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camwynGot this writing exercise from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cadhla. I've been bouncing it around in my head since partway through yesterday. It's a very rough draft- I only had fifteen minutes, no more, and even then I cheated a little bit by lifting a few appropriate lines from a written source. Only a few, though.
Those of you interested in the ongoing dementia that is the Imperial Japanese Mounted Police, click on.
On the night of August 13, 1945, for the first time anyone in all of Japan could remember, the Mounties were not there. The word had gone out, to them and to no one else: be in your barracks, be by your radios, be in a place where you can listen. There will be something said which you and you alone must hear.
And so the men of the Imperial Japanese Mounted Police gathered in barracks, in stables, in hospitals. They gathered in the remains of houses wrecked by the Americans; they gathered in the shadows of what had once been Nagasaki. Where they could they stuck to their own places, and where they could not, they came together anyway. But wherever they gathered, they found a way to make a radio set work. And so they listened.
The words came. The few who survive to this day can tell them to you by heart – every one of them. You do not forget the last words your Emperor ever spoke to you as his policeman.
"We speak now to our good and faithful subjects, the men of the Imperial Japanese Mounted Police.
"After pondering deeply the general trends of the world and the actual conditions obtaining in our empire today, we have come to a decision regarding the present matters facing our nation and our people. Our action will be made known tomorrow, for all the people to hear, but before that action may be spoken of, there is something else which we must undertake.
"Since the days of the restoration of our imperial ancestors, the Japanese Mounties have been the emperor's hands, the guardians of our people within just as surely as the soldier is the guardian of our people without. No man, woman, criminal, or spy has ever yet escaped you. No men in all our days have ever served us so faithfully and well, even among the ranks of the Thunder Gods. You who have remained in the service of the Mounted Police have sacrificed the chance of honor and glory against our enemies, for the sake of the preservation of our people. This has been your lot since the very first of your days. You have done well. We can give you no higher praise, for we know no higher words. But it is precisely this which forces us to the declaration which we must now make. The oath of the Mounted Police – to the Throne, to the law, to Heaven, and to no other- upholds you all, but binds as tightly as any cord that was ever made.
"It is with heavy heart and deepest regret that we must release you from that oath.
"The preservation of our people and our nation requires that we take such steps as none of our imperial ancestors has taken before. The shaping of the law will soon be passing into the hands of foreigners. What becomes of those who uphold that law we do not know, but we will not see your oath used to set you against your own people. We will not permit the triple oath to become a weapon, dividing your duty to the law against your duty to us. From the oath that binds you to the throne, and from the oath that binds you to the law, we release you. We cannot release you from your oath to Heaven.
"We are always with you, our good and faithful subjects, relying upon your sincerity and integrity. Do not permit confusion and strife to lead you astray. Do not permit yourselves to lose the confidence of the world and the nation. Though you shall never ride again as Mounties under our banner, our people yet need you. Do not fail them. Await instead the day when the scarlet riders will be seen again in our land. The road to tht day is long, but we have fullest confidence in you. Cultivate the ways of rectitude, nobility of spirit, and work with resolution so that you may enhance the innate glory of the Imperial State and keep pace with the progress of the world.
"We expect nothing less of you."
cadhla. I've been bouncing it around in my head since partway through yesterday. It's a very rough draft- I only had fifteen minutes, no more, and even then I cheated a little bit by lifting a few appropriate lines from a written source. Only a few, though. Those of you interested in the ongoing dementia that is the Imperial Japanese Mounted Police, click on.
On the night of August 13, 1945, for the first time anyone in all of Japan could remember, the Mounties were not there. The word had gone out, to them and to no one else: be in your barracks, be by your radios, be in a place where you can listen. There will be something said which you and you alone must hear.
And so the men of the Imperial Japanese Mounted Police gathered in barracks, in stables, in hospitals. They gathered in the remains of houses wrecked by the Americans; they gathered in the shadows of what had once been Nagasaki. Where they could they stuck to their own places, and where they could not, they came together anyway. But wherever they gathered, they found a way to make a radio set work. And so they listened.
The words came. The few who survive to this day can tell them to you by heart – every one of them. You do not forget the last words your Emperor ever spoke to you as his policeman.
"We speak now to our good and faithful subjects, the men of the Imperial Japanese Mounted Police.
"After pondering deeply the general trends of the world and the actual conditions obtaining in our empire today, we have come to a decision regarding the present matters facing our nation and our people. Our action will be made known tomorrow, for all the people to hear, but before that action may be spoken of, there is something else which we must undertake.
"Since the days of the restoration of our imperial ancestors, the Japanese Mounties have been the emperor's hands, the guardians of our people within just as surely as the soldier is the guardian of our people without. No man, woman, criminal, or spy has ever yet escaped you. No men in all our days have ever served us so faithfully and well, even among the ranks of the Thunder Gods. You who have remained in the service of the Mounted Police have sacrificed the chance of honor and glory against our enemies, for the sake of the preservation of our people. This has been your lot since the very first of your days. You have done well. We can give you no higher praise, for we know no higher words. But it is precisely this which forces us to the declaration which we must now make. The oath of the Mounted Police – to the Throne, to the law, to Heaven, and to no other- upholds you all, but binds as tightly as any cord that was ever made.
"It is with heavy heart and deepest regret that we must release you from that oath.
"The preservation of our people and our nation requires that we take such steps as none of our imperial ancestors has taken before. The shaping of the law will soon be passing into the hands of foreigners. What becomes of those who uphold that law we do not know, but we will not see your oath used to set you against your own people. We will not permit the triple oath to become a weapon, dividing your duty to the law against your duty to us. From the oath that binds you to the throne, and from the oath that binds you to the law, we release you. We cannot release you from your oath to Heaven.
"We are always with you, our good and faithful subjects, relying upon your sincerity and integrity. Do not permit confusion and strife to lead you astray. Do not permit yourselves to lose the confidence of the world and the nation. Though you shall never ride again as Mounties under our banner, our people yet need you. Do not fail them. Await instead the day when the scarlet riders will be seen again in our land. The road to tht day is long, but we have fullest confidence in you. Cultivate the ways of rectitude, nobility of spirit, and work with resolution so that you may enhance the innate glory of the Imperial State and keep pace with the progress of the world.
"We expect nothing less of you."
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no subject
Date: 2003-12-03 04:34 am (UTC)Now I don't know what to DOOOOOOOOO. Want more Sgt. Preston. Want more rocket-boy. Want more more more JAPANESE MOUNTIES.
Need to find way to support you financially, so you can spend all your time writing stories for me. Or something. :P
no subject
Date: 2003-12-03 07:01 am (UTC)Would you believe that was actually my goal? Not to make you, specifically, cry, but to induce that kind of response in the reader in general. I printed out Hirohito's speech of acceptance of the Potsdam terms of surrender and read it through. There's no way the people he was addressing could have sat through that radio address and not felt something seize up in their throats, and that was an address to the nation of Japan in general. This edict was pointed at a very specific group of people who were a step or three closer to the emperor than the rest of the population. Releasing the oaths was the equivalent of a man shooting his own dog, and had to go down just as hard.
Want more Sgt. Preston. Want more rocket-boy. Want more more more JAPANESE MOUNTIES.
Well, at this point I believe it's rocket-boy's turn. Then Sergeant Preston again, because I have to finish Grandfather's Legacy. After that, I think I can see my way clear to letting you meet Corporal Ikeshoji.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-03 08:08 am (UTC)Mer
no subject
Date: 2003-12-03 08:30 am (UTC)