46 Liberation of Korea (4)

What was Japan to do when facing a China that presented overwhelming power? Not only was Prince Regent Hirohito at a loss, but the Japanese Cabinet was also at a loss.

Ever since Britain began industrializing, apart from plunder, the development speed of a nation had been very limited. Averaging it out, a 3% annual growth rate was considered a great miracle. The speed of industrial and agricultural development in the base areas controlled by the People's Party was something unheard of and unseen in this timeline. According to the People's Party's internal statistics, since 1911, the agricultural and industrial growth in the base areas had exceeded 7% every year. Industrial growth alone exceeded 12% at its lowest. In 1923, the scale of China's industry was eight times that of 1911. Most importantly, China's industrial categories were constantly being perfected, primarily solving the problem of whether they existed or not.

Japan could not comprehend China's changes. They originally viewed China as "blowing hard" every day, claiming grain yields per mu increased by over a dozen jin annually. After more than a decade, China's average grain yield per mu had reached 400 jin. This was nearly double that of Japan. In industry, today they would break through in steel rolling—"The days of the Chinese people relying entirely on imports for rolled steel products are finally over!" Tomorrow they would break through with a hydraulic press or a gantry crane—"The days of the Chinese people being unable to produce large-scale marine processing equipment are gone forever!" The *People's Daily* was full of such articles every day.

There were plenty of jokes in Japan mocking the Chinese People's Party for bragging, but these changes were all real. China was running fast with small steps, ceaselessly raising its own industrial level. Japan's industrial advantage over China had completely turned into a disadvantage within a dozen years. In the Lushun Fortress campaign, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's triphibious attack from land, sea, and air finally made Japan understand just how powerful the China they were facing really was. Especially the Navy, which Japan took pride in; the fleet took four torpedoes. Over a thousand shells were fired in the naval bombardment. The result was zero gains. After the submarine force of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army attacked the Japanese Navy, they actually safely disengaged from the battle line. This terrified the Japanese Navy. They didn't know exactly how many submarines China had, nor could they guarantee their luck would be this good every time. The damage control on the warships that took torpedoes was effective, and at least they didn't sink. There were no major disasters, but plenty of minor troubles. Repairing the torpedoed warships alone cost over a million yen. Japan could no longer continue the war with China.

Current Prime Minister Yamamoto Gonnohyoe knew his time as Prime Minister had come to an end. He had absolutely no power to reverse Japan's situation. Disaster relief and war—either one exceeded Japan's current capabilities. After receiving news that the "traitors" from northern Korea had publicly appeared in Geneva, Yamamoto Gonnohyoe simply resigned from the Cabinet, taking the blame. He resigned quite happily; the position of Prime Minister was currently not a hot potato, but an erupting volcano. No one was willing to sit on this crater and wait for death. Surprisingly, no one wanted to fight for such a high-ranking and powerful position as Prime Minister.

The Cabinet members were very clear that the key now was not the position of Prime Minister. The policy of limited expansion that Japan had established after the First Sino-Japanese War had now reached a dead end. As long as Japan still upheld a policy of hardline external expansion, it would ceaselessly come into conflict with China. Looking at the current balance of power between China and Japan, the trend of Japan losing every battle was almost impossible to reverse. The external environment was so harsh, and the internal situation was no better than the external one. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, Japan's industrial and agricultural levels continued to shrink, with unemployment and bankruptcy. External pressure could not be transferred internally, and internal problems could not be transferred externally. The entire Japan was beset with difficulties both at home and abroad, and social conflict had reached an extremely dangerous edge.

Both the Japanese Army Ministry and Navy Ministry requested Takahashi Korekiyo to take up the post of Prime Minister. In the last ten years, only Takahashi Korekiyo had completed a Prime Minister's term. Although Takahashi Korekiyo faced "unprecedented pressure" at the time, when the Japanese upper class and common people looked back, the days of the Takahashi Cabinet were still considered passable. However, Takahashi Korekiyo was inclined to decline this request. Takahashi Korekiyo was no fool; how could he not see the current problems clearly? The pressure from the Japanese public was unprecedentedly huge. The people lacked food and clothing, so the idea among the Japanese populace was "solve this practical problem as soon as possible; if it really doesn't work, going out to rob is also a very good method." Takahashi Korekiyo had absolutely no solution for this.

The Japanese Cabinet meeting discussed not how to solve the problems, but who to elect as Prime Minister first.

In such a desperate situation, Takahashi Korekiyo still made a suggestion: send someone to talk to the People's Party. This suggestion was approved by the Japanese Cabinet. The candidate was easy to pick; Takahashi Korekiyo recommended Kita Ikki as the Japanese special envoy. Now the Cabinet members all knew of Kita Ikki, an existence hovering between citizen and non-citizen. Finally, it was decided that with Army Minister Tanaka Giichi as the head of the delegation and Kita Ikki as the deputy head, Japan dispatched this very high-level delegation to China to hold talks with the People's Party.

After the Great Kanto Earthquake in Japan, Kita Ikki had become somewhat famous. The reason for his fame was that the Japanese in China, especially the Japanese People's Party members in China and the Japanese laborers in China, had displayed patriotism, smashing pots and selling iron to raise funds everywhere. The People's Party secretly gave support as well, and in the end, over four million yuan was raised. Using these funds, they purchased over 16 million jin of rice as well as some medical and disaster zone supplies, hired a ship, and sent them to Japan. The person responsible for distributing these materials in Japan was Kita Ikki.

Kita Ikki also didn't lack manpower. His student team was now following him to carry out disaster relief. These people were all members of Japan's current ruling class, and the chaos in the disaster zone posed the greatest threat to them. Young people had hot blood and enthusiasm, and now they had supplies in hand. Kita Ikki's calmness and composure in settling the victims during the earthquake made the young people admire him greatly. As a result, quite a few students from several famous Japanese universities joined this relief group. Some students even applied for a leave of absence to follow Kita Ikki in disaster relief work after their schools reopened.

The heads of Japanese universities were not heartless existences either. The schools even supported the young students' actions. As long as the supplies from China didn't stop, they were happy to see their students establish a good image among the people. There were more and more students from various university rescue teams under Kita Ikki's banner, and Kita Ikki was a figure heard of by over ten million people in the Kanto region.

So Kita Ikki was invited to the Ministry of Finance, where Finance Minister Takahashi Korekiyo personally received him. Seeing Takahashi Korekiyo wasn't too surprising, but seeing Army Minister Tanaka Giichi made Kita Ikki feel extremely surprised. Upon learning that the Japanese Cabinet had arranged such a task for him, Kita Ikki fell silent for a while before asking, "Your Excellencies, is Japan's national policy going to change?"

Once these words came out, it was Takahashi Korekiyo and Tanaka Giichi's turn to be shocked. The Japanese high command had not taken action against Kita Ikki because they didn't know what he actually wanted to do. The Japanese Army Ministry had long wanted to establish a relatively reliable communication channel with China, but suffered from a lack of suitable candidates. Initially, the Army Ministry allowing Kita Ikki to return to the country also had this intention. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, the Army Ministry tolerated Kita Ikki's continued existence. As time passed, Kita Ikki gradually became a figure who couldn't be touched. He was providing disaster relief in Japan, and at any rate, had saved quite a few victims. There were junior officers in the Army Ministry who publicly shouted for getting rid of Kita Ikki, and there were also those who publicly believed Kita Ikki "did not deserve death at present." At this point, unless it was a "private" *Tenchu* action, the Japanese upper echelons really couldn't publicly punish Kita Ikki in this storm.

Tanaka Giichi originally thought Kita Ikki was a very clever opportunist. Hearing Kita Ikki point directly at Japan's national policy, he realized that Kita Ikki was definitely not an ordinary person.

"Does Mr. Kita have any thoughts on Japan's current national policy?" Tanaka Giichi asked, narrowing his eyes.

Kita Ikki's eyes were as dark as a panda's due to overwork for the past half-year. He said in a weary voice, "I cannot judge whether Japan's future national policy will change. Japan's primary issue right now is probably to retreat comprehensively, and lose as little as possible during the retreat."

Takahashi Korekiyo immediately felt he might have chosen the wrong person. Kita Ikki had already seen through Japan's current situation. If he, as a member of the negotiating team, revealed this bottom line to the People's Party, it would be extremely disadvantageous for the negotiations.

Watching the changing expression on Takahashi Korekiyo's face, Kita Ikki smiled bitterly. "Your Excellency Takahashi, Your Excellency Tanaka, Japan cannot solve any problems by just toughing it out. For the People's Party, they would rather let Japan tough it out like this. Japan's strength will only get weaker and weaker. If dragged out for a few more years, the disparity in power between China and Japan will be even more disparate. At that time, they will be even more handy in dealing with Japan. From what I have seen, the offensive and defensive trend between China and Japan shifted ten years ago, but Japan did not adjust its policy in time, always thinking it was the superior side, which led to the continuous failures now."

Takahashi Korekiyo and Tanaka Giichi remained silent for the moment. They had long vaguely understood this problem, but no one dared to state it so clearly. Positioning oneself as the weaker side was a very painful thing, let alone showing weakness to such a great threat as China.

Kita Ikki had long given up the idea of Japan contending for hegemony with China. When he was in China, all he saw was China facing endless trouble and hardship—labor, labor, labor. China's socialist system guided all of China's labor to constantly improve China's productive forces. After seeing with his own eyes how the socialist system operated, Kita Ikki felt that the socialist system was perhaps too arduous. When he returned to Japan, the life he experienced was not arduousness, but a despair where no future could be seen. One could die from natural disasters, one could die from man-made calamities; even without natural and man-made disasters, the situation Japan faced relying solely on national power competition would eventually end in doom. As long as Japan persisted in confronting China in its national policy, Japan would have no future. Regarding Takahashi Korekiyo and Tanaka Giichi's surprise, Kita Ikki felt not anger nor astonishment, but a kind of disgust. At this point, what were the Japanese upper echelons still pretending for?

The subsequent matters could not be discussed further. Takahashi Korekiyo originally thought Kita Ikki was usable, at least to use Kita Ikki as a person to bridge connections. As a result, Kita Ikki saw things too clearly, obviously unsuitable to undertake this work anymore.

Tanaka Giichi was even more depressed. Being exposed on the fundamental problems Japan faced in incredibly clear language by Kita Ikki—who had never been an official, came from a lowly background, had been a revolutionary, and had been a blackmailing little hooligan—created a foul mood from this contrast that was almost impossible to dispel. Most importantly, every sentence Kita Ikki spoke was the truth. Tanaka Giichi knew that any rebuttal of his would be self-deception.

Japan's chaos was not eliminated; instead, it became even more intense due to the chaos in perception.

On July 1, 1924, the United States, which had not joined the League of Nations, sent a telegram to five countries: Britain, France, Japan, China, and the Soviet Union. The content was: "In view of the current chaotic situation in the Far East, the United States suggests convening a Far East Affairs Conference. To resolve Far East affairs through consultation."

The meaning behind this telegram was quite interesting. Chen Ke encountered a problem outside the historical track for the first time. For Chen Ke, making full use of Japan's chaos to ultimately achieve the recovery of all national territories including Taiwan, while limiting Japanese territory to within the four islands and restoring the independent status of Ryukyu, was his ultimate plan. Up to now, this plan had been proceeding quite smoothly. After Japan suffered a series of blows, the government presented a state of chaotic numbness. By skillfully guiding the situation and letting Japan continue to be this chaotic, in a few years, China would be able to deal Japan a fatal blow with its own strength.

At this time, if Britain had jumped out, China had many ways to deal with Britain. But it just had to be the United States jumping out, not Britain. These so-called international conferences were all stages for great powers to re-establish their stances. The US jumping out was very unfavorable for China, but quite favorable for Britain and Japan. This made Chen Ke feel rather unhappy in his heart. Because China could not publicly say, "We demand that Japan's territory be limited to within the four islands, and the entire East Asia must be decided by China."

First, the United States sent the telegram, and the British were as cunning as thieves, immediately expressing approval together with France. They also demanded that all warring parties join this conference. China could only unite with the Soviet Union, which was completely "buying soy sauce" [just passing through/bystander], and the two countries issued a request that Korean representatives must participate in the conference. Now Japan was placed on the cusp of the storm. The US, UK, France, China, and the USSR—these were all world powers. Japan's strength could not compare with these five countries.

According to the principle of unanimity among the powers, once the five powers of the US, UK, France, China, and the USSR reached a certain agreement, it would be the final resolution on Earth. Because 80% of the world's territory, population, and industrial strength were in the hands of these five countries. Japan could only kneel before these five countries.

Japan domestically couldn't come up with a way to cope at all. Among these five countries, Britain had an alliance with Japan. France didn't have any special relationship with Japan. Based on Japan's role in the Far East, China, the US, and the Soviet Union were all countries with considerable conflicts with Japan. It was clear that Japan would not get any good out of this matter.

Finally, under the repeated urging of the British, the Japanese government had to dispatch representatives full of grievances to participate in this conference where the powers interfered in Japanese affairs.