Akitsushima

[Evangeline Anovilis]

 

As the autumn leaves turned red and one by one, slowly fell to the ground, sailing near-silent through the air, it had been seven years now, Seiranko recalled. Seven years, since the nation had been dissolved, due to being stubborn and ignorant. They had brought it upon themselves, by betraying their own values and objectives. And they had paid their price. It had been seven years since. Seven years, through which the country was to be cleansed from its hubris and in which the wrong-doers were to atone for their faults. Date Seiranko was no exception. Ever since, she had dedicated her time and effort to reflecting on her actions and improving herself, so as to never repeat the errors of the past. When was it, that loyalty and dedication turned into such a misguided course of action? When had they lost sight of what it meant to be a good retainer? Meditation and reflection, to find answers to these questions, it had marked the past seven years of her life. But, while Date had failed, and had now to atone for her actions, the Japanese nation itself was not filled with Date's and many were overall rather blameless in the matter. And it was thus only a matter of time, until a new generation of Japanese politicians would work hard to restore their country's independence and reputation.

 

[hr]

 

Akiyama Kagami nipped on her glass of water, trying to calm herself and especially her stomach, as she prepared herself for the moment she had to step out on the podium. Goodness, this was just terrifying. But Akiyama had to brace herself. It was not that she had issues to speak in public, or that she was incredibly terrible at it. She had held many speeches before, especially during her studies and afterwards. But this. It most likely was up to now the most important speech in her career. Whatever she had done up to now, it would most likely leave less of an impression on people than the few minutes she would spend on speaking on this podium.

 

But while she felt somewhat nervous, she could still feel a certain pride. After all, it was her, who had been entrusted with this. Never had she thought she'd actually make it this far, but there she was. Having studied at Tōhokudai and graduated with honours, she soon had found her way into the leading Hoshutō (later Kokumin Hoshutō), and rose through their ranks, due to talent, ambitions, and just the right connections to the moderate Tachibana, allowing enough distance to radicals to not be eliminated by the purges of the party, yet not upsetting established politicians, who still held the public's trust and respect.

 

Now, it was upon her, as fourth Prime Minister since Omura, first Prime Minister of the Shishi Era, to restore the country's (as well as her party's) reputation, after the carrier naming disaster. And as one of the aides waved, signalling it was finally time, Akiyama walked out onto the podium, to adress the gathered journalists, backed by the emblem of the Pauwlonia.

 

"Ladies and Gentleman, I thank you for gathering here tonight. Years ago, the Japanese nation has been brought under Imperial control, following a misguided Japanese policy that brought great shame upon our country. However, back then, this was not a measure to punish the Japanese people, but a measure to prevent the escalation of this misguided policy, before this policy could do irreversible damage to the East Asian community. In the years since, the commission that has been established to rectify the problematic errors we made, has looked through the available data, has interviewed many witnesses and has worked tirelessly on establishing a standard and proper understanding of democratic values in line with modern times. Their work has brought many structural reforms to the political establishment, in order to prevent a renewal of such disaster.

 

It is however now, after seven years of hard work, that their work comes to an end. Yes, it has been quite some time, but it was needed, to thoroughly investigate all available sources, and to properly prepare our country for liberal democracy and reestablishment of democracy. It is thus, that today, I can proudly announce, that the time has come, when we can finally take our fate into our own hands again, when we can work as an independent Japanese nation, on a new future for our people. I am very honoured thus, to have been entrusted with this nation's preliminary government.

 

Of course, this is not the time to be careless though, for this incident overall, better than anything, should show, how very careful we need to be, in order to not allow our country to go down the wrong path, to let extreme tendencies take over and degrade the democratic and tolerant spirit of our people. In this sense, it is the task of citizens and politicians alike, to watch out for the dangerous ideas that lurk in the shadows and which we might not notice without careful examination. And while Supreme Court and the National Public Safety Commission, as well as our elected Parliament are to watch out for problems within our system, citizens themselves will have to keep the lecture learned in mind, while being educated participants in our democracy, so as to prevent autocratic input corrupting the organs of control themselves.

 

However, I do have high hopes, that our country will learn from its failures and improve, that our people are capable of learning, as we have been in the past, and that one day, we will have regained what we lost in regards to our reputation seven years ago. I thank you for your attention."

 

While politely bowing, Akiyama finished, as the cheers and applease began. Japan was an independent country again.

[Evangeline Anovilis]

 

While Japan was once again a nation independent, there were still many questions that needed to be adressed. Mostly, those of political nature. The crisis had shown that some political issues were present and the nation had to deal with them adequatly, lest they cause issues once again. But while some were quite easy and more of a procedural pain (such as the national elections), others were far more difficult to sort out.

 

Chief among them was the issue of Head of State. In the time since the Shōkaku Incident, there had been a change at the helm of the Empire of Tianxia. Already during Yuan Jia's reign, there had been mixed feelings about the potential heir to the Empire, given that compared to the venerable Jia, who may not have been able to claim descent from Amaterasu or any of the Japanese Kami, but still was seen by many as a man with personal achievements. Same could not be said about his successor yet, which caused liberals to demand an end to monarchy and more nationalist-minded individuals to ask for "indegenous" rule. This all came with practical considerations, of course, given that the Commonwealth was more than just some name tag, it came with economic and security implications. That the monarchy was traditionally a more conservative issue, represented by a party that had lost its absolute majority and would most likely struggle hard to survive elections also did not help the cause. For all intents and purposes, the Imperial institution had come under siege from all sides, with mostly just a tendency to moderation keeping radical changes in check. It was decided that for the time being, until the matter was sorted, Konoe Nobuhisa, the old Kampaku would keep being the de facto head of state. Being still respected and having survived purges, not in minor part due to his support for Tachibana's moderates over nationalists, he was seen as a pretty much neutral, moderate and overall unambitious character. Perfect for filling his position.

 

Konoe however also was a perfect example of another matter that caused trouble - how to treat the "survivors" of the purge. While the purge most probably ended the political careers of Date and Akechi, who were viewed as the main causes of the disaster, many others had been cleared of charges and were still around. Not in minor part, because they were capable politicians, which the conservative cause needed. People like Tachibana, Konoe and even Nakamichi had been investigated, but acquitted, due to making up the moderate bloc of their party, which in part portrayed itself as a victim of the incident. The Kokumin Hoshutō itself was a "survivor" (despite the fact it had to be refounded, though with quite a lot of internal restructuring), which many viewed now as a dubious entity. While being the chief center-right/right-wing party, this monopoly on one sector of the political spectrum meant that it got voted in by moderates, who just want traditional values, as well as the far-right, who had no party of its own and could not found a party of its own (due to the limited chances of political survival). In effect, the Kokumin Hoshutō was severely crippled, but hardly anyone would expect it to die. It was just covering too much of the political spectrum (with far too many non-fascist right-wing tendencies), and was too major a party also among political elites, to just vanish. Prime Minister Akiyama could thus was tasked with not only juggling the conservative causes as had been the case before, but also she had to demonstrate that her party had learned and was not a threat to the democratic rule in Japan and stability of the region.

 

But with enough effort, all this could hopefully be resolved.