Major General Okamura Yasuji, Chief of Staff of the Japanese 15th Army, returned to the bamboo building housing his office after inspecting the barracks. Covered in sweat, he stood directly under the electric fan. His orderly quickly brought water, and after washing his face, Okamura felt much better.

Amidst the creaking sounds, someone arrived outside the bamboo building and spoke, "Your Excellency, may I come in?"

Okamura allowed the lieutenant colonel to enter and ordered the guard to close the door. The lieutenant colonel took a stack of papers from his canvas satchel and placed them before Okamura. "Your Excellency, this is what we retrieved."

Looking down, Okamura saw the first page of the leaflet bore the title *How to Build and Develop Japan's Domestic Market*. Although Okamura wanted to read on, a sense of unease stopped him. He continued to flip through the pages; amidst the rustling of paper, Okamura finished reading the titles on the leaflets. The titles were all political, and many were very familiar: *Japan's Destiny*, *The Future of Asian Civilization*. These were all works written by He Rui during his time studying in Japan. There were also parts concerning current Japanese politics: *Analysis of Capital Ownership in Japan*, *Analysis of Japanese National Expenditure*.

If one had to find fault with the content of these leaflets, one could indeed argue there was nothing wrong with them. But the very appearance of such leaflets was a huge problem. When the lower classes begin to seriously think about how their country is constituted, when they begin to discuss what their motherland ought to be, that is the beginning of great chaos.

Seeing Okamura's grim expression, the lieutenant colonel before him took out another document. "Your Excellency, this is a list of some of the ringleader officers and soldiers. To know the detailed list, we would need to conduct an interrogation."

"I understand. You may leave." Okamura ordered after taking the list.

Soon, Okamura flew to Dhaka, the capital of the Bengal region, under the pretext of making a regular report to the Allied Command. From the plane, Okamura looked down at the vast Bengal plains, seeing crisscrossing rivers and lush greenery. It showed no signs of being affected by the war.

Although Okamura did not like Ishiwara, he had to admire Ishiwara's strategic judgment. When the Japanese Army Ministry accepted Ishiwara's suggestion and proposed to the British Army that Japanese forces garrison the Chittagong region, the British agreed happily. In the British plan, after retreating from Yangon, the Chittagong region defended by the Japanese would become the front line, and these Japanese troops could be put to use, sharing the pressure for Britain on the battle line.

Ishiwara had anticipated this, but what the British had not anticipated was that although from a military perspective, Yangon, isolated beyond the mountains and lacking in troops and generals, was like a ripe fruit that would fall into one's hand with a light touch, He Rui simply would not take Yangon. Instead, he dispatched troops several times through the Siliguri Corridor to invade the West Bengal region of British India. The Chinese army moved in and out quickly, leaving after fighting, and did not occupy British India territory, putting the British army in a dilemma on two fronts.

Okamura agreed with Ishiwara's judgment: this was He Rui's method of using war to promote peace. Under such repeated pulling and mobilizing, the British army was exhausted and unable to cope. To end this torture, Britain would either have to expand the scale of the war regardless of the cost, or choose to compromise.

With a strategist like Ishiwara present, Japan was garrisoned in the Chittagong region amidst Britain's eager expectations. The Japanese army was indeed in the war zone, yet they were as leisurely as if they were on vacation. Okamura originally thought this was fine, but now he felt that perhaps if the troops were placed on the front line, the lower ranks of the Japanese army would not have time to study Japanese domestic politics.

After the plane arrived in Dhaka, Okamura went straight to Nagata. He reported the situation in the army to Nagata. After finishing, Okamura observed Nagata's expression but could see nothing in Nagata's deep gaze. After a good while, he heard Nagata praise, "Ishiwara-kun accepting the position at the Army New Technology Training Bureau really has He-kun's style."

Okamura was shocked internally and became even more nervous. After the Northeast War, Ishiwara's ideology was a minority view within the Japanese Army's upper echelons, and he had never been valued by them. They arranged for Ishiwara to work at the Army New Technology Training Bureau. The New Technology Training Bureau had neither personnel power nor decision-making power. It was responsible for the training of low and middle-ranking officers of the Japanese Army. It had high status but was purely a working agency.

Originally, Okamura appreciated the power tactics of the higher-ups, but now within the 15th Army, middle and lower-ranking officers, as well as some sergeants and young soldiers, had actually formed various small internal groups. Among the leaders of those small groups, some were organizing officers to study 'He Learning', while others were organizing soldiers to study.

Because all low-ranking officers of the Japanese Army had to undergo training at the New Technology Training Bureau, this group of low-ranking officers had all attended Ishiwara's classes. In a sense, Ishiwara had become the person with the widest network in the Japanese Army over the past two or three years. If...

Before Okamura could think further, Nagata said, "The climate in Chittagong is not suitable for the Expeditionary Army. We should adjust some of the soldiers and let those who are not suited to the climate here return to Japan first, so as not to affect the combat effectiveness of the Expeditionary Army."

Okamura understood immediately and replied instantly, "Yes! This subordinate will handle it immediately. Does Your Excellency have any other orders?"

"The Ministry of War has ordered me to return to Japan to report on my duties. During this period, I have recommended Ishiwara-kun to temporarily take over my work. The affairs of the 15th Army must be shouldered by you, Okamura-kun."

Hearing this, Okamura's heart was like a clear mirror; the Japanese upper echelon had already begun to act. So Okamura stood at attention, "This subordinate will certainly fulfill his duty!"

Nagata stood up from his seat and bowed slightly to Okamura, "Then I will trouble you, Okamura-kun!"

This matter proceeded very quickly. That same day, Ishiwara received the order to come to Dhaka. The next day, May 7th, Nagata boarded a ship and began heading south. If possible, Nagata would have very much liked to take the route through China. As long as China's ruler was He Rui, Nagata would not worry at all about his safety traveling through China.

However, the current war situation made it impossible for Nagata to apply for entry into China, so he could only take a ship south first. He arrived near the Kra Isthmus in Thailand to dock and disembark, then crossed the short Kra Isthmus, boarded a ship on the Pacific side, and headed straight for Tokyo.

During the time waiting for the ship in Thailand, the Japanese Ambassador to Thailand sent personnel as agreed, delivering thick stacks of newspapers to Nagata. There were Japanese ones, and also foreign ones. The headlines on various Japanese newspapers were mostly reports on Professor Taira Toyomori, Chairman of the Asian International Tribunal's Damage Compensation Committee. The reports were full of praise: "The Japanese scholar most watched by the world", "The Light of Japan, the Soul of Yamato Culture, Lord Taira Toyomori!"

Various enthusiastic headlines were very inciting. Nagata had met Professor Taira Toyomori and felt that Professor Taira Toyomori could live up to such praise. From another angle, this was also a means for the upper echelon to try and divert domestic attention.

But nothing can have only one side. After praising Professor Taira Toyomori, many newspapers introduced that after Professor Taira Toyomori investigated and studied China's land reform, he wrote a report.

It is not difficult to take a report's meaning and make it contradictory by taking it out of context. But what Nagata saw was that the newspapers very seriously and earnestly explained Professor Taira Toyomori's report quite clearly. Professor Taira Toyomori believed that China's land reform was indeed a policy proposed and implemented by the Chinese government. The core of this policy was not to grant favors, but to conduct an 'asset restructuring' targeting the effectively bankrupt Chinese countryside.

The purpose of this asset restructuring was to rebuild the rural economic order. Through the method of equal distribution of land, more than 400 million Chinese peasants would regain the ability to support themselves, thereby catalyzing an internal consumer market.

Precisely because this was an 'asset restructuring', those whose interests were damaged in the asset restructuring would oppose it. The Chinese government dispatching troops to every county was to suppress rebellion and deter those with damaged interests who had not yet risen to resist.

With the praise for Professor Taira Toyomori upfront, these later parts appeared very persuasive. A report written by Professor Taira Toyomori, crowned as 'The Light of Japan, the Soul of Yamato Culture', naturally appeared very persuasive. Moreover, Lieutenant General Nagata Tetsuzan himself felt that Professor Taira Toyomori's report had a very high standard.

After finishing the domestic newspapers, Nagata found that most Japanese newspapers, whether left-wing, right-wing, or centrist, were mostly supporting Professor Taira Toyomori. Although there were many opponents, they could only express their attitude with words like 'dangerous thoughts', 'possibility of subverting the national polity', 'the nation will no longer be a nation', 'endurance is a traditional virtue of the Yamato people'.

Nagata put down the newspapers; the turmoil in the domestic situation exceeded his imagination. Closing his eyes to think for a moment, Nagata organized the sequence of what he needed to do after returning to Japan once more. This was a difficult choice, but a choice that had to be made. Nagata himself already had the resolve; he could only hope that those people back home had the same resolve.

His heavy heart needed relief. Nagata opened his eyes and looked for news about the Asian International Tribunal. This was destined to be news full of entertainment value. Even if the atrocity of massacring civilians was cruel and heavy, given Nagata's understanding of He Rui, He Rui would inevitably make the trial have a strong reading effect.

Sure enough, in recent reports, Chinese newspapers published the opening statement of the defense lawyer for the ANZAC Corps: "...Any war will have collateral damage; this is unavoidable. Because war itself is a tragedy. Let us take China's wars as an example. 2000 years ago, the Kingdom of Qin and the Kingdom of Zhao in China fought the famous Battle of Changping. Later, the Kingdom of Qin, which established the Qin Empire, massacred 400,000 captured Zhao Kingdom troops after the war.

"During the war between the Chinese Qing Empire and the Ming Empire, countless massacres were carried out. The most famous include the Ten Days of Yangzhou, where 800,000 people were massacred. The Three Massacres of Jiading also saw a slaughter exceeding 60,000. In the subsequent Guangzhou Massacre, tens of thousands were similarly massacred.

"By 1852, the Taiping Rebellion, which lasted for ten years, broke out. China's God-worshipping rebels and the Manchu Qing Imperial Army fought a fierce war. Massive massacres were carried out by both sides. It caused the death of 100 million people in China at that time. 100 million people is 1,600 times 60,000 people.

"War is tragedy, a tragedy where collateral damage inevitably appears. This is the original sin of mankind, an original sin that every person must bear. We sympathize with the dead, but we must sympathize even more with the living. For the dead, the tragedy has ended. For the living, the tragedy has just begun..."

Nagata felt that this lawyer defending the ANZAC Corps was quite skilled. He clearly grasped the core point of 'regarding massacres, everyone is the same, no one should say they are nobler than anyone else'. Since China wanted to organize an international tribunal, Britain would talk about China's history of massacres. Due to China's abundant historical records, the massacre figures were truly shocking. Although this was useless for this trial, at least in the media, it could mold China into the image of a 'Nation of Massacres'.

Looking at these words, Nagata could even imagine the lawyer in court, compassionate yet righteous, with a humble demeanor. With a relaxed mood, Nagata continued reading.

The prosecutor's statement was not as brilliant, because the prosecution naturally had a harder time being brilliant on this topic. But the prosecutor's opening statement was indeed very serious: "...Massacre is a scar in the memory of human history. As long as one substitutes oneself into the role of the victim, no one can still smile. This is the essence of humanity. Human civilization has developed to this day, and massacre is behavior intolerable to human civilized society. This kind of behavior is called a crime!

"The actions of the ANZAC Corps were not military operations, nor were they accidental injuries caused by Burmese civilians not fleeing the war zone. Without any reason or evidence, the ANZAC Corps first subjected the Burmese people to physical confinement, and then, with the intent to massacre, carried out a massacre of people who had lost the ability to move under confinement.

"The crimes of the ANZAC Corps include two parts: illegal confinement and massacre.

"What we demand now is to judge and convict the massacre behavior of the ANZAC Corps. To learn from the past and save the future, to let the butchers in human society understand that such crimes will be reckoned with. Through deterring them and increasing the cost of crime, we aim to reduce the recurrence of massacre crimes.

"Our goal is to let massacres happen as little as possible, and even, as human civilization reaches new heights, to ensure that the crime of massacre no longer appears. Therefore, today is the new beginning of the chapter of human civilization, today is the history of human civilization..."

After reading this, Nagata felt a bit bored. In Nagata's view, judging the losers was not justice, but violence. The victor judging the loser in the name of justice was the truth of the Asian International Tribunal. But Nagata soon discovered that his heart did not lighten because he had expressed contempt for the Asian International Tribunal.

If China continued to grow stronger and maintained its current attitude, although massacres could not be completely avoided, they would indeed be punished. Under the rules set by China, it would be the Great Powers who would be punished.

Did China have such strength? Nagata was unwilling to believe it, but also dared not completely deny it. Carrying various thoughts, the cruise ship Nagata took sailed on the sea for five days and arrived at Keelung Port. Nagata disembarked and boarded a Japanese warship that should have departed for Japan three days ago but had waited three extra days to pick him up, and sped all the way to Tokyo.

On May 24th, Nagata finally arrived in Tokyo. Facing Major General Obata Toshishirō who came to welcome him, Nagata asked, "Is there any news from Burma?"

Obata Toshishirō led Nagata into the waiting car and replied, "There is no change in Burma. But the changes domestically are huge. Students from several Imperial Universities have started posting posters on campuses and have even gone to the streets to give speeches. Nagata-kun, although it was the Ministry of War that summoned you back this time, there are very many people concerned about when you would return."

"I understand." Lieutenant General Nagata Tetsuzan straightened his military cap and replied decisively.

With the roar of the engine, the car began to vibrate, carrying the two towards their first destination, the Ministry of War building.