Chapter 573 The battle between land and sea
"I'm sorry, Minister Kadou, my rank is too low to make such a promise, and the Sakishima Islands are not just a few islands. They are related to the safety and maritime issues of the Miyako Strait, so I can't do it now. I will give you an answer, but report it to the government," the Japanese diplomat said.
As Card said, Japan can indeed not get the Southern Ryukyu Islands first, because Japan has not declared sovereignty before, but compromised with the Far Eastern Empire and created a nondescript dichotomy.
This makes Japan psychologically believe that the Ryukyu Islands can be used for trade, rather than insisting that they are its own territory.
So, Japanese diplomats are quite excited about Kader's proposal, but now that the matter has become big, it is not easy to solve. Is it possible that a war will really happen for the Southern Ryukyu Islands and East Africa?
It would be fine if East Africa was really a weak country, but East Africa has the image of a strong country that is not easy to mess with. After all, East Africa had such serious conflicts with the United Kingdom and Portugal before. Japan would never be able to be like East Africa if it puts itself in their shoes. So poised.
Of course, East Africa is backed by Germany, especially the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This is an unavoidable and important factor. This is also what makes the Japanese envious and jealous. This sense of achievement of chickens and dogs ascending to heaven is indeed rare.
The three major German countries are like three brothers. Of course, only Germany is more orthodox, but only more orthodox. After all, Prussia was not originally a part of Germany. Less than 30% of the Germans in the Austro-Hungarian Empire are German, and East Africa is also very excessive. Even if If all white people are considered Germans, that's only 50%. However, considering the fact that East Africa is fully Germanized and more than 70% of the population of the right age are intermarrying, East Africa's claim to be a German country is more convincing than the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
East Africa is more like the previous Austrian Empire. The Austrian Empire under the leadership of the Austrians has no sense of violation in participating in HRE affairs. This is almost the same situation in East Africa, and East Africa has cut off the hidden dangers of future national independence.
In short, none of the three German countries can represent Germany in essence. They are all mixed with other ethnic groups, and East Africa is the most extreme, directly interbreeding human races. But now everyone considers themselves German, and what maintains the relationship between the three countries is culture and aristocratic groups.
The most important of them is the aristocratic group. The relationship between the rulers is the main reason for maintaining German culture in East Africa. For example, the largest ethnic group in the United States was German, but the United States is indeed an English-speaking country.
"Okay, but I hope your government can give a reply as soon as possible. After all, my personal time is precious and I don't want to waste my words on this kind of thing." Card said.
From Kader's point of view, Japan does not have to fight to the death for the Southern Ryukyu Islands and East Africa. Even if East Africa does not intervene, isn't there still the Far East? It's never the Japanese's turn to take advantage of this.
After all, at this time, the Far Eastern Empire was still able to speak up in the Far East region, and Japan's ability to become a great power in its previous life mainly depended on two wars, one was the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 and the other was the Russo-Japanese War.
Although Japan is now jumping up and down in the Far East, plotting against the Ryukyu Islands, the Korean Peninsula, and the Far Eastern Empire, it has nothing to show for its achievements.
This is not the case in East Africa. Many countries that have fought with East Africa have perished. Some people may say that Africans are not good at fighting, but East Africa can occupy such a large area of land, and its war organization ability is definitely in line with people's stereotypes of Germans.
In addition, East Africa defeated the Transvaal Republic and the Kingdom of Portugal, which were also white regimes. Therefore, East Africa's strength is at least considered a military power in the eyes of other countries.
Therefore, people in East Africa have a sense of psychological superiority towards Japan. This is inseparable from the influence of European civilization-centrism in this era. In addition, Japan itself is very strong and has the ideal of "departing from Asia and joining Europe". Japan has no regard for all Western countries. The country has its own powerful filter. When facing East Africa or all white countries, Japan is still relatively blind mentally, just like many people in the West in later generations who have no brains and arrogance to believe in American liberal democracy.
Freedom is freedom, but there is absolutely no freedom without money. Democracy is what the United States shouldered after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was indeed very democratic. This was true in terms of the system. It was just that people had selfish desires and blind obedience, so that the Soviet Union Traditional democracy is unsustainable unless all members of the Soviet Union are saints and selfless, which is obviously impossible. The 19th century was the era of white people. Even white people's farts smelled good. The Japanese couldn't help but take a few more puffs of the black smoke from the big chimneys in the industrial era. Therefore, countries like East Africa, especially with the two world powers, Countries with important connections, not to mention being respected because of their strength, at least will not be ostracized overseas.
Hence, in the eyes of Japanese officials, Minister Card is extremely arrogant. However, the Japanese do not think of this arrogance as rude, but as a matter of course. This is a sign of confidence in their own strength.
"Of course, we don't want a real conflict with East Africa. We hope that the two countries will take a step back, find a solution acceptable to everyone, and shelve disputes."
Kad: "It's better that way."
Soon, the Japanese government started discussions on the Southern Ryukyu Islands, also known as the Sakishima Islands in Japan.
"The Sakishima Islands must not be given away. East Africa is not the Far Eastern Empire. If we give it to East Africa now, it will not be easy to get it back in the future."
"Eda Shoji, I understand your feelings, but the current situation is that the enemy is strong and we are weak. We must face up to the strength gap between the two sides, and the Sakishima Islands are not worth gambling on our national destiny."
"Congressman Yamamoto is right. The East African Navy is one of the top ten most powerful navies in the world, and we may not be able to win if we concentrate all our efforts. It is not worth sacrificing the fate of the Imperial Navy for the ownership of the Sakishima Islands." Said someone from the naval department.
The Japanese Navy does not want to fight to the death with the East African Navy, because the East African Navy has very strong paper data and is not confident in defeating the East African Navy and the Japanese Navy.
And what if we win? This is the issue that the Japanese Navy attaches most importance to. Even if Japan can win, there is a 100% probability of a tragic victory. Most of the East African Navy's strength is in the Indian Ocean. Even if the East African Navy in the Southern Ryukyu Islands is annihilated, it will not cause too much damage to East Africa. Big loss.
The East African Navy has a strong ability to withstand pressure, but the Japanese Navy does not. This is because the Japanese Navy has a competitor, that is, the Japanese Army. If the Japanese Navy suffers huge losses, wouldn't the army's "red deer" be destroyed in the next ten years? This is the most unacceptable thing for the Japanese Navy to sit on their own heads.
The spokesperson of the Army Department saw through the Navy's thoughts and provocatively said: "It seems that some people only know how to enjoy coffee and Western food with the Empire's taxpayers' money, but cannot guarantee the interests of the Empire. I think the Navy's funds are better left to us." Manage it so that it is used in the right way."
"Tsurao Ichiro, this is a slander. The Imperial Navy has very little funding. Look at our ships. They are two generations behind East Africa. This is the reason why the Empire cannot deal with East Africa on the Sakishima Islands. Is it like using fishing boats to consume East Africa like Gaofu Morita? Moreover, without our navy, your army will only be in a nest. It is still up to our navy to open up new territories. So in my opinion, your army is the most useless department. , military expenditures should be reduced, and we can also supply the empire with a few more warships."
(End of this chapter)