News from Japan (formerly known as the "Japan, end of 1907..." thread)

[Walter]

Japanese film industry's at Jollywood. :D

[Borys]

Joriwood!

[Walter]

I think that the Swiss influence in Japan is probably strong enough for it to end up as Jollywood. :)

Sign outside Jollywood:

Jollywood
The city of alcohol, gambling, drugs, sex, Rock 'n Roll and of course movies

:D

In the mean time... the Horwolooh building in the 21st century. :)

(picture source: wikipedia)

[Walter]

Manchu Firing Range on Shicheng Dao, Manchuria. June 4, 1919.


"You know, I know you guys are ambitious, but isn't this a little bit over the top?" Hiraken Nabe, Japan's Minister of Defense asked, looking at the big railroad gun.

"It was well within budget," Dr. No told. "Should work well, too."

Fu Manchu nodded. "This gun puts all other guns to shame," he stated. At Manchu's signal, the crew of the gun began to work and load the gun. "And we shall show it to you when we test fire the gun right here, right now."

"Excellent! That way I will have some results to bring to Lord Taishakuten," Nabe said.

"No doubt he will be extremely pleased with this weapon... if it works."

Manchu laughed. "Ye of little faith. Has the Research and Development Department ever let you down?"

"Never," Nabe admitted. "But there is a fist time for everything."

Manchu was still laughing as the gun was raised into firing position.

"Shouldn't we go and hide in a bunker... just in case something goes wrong?" Nabe asked.

"We'll be okay," Julius replied.

"And is it safe to fire the gun like that? Who knows where it will end up."

"We're about 10 kilometers from the mainland and we're firing the gun paralel to the mainland coastline," Manchu stated. "What could possibly go wrong? Really Nabe, you should not worry about that."

"It's just that..."

Manchu held up his hand. "Cover your ears."

Everyone covered their ears and moments later the big gun roars, spitting out flame and lots of black smoke.

With a big grin, Manchu held up a thumb. "Excellent! We're still alive."

"What's the range of this gun anyway?" Nabe asked.

"Actually..." Julius turned his head to Nabe. "... we don't know."

"... which is why we have numerous stations along the coastline that can inform us where the shell comes down," Manchu added.

After about 15 minutes, the Candlestick phone rang and Manchu walked to the bunker to answer it. "Yes? You got something?" He asked, holding the receiver to his ear. "... okay... got it. Thanks." He hung the receiver into the switchhook and put the phone down.

"Well?" Nabe asked.

Manchu began to laugh. "Excellent! It went quite well... a bit better than we expected actually." He then looked at Julius. "That was Station K-2. They reported seeing an explosion."

Nabe smiled. "Results. Good."

"Not that good as it was behind them. A search team has gone out to find the impact site."

"K-2..." Julius mused, folding his arms across eachother. "That's Korea..."

"Yes, it is."

"... over 100 kilometers from here..."

"Yes, it is."

"... and K-2 is way off the line along which we were firing..."

"Yes, it is."

The two men looked at each other for a few moments.

"... I know nothing," Julius stated.

"Neither do I," Manchu said.

[Walter]

Genjo, Korea. June 5, 1919.

Praeger looked around and kicked a piece of blackened wood away that once was part of his summer house at Genjo. "So you're saying that this was caused by some sort of superweapon of unknown origin?"

"I believe so," Rasputin replied.

"Whose?"

"No idea at this point. Could be from the Middle Kingdom. Could be from the Reformist Chinese. Could be from the Russians. Could even be from the Swiss."

Praeger picked up the blackened remnants of a painting. "You know, this used to be a Rembrandt." He tossed it back onto the ground.

"I know, your favorite."

"There's only one man in the world who hates Rembrandts and who would dare do such a cruel thing to the World of Art: Fu Manchu!"

[Walter]

Going back a little bit...

Osaka. 23:47. April 12, 1919.

While the rain steadily comes down, lieutenants Toshirou Murakami and Takashi Sato slowly walked through the dark alley, shining their flashlights around to look for clues while stepping around the six bodies. There wasn't much to see, except for the bodies and a lot of spent shells. While Sato went on, Murakami began searching the bodies.

"Nothing here. No identification papers, no wallets. Nothing." Murakami got up. "And I doubt they left it at home.

Sato slowly nodded. "Unlikely to be a robbery."

"Well, it could be specifically for the identification papers."

"True... but something just isn't right..."

"Go-yo... Official Business," someone said in the distance as a red glow began to illuminate the alley.

The three men wore civilian clothes, but even at this distance, Sato recognized what the three men were. "Shit. Why is NISIS here?" he grumbled.

Murakami looked up and switched off his flashlight as the three men passed the policemen at the beginning of the alley.

"We'll be taking over now," the man with the red lantern told, producing his papers. "You're dismissed."

"So since when is NICIS interested in robbery and murder, Colonel Olrik?" Sato asked.

"Since Lady Souma said so," Olrik replied, obviously in no mood to go into the details. "Let's just say it might be Swiss related."

Sato remembered reading in the newspapers about the numerous murders in New Switzerland the last few weeks which had been linked with the Maorian sponsored Polynesian Independence Movement. If this also had something to do with all this, then it was no wonder NISIS showed up.

Shrugging, Sato then said "Well, there's nothing here to do for us now. Saves us a lot of trouble." He motioned Murakami to go and the two left the alley.

[Walter]

Osaka. 23:52. April 12, 1919.

Olrik lit a sigarette once the policemen were gone and the ones at the entrance to the alley were replaced by NISIS men. He looked down at the bodies on the ground. "Largo, you think you're able to clean up your mess now?"

Emilio nodded. "Don't worry, Colonel. The alley will be clean tomorrow. Quite annoying though that they had to be so troublesome and had to make so much noise when they died. We were fortunate enough that there was enough time to remove their possessions and identification papers."

"You think you'll need help with the mess?"

"Thanks but I think we'll manage." He made a signal to his men standing at the entrance of the alley and they moved in to remove the bodies. "Incinerate them," he told his men.

"A few less rotten apples in the empire," Olrik mumbled as he walked away.

[Walter]

Osaka. May 25, 1919.

Wanted posters of the top eight most wanted hanging on a board outside the headquarters of the Osaka Police, including two recently added suspects on positions 4 and 5.

8:

7:

6:

5:

4:

3:

2:

1:

[Valles]

Clearly, raising 60,000,000 for the bounty that's really needed would require a concerted international effort.

...although one admits that the current #1 would be, so to speak, a much better return on investment.

[The Rock Doctor]

Some interesting crimes committed in Japan.

*Inquires inside*

[Walter]

Naha Oval. July 2-7, 1919

The cricket test match between the Manchu Cricket Club and the Okinawa cricket team ended in a close 2 run victory for Okinawa on day 6.

Manchu put forward a strong performance, putting 500 runs on the board with centuries from Bardsley and Sharp.

Okinawa was struggling somewhat and despite decent scores from Spooner and Fry, Okinawa lost the last 6 wickets for just 11 runs with Laver taking 7 wickets for just 55 runs.

Okinawa soon came out again, having been asked to follow-on, and were soon in a lot trouble at 2-45 after losing Spooner and Armstrong. However, Gunst and Jardinière dug in, scoring numerous runs and managed to fustrate the Manchu bowlers as several chances to get the two men out early were missed as catches were dropped.

Both men reached their century as the Okinawa score passed Manchu's. When both men had passed the double century mark, there was a good chance for Okinawa to set Manchu a challenging target. In the end, Jardinière misjudged a delivery from Hutchings and got caught leg before wicket, bringing an end to a fine innings of 214, his highest score so far, and a record 3rd wicket partnership of 488.

Despite the loss of Jardinière, The Doctor wasn't finished yet and not long after the loss of Jardinière's wicket, the Okinawa skipper became the first person to pass the 300 runs mark in Test Match Cricket. Gunst finally was out when a delivery from Sharp ripped out leg and middle stump. As Gunst walked away, Sharp mockingly asked him not to go since the off stump was still standing.

After the loss of the final wicket, Manchu had been set a challenging target of 449 to win the match. They had a disastrous start as miscommunication between Gregory and Bardsley resulted in Gregory being unable to get back to his end in time.

However, with a century from Bardsley and strong performances from Rhodes, Noble, Trumper and Woolley, Manchu was getting closer and closer to their target, but in the end, Trumper ran out of partners as Manchu stranded just a few runs shy of their target.

The target was well in sight with 7 runs to go when Lilley was unable to get his hands on a wide Barnes' delivery which went all the way to the boundary for 4 wides, leaving Manchu with just 3 runs for victory. Laver tried to go for a big hit the next ball for the remaining runs, but instead knocked the ball into the stumps to finish the match.


Dr. Wilhelm Gisilbert "WG" Gunst (= Dr William Gilbert "WG" Grace)


Robert Douglas Jardinière (= Douglas Robert Jardine)


==============================================================

Toss: Manchu won the toss and decided to bat

MCC 1st innings: 500 all out
Okinawa 1st innings: 258 all out
Okinawa 2nd innings (follow-on): 690 all out
MCC 2nd innings: 446 all out
Okinawa wins by 2 runs


MCC 1st innings
1 VV Gregory ---- b Carr ------------------ 74
2 CL Bardsley --- b Barnes --------------- 136
3 WL Rhodes ----- c Spooner b Hopkins ----- 66
4* S Noble ------ lbw b Carr --------------- 2
5 TVJ Sharp ----- c Gunst b Carr --------- 105
6 CG Trumper ---- c Spooner b Barnes ------ 20
7 EF Woolley ---- b Hopkins ---------------- 8
8 DV Hutchings -- c Barnes b Armstrong ---- 59
9 DCH Cotter ---- b Carr ------------------- 7
10+ TH Carter --- lbw b Carr --------------- 4
11 FD Laver ----- not out ------------------ 8
Extras (3b, 4lb, 2nb, 2w) ----------------- 11
Total (all out, 159.5 overs) ------------- 500

Fall of wickets: 1-153 (Gregory), 2-264 (Bardsley), 3-272 (Noble), 4-290 (Rhodes), 5-335 (Trumper), 6-358 (Woolley), 7-465 (Sharp), 8-479 (Cotter), 9-488 (Carter) 10-500 (Hutchings)

Okinawa bowling
------------ Overs --- Mdns --- Runs --- Wkts --- Wides --- No-balls ---
Carr ------- 47 ------- 2 ----- 146 ----- 5 ------- 0 -------- 2 -------
Barnes ----- 29 ------- 3 ------ 88 ----- 2 ------- 1 -------- 0 -------
Hopkins ---- 29.5 ----- 1 ------ 97 ----- 2 ------- 1 -------- 0 -------
Hayes ------ 26 ------- 0 ------ 78 ----- 0 ------- 0 -------- 0 -------
Armstrong -- 28 ------- 3 ------ 80 ----- 1 ------- 0 -------- 0 -------


Okinawa 1st innings
1* WG Gunst ----- lbw b Cotter ------------ 15
2 PB Spooner ---- b Cotter ---------------- 73
3 AL Armstrong -- lbw b Cotter ------------ 15
4 RD Jardinière - c&b Laver --------------- 41
5 W Fry --------- run out ----------------- 62
6 SV Ransford --- b Woolley --------------- 36
7 CB Hayes ------ lbw b Cotter ------------- 4
8 JA Hopkins ---- c Rhodes b Sharp --------- 3
9+ ZR Lilley ---- not out ------------------ 2
10 AFS Barnes --- c Carter b Cotter -------- 0
11 SW Carr ------ b Cotter ----------------- 0
Extras (1b, 3lb, 1nb, 2w) ------------------ 7
Total (all out, 81.2 overs) -------------- 258

Fall of wickets: 1-29 (Gunst), 2-63 (Armstrong), 3-133 (Jardinière), 4-160 (Spooner), 5-247 (Ransford), 6-247 (Fry), 7-253 (Hayes), 8-257 (Hopkins), 9-258 (Barnes), 10-258 (Carr)

MCC bowling
------------ Overs --- Mdns --- Runs --- Wkts --- Wides --- No-balls ---
Laver ------ 17 ------- 7 ------ 55 ----- 1 ------- 0 -------- 1 -------
Cotter ----- 22.2 ----- 1 ------ 82 ----- 6 ------- 1 -------- 0 -------
Hutchings -- 10 ------- 1 ------ 27 ----- 0 ------- 0 -------- 0 -------
Woolley ---- 8 -------- 0 ------ 20 ----- 1 ------- 1 -------- 0 -------
Rhodes ----- 12 ------- 0 ------ 31 ----- 0 ------- 0 -------- 0 -------
Sharp ------ 12 ------- 0 ------ 36 ----- 1 ------- 0 -------- 0 -------


Okinawa 2nd innings (Follow on)
1* WG Gunst ----- b Sharp ---------------- 344
2 PB Spooner ---- c&b Laver --------------- 13
3 AL Armstrong -- c Woolley b Laver ------- 10
4 RD Jardinière - lbw b Hutchings -------- 214
5 W Fry --------- c Carter b Rhodes ------- 35
6 SV Ransford --- lbw b Cotter ------------- 3
7 CB Hayes ------ c Hayes b Laver ---------- 9
8 JA Hopkins ---- b Woolley --------------- 21
9+ ZR Lilley ---- c Carter b Hutchings ---- 11
10 AFS Barnes --- run out ----------------- 10
11 SW Carr ------ not out ------------------ 2
Extras (8b, 4lb, 6nb) --------------------- 18
Total (all out, 217.4 overs) ------------- 690

Fall of wickets: 1-29 (Spooner), 2-45 (Armstrong), 3-537 (Jardinière), 4-603 (Fry), 5-610 (Ransford), 6-625 (Hayes), 7-668 (Gunst), 8-669 (Hopkins), 9-685 (Lilley), 10-690 (Barnes)

MCC bowling
------------ Overs --- Mdns --- Runs --- Wkts --- Wides --- No-balls ---
Laver ------ 48 ------- 1 ----- 152 ----- 3 ------- 0 -------- 1 -------
Cotter ----- 39 ------- 1 ----- 131 ----- 1 ------- 0 -------- 4 -------
Hutchings -- 33 ------- 0 ----- 102 ----- 2 ------- 0 -------- 0 -------
Woolley ---- 34.4 ----- 0 ------ 94 ----- 1 ------- 0 -------- 0 -------
Rhodes ----- 35 ------- 1 ------ 94 ----- 1 ------- 0 -------- 1 -------
Sharp ------ 32 ------- 0 ------ 99 ----- 1 ------- 0 -------- 0 -------


MCC 2nd innings
1 VV Gregory ---- run out ------------------ 1
2 CL Bardsley --- lbw b Barnes ----------- 130
3 WL Rhodes ----- st Lilley b Armstrong --- 54
4* S  Noble ----- c Hayes b Barnes -------- 55
5 TVJ Sharp ----- c Lilley b Hopkins ------ 32
6 CG Trumper ---- not out ----------------- 73
7 EF Woolley ---- b Carr ------------------ 48
8 DV Hutchings -- lbw b Barnes ------------ 15
9 DCH Cotter ---- c&b Hayes ---------------- 7
10+ TH Carter --- c Fry b Carr ------------- 8
11 FD Laver ----- b Barnes ----------------- 9
Extras (4b, 3lb, 2nb, 5w) ----------------- 14
Total (all out, 143.2 overs) ------------- 446

Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Gregory), 2-110 (Rhodes), 3-206 (Noble), 4-275 (Bardsley), 5-278 (Sharp), 6-358 (Wooley), 7-393 (Hutchings), 8-410 (Cotter), 9-426 (Carter), 10-446 (Laver)

Okinawa bowling
------------ Overs --- Mdns --- Runs --- Wkts --- Wides --- No-balls ---
Carr  ------- 44 ------ 1 ----- 128 ----- 2 ------- 0 -------- 2 -------
Barnes ------ 25.2 ---- 7 ------ 77 ----- 4 ------- 4 -------- 0 -------
Hopkins ----- 24 ------ 0 ------ 72 ----- 1 ------- 0 -------- 0 -------
Hayes ------- 27 ------ 0 ------ 85 ----- 1 ------- 1 -------- 0 -------
Armstrong --- 23 ------ 4 ------ 65 ----- 1 ------- 0 -------- 0 -------



* = captain
+ = wicketkeeper

If I plan to do something like this again next time, I will make use of existing scores rather than to mess around with all those numbers...

Should be noted that Gunst and Jardenière are like but not exactly the same as Grace and Jardine (who I assume are Normans here in Navalism). Ages would be different as well as OTL Grace passed away in 1915 and Jardine did not start playing test cricket until 1928.

[ctwaterman]

Ok,  I need a serious and I do mean a Serious Drink now....

*eyes walter speculatively*  So who infested poor helpless Japan with Cricket... was it the Evil New Swiss....  if so you can sue... :o

[Walter]

I play Japan so... have some sake. :)

Looking at the names, it should be obvious that the Swiss are to blame. Also, remember that Australia is part of New Switzerland. :)

I actually like cricket, and since I could not come up with something else news-wise, I thought I should apply this to Japan. The other big game in Japan would of course be baseball. :)

[ctwaterman]

Ok so I now have a really justifiable reason to declare war on the New Swiss I mean instituting a program to teach small defensless native populations to games and then to give the Cricket ?????  Its one of the cruelest things any English speaking nation has done.  :'(

[Walter]

In that case, you should declare war on the Normans as well... and since there is a possibility that it is Flemish in origin, you will have to declare war on the Dutch, too. :)