Chapter 339
Under the continuous bombing by the Soviet Union and the United States, the entire Tokyo was reduced to ruins, but there was also a special existence, that is, the Emperor's Palace. The entire Emperor's palace was maintained very well and suffered almost no damage.
This incident was once used by the Japanese cabinet government as a propaganda tool, saying that Japan was blessed by the gods and that the emperor was protected by the spirits of heroes. It was precisely because of this that the emperor's palace was protected from intrusion.
Of course, the truth is not like this at all. The reason why the Emperor's Palace was not bombed was only because there was an agreement between the Soviet Union and the United States. Both countries knew the status of the Emperor in the minds of the Japanese, and knew that if the Emperor's Palace was bombed, the Japanese would feel a sense of common hatred of the enemy, thus increasing the difficulty of attacking the Japanese mainland.
In order to force Britain to surrender, the Germans once launched a large-scale bombing on England. As a result, the bombing of the British royal palace caused the British people to develop a desperate determination. The United States and the Soviet Union have learned a lesson from this incident.
In addition, the reason why the United States and the Soviet Union did not choose the Japanese Emperor's Palace as a bombing target was that since the Soviet army occupied Hokkaido and the US army occupied Shikoku, the Japanese Emperor became the main force of the surrender faction in Japan. Hirohito sent secret envoys to both the United States and the Soviet Union, trying to exchange surrender for the retention of the status of the Japanese Emperor after the war.
Both the United States and the Soviet Union needed Hirohito, the biggest surrenderist, to play a role, and certainly would not choose to blow him to death for no reason.
The long motorcade passed through the ruined city of Tokyo and headed straight for the Emperor's Imperial Residence. Just as Kirilin had said, when the motorcade arrived at the entrance of Nijubashi, a large number of people wearing traditional Japanese martial arts uniforms gathered on both sides of the entrance. These people had bandages with plaster patterns on their heads, samurai swords on their waists, and held "petition" flags in their hands, trying to prevent the motorcade from entering the Imperial Palace.
The Americans had obviously anticipated this situation, so they set up a defensive isolation zone on both sides of the entrance road in advance. More than a dozen tanks were deployed along the road near the Niju Bridge, with machine gun fire points built with sandbags in between. In addition, a large number of US soldiers were stationed there to isolate the protesting Japanese more than ten meters away from the defense zone.
When the convoy appeared at the entrance of Nijubashi Bridge, the petitioners became agitated. They waved their flags at the convoy and howled at the top of their Some of them even knelt on the ground, ripped open the front of their samurai uniforms, drew their swords and started waving at them.
Yuri sat in the car and looked at these guys coldly at first. But when the jeep approached the entrance, this guy actually pushed the window to one side, bent down slightly, and waved to those people.
Kirilin was startled by him and felt speechless.
Yuri didn't know whether there was blood on the entrance to the Nijubashi Bridge of the Emperor's Palace, and he didn't care. That was something the Americans and Japanese needed to worry about.
Why did Yuri insist on holding the surrender signing ceremony in the Emperor's palace? Why did the Emperor have to be present? Why did the Americans strongly oppose it? Why did Comrade Stalin, who was far away in Moscow, acquiesce to Yuri's approach? The reasons behind this are not so simple.
For Yuri, from a personal perspective, although he has been reborn into this world for many years, has become familiar with the life in this world, and has adapted to his new identity, some of his love, hate, and joy from his previous life still have some impact on him, and his persistence is due to this factor.
In addition, this insistence also involves national factors. To put it bluntly, it is also a game between the United States and the Soviet Union over the post-war East Asian order.
The Americans wanted to keep the emperor in postwar Japan and not let Japan lose face. Their purpose was to better control Japan and use it as an Asia-Pacific base to blockade the Soviet Union. Moscow was aware of the Americans' intentions and naturally did not intend to let Washington achieve this goal smoothly.
The humiliation of the Japanese royal family can anger the Japanese to the greatest extent and make them more resistant to the victorious countries such as the United States and the Soviet Union. In this way, the Americans' control over Japan will have many more unfavorable factors, which is very beneficial to the Soviet Union.
So, ultimately, this is a political issue, not a simple signing ceremony.
The convoy stopped at Nijubashi and the group got off and walked towards Chowaden. When they crossed Nijubashi and the main hall was in sight in the distance, a dozen Japanese people, some in dress uniforms and some in military uniforms, walked towards them from the direction of Fushimikura.
The square in front of the palace was filled with fully armed American military police, and two armored vehicles were parked on the right side of Fushimikawa. It was obvious that the Americans no longer had any trust in these surrendered Japanese.
When these Japanese came over, Kirilin whispered introductions to Yuri, which one was Shigemitsu Aoki, which one was Umezu Mijiro, which ones were officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which ones were officials from the military, and so on.
The two sides soon met at the bridgehead of Nijubashi Bridge. The Japanese representatives greeted the Allied representatives one by one, but the Allied representatives, whether they were the US Army, the Soviet Army or any other country, did not respond. This was a matter of principle and a matter of position. After all, there were photographers behind the delegation taking pictures. No Allied representative wanted to be treated specially. If others did not return the greetings, and they returned the greetings, they would be criticized and killed.
There was no greeting. Although the two sides met, they walked on the left and right, clearly separated. The atmosphere was as heavy as thick glue. No one spoke, and the group entered the Changhe Hall in silence.
The Changhe Hall is the main hall in the imperial palace. When Yuri walked in, he found that there were American military police on duty in the hall, all of them armed with live ammunition. In addition, a long table had been placed in the middle of the hall. The table was oval and very long, with chairs placed on both sides and on the far right.
When everyone walked into the hall, two young men in gorgeous clothes were standing next to the chair on the far right of the long table. Sitting on that chair was a thin middle-aged man wearing round glasses.
When Yuri saw this middle-aged man, he recognized him. Yes, this was the current Japanese Emperor Hirohito. It was during this guy's term of office that Japan launched the war of aggression against China. It can be said that this man is the culprit of Japan's war crimes.
Seeing everyone coming in, Hirohito stood up from his chair while adjusting his suit. As a representative of the United States, MacArthur still gave this guy some face and personally introduced everyone.
This guy was very interesting. According to the default rules, he should obviously introduce Yuri first, but he didn't. He introduced the representative of the United Kingdom first, and then the representatives of France, Canada and Australia.
Yuri didn't mind, he just waited quietly and looked around at the decorations in the hall.
Mr. MacArthur finally finished introducing General Moore Cosgrave of Canada. He turned his gaze to Yuri and was about to speak when he saw that Yuri had raised his hand first, made a stop gesture, and said, "I am very sorry, General Douglas MacArthur, I have no interest in getting to know a war criminal. Now, I just want to talk to you about the implementation of the Sendai Agreement."
General Leonard Ished from New Zealand raised his hand to his forehead and made an expression of headache. He knew that this young general from the Soviet Union was about to fight with the arrogant Mr. MacArthur again.
Sure enough, Yuri pointed to a row of chairs facing the palace door and said, "According to the provisions of the Sendai Agreement, the representatives of the defeated party do not deserve to have a seat here. As the representatives of the war criminals who have caused great harm to the entire East Asian region, they do not deserve to have a seat here."
"Even the defeated party should have basic dignity," a guy in Japanese military uniform said indignantly from behind. He actually spoke English with standard pronunciation. "What's more, we need to sign the surrender document. Are you going to let us sign while standing?"
"You are thinking of annexing the whole world with just a tiny piece of land. Don't you even have the ability to sign while standing?" Yuri retorted without hesitation, "Or do you still want to enjoy the process of surrendering in the most comfortable posture? Then I suggest you consider the opinions of the Chinese, Americans, North Koreans, Filipinos, Australians, and all the people of those countries who have been killed by you. I'm afraid their postures when they died were far from as comfortable as yours now."
Yuri took a step forward, almost standing in front of the other party, and shouted: "I am not Mr. MacArthur. He may not consider the dignity of those American young people who died in Bataan, but I have to consider the dignity of the nearly 60,000 Soviet young people who died in the Far East. To those young people, you are sinners. Compared with their dignity, your dignity is worthless!"
MacArthur's face turned pale with anger. He could swear that he had never considered the dignity of the Japanese.
"Now, for the victims of all countries who died in the war in the past ten years, I request that these chairs prepared for war criminals be removed. I think only in this way can we complete the next process with peace of mind." Yuri walked back, reached out and patted a chair, and said.
This time MacArthur didn't need to say anything. An American military police captain standing on the left waved his hand, and a dozen military police officers walked over quickly and moved all the chairs on one side of the long table away, including the chair behind Hirohito.
