African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1745 Resumption of Immigration
What Mach considered a minor issue, Arita Hachiro did not see it that way. More importantly, he worried that there might be some conspiracy involved, and for the same reason, he planned to delay for the time being.

Ambassador Maher was not in a hurry when he did not receive a reply immediately.

“Mr. Arita Hachiro, since you cannot make the decision, I will not stay any longer. I hope the Japanese government will make a decision as soon as possible.”

Although he declined Ambassador Mach's offer, Arita Hachiro still politely saw him off.

After seeing Ambassador Mach off, Hachiro Arita ordered his subordinates: "Prepare the car immediately! I'm going to meet with the Prime Minister to report on my work."

Edo, Nagata Town, the Prime Minister's official residence.

Hiranuma Kiichiro listened calmly to Arita Hachiro's report, his brow furrowing.

"Minister Arita, what role do you think East Africa played in this conflict? What is his attitude towards the Netherlands and us?"

Arita Hachiro said, "Your Excellency, based on my previous observations, although East Africa leans towards the Dutch, they don't seem to have any intention of standing up for the Netherlands. On the surface, Ambassador Maher of East Africa speaks for the Dutch, but that's all."

Hiranuma Kiichiro picked up his teacup, blew on it, and said to Arita Hachiro, "What I'm most worried about right now is that East Africa also has designs on the Dutch East Indies."

"If the East Africans also set their sights on the Dutch East Indies, it will be extremely disadvantageous for the Empire. The war with the Soviet Union has already put us in a difficult position; if we were to turn against the East Africans as well..."

Clearly, the Japanese had been badly hurt by the Soviet Union, which was only a "second-rate power" on the international stage, far weaker than East Africa and the United States, and even weaker than Germany.

Dealing with the Soviet Union was already so difficult, so Hiranuma Kiichiro clearly didn't want to provoke the tiger in East Africa at this time.

Arita Hachiro shook his head and said, "Your Excellency, the East Africans probably don't have that intention, at least not for the time being, regarding the entire Dutch East Indies colony."

"Previously, Ambassador Maher had already expressed East Africa's thoughts on the Sunda Strait, which shows that the East African government probably doesn't mind our occupation of the Dutch East Indies colony, but they also want a share of the pie, especially the Sunda Strait, which is extremely important to East Africa."

The Japanese are equally aware of the importance East Africa attaches to the Sunda Strait, as it is the vital link between the Indian and Pacific Oceans that East Africa controls.

Having operated intelligence agencies in Southeast Asia for so many years, they are quite familiar with the situation of the local forces.

“The Sunda Strait!” Hiranuma Kiichiro thought for a moment and said, “If East Africa only wants the Sunda Strait, we can consider it.”

"But apart from the Sunda Strait, East Africa should also make commitments to the Empire, at the very least acquiescing to the Empire's rule over the Dutch East Indies."

Arita Hachiro nodded and said, "That's my thought too. There's no need for us to fall out over the Sunda Strait and East Africa right now."

"Although the Sunda Strait is an important sea route, it is still far inferior to the Strait of Malacca."

"Moreover, once our rule in the East Indies is consolidated, we can, in turn, further weaken the role of the Sunda Strait."

Even if East Africa still controls the Sunda Strait after Japan occupies the Dutch East Indies, Japan can still restrict the Sunda Strait through other means, such as deploying fleets, building military airfields, or stationing troops around the Sunda Strait.

If necessary, Japan could launch an attack on the Sunda Strait and seize it from East Africa.

Even if that's not possible, it could temporarily paralyze the Sunda Strait, making it difficult for East African and Indian Ocean forces to support the Pacific Fleet.

Hiranuma Kiichiro said, "For the Empire, the most important thing right now is to convert the gains of this war into tangible benefits as quickly as possible."

"Taking over the East Indies is only the first step. Next, we must immediately restore local production activities to produce more strategic resources such as oil and rubber for the Empire."

"To achieve this, we must avoid war with East Africa for the time being."

One of the most important reasons for Japan's invasion of the Dutch East Indies was its desire for the island's resources.

The development of resources in the East Indies clearly requires a stable environment, so war is unlikely to break out in the near future. Putting aside the threat of war to the East Indies, just the fact that the two countries were at war would make it difficult for Japan to suppress the unrest among the island's natives.

After all, if East Africa were to go to war with Japan, they would inevitably fund local forces to resist Japanese colonial rule.

Although East Africa was not the colonial power of the Dutch East Indies, it has established cooperative relationships with many local forces over the years.

The Dutch would likely seize the opportunity to make a comeback, so Hiranuma Kiichiro, not wanting things to escalate to that point, had no choice but to temporarily "maintain good relations" with East Africa.

"The biggest obstacle to the Empire's rule over the Dutch East Indies is East Africa, and given the power gap between the Empire and East Africa, we cannot directly turn against East Africa."

"The Sunda Strait is the stabilizer for maintaining 'peace' between us and East Africa, so even if we are unwilling, we can only swallow this loss for the time being."

“Recognize the deal between East Africa and the Dutch, allowing the Sunda Strait to remain temporarily in the hands of the East Africans in exchange for their tacit approval of the Empire’s rule over the Dutch East Indies colonies.”

Kiichiro Hiranuma certainly harbored ambitions regarding the Sunda Strait, so he specifically mentioned temporarily leaving the Sunda Strait in East African hands, as for the future...

Japan will certainly seize the Sunda Strait in the future, but that's a matter for later. Before that, Japan's most important task is to digest the fruits of this war and turn the East Indies into a stable source of raw materials.

Even after achieving this, Japan's focus in Southeast Asia still had nothing to do with East Africa, which remained the final hurdle in Japan's strategy toward Southeast Asia.

Hiranuma Kiichiro said, "After stabilizing the East Indies, the Empire's next task will be to deal with the British and French colonies."

"Especially the British colonies. Britain's colonial power in Southeast Asia is relatively weak now, but they are more difficult to deal with than France."

"France's colonies are concentrated in Indochina, and it would not be difficult to seize them as long as the imperial army marches south."

"But the British colonies were not only stronger than those of France, but what made the empire more complicated was that they were also more scattered and closer to India."

Britain had numerous colonies in Southeast Asia, but compared to French colonies, they were more dispersed. For example, Britain's colony in Burma was located on the Indochina Peninsula, and at this time it had already separated from its Indian colonies.

The British colonies on the Malay Peninsula were even more complex, divided into the Straits Settlements, the Federation of Malay States, and the Malay States, though these areas were contiguous and could be considered a single entity. Following this were the British colonies in northern Borneo, including North Borneo, Brunei, and Sarawak.

Finally, Australia and its surrounding islands were also important areas for the distribution of British influence in the South Pacific.

The British influence in Southeast Asia can be roughly divided into four parts, which means that if Japan wanted to take action against British colonies, it would have to take over all four regions at the same time.

Otherwise, if Japan launched an attack on one of its colonies, the other British colonies would react and become springboards for Britain to retaliate against Japan.

In addition, Hiranuma Kiichiro also mentioned an important place, namely "India". India can be said to be the "base camp" of Britain's overseas colonial system. If the British colonies in Southeast Asia were attacked, the Indian colonies could provide direct assistance.

Of course, this is on the premise that Britain's naval forces in the East had not been destroyed at that time.

Furthermore, Hiranuma Kiichiro stated, "The Empire's wars against Britain and France will most likely be concentrated in a single period of time, which means the difficulty will increase further."

Japan could not afford to wage war against Britain and France at different times. Just like the situation within the British colonies mentioned earlier, if Japan were to deal with either Britain's or France's colonies in Southeast Asia alone, it would inevitably arouse the vigilance of the other. Therefore, the best approach was to take action against both countries' colonies in Southeast Asia simultaneously.

This means Japan has a lot more to do, and the best way to do this is to first deploy its troops in the South China Sea.

Japan's only foothold in Southeast Asia now is the Dutch East Indies.

More importantly, the Dutch East Indies are ideally positioned for attacks from all sides. For example, it is convenient to attack the Malay Peninsula from Sumatra, and it can also serve as a springboard for an attack on North Kalimantan.

Java and other Dutch East Indies colonies were suitable as bases for Japan's later attacks on British colonies such as Australia.

Besides its strategic importance in countering Britain, the East Indies also played a significant role in the later wars between Japan and East Africa. This is because East Africa's colonies in Southeast Asia were almost entirely centered around the Dutch East Indies.

Kiichiro Hiranuma said, "The East Indies are crucial to the Empire's deployment in the entire Southeast Asia region and are also an important support for our war against Britain, France, and East Africa."

"But we have just occupied the East Indies, and it will take time for us to make it effective. Only after we have completed the deployment of our military bases and facilities there, and have stockpiled resources such as oil and rubber, can we better achieve our Greater East Asia goals."

For this expedition to the Netherlands, Japan practically used up all its best resources, especially oil, which consumed a significant portion of its supplies.

What Japan needs to do next is to restore and increase oil production in the East Indies as soon as possible, and to build up strategic reserves based on the oil from the East Indies, so as to give Japan more confidence for its next foreign wars.

In conclusion, the Japanese government now believes it is not advisable to provoke a war with East Africa, and Hiranuma Kiichiro intends to temporarily recognize the East African and Dutch trade in the complete Sunda Strait.

After discussing this matter, Hachiro Arita spoke up again: "Your Excellency, in addition to the Sunda Strait issue, Ambassador Mach also raised the issue of the Empire lifting the restrictions on East African merchant ships' passage and trade along the Far Eastern Empire's coast, as well as allowing East Africans to immigrate from the Far Eastern Empire."

This is what Ambassador Maher referred to as a “minor matter”: since 1937, maritime trade between East Africa and the Far Eastern empires has shrunk dramatically due to the Japanese invasion.

After 1939, having clarified East Africa's military aid to the Far Eastern Empire, Japan further restricted the activities of East Africans in the Far Eastern Empire.

Of course, the Japanese government did not dare to completely break with East Africa. They still allowed maritime trade between East Africa and the Far Eastern empire, but everything had to be subject to stricter inspections by Japan.

The puppet government of the Japanese-backed Far Eastern Empire would also cooperate with their actions.

This can be interpreted as Japan not daring to directly confront the East African governments, but they could deliberately make things difficult for East African merchant ships and personnel operating in the Far East Empire.

For example, if a Japanese government detains an East African ship on the grounds of transporting "contraband," even if the Japanese government eventually releases it, the time spent detaining it is enough to cause huge losses to East African merchant ships and trading companies.

This, in turn, made some East African private overseas trading companies and ocean-going merchant ships wary of trading with the Far Eastern Empire.

In addition, Japan can also use economic and political means to suppress the profit margins of East African merchants and businesses in the Far Eastern Empire.

For example, increasing tariffs on East African goods would reduce the competitiveness of East African exports to the Far Eastern empires.

Besides the economic impact on East Africa, other activities will also face difficulties, or even be directly banned by Japan.

The most important issue was immigration. After 1939, in view of the issue of military aid from East Africa to the anti-Japanese armed forces of the Far Eastern Empire, Japan completely cut off the channels for recruiting immigrants and laborers from the Far Eastern Empire by sea.

Hiranuma Kiichiro said, "Baka! East Africans have the nerve to bring up trade issues. They colluded with the anti-Japanese armed forces of the Far Eastern Empire, causing huge losses to the Empire. We haven't even held them accountable yet, and they still have the nerve to ask us to lift the trade restrictions on them."

“We will absolutely not agree to this unless East Africa completely abandons its military aid to the Far Eastern Empire.”

Arita Hachiro said, "That's right. The East Africans have no sincerity whatsoever, so we don't need to give them any face. The fact that the Empire has been able to endure until now without taking action against East Africa is already a huge humiliation!"

Relations between Japan and East Africa have always been poor, yet the Japanese government has had to grit its teeth and deal with East Africa, which has always been one of Japan's most frustrating diplomatic issues.

Therefore, neither Hiranuma Kiichiro nor Arita Hachiro wanted to see East Africa benefit from the Far Eastern Empire, especially given that East Africa was Japan's most disgusting potential enemy.

Arita Hachiro then asked, "Prime Minister, what should we do about the issue of East Africa wanting to resume immigration from the Far Eastern Empire?"

Hiranuma Kiichiro didn't seem too concerned about this issue. He said, "East Africa recruiting immigrants from the Far Eastern Empire is not actually a bad thing for the Empire. Previously, the Empire retaliated against and prohibited East Africa from recruiting immigrants in the Far Eastern Empire because of its military aid to the Far Eastern Empire."

"This time, because of the Dutch East Indies issue, we need to give East Africa some face. We can tacitly allow them to continue with such a minor matter as immigration."

The reason why Hiranuma Kiichiro said that recruiting immigrants from the Far East to East Africa was not a bad thing for Japan was because recruiting immigrants from East Africa would not cause any trouble for Japan.

Moreover, Hiranuma Kiichiro would love for all the people of the Far Eastern Empire to be taken away by East Africa. Of course, this is obviously impossible. Although East Africa has continuously recruited a lot of immigrants from the Far Eastern Empire, each recruitment is just a drop in the ocean for the Far Eastern Empire.

This can be seen from the population of the Far Eastern Empire, which has maintained an overall growth rate over the years, even during times of war.

(End of this chapter)