[War] Japan: "Bad News, Worse Timing"

[Ian Martell]

“Bad News, Worse Timing”
Prime Minister Shunichi Sato
Japan
Mar 7th 2013

There were better times and places to learn of a midair collision between 
Japanese and Chinese airliners than on a Japanese airliner flying into 
China. Though that is where he got the news, his daughter Akemi waking him 
as he caught a cat nap in the onboard suite.

“Wake up,” she said quietly as she shook him. He blinked and rubbed his 
eyes. “Kemi-chan, what is it? I’m not late for my phone call to Hide back 
home am I?”

She shook her head. “No,” and passed him the note one of the other staffers 
had brought back from the cabin.

He fumbled around on the bedside table for his glasses, found them, and put 
them on.

He read the message twice and looked up at his daughter. “Please tell me 
this is some kind of joke.”

She shook her head and Sato cursed under his breath. Fate had a funny sense 
of humour having Chinese and Japanese planes crash into each other on the 
eve of a summit in Beijing. His mother would have thought of it as a bad 
sign. He thought of it as a nightmare.

He composed himself with a long cleansing breath. “Get me a phone line to 
the Kantei,” he said to his daughter.

Akemi nodded and hurried off to make it happen, meanwhile Sato flipped the 
message over and taking a pen off his nightstand he began writing out what 
he was going to do about this.

By the time he was on the phone with his Chief of Staff he sounded like 
someone who hadn’t just been woken up from a nap to find this situation had 
been dumped on his lap.

“What’s the latest report?” Sato asked Hide.

“We heard there is a possibility of survivors,” he replied.

“Our or theirs?” he asked.

“Nothing yet, just warm bodies in the water, we’ll know in an hour or so.”

“I don’t suppose we have any Japanese MSDF assets in the area?”

“No, closest thing is the submarine Oshio, which is in Darwin on a goodwill 
tour and joint exercises.”

Sato sat back in his chair. “Then this is going to be all the Americans.”

“It looks that way,” Hide agreed.
“Very well, contact the US Coast Guard and the FAA offer them any and all 
support Japan can offer in both the rescue operations and the investigation 
of this crash. And in the meantime I would like the Civil Aviation Bureau to 
begin gathering the relevant information for our own review, flight plans, 
recordings of transmissions, maintenance logs, if this is JAL’s fault, I’d 
like to know before we have to tell the Americans and the Chinese.”

“Of course,” Hide said. “Chairman Kaneko, has called as well, he would like 
a phone call if you have the time.”

Sato nodded at that, he had expected it; Kaneko was the Chairman of the 
Japan Airlines Corporation which was the holding company which served as the 
umbrella for all the JAL assets, he was also a contributor to Sato and many 
campaigns in the last election.

“Please let him know I will be in touch shortly.”

“I will,” Hide said.

There was an unspoken concern between the two men. Kaneko might already know 
the things they didn’t about the crash, if so, this call could be tricky.

“What about the media?” Hide asked.

“I’ll make a brief announcement to the press corps on the plane with me, and 
give them what information we can, but ask them not to release the numbers 
of the flights until the CAB can contact the families of the passengers.”

Hide cut in. “AP already ran the flight numbers.”

Sato cursed. “See if you can keep them out of the press until the families 
hear it from us first.”

“And afterwards I’ll drink my tea with chopsticks,” Hide said with a snort.

Sato laughed inspite of himself. “I know… but try, please.”

Hide laughed too. “Okay, I’ll try. Do you think you’ll do a joint press 
conference with Hong on this?”

“I don’t see how we won’t. The Americans will likely have this figured out 
before the conference is done. By the way, if there are survivors, where 
will the US take them?”

“Hawaii,” Hide replied.

“Inform the consulate in Honolulu of what’s going on and get them ready to 
be on hand if the Americans find any Japanese survivors and to act as our 
liaisons there.”
“Already done,” Hide said.

“Then I have a very sleepy press gallery to speak to, I’ll call you later.”

“Good night Shunichi,” Hide said before hanging up the phone.

Actions:

1>	Offer to the US Coast Guard any and all assistance Japan can offer in 
helping with rescue and recovery operations, including any satellite 
imagery.
2>	Offer the FAA full cooperation with their investigation of the crash.
3>	Have the Civil Aviation Bureau investigate the Japanese end of thing in 
anticipation of the request from the FAA and to give the Japanese government 
some warning if this is JAL’s fault.
4>	Inform the press that there has been a crash, and the Japanese government 
is co-operating fully with the US in investigating what happened and looking 
for survivors.
5>	Try to keep the flight number out of the press until the families of the 
passengers have been contacted.
6>	Call the Chairman of the JAL Corporation and see what he knows but 
politely let him know the government cannot afford to be involved in any 
sort of cover up and it is best to come clean *if* it is the fault of JAL. 
If it’s China Airways’s fault, then JAL will have the full assistance of the 
Japanese government to make sure they get appropriate compensation for their 
losses.

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