Re: Blood and Iron

Tokyo, Japan — Autumn, 1930

The war in Korea had not gone in Japan’s favor.

The Russians had mobilized 100,000 men at the onset of their invasion. Meanwhile, Japan had only 30,000 soldiers defending the region when war was declared.

Those defenders were long dead; replaced piecemeal by reinforcements drawn from the home islands and other colonies, desperately flung into the meat grinder to hold back the advancing Russian steel tide.

Worse still, Japan’s attempt to strike into the Bismarck Sea had ended in utter catastrophe. "Disaster" was the understatement of a century.

The Germans, despite inferior numbers, had not only held their position; they had annihilated the Japanese fleet, and every marine deployed alongside it.

The Emperor, already kept alive past his natural lifespan by foreign medicines, had grown increasingly frail.

He had never wanted war with Germany. Yes, he had felt insulted when Bruno refused to kneel before him during a diplomatic visit years ago.

But he had known better than to challenge a sleeping giant.

Now bedridden, Emperor Taisho summoned a distant member of the Imperial Family; a woman in her mid-to-late thirties.

She entered the chamber in full ceremonial form, bowing deeply, her forehead pressed to the tatami mat.

"You summoned me, Your Highness?"