The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

Upon hearing the words "cruel bomb" on the radio, Yamaguchi Tsutomu's body involuntarily trembled.

He knew exactly what it was.

The flash that illuminated the entire sky, the shockwave that destroyed everything, the death cloud that shot straight into the heavens...

He witnessed it three times.

A tremendous, indescribable sense of relief, like warm water flowing through my entire body.

He almost collapsed.

They surrendered... They finally surrendered.

No need to worry about a fourth or fifth super bomb falling on your head anymore.

This is great news, absolutely fantastic news!

However, not everyone thinks that way.

"idiot!!!"

A furious roar interrupted the sound of the radio and shattered the silence in the room.

Hasegawa Shigenori suddenly stood up, his wrinkled face contorted in extreme anger, and his whole body trembling.

He pointed to the radio, his finger trembling:

"What is this?! What on earth is this?!"

He surveyed the surrounding villagers, his eyes bloodshot.

"My eldest son died in China. My second son died in Pegu. They both perished for His Majesty the Emperor, for the Empire!!"

He pounded his chest violently, making a dull thud.

"What do their deaths even mean?! The higher-ups... the higher-ups just said one casual word and the war is over?! They surrendered?! They admitted defeat?! I don't accept it! I absolutely refuse to accept it!!"

He acted like a madman, and his daughter, Little Lily, tried to pull him away, but he shoved her away.

The surrounding villagers kept their heads down, and no one dared to speak, but many of them harbored different thoughts.

The war has gone on for so long that everyone has reached their breaking point.

There wasn't enough food to go around, and the village had almost stripped all the edible tree bark off.

White Eagle planes came every day, dropping those sticky, inextinguishable petrol bombs, burning several neighboring villages to the ground.

In the village, almost every household had someone who was conscripted into the army, and some died in distant foreign lands, their ashes never even being seen.

Many more disappeared without a trace, their fate unknown, leaving behind orphans and widows struggling to survive.

We couldn't make ends meet any longer.

Every day feels like struggling on the edge of hell.

Now, the radio says... they've surrendered.

Although they didn't dare to show it as openly as Yamaguchi Tsutomu, many people, with their eyes lowered, secretly wanted to shout out in their hearts:

Yay!

They finally surrendered.

Finally, I can stop living in fear and try to survive.

Hasegawa Shigenori was still there, cursing wildly, denouncing the "traitors to the country," and weeping bitterly for his dead sons.

But his voice sounded so lonely and powerless amidst the deathly silence of the villagers.

With Kenjiro's help, Yamaguchi Tsutomu slowly withdrew from the oppressive Hasegawa household.

He looked up at the sky, which was still gray, but he felt as if the dark clouds of war that had been hanging over this land were finally letting out a glimmer of light.

ended.

Whatever the future holds, at least the endless bombing and the threat of death have temporarily come to an end.

For him, who had survived three divine punishments by sheer luck, that was enough.

-----

A day earlier, in the emergency shelter beneath the Imperial Palace, Emperor Hirohito, the Showa Emperor, sat in the main seat, his face paler than usual.

After the second atomic bomb was detonated, he moved underground for safety.

There is only a stark white light here 24 hours a day.

His white-gloved fingers unconsciously twirled the imperial seal box, his gaze lowered, avoiding the eyes of his ministers.

Seated around the long table were Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki, Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo, Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai, Army Minister Korechika Anami, and Chief of the General Staff Yoshijiro Umezu, among other key high-ranking officials.

Everyone seemed to have their spines removed, slumped in their chairs, either staring down at the table or gazing blankly at the wall.

"In the end... it still came to this."

Kantarō Suzuki's dry, hoarse voice broke the suffocating silence.

The aging prime minister's face was etched with weariness in every wrinkle.

They still held onto a sliver of hope.

They fantasize about negotiating a conditional end to the war with the White Eagle through some channel.

They fantasized that by using the crazy slogan of "one hundred million jade shattered," they could make the White Eagles consider the huge casualties and give the Japanese some face at the negotiating table.

But everything was shattered.

The explosion of the third atomic bomb in Niigata shattered their hopes completely.

“White Eagle…they actually have a third one.” Prime Minister Anami Korechi slammed his fist on the table.

His eyes were bloodshot, like a trapped beast. "Just how many of these devilish weapons do they still have hidden away?!"

Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo gave a wry smile, adjusted his glasses, and spoke with a deep sense of helplessness:

"What's worse is that in Southeast Asia... Zhang Chi is frantically clamoring in all the newspapers and radio broadcasts to organize an expeditionary force of 300,000 to land on the mainland with the White Eagle."

He said...we'll fight our way to Tokyo, raze the Imperial Palace, and...we'll arrest Your Majesty and put you on trial."

"Baka!" Yoshijiro Umezu roared, veins bulging on his forehead. "Nanyang, it's that Nanyang again, those despicable Chinese exiles, how dare they?!"

"Why wouldn't they dare?" Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai interjected coldly. He appeared relatively calm, but his clenched fist betrayed his inner turmoil. "Do we still have the capability to stop their forces? Where is our army? Where is our air force?"

The conference room fell into silence again.

Yes, what can stop it?

The combined fleet has long since vanished.

The sky belongs to white eagles and South Pacific bombers.

The so-called decisive battle on home soil has long since become a pale and powerless slogan under the successive nuclear explosions and endless bombing of incendiary bombs.

Emperor Showa's body trembled almost imperceptibly.

He looked up, his eyes filled with undisguised fear.

"Three...three already..." he murmured weakly. "What if...what if there's a fourth? Next time...could it fall...here?"

This extreme fear of personal safety ultimately overwhelmed everything else.

Despite the fact that the young officers were still clamoring outside for "Heaven to punish the traitors" and plotting another "February 26"-style coup, they were trying to prevent the release of the surrender edict.

But he, the Emperor, could no longer take the risk.

"Enough." Hirohito finally spoke, his voice not loud, but with an undeniable determination. "My mind is made up. I accept the Potsdam Declaration and surrender unconditionally."

At this moment, a cabinet secretary bowed his head and carefully presented a report.

"Your Majesty, gentlemen... this is a preliminary statistic..." His voice trembled, "Nationwide, the confirmed death toll due to air raids, famine, and... those terrible bombs has exceeded three and a half million."

The city is almost in ruins, the farmland is barren, this winter... I'm afraid..."

The report did not describe the horrific scene in detail, but everyone present could imagine it.

Charred corpses huddled in houses set ablaze by incendiary bombs; children scavenging for food amidst the ruins; wounded soldiers screaming in agony from radiation...

"It is said that... that incendiary bomb technology was also provided by Southeast Asia!" Anami Korechika gritted his teeth, blaming Southeast Asia.

The Japanese now know that the napalm bombs, for which technology was provided by Southeast Asia and which were dropped by both the White Eagle and Southeast Asia, created a hellish scene.

“What’s the point of saying all this now?” Togo Shigenori closed his eyes wearily. “We have all surrendered. Southeast Asia is the victorious nation, and we are the defeated nation.”

People are knives and servants, and I am fish and meat.

These words, like a cold, venomous snake, coiled around everyone's heart.

They began to think about more realistic, and more terrifying, problems.

Which of these people here hasn't amassed astonishing wealth over the past decade or so, taking advantage of the war?

Where are the gold, silver, antiques, and works of art plundered from Manchuria, China, and Southeast Asia—those spoils stained with blood and tears—now hidden?

Some of it became numbers in secret accounts, some were buried in the basement of villas, and some were stored in safe deposit boxes in Swiss banks.

Once the Allied forces, especially the White Eagle, the Republic of China, and the Southeast Asian powers that hate them to the core, take full control of Japan and begin their purge and plunder...

Can they still keep their wealth, their status, and even their lives?

The Republic of China would certainly demand the return of cultural relics and wealth looted in Nanjing and other places.

As for Southeast Asia...

Would Zhang Chi let go of this legitimate opportunity to retaliate by confiscating property?

He'll definitely ransack the entire city like a comb, taking all the compensation he can get his hands on.

At that time, these once high-ranking imperial elites may end up with nothing, or even be put on trial.

The thought of that scene sent a chill down everyone's spine.

Only heavy breathing could be heard in the command post.

The surrender document has been issued, and the war is legally over.

But for them, another war concerning their very lives has just begun.

They have almost no leverage to resist.

After all, the fate of losers is never in their own hands.