Japanese Embassy

The Japanese Embassy in San Francisco, situated on Sutter Street, is the highest-ranking Imperial Japanese Government office on the West Coast of the Pacific States of America. It is the seat of the Honorable Baron L. B. Kaelemakule, the Japanese Ambassador to the PSA, and serves as the formal channel through which Tokyo's authority is projected onto the occupied American territory. As an institution, it represents the official, bureaucratic layer of Japanese rule, distinct from the operational Trade Missions and the secretive Tokkoka police, and it is here that the gravest matters of state are deliberated.

The Extraordinary Session After Bormann's Death

On the morning following the confirmation of Reichs Chancellor Martin Bormann's death, the Foreign Office called an extraordinary session at the embassy building, and each Trade Mission was required to send a highly placed personage. Nobusuke Tagomi, arriving in a black 1940 Cadillac driven by a uniformed Chinese chauffeur, found a dozen dignitaries' cars parked roundabout and filed into a large hall with folding chairs. A gentleman in striped pants, a representative from the Foreign Office, delivered a dry, slow recitation evaluating the contending factions in German political life: Hermann Goring, the self-indulgent "Fat One" who craved power like an ancient Roman Caesar; Joseph Goebbels, the brilliant orator with a rabid streak; Reinhard Heydrich, the enigmatic "Hangman" with a pathological detachment; Baldur von Schirach, the idealist; and Doctor Seyss-Inquart, the most hated man in Reich territory, responsible for the African holocaust. The speaker concluded that the Imperial Government must presume the worst choice would be made, and that the sober and responsible elements would be defeated.

Tagomi's Crisis and the Embassy's Role

For Nobusuke Tagomi, the recitation proved unbearable. He felt he was going mad, scrambled to his feet, and fled the hall, humiliated at being sick at an important meeting. In the lobby, he experienced a profound existential crisis, thinking, "There is evil! It's actual like cement," and wandering out to the front door, where he saw the parked cars and chauffeurs. An embassy employee offered assistance, and Tagomi, recovering his composure, later learned from a Non-Ferrous Ores Mission representative that the Foreign Office had emphasized faith in the Emperor and the Cabinet. The embassy thus becomes the stage for Tagomi's breakdown, a place where the abstract horrors of Nazi policy become concrete and overwhelming, shattering his carefully maintained composure.

Refuge and Communication During the SD Raid

Days later, during the SD raid on the Nippon Times Building, the embassy re-enters the narrative as a potential refuge. As armed SD men attempt to seize Rudolf Wegener, General Tedeki, the former Imperial Chief of Staff traveling incognito as Mr. Yatabe, lifts the phone and puts through a call to the Japanese embassy, only to be told that Ambassador Kaelemakule is out of the city. Undeterred, the general then places a transpacific call to Tokyo, explaining that he will consult with the War College, who will contact Imperial military forces stationed nearby. The embassy, though its ambassador is absent, remains the designated point of contact for the highest-level crisis, underscoring its role as the formal node of imperial authority even when its principal is unavailable.

The Embassy as Symbol of Japanese Rule

The embassy embodies the paradox of Japanese colonial power in the Pacific States. It is the visible, formal seat of authority, yet its actual influence is mediated through a complex web of Trade Missions, military forces, and police agencies. For characters like Robert Childan, the Japanese presence is experienced not through the embassy but through the daily humiliations of "place" and the cultural artifacts that the occupiers collect. The embassy, with its striped-pants officials and solemn sessions, represents the impersonal, bureaucratic face of an empire that rules through law and ceremony, even as its agents engage in covert operations and its officials suffer private breakdowns. It is a place where the grand narratives of world history are recited and where individual men like Tagomi are crushed by their weight, a fitting symbol of an empire that has conquered half the world and now must live with the moral consequences.