Great time travel

Chapter 35, East Asia War Cloud Rising

Early January [-], Naha Port, Okinawa Prefecture
When the Korean peninsula is already snowing heavily, dripping into ice, and freezing to the bone, Okinawa County on the Ryukyu Islands is still as warm as spring.

Under the clear blue sky, the rippling sea reflected the golden light of the sun, like a huge sapphire.

However, the nearby Okinawa Island is full of gunpowder and dilapidated, which is in stark contrast to the beauty of the sea and sky.

Naha Port, the largest city on the island, was already covered in rubble.Among the dilapidated streets and alleys scattered with countless bomb craters, there are piles of dilapidated buildings and ruins everywhere, many of which are still smoking.The corpses and shell casings scattered on the streets, the fragmented shipwrecks in the port, and the sporadic, charred Stars and Stripes and Sun Flags all fully show that this place has just been ravaged by a war.

Until now, in the countryside far away from the port, sporadic gunshots and screams can still be heard from time to time.

——That was the landing of the Japanese Marine Corps, continuing to wipe out the fleeing enemy troops.

Those Okinawa islanders who were lucky enough to survive were not like walking corpses at this time, wandering on the burned homeland, trying to dig out some usable things from the collapsed ruins and thick ashes.Other islanders who still have houses to live in temporarily blocked the doors and windows with wooden strips and furniture. At the same time, through the narrow door cracks, they watched the rising sun flag on the pier again with complicated eyes... …

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Going back to three months ago, when the news of the Tokyo nuclear explosion, the extermination of the royal family, and the collapse of the empire came one after another in October last year, people in Okinawa Prefecture, like other prefectures in Japan, fell into great chaos and confusion among.Next, when the "Interim Government of Japan" that came out of nowhere issued an announcement, declaring that it would bear the burden of humiliation, truce and negotiate a peace, and that it would not hesitate to surrender unconditionally to the U.S. military for this reason, most of the citizens of Okinawa who were originally anxious, He responded enthusiastically to this announcement almost without thinking, without any intention of avenging the emperor.

——Unlike the prefectures and counties of the Japanese archipelago, the relationship between Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands to the Japanese Empire is more similar to that of Ireland to Britain.It is not so much a native country as it is a colony that was annexed earlier.The aborigines of this island are not part of the Yamato nation, they have their own language and civilization.Between the 500th and [-]th centuries, there were three primitive tribal countries in Okinawa that practiced the aristocratic enfeoffment system: the Kitayama Kingdom, the Zhongshan Kingdom, and the Nanshan Kingdom.Then, as the saying goes, a storm can rise in a teacup, a series of wars broke out between these three miniature countries.In the end, the Zhongshan Kingdom ruled by the Shang family completed the great cause of unification and established the Ryukyu Kingdom, which lasted for [-] years.

However, although Niuhide coaxed the name of a "kingdom", Ryukyu was after all a small place hanging on the sea, with barren land and a small population.If you want to measure the strength of Ryukyu, an ancient country, it may not be easy to compare it with the example of China. For the example of Japan, the Owari country, which started from the overlord of the Warring States Period, Oda Nobunaga, has a stone height (annual rice output) of 57. stone.And what is the stone height of the Ryukyu Kingdom?Only 12 shi!

In other words, the so-called Ryukyu Kingdom is only equivalent to one-fifth of the strength of Owari Kingdom daimyo Oda Nobunaga at the time of the Battle of Ozama.There are basically no mines worth mentioning in this country, nor are there any lucrative specialties, and even ironware basically depends on imports.There was not enough food to eat. Before the introduction of sweet potatoes, Ryukyu civilians had been eating miscellaneous grains and even cycad fruit to satisfy their hunger, which was called "cycad hell".

Fortunately, the geographic location of the Ryukyu Kingdom itself is a very valuable bargaining chip.In the early days of the Age of Discovery, Ryukyu Island was once a very important transit trade port in the Far East.Relying on the rich income from multilateral trade among China, North Korea, Japan, Malaya and the Spice Islands, this small Ryukyu Kingdom once had a golden age of prosperity and prosperity for hundreds of years, with various tall temples and pagodas Tombs and stone tortoise shells have been erected one after another.

However, this also aroused the covetousness of the evil neighbors in the north. At the beginning of the [-]th century, the Satsuma clan located at the southernmost tip of Kyushu Island sent [-] troops across the sea to conquer Ryukyu. Only a few miscellaneous soldiers died, and they easily conquered this country with almost no standing army. islands.

However, Ryukyu and Satsuma are far apart after all, and their languages ​​and races are very different. Moreover, with the size and background of Satsuma, it is difficult to swallow such a self-contained island country for a while.In addition, if the shell of the Ryukyu Kingdom is preserved, Satsuma businessmen can also use this to bypass the shogunate's lock-up order and the Qing Dynasty's ban on seas, and continue to trade with China under the banner of "Ryukyu Tribute Envoy", thereby seeking huge profits and making up for the The fiscal deficit in the domain.

Therefore, although the Ryukyu Kingdom later had to pay taxes and tribute to Satsuma, and allowed a Satsuma samurai to station in the country, it basically maintained its independence in internal affairs and culture, and even the language was not assimilated. Probably similar to the US troops stationed in Korea and the South Korean government in later generations.

After the Meiji Restoration, the unified Japanese government finally could no longer tolerate the continued existence of the semi-independent Ryukyu Kingdom. In [-], it formally annexed Ryukyu, turning it into Okinawa County, and treating the islanders Beginning to implement Japanization education... Calculated in this way, the Japanese Empire incorporated Okinawa into its territory, that is, it was more than ten years earlier than the invasion of Taiwan, and it was not enough for the survivors of the Ryukyu Kingdom to regard themselves as Japanese.

——Whether it is feelings for Japan as a country or loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor, the hearts of Okinawa people are very weak.Whether it was the Satsuma clan or the later Meiji government, they mainly searched and squeezed Okinawa.Therefore, in Okinawa at this time, except for a few Japanese immigrants who moved in later, most of the natives, or the survivors of the Ryukyu Kingdom, had no sense of belonging to Japan.

Therefore, when the news of the collapse of the Japanese Empire spread to the Ryukyu Islands, except for a few "ball traitors" who were deeply educated by the emperor and Japanese expatriates who later moved in, most of them had already been compulsorily conscripted, volunteered, war taxes and The residents of Okinawa County, who were tortured to death by the national defense debt, were all relieved, and then rushed to the county hall together to petition the county governor, asking him to send a telegram as soon as possible to recognize the "unconditional surrender to the allied forces" The Provisional Government of Japan" has stayed away from wars since then, so as not to bring gas bombs and atomic bombs from the US military to Okinawa.

However, Governor Shimada, who is in charge of Okinawa Prefecture as an official loyal to His Majesty the Emperor, does not want to express his position so soon.On the one hand, I can't pass the hurdle in my heart for the time being, and on the other hand, the US military is still far away, and it seems that there is no need to rush out.Besides, although the palace and the wartime headquarters in Tokyo are gone, the empire's million-strong army is still there, and the invincible combined fleet is still there. Who knows what will happen in the future?
But public opinion is hard to disobey: Seeing that Governor Shimada is always procrastinating and playing sloppy eyes, and has little affection for the Japanese Empire, but is afraid of being bombarded by the US nuclear bomb, the residents of Okinawa County are all anxious. Riots broke out, and even the native policemen sided with them.Moreover, because it is a rear island far away from the battlefield, there is no garrison in Okinawa County at this time.There are two divisions stationed on the nearby island of Taiwan. The problem is that the governor of Taiwan was the first to accept the surrender announcement... Where can the governor ask for help?
The governor of Okinawa Prefecture, Mr. Shimada, who had no choice but to be called every day and the land was not working, hung up his seal and left in a fit of anger, and went home behind closed doors.A group of "revolutionary masses" quarreled in the Okinawa County Hall for a few days, and found it very boring, and finally elected a "highly respected" primary school principal, who is said to be an old man descended from the Shang family of the former Ryukyu royal family, as the "Okinawa Regent" , and at the same time issued a telegram to surrender unconditionally to the Allies.

So far, the riots in Okinawa Prefecture seem to have come to an end, and the situation has temporarily calmed down.Although the relationship between Japanese immigrants and Ryukyu aborigines has become extremely tense during this turmoil, after all, both sides are in constant panic, waiting for the trial of fate, and no one is in the mood to fight.

However, the good times didn't last long. In late November, two destroyers, a gunboat and two merchant ships, carrying hundreds of Japanese navy, army officers, soldiers and expatriates, arrived at Naha Port in Okinawa one after another.They were all Japanese officers, soldiers and expatriates who fled from Taiwan Island. Because they refused to surrender to the Allied forces, they would rather return home on their own.I thought that when I arrived in Okinawa County, most of my feet had stepped on the mainland. I didn’t expect to look here, but found a group of "non-nationals" entrenched in the Okinawa County Hall: in order to welcome the Allied forces to occupy and take over, the islanders even returned All kinds of handmade Stars and Stripes hang on the streets of Naha!

The warriors of the imperial army were furious when they saw this, and were fooled by a few radical staff officers, and immediately opened their mouths to kill people.After the unbearable local islanders of Okinawa killed some people, they also took out their stockpiles of weapons and began to fight against the resurgent imperial army—even the survivors of the Ryukyu Kingdom in Okinawa Prefecture had fully received militaristic education and training in this era Regardless of whether there is any loyalty to die for the emperor, at least the basic combat capabilities of the militia level are still available... The scale of the battle will soon become larger and larger. Facing the swarming "armed mob", the destroyers of the Japanese Navy have no choice but to The naval guns were used to bombard the pier, and the flesh and blood were blown up all at once.Many Japanese immigrants who had settled on the island for several generations were also involved in this bloody dispute, helplessly involved in the ever-expanding vendetta.All of a sudden, the whole county was full of gunpowder, like pirates attacking the city...

Then, before the Japanese imperial army who "protected the country with iron and blood" had a result with the Ryukyu people who "lived up to the emperor", the Americans also came here.

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——Almost at the same time as the Battle of Nagoya, MacArthur, who commanded the battle, also dispatched some small troops to take over the surrendered local governments of the Japanese Empire.After that, although MacArthur became a prisoner and was thrown into an iron cage and paraded through the streets, the work of accepting the surrender continued.

Among them, since Okinawa is a transportation hub between Japan, mainland China and Taiwan Island, its geographical location is relatively critical, so the U.S. military mobilized an escort aircraft carrier, a heavy cruiser, a tank landing ship, four destroyers and several The merchant ships, forming a small squadron, carrying a regiment of the Anzac Army and a battalion of the First Marine Division, set off from Tokyo all the way to take charge of the surrender of Okinawa Prefecture.

As a result, the "diehard Japanese fascists" who were still acting fiercely on Okinawa just a moment ago were immediately subjected to all-round brutal suppression by the US military from aircraft bombing to cruiser shelling to tank crushing.The two destroyers, one gunboat, and two merchant ships parked in the port were all blown up or captured before they had time to respond, and the Japanese soldiers who had already landed were also quickly driven out of the city and scattered in a mess Between the countryside.

Next, the Japanese immigrants in Naha Port City who had already immigrated to Okinawa for several generations were also captured from their homes one by one by the red-eyed Ryukyu people, and were collectively executed by the same red-eyed U.S. military in broad daylight... As a result, there are mountains of corpses and seas of blood everywhere on the island, and the scene is like purgatory.

But the problem is that after killing a few batches of Japanese immigrants who could be found, the American soldiers who had completely lost control in the massacre began to point their guns at the locals of Ryukyu again-in their eyes, these damn yellow-skinned Monkeys are no different.Especially those Anzac soldiers burned, killed and looted everywhere on the island, doing all kinds of evil, which soon aroused the resistance of the Ryukyu people.

Then, as the saying goes, the mantis catches the cicada, and the oriole follows.Just as the island was filled with gunpowder and the melee was endless, bombers and torpedo fleets of the Japanese Naval Air Force suddenly appeared in the sky above Okinawa, and countless steel warships appeared on the distant horizon!

——After receiving distress telegrams from the trapped Japanese troops in Okinawa, especially the naval officers and soldiers on the two destroyers, he commanded the joint fleet aircraft carrier mobile fleet and transport fleet to go north from the Truk anchorage, and was about to go to Hainan Island to meet with the battleship General Horityoshi, who joined the formation, hastily ordered a temporary diversion to Okinawa to save his comrades and compatriots from the butcher knife of "American, British and White Animals"... At this time, although he did not have the most powerful battleship in his hand, he concentrated the United Fleet Navy The essence of aviation, and a large number of escort cruisers and destroyers...

Thus, on the battlefield of Okinawa, the positions of hunters and prey were reversed again... The changing world is really dizzying.

In this way, in less than a week, Naha Port, the capital of Okinawa County, was plowed three times by naval guns and bombs, and it was completely turned into a pile of ruins. Almost a third of the world has evaporated...