Riding Out the Storm

Day 734, 00:07 Published in Japan Japan by Sophia Forrester

In the past few days, a storm has been brewing. It has taken less than a week for PEACE GC, the global alliance which eJapan had helped to found, to almost completely unravel. As a Representative in the Imperial Diet of the people of Japan, I was called upon to vote on the new draft charter of PEACE GC, meant to knit the alliance together once more. Yet, the document we were given was deeply flawed -- members were given the price of forfeiting voting rights, or agreeing to support any aggressive war which the PEACE Security Council decided to authorize. The debate was heated, and I among others sytrongly hoped that some sort of compromise could be reached -- and yet, I could not in good conscience vote to ratify a document that endorsed wars of aggression, and would even commit eJapan to their support unless we gave up our voting rights in PEACE GC.

After we had rejected the new PEACE GC Charter and thus left the alliance through no choice of our own, we were uncertain what allies we would have left inthe world. Russia seemed a strong neighbor with an interest in ensuring our defense. And yet, only yesterday they launched a surprise attack on China, who while not an ally has been a longtime friend and kindred spirit on the international stage. At the urging of our President I have voted to authorize a mutual protection pact with China, which if Russia continues its assault will lead to its changing from ally to enemy in a single stroke.. The easy road would be not to offend Russia, one of three great powers bordering Japan and until quite recently a staunch PEACE ally. Yet it is not the way of the Righteous Nation to side with the aggressors. Though we put ourselves at risk in doing so, to fail to defend China would be to fail to defend our principles.

It may seem strange to say that losing our principles would be a greater threat, even, than losing our homes. Though we all hope the worst will not come to pass, war with Russia carries with it the very real threat that the home islands will be attacked. Japan has been blessed with peace and prosperity until very recently, and yet we would risk everything on an ideal. Does that protect our nation? I would argue that if we chose to protect our prosperity at the expense of our ideals, it would be in a very real sense a surrendering of Japan to destruction -- because we would abandon the ideals of the Righteous Nation that have breathed life into our culture and made Japan more than simply a community -- made us a nation.

The principles of our imperial republic are manifold, yet they rest on three basic pillars: The Constitution of the Great Japanese Empire is a written statement of our principles, on which our government and national identity are based. Unwritten principles hav also been crucial in Japan's history, and the strong traditions of pacifism and pluralism have served us well through our recent months of prosperity. The third pillar is our community -- the people whose loyalty and enthusiasm makes Japan great. Even if we were entirely overrun by a foreign nation, it is this community that would ensure that Japan rises once again.

On the pillars of constitution, tradition and community our national identity rests. Yet, if we turned our back on the Righteous Nation Philosophy enshrined in our written Constitution -- if we let Japan's tradition of defending those who were unjustly attacked fall by the wayside -- if our community made the collective choice to put comfort over conscience, then we could not rightly call ourselves Japanese. With a handful of exceptions, the citizens of Japan in this New World do not hail from the Japan of the old. We all came to this land for our own reasons, and with our own hopes. The national spirit of Japan has taken those hopes, and woven them into a single cohesive fabric that both warms and protects. Even after conquest we would rise again, as our ally Germany did after Sweden took their country by treachery. Yet if we let the fabric of our national spirit fall to pieces, we might survive unscathed, but we could not call it living. To live is to strive, and I know deep within my heart that it is now Japan's time to strive.

This crisis differs from the scandal of a few months past, when our home island of Kyushu was used as a staging point for an ally's attack on a friend. The difference is that this time, instead of being taken unawares by the tsunami of global conflict, we have spied it in the distance and are prepared to ride the wave. This time we are decided -- the path of safety through passive acceptance of treachery is not ours. Let the storm come, and let us seize its winds in our sails.

~Sophia Forrester, Representative of Kyushu in the Imperial Diet of Japan, Day 734.of the New World