1275psi
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Almost silently, the great battlewagons slide into Tokyo bay.
It is no simple task to manoeuvre the great ships in the tight environs – and the process of coming to anchor takes over 3 hours.
Once again the harbour is filled with the great steel castles.
Nearest to the shore – Yamato, and her Sister.
Behind, the still imposing bulks of three of the elderly battle cruisers.
And again, behind them, 3 more battlewagons.
The escorting ships too anchor, cruisers, destroyers.
Overhead, elements of the fleet air arm growl on Patrol. It is unknown if the B-29’s can reach here –but nobody wishes to take a chance.
Allied intelligence knows they are here – to herbiesan and his cabinet, their arrival comes as a great shock –until now they believed they were with Mobile fleet –returning still from Crimson sky.
In fact –Allied intelligence has a greater clue of what is going on than herbiesan can even suspect –there will be no B-29’s here this week –nothing to interrupt what might be happening
Immediately the great ships are secured, the decks empty – not a sailor to be seen. No boats, no flashing lamps, no fuel barges.
They sit, all afternoon, as the crowds gather on the shore, floating monoliths.
Floating, full of menace.
Nobody in the crowds knows what is going on, add speculation , rumours speed through the city.
How do rumours work?
How do people hear these things?
Even in this, an age before the mobile, the twitter, the net – the word suddenly wildfires through the streets –and the crowds swell to enormous size
“ Herbiesan has demanded Yamamoto’s resignation. He wants his head”
4pm precisely.
In perfect synchrony, the great rifles on each battleship swing ponderously to Port –and aim straight at the Diet –at the parliament
Still silent. Now very full of menace indeed.
“Yamamoto has refused –he is demanding the cabinet dissolved!”
And now the streets are full……………..
5pm
A small boat moves towards Yamato, and the “ Dictator is onboard”
5:10 PM
The emperors personl guard, and elements of the Third Guard division –deploy around the Diet
5;15 PM
Th3e small boat arrives along side Yamato –and somebody must have powerful glasses ashore
“They are meeting”…………………….
Inside the great director, Smn Miyazuki sits at his post.
Nobody speaks –nobody dares to speak, discipline this last week has been terrifying, brutal, brutal even to Japanese standards.
The fans hum, the hydraulics whine. They sweat. Tokyo is so close, close enough to pick out individuals in the great crowd…..
When the order comes –‘Action Port, main batteries, target, the parliament!” gasps, and glances pass between everyone –but all leap to work –each singing their part in the Choir of destruction.
For Miyazuki –from here –in these fantastic sights –the Parliament building is so close, he can see the individual panes of glass, even – he suspects –the faces peering back at them.
‘Load., Load, load!’
What in the hell is happening!?
Can the rumours be true?
Is Yamamoto truly going to launch Civil war?
Again Miyazuki looks around the tense space – and the petty Officer catches his eye.
But instead of the rebuke –a wink.
Ok, if there is to be a war –then so be it. He would follow Yamamoto to hell over the Dictator…………
As he suspects everyone here would.
‘boat approaching”
“Standby to receive, port side, piping party to the gangway, OOD , to the gangway”
Small, small figures below.
The great ship sits.
Silent
And thousands of men, wait, in silence, to see what happens next.
Yamamoto, Tanaka, Nagumo await the dictator in the wardroom.
The silence is impressive.
Tanaka cannot help have his eyes dragged to the emperors portrait at the head of the compartment.
The great table is clear, polished mahogany gleaming.
How many coups, great moments of History, he wonders, have been decided around tables such as this.
What events must they have witnessed?
Herbiesan enters the compartment, Flanked by two generals, and several others –Secret police Chief, the new Industry Minister, and Tojo –that scheming barsted.
The Dictator does not hesitate, he launches his attack immediately
“I was told, you were defending Siapan –what in the Hell are you doing here!. This is treason!.
The Admirals remain silent.
Outside, a gull screams faintly, and halyards clang briefly in a breeze
The Dictator makes his decision.
‘If you think the Navy can defy me, defy me and the Army –then you are very much mistaken Yamamoto. I will have your resignation today –your seppuka by tonight”
Yamamoto stands.
He remains an impressive man.
‘You, and who’s Army? There are less than two thousand troops in Tokyo today. I have 5000 marines here now”
He can barely contain his rage, this dictator – ‘So be it then. Demolish Tokyo. Do you think the population will support one who shells them –shells them with the very symbol of Japan?
I dare you, you little man, I dare you to act”
Tanaka stands, takes his place behind Yamamoto.
A life time to this…………….. ‘Give it over herbiesan. You no longer have anyones support. The war is lost. We must seek peace…………..”
The pipe is loud, urgent –and totally unexpected. “ Captain to the Quarterdeck!, Captain to the Quarterdeck!. Emperors flag approaching!!!!!!!!!”
He is a little man, the emperor –but few measure that. He is, after all –to many of them –a god.
He does not seem phased at all by the sheer size of his ship – a simple request –“take me to Yamamoto”
The captain leads the way, the passageways empty, the stair ways clear – no easy task to arrange on a ship with 3000 aboard………………
He enters the wardroom, alone.
To his left, Herbiesan, his cliché, ahead, the Admirals.
He speaks softly –yet the anger is there.
“To turn guns on Tokyo –almost unforgivable Yamamoto.”
The Admiral blanches, frozen by this shocking event
The Emperor turns to the dictator.
‘To hold the emperor virtual prisoner, to lie to him, to hide the true war state from him –is also unforgiveable”
The dictator to, blanches – how, it is written all over his face –did the emperor get here –how did he escape?
“I dissolve the Parliament. Nagumo –you shall form a new bi partisan government. You shall seek peace.
Herbiesan – I banish you. You have now retired –on health grounds
Yamamoto – you shall redeem yourself with death in battle – or total victory –nothing more, nothing less.
I have spoken. I have commanded. This conversation shall never leave this room.
The enemy threaten directly the son of heaven –and you use me like a pawn. Intolerable.
You fight each other, and the enemy bomb us!
Enough.
I have spoken.
A new government Nagumo………….”
It is dawn
Yamato sails again – and Miyazuki, along with everyone else, wonders at the morning news.
A new Government
A peace offering - ‘let us draw a line where we stand –and stop the bloodshed
We ask for a negotiated peace”
A new hope.
But in the meantime, the great ship , propelled almost by the rumours that fly about her, steams hard.
A war is still being fought.
For better, for worse. The Emperor himself, Japan, embodied in his ancestral line –is directly threatened.
Many would no longer fight for Herbiesan.
For the emperor -death itself is a small price to pay indeed….
Extract from Shattering the Sword , a cantona production
…………………many, of course, are NOT, going to accept the displacement of herbiesan just like that. But for the moment, they must.
Perhaps of all of them, the Admirals do best. Yamamoto gains the order he secretly has always aspired to – death in glorious battle.
He gets rid of Nagumo –who now must find a war cabinet –try to end the war –one way or another.
The people, of course, get nothing. A dictator gone. Replaced by a room of military men.
A war that continues.
And an enemy that gathers ever darker on the horizon.
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RE: herbiesan vs Cantona!!! - 
RE: herbiesan vs Cantona!!! - 
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