Chapter 3637: Something big has happened

At first glance at the email's title, almost all Japanese internet influencers thought this must be a prank.

The United States sending troops to Antarctica? Even controlling Japan's Showa Antarctic Research Station, even capturing and abusing Japanese expedition members?

How could this possibly be?

In their view, the US-Japan alliance is stronger than the alliance relations between most countries in the world.

Moreover, Japan has always obeyed the United States completely, even with utmost humility and admiration, and even the Japanese people hold annual events to commemorate and remember Matthew Perry, who invaded Japan and opened its doors; to be a junior partner to this extent is rare worldwide, so how could the United States possibly attack their expedition members in Antarctica under such circumstances?

However, doubts aside, human curiosity drove them to open the video file in the email.

Opening it was no problem, but the footage immediately left them stunned and speechless.

Armed Marines, in the icy Antarctic Showa Station, were threatening several Japanese expedition members wearing only underwear with guns, forcing them to expose themselves to the extreme cold.

Those Japanese expedition members immediately burst into agonized, maddened wails, the scene simply unbearable to watch.

As fellow Japanese, seeing their own country's expedition members treated this way, almost every Japanese influencer felt extremely angry inside.

They almost immediately posted the received material online, with some captions directly condemning US military atrocities, while others questioned the video's authenticity, hoping netizens could help verify it, after all, AI is becoming increasingly popular and widespread, and AI video realism is also rising, so if this video were indeed AI-made, wouldn't that wrongly accuse our ally, the United States?

Once these videos were posted, they immediately caused an uproar on the Japanese internet.

The vast majority could tell the video was definitely not fake, because it was simply too real.

Since they could judge the video wasn't forged, all doubts focused on why the US military would act against Japanese expedition members—these members were all unarmed civilians!

Japanese high-level officials also discovered these videos immediately; the entire leadership was instantly overwhelmed, momentarily unsure how to respond.

Through Watanabe Gorō's report, they naturally knew of the US military's domineering conduct in Antarctica, but they clearly knew they could not influence US actions there, so they could only suffer in silence, unable to speak their pain.

They originally thought this matter could only be left for the United States to investigate, but they never expected they would treat their own expedition members so brutally.

Actually, for Japanese high-level officials, the US military's abuse of their own expedition members was not in itself unacceptable; what was unacceptable was that such a thing would actually be filmed and posted online.

Being handled this way, Japanese high-level officials could no longer turn a blind eye.

Thus, they immediately protested via diplomatic channels, publicly demanding the United States immediately cease harming Japanese expedition members and withdraw troops from Antarctica at once.

Within just a few dozen minutes, not only did Japan protest, but including China and the Franco-British-Russian UN permanent members, all jointly lodged serious protests with the United States, demanding it explain its covert deployment to Antarctica and violation of the Antarctic Treaty.

At this time, the United States was deep into night.

The sleeping White House spokesperson, upon receiving the report call, jumped straight out of bed, phone in hand, hysterically questioning: "What?! The Antarctica troop deployment has been exposed online? What on earth is the military doing? How could they make such a basic mistake?"

Her husband, over thirty years older and sound asleep beside her, was startled by her questioning into a sudden jerk, sitting up instinctively and asking: "What happened, dear? You scared me."

The spokesperson apologetically smiled and said: "An urgent matter came up; I'm going to take the call, dear, you keep resting."

After saying that, she hurriedly grabbed her phone and walked out of the bedroom, angrily demanding into the phone: "I want to know how this secret operation could be filmed and posted online?!"

The other end helplessly said: "I've already asked the responsible party; the CIA and Department of Homeland Security have begun tracing the poster's real identity, but the other side hid too well—the video was uploaded and sent via anonymous servers, making it impossible to trace, so they don't know who filmed and uploaded it either."

The spokesperson paced anxiously in the room: "What a bunch of useless good-for-nothings! I'm heading to the White House now—you notify other staff to come immediately; I need to meet them to discuss tomorrow's public stance, to see how we can reasonably explain this away!"

The other end said embarrassedly: "Right now, the most serious issue isn't how to explain our Antarctica deployment to the world, but how to explain why we subjected Japanese expedition members to inhuman torture—this is currently the biggest PR crisis, with some even saying our soldiers' actions are indistinguishable from those of Japanese fascists back then!"

"What?!" the spokesperson exclaimed: "You're saying our soldiers tortured Japanese expedition members?"

"Not just torture—they stripped them naked, left them in sub-zero -60°C Antarctic outdoors, and had the whole thing filmed and posted online; I'm sending you the video now—take a look first, then we'll talk!"

"Quick, quick, send me the video!"

"Okay, already sent—please check!"

The spokesperson hurriedly opened the messaging app, and soon received a video.

She clicked play, watched the content bit by bit, and only felt her vision darken.

After gritting her teeth to steady herself for a moment, she said: "I'm going to the White House now—you immediately notify all relevant personnel to gather there."

The other end replied: "By the way, several permanent UN members have now sent diplomatic notes demanding we explain our Antarctica actions, Japan also demands we explain the mistreatment of its expedition members, domestic sentiment is already inflamed and protests are organizing—should we notify the President?"

The spokesperson thought, then sighed: "It's already too late—don't disturb the President's rest; he's been overwhelmed by island affairs lately, and to make it worse, that crazy woman from the Bill family actually wants to trade one-for-one with the President—she's utterly shameless! Now is exactly when we should give our all to relieve the President's burden; we must handle this well and not add to his troubles!"

The other end said: "Okay, then I'll notify others to go to the White House first!"

"Good!"

The spokesperson hung up and immediately returned to the bedroom.

Upon entering, she headed straight for the wardrobe to change quickly; her husband, dragging his weary body, came to the wardrobe and asked in surprise: "Honey, what's wrong? Going out this late?"

While changing clothes, she said helplessly: "Something big happened—I must go resolve it right away!"