[War] Japan: "Differing Opinions"

[Ian Martell]

"Differing Opinions"
Prime Minister Shunichi Sato
Japan
October 9th 2006

Sato’s conversation with Fukudome while falling well short of giving him any 
sort of a plan, did give him some perspective. The WMD issue could not be 
ignored. That was clear. Even if intelligence reports suggested North 
Korea’s nukes lacked the sophistication to be delivered by missile and at 
best an unlikely threat to Japan. Korea’s stocks of bio and chemical weapons 
however could be and as a threat loomed large in his mind. Even so he 
remained just a committed to his desire to help the KRF as he was when the 
flight took off.

The question was how.

The question persisted from the airport to the Kantei and was no clearer 
after Sato had cleaned up and headed for the meeting of the emergency 
counsel in the Kantei itself.

“Keiichi,” Sato said using Mura’s first name as his Director of the PMO 
followed the PM to the meeting along with Akira and Hiroshi.

“I will need you to manage the meeting for me. I will hear everyone’s 
opinions first and have a general discussion, as events become clearer and a 
plan of response forms we’ll divide the counsel into work groups to begin to 
get things in motion.”

“Assuming we have a plan by the end of the discussion.”

“We will,” Sato said confidently. “We need one or we lose the one chance we 
have to topple the Kim Regime.”

Mura’s face took an uncomfortable cast. “We must consider Prime Minister, 
that there may be nothing we can do. That somewhere there is a line we 
cannot cross in the pursuit of this objective.”

Hiroshi nodded and stood slightly closer to Mura. Sato could see the two had 
discussed this earlier and he felt a flush take over his features. “We 
must,” he bit out. “Today North Korean nuclear weapons cannot reach Japan. 
One day, that won’t be so. I will not be like those who came before me and 
sit idly by while Japan loses ground against that mad man. So no, I disagree 
Mura-san, we must be willing to cross any line to see our objective met.”

“Is that what you are going to that counsel with?” he asked gesturing with 
his head to the room at the end of the corridor where the counsel waited.

“Of course not,” Sato said. “It would be political suicide to say it to 
them.”

“Then what are the goals we are trying to accomplish in there? I ask this 
respectfully Shunichi because they are worried, your words in Sendai were 
harsh and to many, frightening. If you enter that room and have no set of 
objectives beyond we must topple the Kim Regime no matter the cost they will 
no longer support your leadership of this party and the nation. And 
respectfully, they would be correct to do so.”
Sato’s eyes met Mura’s in a hard stare. “Insolent…” the words died on his 
lips.

He stalked to one side of the corridor and paced back again and a couple 
more times before he spoke again.

“I think Fukudome was trying to tell me the same thing,” Sato said. “With 
his mention of WMDs. I don’t want war Keiichi, not an open war this cold war 
is distressing enough and I don’t want to tumble the whole of Asia into that 
war or have there be an arms race, but I will not cave into the bullying of 
North Korea.”

He paced back and forth again.

“We need to support the KRF, that is clear,” he said as he came back to the 
group again. “And we need to stop Kim from consolidating power. That is what 
I need to put before those men in there,” he finally concluded.  “And we 
need to do it without risking everything.”

He sighed and bowed deeply to Mura. “Thank you again my old friend. Perhaps 
the Pacific War could have been avoided if Tojo had men like you.”

Akira smiled. “If he didn’t shoot them first.”

“An option I haven’t entirely dismissed,” Sato joked with Mura.

Mura snapped to. “It is an honour to give my life for Japan.”

They all laughed perhaps a little too loudly the release felt wonderful.

Once they had stopped and Sato had cleared a tear of mirth from his eye he 
said. “Let’s go.”


An hour later he was once again thinking back to having people shot. Namely 
his counsel they were deeply divided on how best to approach this situation 
and were not hesitant to be vocal about it. Only when speaking to him was 
there much decorum in the tone or words chosen a fact that only disgusted 
Sato more after witnessing Mura’s courage in the corridor.

“Gentlemen,” he said to the assembly of minister, soldiers and advisors. 
“This is bickering is unacceptable. We need a plan of action and so let us 
focus on that. Minister Takahashi, Minister Takezo, Minister Yubuki,” he 
said to the three people who had been planning Japan’s reaction to the 
nuclear bomb. “Let’s here our retaliation to the nuclear test.”

Takezo spoke for the three. “Our plan is three fold. First, we will be 
declaring all North Korean corporations still operating in Japan subversive 
groups based on the fact they are state run enterprises and that the North 
Korean government has admitted actively participating in acts covered by 
this law, namely kidnapping and espionage. We will have Koancho’s internal 
security arm manage the actual action of seizing these companies and 
detaining their personnel. Director Haruma?”

Haruma nodded. “Working with the National Police Agency we will be sealing 
off their places of business and seizing their records.”

Takahashi Minister of Finance spoke up. “While we freeze their accounts and 
seize their assets,” he said speaking for the ministry.

“Japanese employees of these companies will be free to go, however I would 
like permission to detain some of those who are on our watch list for 
further questioning.”

Sato shook his head. “Continue to monitor them,” he said.

Haruma nodded. “Those few North Korean employees of the companies in 
question who remained after the embargo will be detained at the Immigration 
Bureau detention center in Tokyo to be questioned by our agency.”

“I still think we will be seeing articles comparing your agency with the 
Tokko,” said Shimada to Haruma.

“They will be given the full benefits of their rights under the law and we 
have approached the Thai Embassy about having observers present since the 
Thai have reasonably good relations with the North Korean government. After 
we’ve questioned them and barring any evidence of espionage discovered or 
requests for asylum we will deport the North Korean nationals through 
Thailand at government expense.”

“What of those who have obtained Japanese citizenship?” asked General 
Tanaka.

“Our definition of North Korean for this operation will be passport carrying 
North Korean nationals, not Nisei (second generation) or naturalized North 
Koreans they will be treated as Japanese citizens would.”

Tanaka frowned. “I regret to say I disagree. Estimates say twenty percent of 
our naturalized and second-generation Koreans don’t feel any attachment to 
this country, which means we can’t rely on them to be loyal in a time of 
crisis like this also their vulnerable to being turned into agents.”

Sato spoke up. “General I understand your concerns however Japan is an open 
society,” then added ironically. “Of a sort, total security is not possible. 
I support Haruma’s view on this matter and I would like to add we should 
make it clear to our detainees we are willing to forgive espionage 
activities in exchange forfull disclosure and are willing to offer asylum to 
anyone who asks for it.”

Tanaka nodded and stayed silent.

“Next Takezo?”

“METI and the Foreign Ministry will approach all the nations recognized by 
Japan and convince them of joining our embargo against North Korea and cut 
off all aid, trade and not allowing North Korean ships or ships coming from 
or going to North Korean ports into their ports.”

“Third my office will pursue a joint statement of condemnation of North 
Korea’s actions and support for,” Takezo checked the wording on the paper in 
front of him. “The democratic movement in North Korea from China, South 
Korea and the United States.”

“Good luck with China,” quipped Watanabe but nobody laughed.

“It’s a good move,” Sato said. “If we can do it. I will hopefully speak to 
President Hong shortly I will urge her to put her name to that statement.”

“Are the KRF even democratic?” asked Shimada.

Yoshida gave a shrug as he stubbed out his cigarette. “I don’t think the KRF 
has gone as far as defining their political objectives beyond deposing the 
Kim Family.”

“Honestly it doesn’t really matter,” said Mura. “It’s the label the news has 
put on them and politically it’s a lot easier to support a democratic 
movement than it is guerrillas.”

“Which brings us to the question of how,” Sato began then nodded to Yubuki 
and Shimada. “Or if, we will be supporting the KRF in their fight at this 
point. Yoshida?”

“We have missed the bus to use a western phrase, the time to safely and 
seriously back them was several months ago now there will be open civil war 
between the KRF and the Kim Regime. It will either be a quick war, where the 
Korean People’s Army rolls over the KRF, without our support, or a long war 
with our support. Either way our hands will have blood on them, the question 
is which way we want this to fall?”

Yubuki frowned. “We are foolish if we think that we can support the KRF 
through a long war and not be found out.”

“Agreed,” said Yoshida. “We would at some point be discovered and there 
would likely be some military consequences.”

“What sort?” asked Takahashi.

“We can’t be sure, likely some sort of limited missile strike,” Yoshida said 
calmly.

“Limited… like chemical weapons?”
Yoshida shook his head. “No. Chemical or biological weapons will be reserved 
for when they feel they are truly threatened it would open up an entirely 
new level of warfare between our countries.”

“Wouldn’t Anti-Missile Command stop it?” asked Takahashi.

“Perhaps,” Yoshida said. “Missile defence is hardly a perfect thing. The 
other option is that they try to pay us in our own coin and go for economic 
warfare using their submarine fleet and try to strangle our shipping.”

Sato’s eyes fell on Admiral Takayama.

“I am confident in our ability to defeat them. The North Koreans use Soviet 
era Romeo and Whiskey class submarines and our forces were trained to defeat 
these submarines when they were new and crewed by Russians. We’ve improved 
greatly since then and so has our equipment.”

Yoshida nodded. “We also believe that parts may be a problem, in the 1990’s 
the Russians sold them 40 Romeo submarines; we believe these were for parts. 
If it became a battle of submarines we’d be the clear winner.”

Takayama added his own proud nod of agreement.

“What sort of support are we talking about?” asked Yubuki.

“Well our next move was to offer the KRF command and control help along with 
some communications gear and intelligence. This would be more valuable now 
than it would have been a few days ago,” Yoshida said.

“Don’t we buy intelligence from them?” asked Takahashi.

“Human intelligence on specific sights, yes that’s right, but what we can 
offer is signals intelligence satellite imagery which they don’t have and 
could be vital for planning a counter offensive.”

Sato spoke up thinking of his talk with Fukudome. “What do we feel the best 
course of action for the KRF is right now? Withdrawal?”

“Yes and secure a base of operations but if we can give them support and 
quickly there is an opportunity here to give them some measure of advantage. 
The KPA has sealed off the cities and is making forays into the countryside 
to attack villages, KRF supporters or not. If the KRF is able to sabotage 
rail lines and major roadways effectively they will be able to cut off the 
city based troops from ground transported supplies and with agitators 
slipped into the cities themselves they can cause chaos and force the troops 
in the field to withdraw.”

“Also,” Shimada said. “I think we can use these attacks to garner support 
from the rural populations by turning them against the KPA who attack them 
and the city dwellers who weren’t attacked.”

Yoshida nodded his agreement.

Sato checked his watch, it was time to see how his staff here was doing with 
getting in touch with the other world leaders.

“Alright, let’s all ajourn for three hours, everyone use the first to rest, 
then in the other two, Takezo, Takahashi, Yubuki, get ready to implement our 
plan. Branch Chiefs, Minister Inoue and Minister Watanabe along with Shimada 
and Yoshida work on a proposal for how best to help the KRF. Haruma you go 
between both groups. Agreed?”

They all signalled their agreement with a nod.

“Good,” Sato said. “Thank you for your hard work.”

With that Sato stood and left the room feeling tired, Akira joined him. “No 
luck yet with Seoul but London has contacted us, a ‘Mr. C’ is coming to 
speak with you.”

Sato nodded. “See that he is shown to the Kantei when he arrives.”

Akira nodded and Sato left to make some calls.

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