Survive as a World War II Soldier - Chapter 44



Only Noblemtl

#044

“What? A mirror?”

When Mitchell first brought his idea to the Naval Air Service, the Navy’s response was lukewarm.

That would be the case···.

“You were kicked out to the Philippines, and you’re still the same.”

“Do they still think we are beneath them?”

“You’ve never taken off or landed on an aircraft carrier, yet you pretend to know.”

Especially since the solution he sent, a mirror, was so simple and cheap.

The prejudice that easy, simple, and cheap things are inferior to difficult, complicated, and expensive things remained firmly entrenched in the 20th century.

The reason Mitchell’s idea, which was almost ignored for that reason, was realized was, paradoxically, because it was Mitchell who provided the idea.

“Let’s give it a try.”

“yes?”

“If it fails, can’t you laugh at that bastard properly?”

The high-ranking officers of the Navy still held a grudge against Mitchell, who had once taunted them by shaking the wings of his aircraft.

So, I decided to try Mitchell’s suggestion, hoping to find a way to fix it somehow.

“It’s not that expensive or complicated anyway, right?”

“All right.”

And the result is…

“Uh, uh. Why is this happening?”

“Does it really work?”

The Navy was left scratching its head over the unexpected results.

“Damn. Is a genius really a genius?”

“Ha. How could this happen?”

Mitchell’s idea was perfect.

Not only could the exact location of the aircraft be determined by using the reflection of the mirror, but the safety of the landing control officer could also be ensured.

Above all,

“How much is that mirror?”

The price is so cheap that it could be considered a steal compared to the various methods the Navy has been considering.

Eventually, Mitchell’s idea was commercialized under the name Mirror Landing System and was adopted by all aircraft carriers of the US Navy.

As things turned out this way, Mitchell’s genius was bound to become a topic of conversation once again among naval officers, including those in the Naval Air Corps.

“Wow, you need to have this level of ability to talk nonsense and cause trouble without getting kicked out.”

“That’s right. So, the Army may have thrown them into the Philippines, but they couldn’t kick them out completely, right?”

Thus, once again, Mitchell has truly cemented his power in people’s minds.

But Mitchell wasn’t the only one on people’s lips.

“The story about the lieutenant general’s tolerance is spreading.”

“Toleration?”

“Yes. There is no one who does not know that Brigadier General Mitchell, who had been acting like a fool, has been properly taken under his wing by the Brigadier General.”

It was Marshall who brought unexpected news.

“I?”

“Yes. Hasn’t Brigadier General Mitchell been quiet since he came to the Philippines? He was the one who persuaded me to go to the Philippines in the first place.”

“That’s true.”

It wasn’t wrong, but I felt a bit embarrassed.

“By the way, are you going to Tianjin?”

“Yes. This is my first time in Asia, so I’m a little worried. Do you have any advice for me?”

Marshall was to serve as acting regimental commander of the 15th Infantry Regiment stationed in the British Concession in Tianjin.

“China···.”

Marshall must have stopped in the Philippines on his way to Tianjin to ask me for advice.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know much about China. I just know that the situation in the Republic of China is quite complicated and divided into factions.”

All I knew was that the Japanese were trying hard to intervene.

From now on, all the warlords who were fighting will fall and Chiang Kai-shek will eventually become the president of the Republic of China.

Even Chiang Kai-shek was unable to do anything to Mao Zedong and was driven out to Taiwan.

In the middle, Puyi joined hands with the Japanese and became the face of Manchukuo.

I didn’t know the details of the big events or the circumstances that led up to them.

Above all, the big events I know about are not things I can just talk about. If I knew something, I would make up a story and tell it. As I said, I don’t know anything.

“You show so much interest in Koreans, but why are you so indifferent to China?”

It was Marshall who asked with a puzzled expression.

“Well. Joseon happened to be connected by some coincidence, but China… Hmm. Wouldn’t it be good if you went there this time and found out more about it?”

“yes?”

“I will become an expert on Joseon, and you will become an expert on China.”

Where are you holding it, trying to eat it raw?

“Oh, there are quite a few Koreans who know a lot about China. I’ll introduce them to you.”

Those who have been living in Shanghai since 1919 would probably know more about the Chinese situation than Nana Marshall.

Well, I don’t know how much it will help each other.

Anyway, Marshall had more news to share.

“You know how President Coolidge got a lot of flak for the last earthquake in Japan?”

“Oh, oh. I heard. But you got over it and were re-elected.”

Initially, there was even talk within the Republican Party of nominating a new presidential candidate, but Coolidge was ultimately re-elected.

“But be careful. I do, but most people know that the brigadier general is a Filipino expert.”

Or maybe it would be nice, but I nodded at Marshall’s words that it would be difficult in many ways if the President disliked him.

“Okay, I see.”

Marshall, who had delivered many news that had not been heard for a while, left for Tianjin.

“Take care.”

“Yes. You too, Brigadier General, be careful. Don’t forget what I told you.”

As I felt in Sharm, Marshall was a very worrisome friend.

##

As flight schools began to take hold, construction began on airports throughout the Philippines. In addition, an airline called Philippine Airlines began to be established.

There were rumors that Japan was uncomfortable with the airport construction, but there was no official protest.

That was understandable, since in Europe, passenger transport and mail delivery by airplane had already begun a long time ago, and Japan and the United States also had airmail delivery in place.

“In the Philippines, which is made up of many small islands, air travel is not an option but a necessity.”

“We need to create an aviation network not only for mail and passenger transport, but also for medical support.”

Of course, both the established schools and the airlines were government-led, but it was difficult to find fault with them as they also permitted private capital investment.

“But, Brigadier General.”

“huh.”

“Where on earth did that large sum of money come from?”

Among the private citizens who invested in Philippine Airlines was Mrs. Pinky.

Of course, it would be difficult to invest in my name as a soldier, so I borrowed Mrs. Pinky’s name, but the investment amount was all my own.

“I was pretty good at investing.”

To be exact, it was something I could do because I knew the future.

Of course, I didn’t start a company or anything, so I didn’t earn any money that would influence the financial world.

But with my knowledge of the future, I was able to make investments that would never fail.

As a result, I was able to accumulate enough wealth to avoid the problem of not having enough money to spend where it is needed, as I do now.

“They say that these days, if you wake up, the price of everything has gone up.”

Eisenhower sighed at Bradley’s words.

“It’s good that the economy is doing well, but for salaried workers like us···.”

Until recently, I was worried about those who went out without their clothes on, but now the atmosphere has changed.

I’ve heard stories of people making a lot of money through business, and even stories of people getting paid several times more than they did in the military just by working at a regular company.

Thanks to this, there were quite a few people who were dissatisfied even among those who remained in the military.

“Don’t you two invest separately or something?”

“I think saving is the best.”

“I don’t really···.”

Well, it’s not like I have a lot of things to do separately.

If the two of them lived just like the original story, they wouldn’t have to worry about money in their later years.

‘It’s better than having to check the temperature of a nearby river, especially during the upcoming Great Depression.’

The 1920s were a time of great prosperity, and the Philippines, under American influence, also enjoyed prosperity.

“The Philippines is also doing very well these days.”

“The overall mood has improved significantly, especially thanks to the lower price of rice.”

Just as the United States was enjoying unprecedented prosperity, so too was the Philippines.

And what always follows a boom is rising prices.

In particular, rising food prices were a concern for the government even during boom times.

But something quite unique was happening in the Philippines at the moment.

“The economy is good, rice prices are low, so Governor Wood’s popularity is rising again.”

And the cause of this strange phenomenon was none other than Korean immigrants.

After the Great Kanto Earthquake, it wasn’t just pilots or those who dreamed of becoming pilots who flocked to the Philippines.

“I heard that it takes a lot of workers to build an airport.”

“You said you could farm twice a year here?”

“At least here you don’t have to worry about freezing to death.”

In July 1923, just before the Great Kanto Earthquake, a new immigration law went into effect in the United States.

Asians, including Koreans, were prevented from immigrating to the United States as before.

In such a situation, after the Great Kanto Earthquake, as the value of the Philippines’ reputation rose, the number of people choosing the Philippines over Manchuria or the Maritime Province began to increase.

There will be jobs, the weather will be hot but I won’t have to worry about freezing to death, and public safety will be stable.

In many ways, the Philippines was a very attractive choice.

And they bring yet another wind of change to the Philippines.

Most of the Koreans who immigrated to the Philippines with only dreams and fantasies about the Philippines and no special skills became tenant farmers in the early stages of their immigration.

But soon things began to change.

“How can you just leave that jungle alone?”

“huh?”

“It would be nice to burn it and make it into a field or rice paddy···.”

Beyond simply farming the land of landlords, they began to actively engage in clearing forests.

And there were those who began to support and sponsor this movement of Koreans from behind the scenes, the first of whom was Governor Wood.

“Increasing farmland means increasing agricultural productivity, so we should actively encourage it.”

“Is that so?”

“That’s right. Even without that, Philippine agriculture is currently deformed.”

Governor Wood expressed concern that the Philippines, once a rice exporter, had turned into an importer.

“I know that crops like sugarcane are export items and are price competitive. But can’t we eat that instead of bread?”

The modernization of Philippine agriculture, which began in 1910, meant a reorganization of agricultural production toward profitable crops rather than increased productivity.

As a result, Philippine farmers were busy growing specialty crops such as sugarcane to make sugar for export and hemp to make fabric, rather than agricultural products to eat themselves.

This is not a problem when grain prices such as rice are low, but even then, relying on imports for staple foods cannot be considered a sound economic structure.

“What would happen if a sudden famine occurred and grain prices skyrocketed?”

“you’re right.”

“So, you have to be self-sufficient to a certain extent.”

However, the appearance of the Koreans was like a ray of light to Governor Wood, who was struggling because he could not find an easy way.

“But when Koreans began to immigrate, rice production increased rapidly.”

After all, what Koreans were best at was rice farming.

Especially since they suffered from starvation under Japanese colonial rule, when farmland was created through reclamation, most people started by growing rice for their own consumption.

“They are even taking care of reclaiming farmland like that, so we should encourage them even more.”

What kind of Korean people were there?

Even in the history of the Yuan people, it was the Korean people who started farming with their bare hands in the vast plains of Central Asia from which they had been forcibly driven out in the 1930s, and who successfully cultivated rice on the wasteland by reclaiming it.

For the Korean people with such a strong will, the fertile land of the Philippines, despite being covered with dense forests, was the best land for farming.

“It’s true that the rice seeds are a bit loose, but if we do it well, we can even double the crop.”

“No. I think it’s possible to do this work as well as this work.”

The mountainous terrain was not a problem for the Joseon people, who believed that the best place was one facing the mountains and that villages were originally surrounded by mountains.

In this way, forests began to burn all over the Philippines, and instead, terraced rice fields and farms began to grow here and there.

There,

“No, why aren’t you eating this?”

“That’s right. It’s a bit different from what you’ll find in Joseon, but it’s still not bad.”

“The people in this town are very hungry.”

Filipinos taught us all kinds of unexpected food ingredients and cooking methods.

As rice production increased and people began to eat things they had not been able to eat before, the Filipino diet enjoyed an unexpected bumper crop.

Thanks to this, food prices, which had been rising endlessly due to the continued boom, have actually started to fall.

It was only natural that Governor Wood’s popularity began to rise.

No matter what, isn’t the most important thing for each individual the problem of making a living?

So it was natural that Governor Wood would look upon these Korean immigrants with a very favorable view.

“But why on earth do the Japanese treat such a hard-working, honest, and upright people so poorly? Anyway···.”

In addition, negative views toward Japan have deepened further.

In addition to Governor Wood, there were others who developed favorable feelings toward Cho Shin-in, namely, young intellectuals such as Manuel Quezon.

To them, the presence of Koreans was like a catfish in a fish tank.

“Look at those Koreans. Let’s follow their example.”

“We can do it too.”

This is the principle of the Mirror Landing System.

Once properly on the runway, the control officer can see the fighter in the mirror.

But if the angle is wrong, you won’t be able to see the fighter. (Special thanks to Yeorin Messiah)

By the way, it is said that the person who came up with this mirror-friendly device was British Navy Air Marshal Goodhart. It is said that he came up with the idea after seeing his secretary adjusting her makeup in the mirror.

────────────────────────────────────

────────────────────────────────────

The Philippines Wakes Up and Returns