The Shores of Land: The Diplomacy of Japan, an Alien Nation

Chapter 16 - Time Limit

How to convey to Regen the existence of radioactive materials and the danger they pose is the problem Japan faces in preventing an invasion of Eustre by international forces.

Because they are alien and because they are non-existent or undiscovered on Planet Philia, they can propagate a sense of insecurity, but it is not a decisive factor. No matter if the Japanese are aliens, the enemy will never act on vague grounds.

Even if Japan had a substance that could be dangerous depending on how it was used, it would not be possible for Japan to inform Regen on its own, and to do so blatantly would cause more suspicion and distrust.

Therefore, Japan decided to use a Japanese feature site that has been created since the beginning of contact with Illyharan.

This featured site is apparently the source of a site created by the general public, since the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Illyharan has published information provided by the Ministry of Defense. The site explains not only a map of Japan, but also uses photos and other materials in a variety of fields. There are more than dozens of items, ranging from automobiles that are unique to the Earth to relatively similar political systems.

There was originally a section on power generation, and they decided to work on that.

Taking advantage of the fact that Ruyle and her comrades came to Japan, albeit for one night, she gave them a medical explanation of how the raw material could cause death, and had it posted as knowledge normally acquired through "exchanges."

This feature site received access from all over the world to the extent that the server went down many times, and at the moment of its opening, the number of accesses reached 10 million before crashing. Since then, the site has been repeatedly expanded and now has 300 million visitors a day.

It is only natural that they are curious about the aliens, even though they are subjected to secret government censorship, but the nuclear power plant and some of its raw materials were posted there.

But there are levels to this disclosure. There are those that may be disclosed to the general public and those that are only disclosed to other governments, and sometimes it is spread via the Foreign Ministry as a means of sharing the information. Of course, the more useful the information is, the less likely it is to be disseminated, but the information on nuclear power generation is to be disclosed to countries friendly to Illyharan.

Although Japan would prefer not to disseminate information that could be called top secret, it has decided to allow it in order to prevent an invasion.

Of course, the connection between nuclear power plants and nuclear bombs was kept secret. They were only told that the nukes cause damage over a very wide area by heat and blast, and Japan have not told them anything about the principle of how they cause the massive explosions.

Since they would be alarmed if Japan told them about nuclear power in all honesty, they dared them to disclose information in a way that kept them out of the loop. From their perspective, the only way to know about Japan is through their own investigation and the information provided by Illyharan. However, Japan is an alien nation. Considering that Illyharan also has information that they are hiding, thorough information gathering and scrutiny are essential.

If Japan allowed itself to bend against its alien neighbors, it will not be able to win a war with them.

Japan and Illyharan were sure that the other side would scrutinize the information on their own, and they would tell Japan that there are dozens of nuclear power plants in Japan that would release lethal substances if attacked.

The information was not widely disseminated, but was solemnly stated, not to the government, but to the people of Regen directly. If Philia's society is similar to modern Earth civilization, public opinion must always be on alert. Even if they used Japan's own as a measuring stick, which is extremely vulnerable to public opinion, countries can be overthrown depending on public opinion, even if it is painful. China, too, thoroughly controls information in order to control public opinion and prevent the overthrow of the government, and if they can induce public opinion, they can indirectly induce the government.