Time Slip Reiwa Japan

056 - Karelian Isthmus Conflict - 5

The fiery incident of the Joffre *1 ignited public opinion within France. The ship, which was promoted as a source of pride for the French Navy, was second only to battleships and without any inferiority compared to the modern regular carrier groups possessed by Britain and the United States. Naturally, the reaction was strong.

In parliament, peace activists with close ties to the Soviet Union loudly accused the government of supporting Finland as a result of the incident. The French political situation was in turmoil.

However, support for the peace activists in opinion polls did not increase significantly. Anger over the damage to France's pride was stronger. Therefore, the French government decided to aggressively exploit this situation, leading to the political exclusion action known as the Red Purge, which denied peace for the sake of tranquility. The government declared that those who harmed the Joffre were either the Soviet Union or countries that sided with it, and called on the public to confront the Soviet Union and the Axis Powers of Germany. Naturally, the peace activists rebelled, and the most extreme among them even staged violent street demonstrations.

This was exactly what the French government had intended. They declared that those who resorted to violence to make their arguments were enemies of democracy, and began using the national police force to suppress them with force. Although France's security situation deteriorated, ultimately, the government succeeded in consolidating public opinion.

. . .

United States

The impact of the damage to the Joffre was significant not only for France but also in a sense for the US. The design of the Joffre reflected the results of the next-generation aircraft carrier design plan *2 that the US Navy had been carrying out in cooperation with the Republic of Guam (USFJ), yet the ship was practically rendered inoperable by just two torpedoes. It was a story that was difficult to believe at first.

For this reason, a joint investigation team from the USFJ and the US Navy was formed and dispatched to France. After the investigation, it was revealed that the Joffre had been overloaded with too much combustible material. It was a reality that the ship had carried too many military supplies and had used too much wood in the interior, which the fire suppression system provided could not handle. As a result, the US began to work on making the ship non-flammable, with the encouragement of the USFJ and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

. . .

Japan

After the incident with the Joffre, Japan, who became aware of the existence of enemy submarines, did not choose to withdraw the TF-391. The decision was to confront head-on any war that the Soviet Union wanted, with all its might. At the same time, it was because there was full trust in the ships and crew dispatched as TF-391.

Japan held a press conference at the League of Nations on the same day. In addition to expressing condolences to France for the circumstances that the Joffre encountered, Japan condemned the unknown country that carried out the despicable act.

In addition, Japan made a declaration to neighboring countries. If a submarine is detected operating underwater along the route of TF-391, which is operating for humanitarian purposes, a warning will be given once with acoustic mines. However, if it fails to surface, it will be considered a submarine of unknown affiliation and will be sunk.

International public opinion was shocked by Japan's extremely aggressive declaration. Some of the Japanese media argued that it was too far from pacifism and that the content was unconstitutional as it was too invasive. However, the Japanese government rebutted that this declaration falls within the scope of self-defense and is a necessary measure to achieve humanitarian purposes. Public opinion in Japan was sympathetic to Finland and, at the same time, as the media were able to generate anti-feelings against the despicable attack on the Joffre, they did not succeed in stirring up public opinion.