Chapter 109:
Chapter 109
A single photo shook the American newspapers.
The photo, titled “Remember Death”, was a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1942 and caused a sensation.
It showed a tall man standing up in a car, getting shot in the head.
In this terrible war era, where thousands of people died on the battlefield every day, the death of one man would not have been much of a story. But at least this man’s death became a topic of the century.
The death of “the Professor of Prague”, Heydrich, was “accidentally” captured by a war correspondent who was in Prague at the time.
The assassination operation against the German bigwig, which involved the vice president’s secret intervention, quickly became an interesting gossip and spread throughout the world.
“Did you hear that the Gestapo chief is dead? Our agents got him and killed him!”
“Good riddance! He was worse than a dog. Tsk tsk, he must be burning hard in hell.”
Those who had fled to America from the SS and Gestapo he commanded were amazed and happy to see the newspaper.
They praised the photographer who had escaped death or left behind some family members in the death camps just because they had different beliefs.
“Oh, but this person… I’ve seen his name a lot somewhere?”
“Right? Oh…!”
The war correspondent’s name was Robert Capa, a famous figure who became famous overnight as a war correspondent for covering the Spanish Civil War.
His photo, “The Death of a Republican Soldier”, had been controversial for being manipulated, but no one could dare criticize his photo from the Heydrich assassination operation as fake.
Who could blame the brave reporter who boldly took the truth-telling photo in the midst of a shootout in Prague, the enemy territory?
“Our Pulitzer Foundation selects ‘Memento Mori’ as this year’s photo!”
“Woooooo!!”
In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize, his photos became popular.
His works, which captured the horrors of war with the closest camera to the front line, sold like hot cakes with the award.
The records of the struggle for freedom and peace by the republicans and the fight against the evil and cruel fascists in the Spanish Civil War, the Sino-Japanese War, and the German-Soviet War spread widely.
“I’d rather have those Soviet Reds. I didn’t know the fascists were so cruel.”
“Is… is this all true?”
“I didn’t need any special staging in that war.”
The war correspondent, Robert Capa, said calmly in his Pulitzer Prize acceptance speech. Many audiences listened to his words.
“The front line was a picture itself. The Spanish Civil War, the Sino-Japanese War, the German-Soviet War. All those wars were pictures, and I just pressed the shutter. The truths I brought were facts that did not need to be processed, and they were propaganda themselves.”
His photos contained many implications.
People gathered together and talked about what the photos meant.
The most common interpretation was that it was a prelude to show the imminent collapse of Nazi Germany.
[Pale death knocks with equal foot at poor men’s huts and kings’ palaces. No power in the world can be free from death.]
The vice president left a short comment on the photo. And he added a little longer text as an explanation.
[The Professor of Prague thought he was an agent of pale death and wielded great power in the world. He imprisoned and executed hundreds of thousands for having different beliefs. But one bullet of freedom shattered his power.]
[Long live freedom! Long live solidarity! Brothers of America and Soviet Union, long live!]
***
“Hahaha, Henry, you might become the next president! Look at this approval rating!”
“Haha… Your Majesty, how can I have any intention of becoming president over you? The war is not over yet, and it would not be beneficial to change leaders.”
Roosevelt laughed heartily for a long time after reading a newspaper article about Wallace. Some people around him laughed softly or clapped their hands and liked it.
Wallace was consistent with his humble attitude.
He and those present knew it. Stalin had given him this achievement as a gift to enhance friendship between America and Soviet Union.
Well, thanks to that, support for Roosevelt’s administration soared vertically.
The citizens who had been angry about being surprised and dragged into war were shocked by this victory.
Also, by emphasizing that it was achieved through cooperation with Soviet Union, he was able to quell some of his weaknesses: ‘pro-Soviet appeasement’.
He was able to refute claims that he gave away national wealth without getting anything back.
“I wish I could give those Japs a good blow too. How can we do that? That Ya―ma… Who? That guy too. How about bang! once…”
“Yamamoto Isoroku? We… we’ll try our best, Your Majesty.”
Damn it, Roosevelt clenched his teeth as he joked. Those damn Japs.
The traitors of the nation, the Japs, were all put in internment camps, and that calmed the public opinion a bit. But that did not calm his anger.
More than half of the mighty Pacific fleet disappeared into Pearl Harbor.
The crippled Pacific fleet had to retreat one step at a time, fighting bloody battles against the advancing Japanese fleet.
“Philippines, Guam, Mariana, Wake Island, Ceylon… We’ve lost a lot. That bastard who messed up is rather a hero. I wish I could blow up someone’s head like this.”
“I’m sorry… Your Majesty.”
“Ah… We can’t retreat any more! If Australia is blockaded by Japan, or worse, surrenders, that would be a disaster!”
The military officials all shut their mouths tightly. ‘That bastard who messed up’, MacArthur, became the commander-in-chief of the Pacific War with national support.
Despite leaving his subordinates in the Philippines.
And due to the inferiority of power, the front line was pushed back and formed in Solomon Islands after Papua New Guinea.
The brave soldiers who were prepared to die to protect the airport in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea.
In the midst of pouring fire and machine gun fire, they dug up the airport and built trenches!
In a year or two, they could recover all the lost ships and show the Japs a hot taste.
But there was not enough land to retreat.
“Did Stalin say anything else? Please, please, if he could just hit the back of the Japanese army’s head hard once…”
“Yes, I apologize for that. The war with Germany is still urgent, so it is impossible to fight a land war with Japan, which has a million-strong army.”
“Damn. I wish the Chinese would do something useful.”
There was still no good news from the Chinese front. The Japanese offensive was gradually losing momentum, but that did not mean the Chinese army could resist well.
Chiang Kai-shek still showed remarkable courage and vowed to fight to the end, but he was like the US Pacific Fleet, which had nowhere to stand.
“Ha… let’s leave it at that. I’ll try to persuade Stalin again.”
“Yes, Mr. President.”
***
The work was ruined because two painters drew their own pictures.
It’s a story of me and Hitler.
Knowing the future was still very useful, but I couldn’t see the enemy’s actions as easily as before.
People began to act differently from the actual history due to the changed world, and I couldn’t predict them with just future knowledge.
And I couldn’t intervene and fix everything.
Especially when it came to America.
I told the Americans several times that Japan would attack first, but they ended up getting hit by Pearl Harbor. More painfully than in actual history.
They lost all their aircraft carriers in Pearl Harbor, and Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean fell into Japan’s hands without resistance.
Now Japan was trying to cut off the US-Australia connection in Guadalcanal.
In actual history, the US won at Midway and Japan lost its elite carrier fleet.
They fought a war of attrition with the US in Guadalcanal and eventually got crushed by the US’s overwhelming supply. The problem was that the US failed in its deception operation at Midway and couldn’t even fight a war of attrition with equal forces.
‘I’ Stalin had no way to intervene in this. Can I tell the Americans that Japan knows they cracked their code?
They might even suspect me of spying in America.
“Maybe you should give up Lend-Lease and make a treaty with Japan…”
A clueless general raised his hand and quietly suggested his opinion. It was like pouring oil over my irritated head.
“Japan is an ally of Germany, how can you say that! What’s in your head?”
The perception that America’s downfall was imminent was widespread among the Soviet leadership.
America still didn’t have an image of a ‘superpower’.
They were just one of them.
Their GDP was barely comparable to the sum of four of the five great powers’ GDPs.
They didn’t know the future statistics, so they made such nonsense.
“I’m pro-American. Pro-American! As long as Roosevelt is willing to give Lend-Lease, I’ll always be pro-American.”
I had every intention of cooperating with America as long as they were so powerful.
I pushed Germany too hard and they thought we were so powerful that they came out of their shells.
My goodness.
Some people already knew that we had sucked up all the benefits from the machines we got from America.
Just because of that?
We were still behind the Western powers.
We caught up in terms of weight, but not in terms of technology… 10 years? 20 years?
They didn’t think about catching up with America by trading with them, but talked about their own line.
“Japan will turn its eyes to the Far East if we continue to maintain relations with America. How long will American ships come and go in Vladivostok…”
“The Kwantung Army has a million elite troops. The Far East Military District has only 500,000 troops and is outnumbered. We can use them as strategic reserves on the European front by allying with Japan!”
“That’s right. Isn’t it better for the Soviet Union if the Communist Party-Japan front takes over the Chinese continent than if it is Chiang Kai-shek? Chiang Kai-shek is an anti-communist. Japan is better than him…”
Did I give them too much slack? Or did they get paid by Japan and eat it?
I ‘ordered’ them to freely express their dissenting opinions at meetings.
Everyone saying the same thing could reinforce a wrong conviction.
It was okay for someone to play the role of a ‘devil’s advocate’, opposing for opposition’s sake.
Also, I could always be wrong. I just came into Stalin’s body and took his place, but weren’t they recognized for their abilities?
But pro-Japan… pro-Japan was intolerable.
“I oppose reconsidering our relations with America.”
“Oh Molotov!”
As expected, sending him to America paid off.
He was wise.
Molotov had seen America’s enormity and advocated staying friendly with them all along.
They couldn’t sink America, which boasted a huge industrial capacity and an overwhelming area, with just a few battleships they had.
“Let’s say Japan sinks all the US fleets. Can they make America surrender? I have no idea how many troops they need to push into that vast land. Do you mean to cross the endless Pacific Ocean, then across the continent to plant the Rising Sun flag in Washington?”
“…But on the Atlantic side…”
“Sure, if Nazi Germany lends them an army, Washington DC is closer and easier to reach, but we can fly our flag in Berlin before that. They can barely maintain 200,000 troops in Britain right in front of them, let alone cross the ocean to America.”
That’s right.
Just as they couldn’t make the Soviet Union surrender because of its width, America was protected by two oceans, the Pacific and the Atlantic, which were even wider.
Even if supplying by ship was easier than by land, the distance was overwhelming.
Also, after losing its surface fleet, America inflicted continuous damage on both Germany and Japan through submarine warfare.
They kept losing a few ships each time, but Japanese tankers that were extracting oil from their Indonesian colonies were not safe either.
The US submarines attacked the tankers relentlessly, knowing Japan’s oil shortage.
They thought they might be attacked back and sunk if they messed with warships, so they targeted the vulnerable transport ships, especially the tankers that carried Japan’s lifeline of oil.
Already dozens of tankers had been sunk and Japan had lost hundreds of thousands of tons of oil.
“How much oil does Japan consume?”
“I can’t count it exactly, but I estimate that they use about 400,000 tons per month, Comrade Secretary.”
Beria answered.
Hmm… In fact, no one in Japan would know.
The army and navy were at odds with each other and growled at each other so that they couldn’t even touch the fuel stock.
This was a good enough guess.
“Is that so? But no matter how much oil they produce, it’s useless if they can’t get it where they need it. Do they have dozens or hundreds of tankers?”
“No… no, they don’t, Comrade Secretary.”
“That’s right. I know that well. Also, do Japan have enough shipyards and steel to build dozens of tankers?”
Of course not.
The US produced ten times more steel than Japan and had many more shipyards.
Even if the US lost all its fleets now, they could pop out dozens of ships in three years.
Japan?
No way. With one-tenth of the US’s steel production, they had to run both the army and navy and industry… There was a difference in weight.
As everyone chuckled, only those who had been to America nodded in agreement.
“That’s right. Then you should be pro-American too. Long live Roosevelt!”
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