, Carol hoped that having Gigurtu was Prime Minister would win him Hitler's good-will, and thus prevented any further loss of territory to Axis Central Powers like Bulgaria and Hungary. But inspired by the Hungarians, the Bulgarians soon demanded the return of the Dobruja territory, lost in the Second Balkan War of 1913. Having lost the Allies with his too close ties to the Axis Central Powers, Carol was forced to accept the ceding after nearly going to war over it. Around this time Carol had on 9 July 1940 imprisoned General Ion Antonescu after the latter had criticized the king, charging it was the corruption of the royal government that was responsible for the military backwardness of Romania, and hence the loss of territory to Hungary and Bulgaria. Both Fabricius and Hermann Neubacher, the man in charge of the Four Year Plan's operations in the Balkans intervened with Carol, saying that Antonescu's "accidental death" or being "shot while trying to escape" would "make a very bad impression on the German headquarters" as Antonescu was known to be a leading advocate of an alliance with Germany. On 11 July 1940, Carol had Antonescu freed, but kept under house arrest at the Bisțria monastery. The guarantees of the remaining Romanian state by the Axis Central Powers were quickly accepted by Carl.

By now however, his actions to give up Romanian territory to the Axis Central Powers had discreet him by his people, and in early September 1940 enormous demonstrations broke out all over Romania demanding that Carol abdicate. On 1 September 1940, Sima who had resigned from the government gave a speech calling upon Carol to abdicate, and the Iron Guard began to organize demonstrations all over Romania to press for king's abdication. On 2 September 1940, Valer Pop, a courtier and an important member of the camarilla first advised Carol to appoint General Ion Antonescu as Prime Minister as the solution to the crisis. Pop's reasons for advising Carol to have Antonescu as Prime Minister who was partly because Antonescu, who was known to be friendly with the Iron Guard and had been imprisoned under Carol, was believed to have enough of an op positional background to appease the public and partly because Pop knew that Antonescu for all his Legionary sympathies was a member of the elite and would never turn against it. As the increasingly large crowds started to assemble outside of the royal palace demanding the king's abdication, Carol considered Pop's advice, but was reluctant to have Antonescu as Prime Minister. As more and more people started to join the protests, Pop feared that Romania was on the verge of a revolution that might not only sweep away the king's regime, but also the elite who had dominated the country since the 19th century. To apply further pressure on Carol, Pop met with Fabricius on the night of 4 September 1940 to ask him to tell Carol that the Axis Central Powers wanted Antonescu as Prime Minister, which led to Fabricius promptly calling Carol to tell him to appoint the general as the prime minister. Additionally, the very ambitious General Antonescu who long coveted the Premiership now suddenly started to downplay his long-standing antipathy to Carol, and he suggested that he was prepared to forgive past slights and disputes.

On September 5, 1940, Antonescu became Prime Minister, and Carol transferred most of his dictatorial powers to him. As Prime Minister, Antonescu was a man acceptable to both the Iron Guard and the traditional elite. Carol planned to stay as king after appointing Antonescu and initially Antonescu did not support the popular demand for Carol's abdication. Antonescu had become Prime Minister, but he had a weak political base. As an Army officer, Antonescu was a loner, an arrogant and aloft man with an extremely bad temper who as a consequence was very unpopular with his fellow officers. Antonescu's relations with the politicians were no better, and as such Antonescu was initially unwilling to move against the king until he had some political allies. Carol ordered Antonescu and General Dumitru Coroamă who commanded the troops in Bucharest to shoot down demonstrators in front of the royal palace, an order that both refused to obey. It was only on 6 September 1940, when Antonescu learned of a plot to murder him headed by another member of the camarilla General Paul Teodorescu that Antonescu joined the chorus demanding Carol's abdication. With public opinion solidly against him and with the Army refusing to obey his orders, Carol was forced to abdicate. Carol who had been forced under Hungarian, Bulgarian, German and Austrian-Hungarian pressure to surrender parts of his kingdom to foreign rule, was finally outmaneuvered by the pro-German administration of Marshal Ion Antonescu, and abdicated in favour of Michael in September 1940. He went into exile, initially in Mexico, but ultimately settled in Portugal. Carol and Lupescu settled in Mexico City, where he purchased a house in one of Mexico City's more expensive districts. During the Second Great War, Carol tried to set up a Free Romania movement based in Mexico to overthrow General Antonescu. Carol had hopes that his Free Romania movement would be recognized as a government-in-exile by the Allies, and would ultimately lead to him being restored. The closest Carol ever got to having his Free Romania movement recognized came in 1942 when President Manuel Ávila Camacho allowed Carol to stand besides him while reviewing his troops. Carol would have liked to operate out of the United States, but the American government refused him permission to enter. However, Carol was in contact with two Eastern Orthodox priests living in Chicago, namely Father Glicherie Moraru and Father Alexandru Opreanu who organized an unsuccessful campaign in the Romanian-American community to pressure the American government to recognize the "Free Romania" committee as the legitimate government of Romania. To advance his cause, Carol published a magazine in America called The Free Romanian and published several books in both Romanian and English. A major problem for Carol's efforts to mobilize the Romanian-American community was in 1924 the U. S government brought in the Immigration Control Act, which drastically limited immigration from Eastern Europe into the United States. As such, the majority of Romanian-Americans in the 1940s were either people who immigrated prior to 1924 or their children; in either case, Carol did not mean much to them.

Thanks to that the Iron Guard and the Fascist Royalists in Romania under General and Conducător (Leader instead of Prime Minister) Antonescu created a new pro-German, pro-Austrian-Hungarian and pro-Fascist Romanian Nation State that officially joined the Axis Central Powers, leading to German and Austria-Hungarian troops entered the country, officially to secure it's sovereignty against the Soviet Union claims and ambitions. The new King Michael had once before ruled from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930 and now hoped that closer ties with the Iron Guard, as well as the foreign powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary to get rid of Ion Antonescu to rule once again like his predecessor, with a personal cult in a totalitarian monarchy. With help of the Germans who in return got the Ploiești oil refineries that provided about 30% of all Axis Central Powers oil production as Kaiseröl (Emperor's Oil). He had however also ambitions of becoming King of all Romanians once again, as well as expand his nation state by taking Russian or even Hungarian and Bulgarian territories if he had a chance. Therefore he supported the German-led invasion of the Soviet Union during the Eastern Crusade and Romania annexed Soviet territory as the Transnistria Governorate with Odessa as it's capital, clashing with claims by the Kingdom of Ukrainia in the region. Tensions grew and Austria-Hungary had to negotiate between both Axis Central Power member states. Romanian Forces fought alongside the other Axis Central Powers one in the Ukraine, Crimea and Caucasus Operations and Campaigns.

Michael was glad, when Austria-Hungarian turned into the United States of Greater Austria/ the United States of Austria-Hungary as a more democratic, parlamentarian monarchy and the Romanians inside Austria-Hungary's new States enjoyed widespread autonomy and independence. Michael understood that by joining the Danube Federation he could help the economy of his country and have closer ties to Austria-Hungary and the Axis Central Powers, who unlike the Allies had truly stood by their word to protect and defend Romanian independence. This close ties would later in 1948 lead to his marriage of Archduchess Charlotte of Austria (German: Erzherzogin Charlotte von Österreich), the sister of Austrian Emperor Otto II in 1948 that would further increase the close ties and alliances between Austria-Hungary and Romania and ultimately lead to the incorporation of Romania into the United States of Austria-Hungary after being a part of the same internal Axis Central Powers faction and alliance, the Danube Federation before. With the birth of his first of five sons, Crown Prince Gareth on 26 March 1949 Romania would officially become a part of the United States of Austria Hungary (also known as the United Danube States or United Balkan States) and King Michael would be the King of all Romanians under Austrian Emperor Otto once again.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 603: Japanese Zaibatsu inside of the Co-Prosperity Sphere

The Japanese Zaibatsu (industrial and financial business conglomerates) were one of the major driving forces behind the creation of the Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere and it's expansion into Asia. One of the main reasons besides new living space for Japans overpopulated home islands was their need for resources to fuel their industry and military, as well as the wish of the Japanese Zaibatsu to open up new markets and economic regions for them, after the Chinese, the Americans and others had either restricted Japanese migration or Japanese products from entering their countries. Therefore the then created Co-Prosperity Sphere was also the Yen Block, a economic area as well as a political entity, were the Japanese would secure all their needs in resources as well as buyers and customers. Like many National Monarchists and Fascist Royalists in Europe however the Japanese Zaibatsu ideas of how to archive this goal were not very liberal and had nothing to do with a free-marked model. Japanese Zaibatsu therefore used the hegemony of the Yen Block and the Co-Prosperity Sphere to ensure their own dominance over other regional competitors, who mostly also lacked the money and industrial capacity to compete with them.

In the End this ambitions, ideas and goals lead in cooperation with the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy, who wished to produce their equipment and supplies directly where they were stationed, to the creation of subsidiary companies of the Japanese Zaibatsu, who in return learned a valuable lesson. They could use the sheer masses of Chinese and Asian labor-force to produce the products they wished to create with much cheaper labor force, then they would in Japan, then sell the cheaper produced goods still for a good price in Japan, or quit literally where they had been produced, in the other states of the Co-Prosperity Sphere, that thanks to Japanese limits, taxes and even counter-embargoes to the European and American ones had no choice then to buy the Zaibatsu products, as they remained cheaper or even were the only ones available for the people in this states and region. For any Japanese Zaibatsu the Yen Block and the Co-Prosperity Sphere was a financial dream come true, despite some destruction and losses, as they could get richer then in their wildest dreams, by cheaply mass-producing or building with the Asian labor force masses, while all that sweet, sweet money came back to them in Japan, even that of their subsidiary companies.

At the same time it helped greatly that the Co-Prosperity Sphere, out of the necessarily need to use the men for the war a soldiers opened up for women in the workforce. This greatly improved the overall available factory workers in the whole Co-Prosperity Sphere, but also dramatically changed their societies, as women were forced out of their traditional roles and now worked and made their own money. This soon lead to other liberties during or after the Second Great War, as women forced their way to have a right to vote and be slowly but steady fully emancipated and on-pair with men before the law in their liberties, rights and responsibilities, including the for them unpopular draft or work inside the fire brigades, police or militia (even if mostly in auxiliary and supportive roles at first, no active fighting or dangerous duties). In many ways the Showa era was seen by many Japanese as a Second Meji Restoration as once again their nation changed dramatically, this time not to get on pair with the once superior European Powers, but to remain atop above them after the Second Great War. This massive increase in resources and manpower helped Japan and the Co-Prosperity Sphere to become the dominant global economy and industrial power on the globe.

The hegemonic position that the Japanese Zaibatsu had gained during the Second Great War greatly helped most of them to stay at the top of the Co-Prosperity Sphere and global conglomerates and banks even when the Co-Prosperity Sphere itself liberalized more and some of their subsidiary companies also became great players, while at the same time the European and American Conglomerates and states began to fight with them over economical dominance and hegemony over the global marked. This more liberal approach in the 50ies, 60ies and 70ies allowed the former Zaibatsu subsidiary conglomerates to become major players themselves and some of them even would bypass or outlive their founding Zaibatsu themselves. However what would be known in the End as the Japanese Century or the Great Asian Industrial Miracle was not destined, as Japan and the Co-Prosperity Sphere similar to Europe's Axis Central Powers had been severely damaged and partly even crippled during the Second Great War thanks of the bombing of their cities and industries, or the sinking of most of their merchant fleet and transport ships. However Coprospisms strong Asian work ethic, collectivism, totalitarianism and major Zaibatsu corporate proved supreme thanks to the Asian masses getting to the same technological level and skills then the Imperial Colonial European and American Powers had to stay ahead of them before the Second Great War, thereby outmatching them with their sheer numbers, resources and partly the copy of well functioning European models, like automating and assembly line production.


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Note: yes it is much like what the kind of neo-imperialist multinational conglomerates OTL do in the third world and poor nations in a way, but ever since the beginning of colonialism and imperialism the concept isn't so new

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 604: En Svensk Tiger

Special envoy to the Kingdom of Sweden, Imperial German Air Admiral Hermann Göring, close friend to the Swedish King Gustaf V and his eldest son Prince Gustav Adolf was quit popular inside the German Empire and the Swedish Kingdom, even in other regions of the Axis Central Powers. Nicknaming himself “der Eiserne” (the Iron Man) for his once dashing and muscular figure as a fighter pilot for the German Empire during the First Great War, Göring had become quit corpulent since then. While he managed to loose dome weight after the German Military Coup in prison, his return to power and influence as a Air Admiral and special envoy saw the return of some of his old, bad habits. Being the target of many jokes because of it, no matter how rude they were however, Göring never toke offense in hearing any of these jokes about himself, as he saw it as a sign of popularity, something that made him quit popular among the average people. Because of this jokes about his ego, like saying that “he would wear an air admiral's uniform made out of rubber with rubber medals to take a bath”, his obesity, joking that “he sits down on his stomach”, he once could fly in a fighter, now even a bomber would not be able to take him off the ground” one Italian joke even claimed he had sent a wire to Chancellor Hitler and Emperor Wilhelm after a visit: “Mission accomplished. Pope unfrocked. Tiara and pontifical vestments are a perfect fit.” For most of the returned German aristocracy and Imperial Government this made Görign a strange figure, as many were not so keen about jokes or criticism after what had happened during the Kiel Sailor Revolt that had started the downfall of the Second German Empire. However here in Stockholm friends like the Swedish King and Crown Prince were experienced with his humor and often joined in on it.

One particular joke had them questioning that the renaming of the Baltic Sea (or Eastern Sea in Germany) into the Teutonic Sea had not been enough after the German Empire recently had renamed the Northern Sea into the German Sea on official maps. Görings last visit had shown him the naval works at Visvy in Gotland, were destroyers, cruisers and even battleships were to be build alongside other Swedish Naval Yards to train in the safety of the Teutonic See far away from Allied bombers and mines. That had inspired Air Admiral Hermann Göring for his very own suggestion; “why ship the Royal Swedish Iron Ore from Gällivare and Kiruna to Germany, if the factories there were bombed by Allies anyway”. As he himself however was responsible for the Battle for Britain and the air safety over the German Empire and in parts the whole Axis Central Powers Europe, he rephrased his idea into; “why not build tanks, aircraft and other German equipment with licensing directly in the Swedish Kingdom, as it would shorten transportation route and was even closer to the British and the Russian Front anyway”. The fact that it was for now also outside the range of Allied bombers was a additional plus for his overall idea in the eyes of the German High Command and the Emperor. Thanks to this agreement the Swedish Kingdom started to build Tiger tanks and Königstiger tanks (named after the German word for Bengal tiger, often wrongly translated Royal Tiger or King Tiger) alongside Focke-Wulf and Henkel airplanes constructed alongside them. The majority of these Swedish build air-force were directed towards the Western Front, mainly to help out in the Battle of Britain, or to fight allied bombers over continental Europe, while the majority of the produced tanks, weapons and infantry vehicles or supplies meanwhile went to the Eastern Front, more accurate the Eastern Crusade in Russia as nearly none of them were going to go to the Middle East or the African Theatres of War.