Zipang

The Other Staff Headquarters

When some of the Combined Fleet staff (specifically Admiral Ugaki) balk at the idea of sending badly needed destroyers to escort the Mirai, Lt. Commander Taki proposes that a new submarine, the I-21, be sent instead, with himself on board to observe. Yamamoto reminds Taki that he is essentially protecting Japan's future — and without Japan, there is no navy. However, Taki retorts — silently — that without the navy, there can be no Japan. In Japan, Kusaka and General Ishiwara develop a plan to create Kusaka’s vision of Zipang, an undefeated Japan, with its economic heartland in Japanese-dominated Manchuria. Specifically, Kusaka reveals the 1959 oil strike at Daqing, Heilongjiang Province, in Manchuria, which could supply many times Japan's needs for decades. Ishiwara is astonished and agrees that this single piece of information could change everything about Japan's future and that the first thing they have to ensure is to create a coalition uniting bickering Japanese factions — the army and the navy as well as business interests — behind their vision of the future. In the meantime, Commander Hutton (again, referred to as a "Lieutenant Commander" or "Lieutenant" in English dubbed versions, despite his rank being correctly identified in Japanese), the leader of an elite U.S. Navy bomber squadron unexpectedly summoned to board the carrier USS Wasp as a part of a 10-ship task force engaged in some secret mission, plays poker at a bar in Townsville, Australia, with his old friend, Commander Chris Evans. Evans is the captain of the USS Guardfish, the U.S. submarine that encountered the Mirai shortly after its arrival from the future. Commander Evans tells Hutton about the Japanese warship with unbelievable capabilities — such as a flying torpedo capable of tracking its target. As Commander Hutton and his crew arrive on board the USS Wasp, the commander of the task force, Admiral Noyes remarks that Commander Hutton has never lost anyone under his command in b