Chapter 57: Sanctioned Destruction
Chapter 57: Sanctioned Destruction
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1 month ago, the White House
Inside the War Room, Hector, the Vice President, the three Chief of Staff of the three services, the secretaries and a few scientific experts discussed the possibility of dropping nukes on Japan.
It was less about if they should and more about where to drop them. Still, a committee of American military generals, army officers and scientists had come up with a list of viable options.
The list went on something like this, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Kokura, Emperor's Palace in Tokyo, Yokahama, Niigata and finally Nagasaki. The discussion started on which places the bombs should be dropped first if the situation was called for.
The men started discussing with each other why which part of Japan was a better target. All cities had military production factories, they all had a large population, some even a million if not less. The US Secretary of Defence, Henry Stimson, however, was the only person to oppose something, he outright warned them not to do any harm to Kyoto.
Hiroshima was quickly picked up as a target due to its heavy industrialisation. Then it came to the next target, they ended up selecting Kyoto. That was when Hector stood up to walk to the giant map of Japan on the wall, showing all its military bases.
Seeing them all, he made a decision and announced, "We will bomb the Maizuru Naval Base, which is 62 kilometres away from Kyoto, and then Kure naval base, 20 kilometres outside Hiroshima city."
They all traced their fingers on the map to find these places. Indeed, these two were also strategic places, combined they had a population of 50,000. But they won't have as much of a destructive effect.
The Generals had no problem with where they dropped them, but the Scientists were not happy. The one in the lead tried to convince him, "Mr President, to understand the effects of this bomb, we need to drop it on a city untouched by the bombings and we need to have a large enough population to research later on,"
Hector's brows twitched, these were madmen, caring about nothing but their research. He walked to the man and patted his shoulder with a sigh, "You have no idea what you are talking about right now, boy. Kyoto has a population of a million, it's a great historic city with thousands of cultural relics of the past. To destroy it is to destroy the soul of Japan.
"We are trying to break the soul, to rebuild it, not destroy it. You will get your samples even with these two bases. But let me warn you, do not ever talk about the bombs like that, you sound nearly as bad as the Nazis, uncaring about human life and suffering. All of you in the room, after the bombs are dropped, I want you to reach ground zero and see the madness that we have created.
"Change my name if you don't vomit and lose your sleep for months to come. Remember, today, it's just us who have such destructive weapons, tomorrow others may have them too,"
Roosevelt, who already knew somewhat about Hector's future knowing powers. Saw true sadness in the eyes, he knew that whatever was to come would change mankind forever.
The meeting soon came to an end with Kyoto, Hiroshima and Tokyo being removed from the list. Why was Hector being so kind to the Japanese when they were even worse than the Nazis?
It was a simple reason of observation. Hector understood one thing, every common man in Germany knew what was happening with the Jews, after all, the Jews were caught, bullied, beaten and then thrown out of their homes from the middle of all villages and cities. Common Germans saw all this happening. They saw these Jews working in factories, sweeping the streets, forced to not walk on footpaths.
Hence, the entire German population had somewhat of an idea of what was happening. They, too, became the enablers of Hitler's evil plans, unknowingly. Meanwhile, in Japan, an island nation, the common citizen had no way of knowing what was happening outside.
Heck, they were told the countries in South East Asia were their friends and had joined Japan happily. They had no way of knowing the atrocities committed by their army.
Hence, the innocent school going kid, the simple housewife and a simple salesman of clothes didn't deserve to die. But, some will have to, peace demands bloodshed first, and he will have to live with this choice.
Before leaving for his campaign in the Pacific, he signed the authorisation letters, those few curves of blue ink on a paper were worth thousands of lives, and the weight they put on one's shoulder was incalculable.
...
The day was 10th January 1945, it was a sunny and bright day for Japan. The kids went to school, the women went about doing chores, the men went to work. A major part of the world was burning in flames of war, and these people did not even know an ounce of what was happening.
To them, their lives went on as normal. The only change was better employment in various arms factories. But in the middle of the day at noon, the rumbling sound of a single aircraft in the sky pierced everyone's ears. It was the Naval Base and the surrounding small city of Maizuru and Kure. The names of the two bombs were Shooting Star and Little Sissy.
People looked up towards the sky, only to have their eyes blinded by the sudden piercing white light showering the world, their eyes burned in an instant, melting into pulp. Their clothes burned away, followed by their skin turning into a gooey gory puddle of flesh, then that too turning into ashes, then those too burnt away, leaving behind a single dark spot on the ground.
Those under the covers had it worse, they did not die quickly, for them it was slow, they melted and remained conscious until their brain completely got destroyed. Loud screams, cries and screeches resounded the two cities, none could differentiate if it was an animal or a human, for today, all faced the same fate.
Everything happened in seconds, the same way the light appeared, it vanished, leaving behind a sea of destruction, all buildings uprooted from their base. Nothing remained standing there, no human survived, not a single lucky soul out of 50,000, as the two cities were too small for such a mad power. All that remained were a few burnt corpses and walls of concrete.
...
Tokyo, Royal Palace,
It was Midnight, Hector had remained seated that day outside beside a pond of koi fish. His eyes were closed, as he meditated, trying not to think about the scenes that must have taken place in the two cities. He could only hope that the Emperor's sense will prevail.
Moony too sat beside, tucking Hector with his tail and body from behind, his head resting on his dad's lap.
*Cough* "M-Mr President, the Emperor wants to see you," Yui, the mutant girl called him.
He silently stood up and walked to meet the man. He was not in the mood to joke today. Entering, he found not just the Emperor today, there was also a Military General beside the Chief of Staff and the rude guy from yesterday.
"What have you decided?" he asked them.
Hirohito seemed nervous, looking at the General behind him, not even seeing Hector in the eye. The General spoke in a heavily authoritarian voice, "Japan will not surrender. Your bombs will not scare the spirit of the Japanese. It is our divine will to conquer and rule."
"Fine, it is my divine will that I break your throat," he walked forward and jabbed at his neck, punching Adam's apple right back into his throat, effectively killing him.
A few soldiers came running, aimed their little guns at Hector, but the man didn't even spare them a glance. It was the Chief of Staff who had to shoo them away.
Then Hector called Kennedy again to bring him the communicator. On it, he gave the last instruction, "Drop the next one,"
Hirohito shuddered as soon as he heard this, he knew what Hector did.
Hector looked him in the eye, "All those lives, they are on your hands now. When you sleep tonight, remember those screams, the dreams that got quashed because of your weak will. You are no Emperor, you are a traitor. "
He walked out to sit by the pond once again, in silence, awaiting the destruction he had sanctioned.
[CHECK THIS PARA COMMENT TO SEE HECTOR AND MOONY]
[A/N: There will only be 1 chapter tomorrow. I need to keep the chapters at an even number because I write them in pairs. Leaving them mismatched destroys the flow and cliffs.]
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