Barracuda: Final Bearing

“Sooner or later, the United States must come to grips with the fact that Japan has become the leading industrial nation in the world. The Japanese have the longest lifespan. They have the highest employment, the highest literacy, the smallest gap between rich and poor. Their manufactured products have the highest quality. They have the best food. The fact is that a country the size of Montana with half our population, will soon have an economy equal to ours … The United States is now without question the weaker partner in any economic discussion with Japan.”

— MICHAEL CRICHTON, RISING SUN

“You are being offered a glorious way to die.”

— VICE ADM. RYUNOSUKE KUSAKA, IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY COMBINED FLEET, CHIEF OF STAFF, TO VICE ADM. SEIICHI PRO, COMMANDER SECOND FLEET, PRIOR TO OPERATION TEN’ICHIGO (HEAVEN NUMBER ONE), IN WHICH THE BATTLESHIP YAMATO WAS SENT ON A SUICIDE MISSION TO OKINAWA. AS YAMATO CAPSIZED AND EXPLODED, ADMIRAL ITO CHOSE TO REMAIN ABOARD, RETIRING TO HIS SEA CABIN. CAPT. KOSAKU ARIGA, COMMANDING OFFICER OF THE YAMATO, LIKEWISE WENT DOWN WITH HIS SHIP, LASHING HIMSELF TO AN ANTIAIRCRAFT COMMAND STATION ON THE BRIDGE.

BOOK ONE

SECRET NUKES ALLEGED

Surrounded by Enemies, Poom Manages Without Military

Edmund Tarawicz, WorldWide Press

Changashan, Greater Manchuria — Ever since the new state of Greater Manchuria was formed from the remnants of an ex-Soviet republic and an East China province. President Len Pei Poom has been considered one of the most brilliant diplomats of the decade. But persistent rumors have circulated that Len’s organization of this fledgling nation was backed up by a seized stockhold of weaponry from the Russian Republic.

Although Len’s administration has continued to deny such rumors, unnamed sources have reported the existence of a secret weapons depot in the Ozero Chanka valley north of the port city of Artom, formerly Vladivostok. What may be stored at the depot is unknown, but some political analysts assert that the facility maintains a cache of nucleartipped medium-range missiles, despite the nuclear exclusion treaties of the past fifteen years.

If Len does indeed have possession of nuclear weapons, it would certainly explain why he was able to ensure Greater Manchuria’s survival in the face of the hostility of West China, the renewed nationalism of the Russian Republic and the second thoughts of formerly friendly East China, particularly in view of the fact that Greater Manchuria has essentially no army…