Chapter 560: A Hard Lesson Learned
The halls of the Imperial Ministry smelled of sweat and scorched lacquer, heavy with the dread of men who knew they were witnessing the final pages of their empire’s long chronicle.
Maps of the home islands lay scattered across broad polished tables, some edges charred where frantic officers had stubbed out cigarettes too close. Pin flags marked depots that no longer existed, divisions that no longer lived.
And on a raised dais under the silent portraits of emperors past, the War Cabinet gathered.
General Kuroda sat with his head bowed, the veins in his temples pulsing. Across from him, Admiral Yamamuro held a handkerchief over his mouth as if to block out the stench of ruin carried on every breath.
"Osaka," Kuroda rasped finally. "Kobe. Nagoya. Three of our industrial lungs collapsed in a single hour. The arsenals are gone. The munitions warehouse; erased. Civilian districts... ash."
An undersecretary, no older than twenty-five, blurted out, "The Ministry of Civil Affairs says the fires will take days to put out. Entire neighborhoods are vaporized. They can’t even count the bodies. They’re gone—"
Yamamuro slammed his fist down on the table, rattling ink pots. "Silence!"
The young man flinched back, swallowing whatever terror had clawed up his throat.
A thin voice came from the back of the chamber. Prince Kanin, skeletal now in his ceremonial uniform, eyes clouded with both age and dread.
"If we do not sue for peace... there will be nothing left to rule. Not even rubble. Only graves."
Kuroda glared at him. "And let the Germans dictate the terms of our extinction? No. If they want to take the sacred soil of Yamato, they will have to bleed for every stone."
"General," Yamamuro cut in, voice leaden, "we have no factories to resupply the army. No drydock to service the fleet. No fuel stockpiles left to shuffle from one prefecture to another. Even the rail lines to Tokyo are threatened by local partisans starving for rice. Tell me; if they land, what shall we fight with? Bamboo pikes? Boys with slings?"