Shining Tomorrow Historical Lore (Part 5 — Finale)

This series of posts will detail the backstory of the setting of my upcoming novel, Shining Tomorrow. This backstory is not needed to understand the novel; it is only posted as a supplementary bonus.

Part 1: The Late United States Period (1914-1950)
Part 2: The Norman Regime and the MacGruder Coup (1951-1970)
Part 3: The Rise of the White Nationalist Movement (1971-2015)
Part 4: World War III (2015-2020)
Part 5: Morning in America (2021-Present)

Flag of the North American Federation (2021-Present)

2021: The National Politburo installs Ike Lerner as President, but the Shining Tomorrow Party’s power has been greatly reduced, with the Japanese government having far more say.

2024: Tech entrepreneur Lemuel Foxman founds FriendSeek, a social media site intended to help people find friends and family separated by the war. It is the beginning of social media on a wide scale.

2025: The Ku Klux Klan remains active in the NAF. Though they shift tactics to organized crime, they still retain their focus on assassinations and acts of terrorism.

2026: Japanese military authorities announce the National Reorganization Scheme. The main policies are:

– Affirming the Emperor of Japan as the NAF’s head of state.

– Explicitly favoring ethnic Japanese in government and business. In response to criticisms, Emperor Tatsuhito made himself very clear: “In civilizational terms, America is a feral child, behaving as an animal because it knows no better. By contrast, Japan is a mature and long-lived civilization, a loving guardian that will teach America discipline, thrift, and good behavior. Events from the 1920s to today have shown that America is wholly unfit to govern itself without significant aid.”

– Outlaws white nationalist symbols (any version of the USA flag, any version of the Confederate Flag, the burning cross, etc.)

– Places all agricultural land, coal and oil reserves, oil refineries, and power plants under the ownership of Japanese corporations, and requires all food and fuel to be purchased from Japanese suppliers.

– Institutes a social credit system intended to promote law-abiding behavior and good family relations among citizens (this particular policy is not limited to the NAF; it is applied throughout the Japanese Empire.)

– Changes the Stalwart Youth into a national defense militia and gives them the right to bear arms, even in schools.

– Integrates the North American People’s Army with the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces, leaving the Shining Tomorrow Party without its armed wing. As a compromise, the SY remained under Party control, but Japanese officers would supervise them.

– Gives the Kempeitai, the Japanese military police, law enforcement authority for crimes that cross state lines. Other than that, the system of state and municipal policing remains in place.

– Removes most restrictions on religious organizations, but specifically bans European churches (the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, Greek Orthodox, etc.) Meanwhile, Christianity is banned altogether in mainland Japan, and ethnic Japanese are barred from converting to Christianity.

[Mrs. K: Replace all mentions of “Emperor Tatsuhito” with “Emperor Ryusei,” for the Ryusei era is long past. Therefore, he must be referred to by his posthumous name.]

BLUE: North American Federation (NAF)
GREEN: Middle American States (“Middle America”)

2030: A group of Stalwart Youth kids takes down Ku Klux Klan leader Leonard MacScott in San Francisco, causing one of World War III’s most dangerous nationalist militias to finally disappear. This is immortalized in the movie The Militant Four, which was released in 2033 and caused a surge of applications to the SY.

[Mrs. K: And once the boys who got selected realized what it actually entailed, many of them wanted out. The problem is that the SY commandants hate quitters and love putting wayward young men in their place.]

2037: Many giant monster attacks occur throughout the NAF. The monster hero Kaijurion and the human fighter jet Lord Avian defeated them, ushering in the age of superheroes.

2039: Wanting to stop future monster attacks, the private military company Shadow Heart Enterprises debuts its “Maimuni” line of monkey-like artificial monsters. And despite being a Japanese firm, Shadow Heart manages to sell Maimuni demons to Germany and other European countries.

2045: The Timothy Affair — Stalwart Youth cadet Elroy Timothy dated Aoi Sataké, daughter of influential energy magnate Nariyoshi Sataké, but Aoi broke up with Elroy when he punched her in anger. Elroy went to Aoi’s house and shot her, her mother, and her two older brothers, killing all of them; Nariyoshi Sataké was working late at the time, so he wasn’t home. Using his immense political influence, Sataké pressured the Shining Tomorrow Party into disclosing several incidents where SY kids robbed, assaulted, or raped innocent people. Many other victims came forward as well, and the Japanese government allowed it to explode on social media to let the Party know who was really in charge. Elroy Timothy was executed upon conviction, and other perpetrators were given long prison sentences ranging from 10 years to 56.

[Mrs. K: This is a very important case — good job summarizing it.]

2046: Because of the Timothy Affair, the Stalwart Youth Reform Act was passed. It placed the SY directly under the Japanese armed forces, banned them from using lethal force unless authorized by a general, and has its authority limited only to the schools. It also requires all SY cadets to enlist in the armed forces upon graduation from high school.

2050: The NAF Centennial celebrations go on throughout the country. Everyone reflects on 100 years of the North American Federation and how close they were to losing it in World War III. A seer says that although the Shining Tomorrow is at hand, the NAF has not yet attained it, and we must all work hard to make that day come.

[Mrs. K: We still have so much to do, so we must redouble our efforts.]

[Mrs. K: Overall, you did all right in stating the major events in the NAF’s history, as well as in the Late United States Period. However, there were far too many digressions into topics that didn’t strictly deal with the NAF’s history, and a few times, you give your opinions on ultimately irrelevant pop culture items. Lastly, putting any credence in internet conspiracy theories like the alleged Japanese role in the MacGruder Coup is utterly sloppy work — you should know better than to repeat rumors spread by white nationalists to break the NAF’s spirit. That being said, I’m not alleging any seditious intent on your part. This paper receives a C.]