Japan Space-Time Strange Chronicles

Eve of Counterattack

This will be this month's post.

Finally... Dehong reaches a certain conclusion.

- Kazuhiro Kasami

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August 2, 1750

Australia Continent, Elmeris Kingdom, Port City Alfroy

The port city of Alfroy, located in the northern part of the Elmeris Kingdom, was raised from the level of the Kamakura Period to the level of civilization and enlightenment by Japan's exploration of Australia and the support it provided along with the Grand Lago Kingdom.

Here, the Maritime Self-Defense Force's escort group, the aircraft destroyer Katsuragi and the artillery destroyer Musashi were assembled to attack Nanjing, the capital of the Yi Empire. A total of 12 ships, including auxiliaries, were here. The Tazawa-class supply ships were to accompany the fleet, providing fuel and ammunition if necessary. And the highlight of the mission was the artillery destroyers Musashi and the newly-joining Yamato. The Musashi and the Yamato were to fire indiscriminately (or nearly so) into a densely populated city for the first time since the establishment of Japan, even since the end of World War II.

Naturally, such an inhumane act of indiscriminate naval bombardment is not something Japan would have wished for. However, since Nanjing, the Yi Empire's capital, was built on the remains of the ancient civilization that existed underground, it was necessary to destroy the surface with artillery fire and then send in attack aircraft such as the AC-3 Suisei to strike a heavy blow.

The population of the capital city of Nanjing, surprisingly, is nearly 20 million, more than the population of Tokyo in Japan and the troops defending the city alone are a mind-boggling nearly 200.000 strong. No matter the technological disparity, the Japanese feared that the enemy may resort to guerrilla tactics when it comes to urban warfare by rushing in with Ground Self-Defense Force personnel (it doesn't matter if they really know that concept or not, the Japanese decided that they must assume that they would).

This would undoubtedly result in the loss of lives of the SDF personnel, and the Japanese government would like to avoid that as much as possible. It is important to respect the lives of others, but it is even worse to endanger the lives of one's own citizens.

In addition, information from the Grand Lago Kingdom and the Neutrine Empire had also influenced their decision: if Japan engaged in a prolonged conflict, there is a possibility that the Yetisk Empire will capitalize on this and invade, targeting the Yi Empire's vast territory and the ice-free ports to the south. The story goes that the Japanese government decided that, if they can't use a nuclear attack, it would be desirable to suppress the capital city as soon as possible, even if it meant slaughtering a number of the Yi Empire's citizens.

To this end, they decided to break their will to fight by launching an attack that was unusual by their standards, and then to have the Sindhvan Community, with which they were in contact, sends them a surrender notice.

The plan was as follows.

As a first step, F-3C fighters loaded with anti-air missiles will be launched from the aircraft destroyer Katsuragi to strike enemy aircraft that are expected to scramble in order to secure air superiority. However, the Joint Staff thought that they could pull a night attack on this radar-less enemy to silence them, and thus decided to launch a surprise attack in the middle of the night. In fact, it was not until World War II that aircraft interception at night became a thing (although this is not to say that it did not exist before then).