REIWA JIGOKUHEN - Chaotic Disturbance of Reiwa Era

Chapter 71 - Strategic Strikes and Their Impact

Washington, D.C.: White House

"I thought you all were going to do something about it...?" President Truman incredulously demanded at the reality as if he had seen the real devil.

A temporary meeting room for emergency situations was set up on the second basement floor of the White House. In the room, illuminated by the monotonous light of incandescent bulbs, there were generals lined up, sporting several glittering stars, yet all of them were uniformly downcast and silent.

The hell that had appeared in Los Angeles was unimaginable. Thousands of tons of super napalm bombs were concentrated in the city, which destroyed its firefighting network, resulting in an unprecedented wildfire that has yet to be extinguished. The final death toll was estimated to be at least 250.000 people, and the sheer scale of the fire was so catastrophic that no one has even forgotten to be outraged. The news media control system was completely inoperative, and residents throughout the West Coast were reportedly beginning to evacuate in disorder, even rioting and looting.

AA guns and interceptors were completely ineffective in the face of what could only be described as a devilish air raid. The report from the field said that seven aircraft had been shot down, but there was no evidence of any downed planes, and even if this were true, the number of aircraft shot down was far too small in relation to the damage done.

"Spatz, why don't you say something? Something happened that shouldn't have happened!"

"I am sorry, Mister President."

Spatz, the commander of the Army Air Forces, was paler than anyone else.

"We're doing our best, but—"

"But what?"

"Their bombers fly at over 500 miles per hour at 40.000 feet and have the ability to disable radar. We regret to inform you that we have no means to deal with bombers like that. Even the P-80 jet fighter has had its production and training bases destroyed, and it is becoming difficult to operate them."

"In other words... you are saying that there is nothing we can do?"

"I think that air defense, at least on the West Coast, is going to be difficult. East of the Midwest, there is a possibility that the anti-air surveillance network that is currently being hastily developed can function... but on the West Coast, there is no way to secure any vertical depth against an enemy flying in from the Pacific Ocean. We've only had one contact from an offshore surveillance ship so far, but by the time it arrived, the enemy bombers had finished their bombs and were on their way out."

"Damn it, this must be a joke! How could this happen!?"

The situation was so absurd that Truman banged on his desk and cursed.

Super napalm rained down on every city in the United States, and visions of millions of citizens being burned to the ground were being conjured up. The indiscriminate bombing, common in world wars but never to occur on American soil, had struck in its worst form. It had struck in the worst possible way.

"Anyway, Mister President... we have no choice but to accelerate the evacuation of civilians and industry and just endure it."

George Marshall, the Army's Chief of Staff, offered a helping hand. He, too, was as gaunt as a skeleton, and all the hair on his head, which was not much to begin with, had fallen out.

"The Alexandrians are helping the Japanese for some mysterious element called "sakuraite," right? We know it is only at the foot of Mount Fuji, but it is probably buried elsewhere on Earth, and the only way is to find it. Then the Alexandrians will no longer favor only Japan, and we will have a chance to win."