Chapter 525: The Clown's Monkeys

Looking at this intelligence report that Japan was about to go to war with the United States, Akado had the urge to curse in the street. He really wanted to grab those Japanese acquaintances of his by the collar and ask them loudly: “Are you the monkeys invited here by a clown?”

Roosevelt wants to go to sleep, and you Japanese geniuses run over to give him a pillow? It’s one thing to seek death, we can just say you’re tired of living—but what’s the point of seeking death in such a flashy way? Are you trying to play a joke with your own lives and the history of the entire world?

Some people are played a joke on by fate, and their lives are tragic. But these high officials in Japan are planning to play a joke on fate. Their ambition is as big as the world itself. What came to Akado’s mind was not the illustrious names of the Class-A war criminals, but Guo Degang’s joke: “Speaking of Mr. Yamamoto Isoroku’s father, old Mr. Tanaka…”

The moment the flames of war are lit at Pearl Harbor, the moment the war between Japan and the United States begins, Roosevelt’s predicament will be immediately resolved. America’s industry will run at full power, and at that time, let alone the tiny island nation of Japan, even a behemoth like Germany will have a very difficult time. It’s very likely that the layout in North Africa and the Middle East will be overturned by the Americans. Even the image of suicide in a bunker, which had not appeared in Akado’s mind for a long time, emerged once again.

What was somewhat frustrating was that the intelligence gathered by the German spies was still too little. Many important details had not been fully grasped, which made it impossible for Akado to stop what was about to happen. Although he knew that Japan was going to launch a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor (even without this intelligence, Akado knew this was going to happen; it was as obvious as a flea on a bald man’s head), Akado did not know when Japan was going to do it.

Yes, he was missing a time. Without a time, this intelligence was worthless, at least to him. Akado had known 20 years ago that Japan would one day launch a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. If he had wanted to, he could have warned the Americans at that time: “The Japanese are going to attack Pearl Harbor, maybe in 20 years, maybe in 30 years…”

But who would believe that? With a casual remark like, “Be careful lately, in as little as ten days or as long as five years, Japan will definitely attack Pearl Harbor,” you expect the Americans to raise their guard at Pearl Harbor and wait for the Japanese to come? What kind of an international joke is that? Do you think you’re the President of the United States?

What was even more pitiful was that by the time the German spies had learned of the Japanese plan, the plan had already been in motion for two days. Even though Akado had immediately ordered his intelligence services to begin making arrangements, it was already too late.

In fact, the Japanese Navy had already set sail at this time, including the six aircraft carriers they had painstakingly built: Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, Hiryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku. If one also counted the other four aircraft carriers that had been specially approved for construction due to the performance of the German Navy and were currently still in the dockyards, then Japan was the first country in the world to expand its number of aircraft carriers to more than ten.

And these four carriers in the dockyards were the newest type, ordered to be built after the outstanding performance of the German carrier fleet in the North Atlantic had caused an uproar within the Japanese military. Because they did not have to worry about sea conditions, they had adopted an open-hangar design, which allowed these carriers to carry over 80 aircraft of various types. They could be considered the most advanced aircraft carriers currently in production in the world.

But due to time constraints, these advanced warships would certainly not be able to make it for the Pearl Harbor campaign. The Japanese army had brought out almost all of its strength, emulating the German Navy to organize a surprise attack strategy led by aircraft carriers.

At this very moment, the Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, was standing on the bridge with the carrier fleet commander, Chuichi Nagumo, discussing the specific operational steps for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

“General, the submarines are already cruising nearby. A few hours ago, the main force of the American fleet was still in the naval port at Oahu,” Nagumo said, pointing to the huge map spread out on the bridge’s chart table.

“These American warships have still not detected our movements. In a few dozen minutes, we will enter the attack radius of our carrier-based aircraft,” he said, full of confidence in this attack plan, because he had reason to be proud.

Just one year ago, during the peak of German-Japanese aviation industry cooperation, a German materials technology company had collaborated with a Japanese enterprise to develop a new type of aluminum alloy that could be used on aircraft. This material was very light and could be said to be the best material for fighter production.

With this new aluminum alloy, the Japanese aircraft design engineers, with the help of the Germans, had successfully designed a new type of fighter that was enough to rewrite world history. This fighter, with its astonishing data, was held in high hopes by the Japanese Navy. And because it was almost 1939, which was the year 2600 in the Japanese calendar, and also to distinguish it from the existing Type 99 fighter, it was named the Zero fighter.

Because of its light airframe, the Zero had an astonishing range of nearly 2,000 kilometers. This range greatly exceeded that of the Fw-190 used by the German Navy, which allowed the Japanese Navy’s strike radius to be longer and more threatening.

Moreover, the flight performance of this fighter was excellent. It had a very high speed and an extremely small turning radius. It could be said that it excelled in several of the main performance areas of an aircraft, with its only obvious weakness being its dive performance.

In fact, the main reason was that the new aluminum alloy used in this aircraft was very light, giving it an empty weight of just over one ton. This allowed it to use a less powerful engine, and a less powerful engine would certainly be more fuel-efficient. At the same time, because its wing loading was very small, the turning radius of this aircraft was extremely small, and its speed was also very fast due to its light weight.

These advantages, if you were to spell it out, were worth nothing. No single aircraft can have all the performance advantages. But the Zero fighter, by sacrificing some of its more hidden qualities, had created an illusion of near-omnipotence.

Unfortunately, due to their long-standing “competition,” the Japanese Army and Navy never “shared” with each other. In other words, even though the Japanese Navy had already mass-produced a full 200 of its own Zero fighters, the most elite squadrons of the Japanese Army could only be equipped with the imported German Me-109C.

Don’t think this is just nonsense. The jokes brewed by the feud between the Japanese Army and Navy could leave even their opponents scratching their heads. After the Japanese Army successfully copied an autocannon produced by a French company, they completely ignored the Navy’s needs. At the same time, the Japanese Navy’s pride was even stiffer. They did not go begging to the Army but instead went to Switzerland and bought the blueprints for the same cannon to copy it themselves.

“With this one battle, we can guarantee ourselves an advantage in the Western Pacific for six months to a year. After that, our days will not necessarily be better than they are now,” said Isoroku Yamamoto, one of the top leaders of the Japanese Navy. He had a relatively good understanding of the powerful United States Navy.

He was not as blindly confident as the other Japanese generals, because he had arranged for several intelligence agencies to provide him with all sorts of American intelligence, including the scale of America’s industrial production and its shipbuilding capacity. He had a certain understanding of it all. America was far, far stronger than Japan imagined. This was not something that could be changed by a single successful attack.

Japan had a habit of meticulously collecting intelligence on its enemy countries. Before the First Sino-Japanese War, they had thoroughly investigated the situation in China. They knew everything, including its military strength and war potential, and even had detailed investigative reports on the resolve of the high command and the ability of the frontline commanders.

However, after the investigation was completed, Yamamoto became even less confident of defeating the United States. He saw this attack on Pearl Harbor as a gamble, because apart from him, almost all other Japanese believed that the United States would surrender and sue for peace within a year, just as the Qing government had done to them.

“General! Don’t be so pessimistic! The Imperial Japanese Navy is invincible!” Nagumo boasted to the worried Yamamoto. “Japan’s rise was built on the Japanese Navy’s defeat of the Qing navy; Japan’s takeoff was built on our navy’s defeat of the Russian fleet. So this time, Japan’s domination of the world will also be built on the Combined Fleet’s defeat of the American navy!”

It had come to this, and there was no turning back. If they did not strike this blow against the United States, then Japan would be on the brink of ruin. Thinking of this, Isoroku Yamamoto nodded and gave the order to attack. “Order your air arm to prepare to begin the operational plan! Remember, you must annihilate the U.S. Pacific Fleet!”

“Hai!” Nagumo stood at attention and bowed his head. “I guarantee I will complete the mission!”

“I hope the heavens bless our Emperor,” Yamamoto said in a low voice.

“Eternal good fortune in war!” Nagumo also nodded.

On the deck of the Japanese aircraft carrier, the pilots began to stand in two rows. The first row knelt on the deck, while the second row stood ramrod straight. They faced the camera of the accompanying photographer, taking a group photo before the battle.

Flash! With the explosion of the flashbulb, the faces of these fanatical pilots were captured in the photograph, one young and immature face after another. With the outbreak of the war, they did not know when they would die, but they all knew that they would be loyal to His Majesty the Emperor, that they would fight for their motherland.

Vroom, vroom, vroom. The first Japanese fighter began to start its engine. The pilot, in the gaze of the ground crew, nodded his head. A bomb was hung under his plane, looking menacing.

Following his plane was another. Under this one was a specially modified torpedo, with wooden rudders attached to its tail fins.

One after another, these planes waited for their order to take off.

Published: 2025-09-02T03:37:53.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-12-11T21:22:45.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c525-clowns-137920566

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