Japan in Alagaësia

The Emperor's Suggestion

The Emperor's Suggestion

Yokota Air Base. April 29, 2020

Lt. Gen. Kevin Schneider frowned as his character was again defeated by the Ebony Warrior. Deciding to take a break, he rose from the computer chair. Taking a beer from the fridge, he started to gulp down its contents. He could not help but lament the taste of Asahi, it had nothing on Budweiser from back home...

He immediately stopped his train of thought before it would take him to darker places, but did not entirely succeed. To distract himself, he decided on yet another rematch with the Ebony Warrior. Perhaps he could try to lure his opponent to the edge of a cliff and shout him to his falling death.

A month ago, he could not imagine he would spend most of his time on duty killing time before a computer screen. Yet, what else was there to do?

The modern military ran on oil. A fact he knew but had never had to worry about, since the commodity had always been readily available on demand. America would always ensure that all its military forces, regardless of where on Earth they were, would remain generously supplied.

That had all changed on April 1. Suddenly they had found themselves in another world, America gone, and Japan had virtually cut off access to all its oil for the U.S. Forces in Japan.

Schneider had immediately appealed to the Japanese government, but he was unable to change their minds. The argument Japan provided had been straightforward: Food shortages and a massive fall in standards of living were larger security threats than military conflicts with foreign forces. Therefore, supplying oil to the logistics line between Japan and the new continent, the projects over there, as well as the oil exploration missions at sea needed to take priority over everything else in order to maximize security (implying that less oil for the U.S. forces increased security), and with their meager stockpiles they had no oil left to spare them. Yet it did not escape Schneider's notice that the JSDF was still as well-supplied with oil and other fuels as always.

Of course, lack of oil was not the only problem for the U.S. forces here. Military equipment needed constant maintenance and spare parts (the U.S. military spent more money on operations and maintenance than China and Russia combined spent on their entire militaries). Japan had refused to shoulder this burden, explaining that the entire Japanese industrial sector, which had been greatly disrupted by the transfer, was already at full capacity providing for its citizens and the overseas economic projects through this crisis. But this meant that eventually when American military equipment started breaking down, it would remain that way and could not be replaced.

Taken together, and the U.S. Forces in Japan had been paralyzed. Most personnel could not even afford to continue training, as a lot of training consumed fuel and ammunition, and further deprecated their military equipment, which they had to save for as long as they could. And lacking instructions from the American government, as well as no military security threats in this world that needed to be addressed, many of the personnel at Yokota were unsure what their role now was. At least Japan still paid their personnel, even if most spent their time on duty playing video games, partying, and the like. And with the rising food and fuel costs, their pay started to mean less and less.

He wondered about the situation back home. The disappearance of America's unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Asia-Pacific had probably been a huge blow to his country's strategic position. The U.S. had also lost a significant military ally; while it was not commonly known, Japan had possessed the most powerful navy among all of Washington's global partners. And it certainly did not help that much of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, the largest of America's numbered fleets, had been lost along with it. Just how was America to face a rising China with its diminished prospects? He would just have to place his faith in President Trump to pull his country through these trying times.