Guam Discussion

[The Zigur]

CONFIDENTIAL

 

Hawaii has heard little about the fate of post-Japan Guam, and following what appears to be a resurgence Japanese Imperialism, we have feared for the worst in regards to our Chamorro comrades, which represent a substantial community in Hawaii and an entire SOCSOV Brigade. As Hawaii observers are not allowed on Guam, and all communication between Guam and Hawaii was shut down by Japan, we know little about what is happening on the Island.

 

Hawaii is willing to recognize Japanese claims over Guam, following thorough investigation by Brazil which had previously offered but not followed up with. Although we are not pleased by the annexation and vote, as long as the Chamorros are not being enslaved and abused and are allowed to contact family and friends in Hawaii, we are willing to retract certain statements which may have been perceived as hostile to Japan.

 

Is Brazil willing to conduct a 3rd party investigation of Guam, and is Japan willing to let the world see what is happening on the island post-annexation?

[Mogar]

We never shut down any communications.

[The Zigur]

Hawaii is not aware of what happened, but has not been able to communicate with Guam. Will Japan allow Hawaii to fix whatever communications issues popped up, restore communications between Guam and Hawaii?

[Mogar]

No Hawaiians will be allowed on any Imperial Soil so long as they continue to antagonize the Imperium on the global stage, Brazilian observers can be allowed to check for voting irregularities and hold another election if they see fit.

[The Zigur]

As we stated, Hawaii is willing to recognize Japanese occupation of Guam and retract certain statements so long as Chamorro indigenous rights are guaranteed and Japan allows the native Chamorro people political autonomy and self-governance.

[Hereno]

A team of 10 observers and 20 guards from the Brazilian Confederacy would land at Guam International Airport in just a few hours, having left from São Paulo as soon as they heard the news. They would stay on the island for several days, documenting everything they saw in regards to living conditions, political rights, and economic freedom (or lack thereof). Additionally, they would pay close attention to the various ethnic groups to see how they interacted with each other and with the authorities on the island.

[Hereno]

After landing successfully, the team begrudgingly left the comfort of the plane and stepped out onto Guam. However, they were shocked to find the clear blue skies and warm weather to be so inviting; after all, what ill could possibly be going on on this jewel of the Pacific? Before they got their bearings, however, the team was greeted by an envoy from Japan. Neglecting to mention his name, the man welcomed them to Guam and gave them some information. A limousine would soon take them to their hotel in the third largest village on the island, Tamuning. While not very comfortable, it would suit them well enough for the night until their work started the next morning.

 

 

Inside, they would find a map of the island, as well as demographic information from the latest census, which was almost two decades old. These documents would prove to be very useful.
 

Population: 18,509
Male to Female Ratio: 1.0
Life Expectancy: 72 years

Ethnic Composition

Chamorro: 29.8%
Mixed Race: 26.3%
Filipino: 22.3%
Japanese: 10.4%
White: 6.0%
Other Pacific Islander: 4.2%
Other East Asian: 1.0%

 
From their hotel, the largest team would go north to Dededo and Yigo, while a smaller team would split and go south as far as the sparsely-populated Talofofo region. After spending a night in each region, the teams would congregate back at the hotel before flying off the island and gathering their notes to be released to the public.

[Mogar]

"We do not occupy anyone, nor have we ever, The people of Guam voted and willingly chose to join the Imperium of Japan, an unsurprising choice since we provide one of the highest standards of living in the world, The Imperium of Japan does not and will never oppress any peoples, the people of Joseon speak Korean, Taiwanese speak Mandarin, the Siak Republic speaks Malay and Indonesian.

 

The only language we require anyone to learn is English, due to it being the international language of diplomacy and finance, as an Economic and Diplomatic leader, we would like every citizen in the Imperium to be able to communicate with tourists and visitors to our nations to allow them to feel welcome and able to ask questions they may have, the Imperium believes in the Ideals of the former United States in the sense that only through inclusion of all cultures can you find true strength.

 

We do not feel that Hawaii has done anything besides antagonize the Imperium around every corner on every possible subject they can find, We acted against the Chinese in defense of both the Philippines and those who lived in the Republic of Taiwan, the aggressive posture of Hawaii against us so soon after dealing with another aggressive neighbor who had launched a nuclear attack against us while invading the Imperium's province of Taiwan was treated with the same hostility we were shown, the Imperium is still recovering from losing 10 million innocent lives and yet we are called genocidal? Perhaps in Hawaii that is acceptable language to say to your leadership, but Her Imperial Majesty has done nothing to Hawaii and was told she wished to genocide the Hawaiian people when no such statements or actions had been made.

 

The Imperium has no interest in further bloodshed, but should Hawaii continue to act in an aggressive manner they should expect to be treated with hostility in return."

 

-Osamu Saito.
 

[Hereno]

By the time the team had gotten everything ready to go the next morning, the sun was high in the sky. It was already past noon before they went to the cafeteria of the hotel and were served a delicious dish of kelaguen. A signature dish of the Chamorro people, kelaguen is a combination of lemon juice, onions, and peppers used to season seafood, beef, or chicken. In this case, the diners were treated to a light but delicious chicken kelaguen before heading out.

The northbound team, consisting of 7 observers and 14 guards, split off from the southbound team, which consisted of 3 observers and 6 guards. They headed north, out of Tamuning towards Andersen Air Force Base. As they got closer and closer, the population centers shrunk away under beautiful foliage. Before they arrived, however, they noticed a good deal of trash left behind, most likely from the occupying forces of Tikal. However, everybody they met seemed notably cheerful, and there was - if anything - a suspicious lack of any police or military presence so far that they'd seen.

 

Upon arriving at the base, the team found it to be much cleaner than the other areas they had seen on the way up. They also stumbled across an array of hastily left behind file cabinets which contained various unimportant but interesting paperwork. One contained an amusing pencil sketch of the Empress of Japan posing suggestively. Another, written on the back of a routine message of no importance, resembled a tic-tac-toe board but had symbols that none of the observers had ever seen before. However, on the population front, the team didn't find anything else of interest.

Later on, after leaving the airbase, they spent a happy night in a hotel in the southern Yigo region where the locals who at first seemed amazed by the foreign faces quickly livened up. The guards, observers, and population with a variety of faces all had a good time drinking sake and generally making a mess of the hotel. The Brazilians were very happy to find that the population of Guam seemed to be as light-hearted and fun-loving as they themselves were. A few islanders, however, seemed a bit annoyed at the commotion surrounding the hotel. They shot glances at their neighbors and the foreigners, but otherwise went about their business with nobody really noticing. The night went on merrily until about 4 AM, at which time most of the persons had either gone home, gone to their rooms, or passed out among heaps of trash and empty sake bottles.

Hungover and tired, the northern team got dressed and made their way out of their hotel rooms. With no hotel staff or anybody else in sight except a passed out drunken islander with no pants, the team got back in their vehicles and headed back to Guam International to meet up with the southern team and discuss notes. Hours after arriving, however, the southern team was nowhere to be found. With only hours before nightfall, the team's annoyance turned into worry. However, with nine people, six of whom carried the latest in Brazilian assault weapon technology, there should have been no threats they couldn't handle. Especially considering how friendly the islanders seemed to be. The Brazilians decided to check back at the hotel in Tamuning and see if, perhaps, the southern team had gone back to retrieve something left behind.

Edited June 11, 2014 by Hereno

[Hereno]

 

Back at the hotel, the team found nothing useful. None of the staff had seen their colleagues since they left the previous afternoon. Night was perhaps a half hour away given the best guesses of the Brazilians, although nobody could even think of sleeping. The staff spent only a few minutes in discussion before coming to the conclusion that they'd at least spend a few hours to start retracing the steps of the southern team before giving up and heading to bed.

Walking through the village of Asan, the team began talking to any local still out and about, seemingly to no avail. However, just as they were about to pack up and move on, a Chamorro man approached them. Rags hung from his body like clothes on a line, and they were dirty enough to have easily not seen any detergent in several years. As he got closer, one of the guards turned at him, pointing his weapon and demanding the man halt. Shielding his eyes pointlessly from potential bullets, he stumbled backwards off-balance before a soft voice escaped from his tired old body. "You... you are friends of the others, aren't you? Yes - I would recognize those ugly clothes anywhe---" he interrupted himself with a cough that turned into a weak laugh; the strongest his lungs could muster.

Seizing the silence, the guard questioned the man, who had by now attracted the attention of several other Brazilians. "Yeah, we're here to investigate the island. Have you seen our team around here?"

"Yes, yes. Of course. They made quite a ruckus coming through here... I warned them not to go to the south, but they wouldn't listen. If they are missing, I am not surprised. Not everyone here takes kindly to---" the man was interrupted by a blow to his gut by the increasingly frustrated Brazilian. He shouted "you're going to tell us everything you know!", taking an aggressive stance towards the man who had since fallen backwards against the dirt road.

The man smiled briefly, stating with confidence unbecoming his position that the Brazilians would find the rest of their party at the only chapel in the village of Santa Rita, just south of the docks on the west side of the island.

 

Arriving at the chapel without further incident, the vehicles cut off and shrouded the team in darkness perhaps 75 meters from the entrance to the building which was awash with interior lighting. Spending only a moment to prepare themselves, four guards took lead of the other seventeen stragglers and ran, guns in hand, towards the door of the chapel. Pausing for a moment, one guard jiggled the handle to, surprisingly enough, find it open. Without a second thought, he rushed inside and was followed into the hollow, beige interior.

Near the altar, they could see one of the observers from the southern team with his hands and feet tied, and a rag stuck in his mouth to prevent any communication. With straggling observers still making their way inside, the guards approached their colleague whose eyes shot behind them and widened as though the devil himself had descended upon them. Before any reaction could be had on part of the Brazilians, two grenades had been lobbed through the entrance. Ducking for cover saved several lives, although the entire crew had been grounded and several - although it was not obvious who, in the chaos - were already dead. Using the pews as a makeshift cover, the guards peeked over the top to see Chamorro warriors descending on their position. Shirtless, screaming, wearing facial paint and wielding machetes, the islanders were ferocious and intimidating to the modestly trained civilian guards. The guards left alive began to open fire, although not before several of the helpless observers were struck down.

With friendly fire accounting for the death of one observer, and approximately a dozen citizens of Guam bleeding out on the floor, the Brazilians left alive - four guards and an observer - regrouped momentarily before checking the bodies of their assailants for any clues as to who they were or what they wanted. While this was unsuccessful, a hasteful search of the building provided documentation suggesting that they had been attacked by ultranationalists. They had most likely been inspired by the speeches of the Hawaiian government into taking action against what they saw as the oppression of their people by an outside imperialist power. However, there was no evidence that any of these people had any actual contact with anybody off the island or who may have been related to the Hawaiian government or the autonomous bodies that were now currently under Hawaiian control. In the basement of the chapel, the men found an additional several dozen decaying bodies of Japanese civilians who appeared to have been tourists, along with boxes of fake ballots.

 

By this time, islanders and police had surrounded and breached the building, finding the bloodbath and the exhausted Brazilians. Islanders - police and civilian, and of all races - helped to clean up the house of God and ensure that their foreign guests were kept safe until they returned home the next day with the bodies of their colleagues. At home in São Paulo, the remaining observer and four guards would gather their notes and present their findings to the outside world.

 

There was no evidence found of any successful ballot tampering, ethnic cleansing, or any other fraudulent behavior on behalf of the governments of Japan or Tikal. And while an isolated group of violent ultranationalist Chamorros was found and eliminated, they had no connection to Hawaii or its government. The fake ballots were indeed pro-Japanese, but none of them had actually been used, with the bodies of the persons in the chapel having been there for weeks before the election took place. It was never able to be determined whether the fake ballots were legitimate or merely propaganda printed by the Chamorros, but the team can say with confidence that any actions taken were done without the approval, knowledge, or consent of any authorities. Overall, the island seemed very peaceful and, for the most part, content with being ruled by the Japanese. That is, as long as accepting the rule of the Japanese would keep more foreigners from using their island as a military base or pawn in a wider geopolitical game.

Edited June 11, 2014 by Hereno

[The Zigur]

TS//SCI//GAMMA

 

(Not visible IC)

 

Office of the Secretary of State of Hawaii

 

Secretary of State Jonah Kanahele sat back on his recliner behind his koa wood desk, and enjoyed the ocean view and fresh Pacific air the rolled into his office. This home had once belonged to a major imperialist officer, and now served as the home office of the Secretary of State. The "office" was unique, featuring massive glass windows that could shade over when viewing classified material, and featuring state of the art equipment -- and a hidden arsenal. One had to be careful not to go soft in such a comfortable environment, but the foreign diplomats loved it.

 

He tinted the windows and brought up the report submitted by Brazil and began to read through it. The 20 page document hovered over his holographic desk, and he flipped through it. Most of the first few pages listed information in a way that annoyingly reminded him of the inflated diction that fills a college essay, but he skipped through to the written reports of the personnel on the island.

 

As was expected, the field reports were filled with anti-nationalist nonsense that caused Jonah to roll his eyes more than once, but aside from the propaganda, the information seemed reliable. With the Japanese complaining about the SOCSOV documentaries it was time to put this roller coaster ride to an end. Captain Hawaii didn't like SOCSOV much, but he had to admit it was necessary to hold Hawaii together.

 

Jonah placed an encrypted conference call to President Ezekiel Kukahiko and General Makanui Krammer, and in a few minutes both appeared by hologram above his desk.

 

"Good morning President, General. The report came back from Brazil, and it seems that, although Japan's leadership is quite Crass and Unsophisticated, they were wise enough to be careful about not oppressing the Chamorro population on the island."

 

"I hate to say it, but that's rather unfortunate," Ezekiel noted quietly. "The Guam situation helped keep alot of different factions in SOCSOV on the same boat. We managed to deploy the more politically troublesome elements to Samoa and Tonga, but once it becomes apparent that Chamorros are not going to be a problem, some of the same problems are going to reoccur here at home. General, how much of a threat does Japan represent to our interests?"

 

"Mr President, we could defensively handle their conventional forces, especially since they are still depleted after the Japan-China war, but I am not confident our AEGIS capabilities would be able to handle their ICBMs. We received intelligence that Japanese nuclear weapons might have magical capabilities which prevent their delivery systems from being affected by our missile defense."

 

"Magical capabilities, are you !@#$@#$ kidding me?"

 

"Well Ezekiel, the fact is there are many mysterious forces at work in today's world, think of the powers of our King."

 

Jonah spoke up at this. "I don't think it is likely that Japan would nuke us over what is essentially a diplomatic issue, but their Empress is notoriously promiscuous and bipolar, and if her military officers truly have imperialist intentions against Hawaii they might manipulate a reaction from her. After all, a nuclear attack against Hawaii would stop the only buffer to eastward expansion into Pasifika, and ultimately, the former United States territories we are trying to protect."

 

"What do you believe is the best move here, Jonah? We are going to have alot of problems at home soon and don't have time to tango with Japan if they aren't oppressing our Chamorro friends."

 

"The wise move would probably be to issue an apology and retraction of anti-Japanese propaganda and instead refer to the region as a whole in a more vague sense as EastAsia. If we can get people to use the lingo, they will be likelier to desire an Oceania as a regional counter. We've had to play a hardline FA role abroad and alienated several nations, so we should probably try to clean that up as well. Inviting the Philippines to share a joint command of Wake will probably be a good first step in improving our image abroad."

 

"Good, I knew there was a reason you are Secretary of State, Jonah. Makanui, I need you to keep up the good work and improve our deterrence capabilities; I know nuclear weapons are far off but we can start working on more chemical and biological production. As for myself... well they call me the Stalin of the Pacific, I guess it's time to earn that name."

 

Edited June 12, 2014 by Tywin Lannister

[The Zigur]

The Hawaiian Social Kingdom thanks Brazil for their role in helping resolve questions regarding Japanese behavior in Guam.

 

The Hawaiian Social Kingdom retracts any statements made that casts Japanese behavior in Guam as improper, and apologizes for any misunderstanding and confusion that may have been cause by our concerns about general Eastasian imperialism (which was feared to include Japanese aggression).

[Mogar]

"If the Imperium wished to attack Hawaii, we would not have given you a warning, After a misunderstanding led to a nuclear war so recently, perhaps Hawaii should consider working more respectfully with it's neighbors and not fall down the same path the Two Chinas did. The Imperium has no interest in any conflicts with Pacific Brothers and Sisters, and we have stated this clearly. On a personal note, I find your previous statements to be incredibly offensive, weaker leaders would have cracked under the strain of a nuclear conflict, I have millions to care for that are now homeless, and will be assisting in the reconstruction of the former Two Chinas as well, Japan will be spending Trillions to repair the damage a misunderstanding has caused, including repairing our former enemies. We are not the Japan that slaughtered indigenous peoples, nor would I ever condone that, and would execute any officer who ordered such a thing to occur. Before making such crass statements, I ask that next time you actually attempt diplomacy rather than slander."

Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Hoshiko, Daughter of Amaterasu, Prophet of Takamagahara, Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum, Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers, Grand Cordon of the Order of the Precious Crown, Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure