Chapter 613 Preparing for Marriage

This batch of POWs was departed from Higashima half a month ago, all of their origins are from Tokyo Metropolis, as the first batch of repatriated POWs. Caused the attention of all walks of life in Japan, has been running for the return of prisoners of war Ichiro Hatoyama of course will not let go of this opportunity, and even prepared a touching speech.

The responsibility for the outbreak of the war can all be put on the shoulders of the Ministry of War, from now on the new Japan will start afresh and so on.

Finding a floor with a wide view and a good angle, Alan Wilson and Ambassador to Japan Burgess sat down to do what should be done at the right time, and have a cup of afternoon tea, or if it was the evening it was a drink.

As for the agents Philby had sent over, they were already in their places ready to leave a classic photo to prove business.

“Even the Soviet Union started repatriating POWs last year, so we’re actually a little late in doing this.” Burgess, with his cup of tea in hand, seeing that the ship had to wait a while for docking, chatted with Alan Wilson, “And it hasn’t been very effective.”

“It was the Soviet Union that did the ideological reform of the Japanese POWs in the Kwantung Army, wasn’t it? I heard that it caused alarm in Japanese public opinion, but I don’t think most of the Soviet POWs will be repatriated, it’s a bit more appropriate to send them to Hokkaido.” Alan Wilson said with a puzzled look on his face, “Actually, with the land in Hokkaido, as long as the population carrying capacity is not exceeded, the days should not be difficult.”

“I heard that Hokkaido’s climate is similar to the mainland, but I have never been there.” Burgess shook his head slightly, indicating that he personally didn’t know; after all, Japan was still very tightly guarded against Soviet information infiltration within the country.

“To be exact, the climate is a bit worse than the mainland.” Alan Wilson thought for a moment and said, “But the population can’t be compared either. The native area is already very crowded with fifty million people living there.”

Most fruits cannot be grown locally due to the barren land and poor climate of England. Most of Britain’s fruit, Yo pretty much imported it from the Iberian Peninsula.

It’s not that Alan Wilson connotes the British mainland, the island land rich countries in this world are very few. In fact, Japan’s land in the island countries, even if the agricultural conditions are excellent. As for the top of the island agriculture also has to be Indonesia’s core Java.

Britain’s advantage over Japan and Indonesia lies in the existence of coal and iron mines in Britain, enough to support the needs of the industrial revolution.

“Burgess, what do you think of the Japanese Socialist Party?” Alan Wilson asked, speaking to the ambassador to Japan.

“From what I’ve seen, the Americans are very defensive of this party. It’s not that I have a grudge against the U.S. If Prime Minister Adderley were Japanese, there would probably be American agents staring at his doorstep every day.” Burgess shook his head slightly, “Can’t see it developing anytime soon.”

Alan Wilson nodded, the Japanese Socialist Party during the Cold War retained a certain amount of strength, but it was similar to the presence of the Italian Communist Party, a powerful opposition party but unable to break through.

There existed a kind of 1955 system in Japan, that is, after the merger of the two major parties into the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), it held power until the end of the Cold War. There was a similar phenomenon in Italian politics during the Cold War, where the Catholic Democratic Party (PDC) and the LDP were in a similar position.

After the end of the Cold War, the South Korean military government originally wanted to form a super party like the LDP, but times have changed, and eventually the leftists in South Korea were allowed to come up and enter the two-party transition.

The LDP has been in control of Japanese politics for a long time, and has kept the Socialist Party of the Cold War, as well as the Komeito Party and the Democratic Party afterward, under pressure. Just because the LDP is a hodgepodge of political parties, the LDP does not have a proposition and program, deeply tied to the Japanese Zaibatsu.

In fact, Japanese politics is even more staid than American politics, and the American establishment is just charting a course in the face of the Japanese establishment.

But it’s hard to say whether Japan will be the same as it was in the future now that it has lost Hokkaido in the background. With the addition of competition from British Malaya at the start, it’s even harder to predict.

If the economic development is not all smooth sailing, perhaps the LDP dominance will turn into a two-party alternation. This is a possible effect of British Malaya having competition.

As for Hokkaido, if the USSR annexed Hokkaido and Japan never recognized it, the USSR would make it impossible to even get into the UN. What that political impact would have turned out to be is anyone’s guess.

Just as the two men were chatting about nothing, the ship full of prisoners of war had already sounded its horn, and from a distance, a number of soldiers still wearing the old Japanese uniforms could be seen on the deck, and the crowd was swarming.

Because of the distance, Alan Wilson could not see what expression these prisoners of war, is it mixed feelings? Tears streaming down their faces? Finally ended the five-year-long life as a prisoner of war, tears are almost falling, right?

Early preparation Allen Wilson took out the binoculars, which made Burgess face full of helplessness, how it seems to often do this kind of thing?

This Burgess will have no idea, Allen Wilson left a photo of people including, but not limited to, Hedy Lamarr, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman, Pauline Gaudet, Lana Turner, Joan Bennett, and even Margaret.

Photographic technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, not to mention a little telescope. With the telescope, he saw the expressions of the Japanese POWs as the ship docked and came down a little more clearly.

Ichiro Hatoyama had already come down to the dock to begin his speech, expressing in earnest words his reflections on the war, as well as expressing his optimism for Japan’s future development.

“Huh!” Because of the radio, Ichiro Hatoyama’s speech instead crossed space and rang out in front of Allen Wilson and Burgess, and with Ichiro Ozawa’s translation, both of them knew what it meant.

“Oh Alan, didn’t Mr. Hatoyama express his reflections on the war?” Burgess just couldn’t see Alan Wilson with this gloomy look, and couldn’t help but open his mouth to stop this ungentlemanly behavior.

“Whether it’s anti-war or anti-defeat, those are two issues. Let alone Japan, I wouldn’t believe the Germans if they apologized eight times a day.” Alan Wilson had a scoffing look on his face, “Don’t forget how long we propped up Japan, and in the end it still bit us in the ass, but I’m sure the Americans won’t make the same mistake.”

It had to be said that Ichiro Hatoyama had done his homework in order to make an official comeback, Alan Wilson listened for a while, if it wasn’t for Ichiro Ozawa’s translation, then Ichiro Hatoyama could have considered a posting in Whitehall.

With the end of Ichiro Hatoyama’s speech, which balanced reflections on the defeat and a chicken-soup-filled look at the future, the ragged POWs, filled with politically correct docks, re-embarked on Japanese soil after a five-year hiatus.

Many of the POWs who were subjected to five years of forced labor had tears in their eyes and presumably loved the land.

Although they would soon be taught to be human by post-war society, the homesickness of the moment, even Alan Wilson, who was holding up binoculars to watch the spectacle, raised a trace of sympathy that shouldn’t have been there, although it only appeared for a second, but it was there after all.

“A scene like this, even for the Japanese, is not to be marveled at.” Burgess also looked at the scene of the disembarkation of the POWs surrounded by the Japanese population with feeling.

“Think of the scene five years ago when the Expeditionary Force returned home.” Alan Wilson reminded Burgess with a cold face and said slyly, “I heard that there were seventy thousand cases of Anglo-German inter-country marriages in the past five years, and guess what the reason was?”

He wasn’t lying, as long as the three occupied territories didn’t merge, the British Occupation Trade Commission was in operation. That was the place where Allen Wilson had contributed his efforts, and the figures provided by the Trade Commission would not lie.

I just don’t know if it has anything to do with that cross-country wedding he facilitated in the first place; anyway, it’s almost trendy for ex-soldiers to marry German girls after the war, and the feminist movement on British soil has been devastated in recent years.

The resurgent Ichiro Hatoyama got enough exposure on the matter of repatriating POWs that major Japanese newspapers, including the Sankei Shimbun, gave Ichiro Hatoyama’s speech high marks.

As for the media in other countries, the style of writing was slightly skewed. In Britain, Holland, Portugal, and Australia, the relevant reports featured photos of Japanese POWs in rags compared to tall American soldiers with their arms wrapped around Japanese women, and the sales were still very high.

Under Ichiro Hatoyama’s aggressive pressure, the incumbent prime minister, Shigeru Yoshida, could not continue to be perfunctory, and in his subsequent address to the Diet, he took the initiative to propose that ships would be dispatched to bring back prisoners of war scattered in Southeast Asia and held in the hands of the United Kingdom, Holland, Australia, and Portugal, respectively.

It can be said that Ichiro Hatoyama succeeded in repatriating the POWs through this time, and successfully brushed enough sense of existence after his comeback. There is still something to see in the future fight with Shigeru Yoshida.

Allen Wilson also achieved his goal, finally get these prisoners of war who have lost the value of the use of light can eat back to Japan, at least his trip to Japan has been a complete success, repatriation of prisoners of war is actually nothing, is a broken bone, limp or arm bandaged, or missing a thumb, can not carry out strenuous labor.

It was also the day that the fifth battle of the Peninsula officially ended, and unlike the previous ones, it seemed as if the rhetoric on both sides had no immediate intention of continuing another dead heat.

MI6 agents, who had already proved their professionalism, also entered the Korean Peninsula at this time in the name of British foreign correspondents and opened their investigative journey.

Packing Allen Wilson embodied the style that has always been, things are done immediately withdrawn absolutely no delay.

This makes Burgess who is ready to retain a little bit are not good to open the mouth, can only say, “may be too many things in Malaya, you work on things have enough busy.”

“That’s not so important!” Alan Wilson replied as he buttoned up his suitcase, “The main thing is that I promised Pamela I’d get married after I finished repatriating the POWs there, and I’m going back now to get ready for the wedding.”