The Sun, The Stars and The Sickle: Alt-WWII and a Tripolar Postwar World
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I should specify that there are two trials going on right now.
The first is the military tribunal being faced by Yoshioka and Miyabara for beating Kishi. The greater charge is assault against a civilian, which carries a customary minimum sentence of 7 years of hard labour, and a proscribed maximum sentence of death by hanging. The lesser charge, unlawful appropriation or destruction of civilian property, is much more flexible in sentencing- often it can consist of a reprimand and restitution made to the aggrieved party.
The second (which I'll cover in the next update) is the criminal trial, pitting the Imperial Crown of Manchukuo against Kishi for assault, soliciting prostitution, and the attempted rape of Mrs. Keiko Miyabara. Kishi will no doubt complain that Mrs. Miyabara stabbed him first, while Mrs. Miyabara can stand on the fact that Kishi removed his trousers and offered her money, and then threatened her family first, and refused to leave when asked.
The event I alluded to at the end of Part 2 is yet another separate one...
Count Terauchi is known for being a firey orator and writer, and OTL, on more than one occasion, told another member of the Diet that they should either retract and apologize for a previous statement, or commit seppuku. He is a valuable ally for Yoshioka and Miyabara, as he is not only the ranking field commander, he has vast personal wealth of his own, and is the son of a former Prime Minister and Governor of Korea, Field Marshal Count Masatake Terauchi.
General Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni is important to have onside too as he is the Emperor's cousin. His son, Morihiro is even rumoured to be courting Emperor Hirohito's eldest daughter (OTL they married in 1943).
The matter would likely not be considered settled by Mrs. Miyabara stabbing Kishi. While she defended her person and virtue, Kishi struck her afterwards. It would be shameful a d dishonourable if the men sworn to protect her did nothing; it would bring them personal dishonour for cowardice, and familial dishonour for not avenging an egregious assault against a woman of their houses. Interestingly enough, doing nothing would also hurt their careers- senior officers would look down on such spineless juniors who do not recognize Bushido, which defines the Japanese officer and gentleman.
I suspect some type of mental gymnastics or the like to be involved:
Hypothetical military verdict said:
Or something like that. Beyond 100% a reasonable doubt guilty will probably be something the judges will be really anal about in this trial.
And the Westerners continue to be sympathetic. Patton especially, seeing as he comes from landed old blood in the Southern USA. European gentlemen and men like Patton would remark that this is a kind of situation that could otherwise have been resolved on a level field, between two men, two witnesses, and either a pair of revolvers, flintlocks, or sabers. Meanwhile, your common man on the street is likely to just roll their eyes, and wonder why this is even in question: Kishi put his hands on another man's wife. Did he really expect the husband and the wife's brother to just sit back and do nothing?
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Let's start with the obvious, the officers will be found guilty of destruction of property against the restaurant. A fine will be be imposed, and some rich/politically well connected supporter of the men will take care of it. Note, this is likely to be the same charge as if some enlisted men had gotten into a bar brawl and damaged a bar, though with less damage to careers for the two men since there were being more honorable in attacking Kishi than a simple bar brawl.
A duel to the death is unlikely to be the outcome, either of the two soldiers would *easily* beat Kishi with pretty much any likely weapon.
Ordinarily, I would imagine as a puppet government Manchuko would be unlikely to put such a politically well connected Japanese businessman on trial on these charges. The fact that they are doing so, indicates that there is at least some part of the Japanese government willing to see Kishi punished for that. I don't know if Kishi being expelled from Manchuko and never allowed to return would be viewed as appropriate punishment and whether it would affect his fortune.
The men followed Bushido and *then* turned themselves into the Military police, even if the men receive the *maximum* penalty, *Someone* of high rank will take Mrs. Miyabara into their household. At absolute *worst* she will make clothing for a Noble's house for a generous stipend while she waits for her husband.
A duel to the death is unlikely to be the outcome, either of the two soldiers would *easily* beat Kishi with pretty much any likely weapon.
Ordinarily, I would imagine as a puppet government Manchuko would be unlikely to put such a politically well connected Japanese businessman on trial on these charges. The fact that they are doing so, indicates that there is at least some part of the Japanese government willing to see Kishi punished for that. I don't know if Kishi being expelled from Manchuko and never allowed to return would be viewed as appropriate punishment and whether it would affect his fortune.
The men followed Bushido and *then* turned themselves into the Military police, even if the men receive the *maximum* penalty, *Someone* of high rank will take Mrs. Miyabara into their household. At absolute *worst* she will make clothing for a Noble's house for a generous stipend while she waits for her husband.
I think it will be VERY interesting in the future actually seeing Japanese society develop into the Cold War era with such a powerful and revered figure as the Emperor.
I don’t think you’d have anything like it in most countries except in dictatorships, but the Emperor goes beyond that considering he’s also technically the Shinto Pope equivalent.
It might be a bit early for that yet- in Imperial Japan, suffrage is extended to men only and women are usually expected to be a "good wife, wise mother".
However, women are much more mobilized in the labour force than OTL, and there is a small but growing first-wave feminist movement.
However, Keiko Miyabara did put up a fight when Kishi threatened her, and she was not intimidated by his wealth and power. That is what will make headlines now. A family in which even the woman upholds the honour of her father and husband's houses, while her husband and brother serve their Emperor and country on the battlefield. None of the members of this family even think of breaking that code. They do not bend or break when threatened with poverty, violence, imprisonment or even death.
There will also be the added element of Hirohito being the Emperor that reigned over Japan's great victory. Japan is no longer a second-class ally to the West, and he continued his grandfather's legacy of modernization. Even Western media is anywhere between complimentary and reverential in their treatment of the Emperor. Whether seated at his microscope, or in his Grand Marshal's uniform riding Shirayuki, his white stallion, the picture is complimentary.
I think it's fairly obvious, however, that any system which gives Nobusuke Kishi the vote, but not Keiko Miyabara, is a system with some rather serious flaws.
That right there is almost certainly going to be the rallying cry of the nascent women's suffrage movement.
To be fair that's actually in-line with women's role in bushido. As in actual, historical bushido, not the caricature Japan made of it IOTL WWII, or the sanitized, post-sengoku version of it that the Tokugawa Shogunate implemented.
Women are wives and mothers, that much is true. But that doesn't mean that's all they were supposed to be. During the sengoku women were as much warriors as men were. Part of running the household included commanding and manning the defenses when the men were away, and it wasn't uncommon to see women training with bladed weapons and the bow and arrow (which was actually the weapon of choice for the samurai of the sengoku not the sword) alongside men. Widows commonly took up their husbands' weapons and armor, and fought for their lords in their place.
And finally, women of good virtue and standing were expected to be able to protect themselves by force if needed. The ideal of the yamato nadeshiko can be truthfully summed up as steel hidden in silk. It might sound an anime or shounen cliche, but that is actually true. A true Japanese woman should appear feminine, but should also be no less spirited than a Japanese man.
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Bookmark1995
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Nationalist pseudohistories always have a tendency of glossing over the achievements of women. Women are always being ignored, and it is so frustrating.
It's almost as if nationalists might be closet incels. And considering what happened in OTL Nanking, I don't think it is a fabrication.
Hopefully that changes in this timeline. Japan was not nearly as patriarchal as it eventually became by the modern era. And even today, some vestiges remain: the supreme godhead of the Japanese pantheon is the Sun Goddess, after all. And as I mentioned earlier, Japanese women were well-represented in the armies of the sengoku, while in the Heian Era (considered even today as the Golden Age of Japanese literature) women held a preeminent place when it came to the field of writing.
Not to mention...Japan only adopted agnatic primogeniture as a result of modernization. Japan actually had a number of Empress Regnants throughout its history.
The easiest method to change thoughts would be if Japan instituted something similar to the WRNS/WAAF/ATS considering how close it is to Britain here. It wouldn't even be that hard considering their duties.
WRNS (Wrens/Women's Royal Naval Service): Cooks, clerks, wireless telegraphists, radar plotters, weapons anlysists, range assessors, electricians, and air mechanics (also flying transport planes) as well as acting as crew for cargo ships.
WAAF (Women's Auxilary Air Service, previously Women's Royal Air Force in WWI): drivers, parachute packing, catering, metrology, radar operators, aircraft maintence, communications of various sorts such as telegraphs, working with codes and ciphers as well as recon photos. You also had the ones who flew "Civilian" planes for transport of troops and the like. Also, the Flying Nightingales whose job it was to act as nurses on aircraft flying the wounded to safety/hospitals.
ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service, which had it's roots in the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps of WWI): Similar to the above with cooks, clerks, and the like. Though some also operated search lights and AA gun emplacements during the Battle of Britain.
In general, they received two thirds the pay of their male counterparts. I could see something similar here with them playing up the legends of the Onna Bugeisha. Probably with some of the Emperor's daughters being the "Heads" of said groups.
Such a service would now have the perfect spokesperson/propaganda poster. Keiko Miyabara in a backwards senbou with a Type 1 tetsukabuto helmet over it, wielding a carbine... it would get attention for sure!
@Jaenera Targaryen ,that is fascinating... I knew there were woman warriors in pre-Tokugawa Japan, but not how widespread they were! Those precedents will certainly be utilized in the defence of the "Steel Flower of Dairen"
The only problem is that they'd have to figure out some way to turn tailoring scissors into part of the uniform..
Randy
Well, not impossible:
^The woman in that picture for the WRENs was an actual Wren as a matter of fact. And for other examples of such posters...
It should be noted that it was not just the Commonwealth that did this:
Huh... and now I cannot help but imagine a recruiting poster for a Japanese version of the ATS/WAC based on an ATS poster.
Basically, you got in the foreground a modern Japanese woman in uniform on a motorcycle with a satchel and in the background "Beside her" you have a ghostly Onna-Bugeisha on a horse seeming to ride alongside. At the top it states "This woman is continuing her ancestor's tradition by helping the men at war to defeat the enemy by delivering messages to the front from the rear."
And at the bottom "Will you join her in honoring your proud ancestors? Join the _______ and do so today!"
Well, not impossible:
^The woman in that picture for the WRENs was an actual Wren as a matter of fact. And for other examples of such posters...
It should be noted that it was not just the Commonwealth that did this:
Huh... and now I cannot help but imagine a recruiting poster for a Japanese version of the ATS/WAC based on an ATS poster.
Basically, you got in the foreground a modern Japanese woman in uniform on a motorcycle with a satchel and in the background "Beside her" you have a ghostly Onna-Bugeisha on a horse seeming to ride alongside. At the top it states "This woman is continuing her ancestor's tradition by helping the men at war to defeat the enemy by delivering messages to the front from the rear."
And at the bottom "Will you join her in honoring your proud ancestors? Join the _______ and do so today!"
That is amazing, and will have to (with your permission of course) be canonized into the TL! Thank you for all your amazing contributions!
Since that song covers just about every branch, we'll need a new verse for the Women's Auxiliary. Something like:
Whether delivering messages to the battlefront or deciphering the enemy's messages,
Japan's iron blossoms are not afraid to join the war effort!
The battlefield nurse is an instrument of our Empress' compassion ,
Like the Empress, we are silk-shrouded steel at our Emperor's side!
Thank you, I don’t mind at all.
But yeah, there were issues in RL in Imperial Japan considering women. They would most definitely not support them joining the fighting. But things like clerks, nurses, messengers, and possibly mechanics or transport drivers/pilots would be more acceptable to them culturally. It could also be considered as a way to free men up for other duties towards the front line.
Works, just like the Emperor would be the head of the military, the Empress would be head of the women’s auxiliary (possibly his daughters if there’s branches with each one being head of said group).
On the subject of onna bugeisha, one particularly amazing one was Tomoe Gozen:
She was known for being both beautiful and ferocious. She could ride an unbroken horse, and was adept with a bow, nakinata and even the katana, which was almost exclusively wielded by men. She not only rode into battle, she led men into battle, and at least one adversary fled and commited suicide rather than admit defeat at the hands of a woman.
She was known for being both beautiful and ferocious. She could ride an unbroken horse, and was adept with a bow, nakinata and even the katana, which was almost exclusively wielded by men. She not only rode into battle, she led men into battle, and at least one adversary fled and commited suicide rather than admit defeat at the hands of a woman.
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