British Salmoa Times

Mr. Arata Kurose, left,  former First Sergeant in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Special Forces Group Unknown Entity Targets Kanagawa Institute of Subatomic Research By Hiroshi Yamamoto This article originally appeared in The Kokumin Chronicle and is reprinted with permission. The city of Tokyo is reeling from one of the most serious incidents in modern Japanese history since the 1998 Tokyo Bay Cargo Disaster. What began as a confusing series of simultaneous emergencies now appears to be hardening into a coordinated, multi-pronged attack on the nation’s capital, authorities confirmed early this morning. Chief Cabinet Secretary Sato Akihiko, who addressed the press in the early hours, acknowledged that investigators are no longer treating the events as a coincidence. The sheer synchronicity of the container ship fire, the city-wide gas alarm triggers, and the high-security breach at the Kanagawa Institute of Subatomic Research (KISR) points to a level of planning and execution ...

By Hiroshi Yamamoto This article originally appeared in The Kokumin Chronicle and is reprinted with permission. The chaotic events that overwhelmed Tokyo Metropolitan Police and emergency services last night have sent shockwaves through communities across the capital and through every level of government, both local and national. In light of the seriousness of the incidents, Chief Cabinet Secretary Sato Akihiko held a late-night press conference in the briefing room of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, where he sought to address the unprecedented disruption and reassure the public. Shortly before seven-thirty last night, the container ship MV Orinoco Mistress issued an SOS after a fire broke out in one of its bays transporting electric vehicles. The ship, registered in Panama, had been waiting to unload its cargo at the Aomi Container Terminal when the incident began. Almost simultaneously, gas-leak alarms were triggered in several Tokyo districts - including the T...

The Courier By Richard Hardenburg British Salmoa Times Correspondent, aboard USCGC Healy , Arctic Ocean It has been eighty-two years since the loss of Submarine K-88 Grom and its commander, Captain Pyotr Alekseyevich Volkov — the Wolf . For many, this remains living time. Yet no surviving witnesses of the Anomaly remain to recount the final hours of the boat and her crew. From declassified Soviet documents, we know that in late October 1943, Grom prowled the icy Arctic waters — a lone predator in a theater where the Red Army faltered and the Northern Fleet eked out small, costly victories. The war had drained men and material alike; morale along the front lines was fragile. Yet in the frozen north, the Northern Fleet still struck. And Grom — daring, relentless, unsinkable — had become a symbol. We are fighting back , the propaganda claimed. For once, it was true. The mission described in Combat Order No. 036/op was unremarkable by wartime standards: lay mines, attack enemy tra...

By Richard Hardenburg British Salmoa Times Correspondent, Northern Fleet Library, Severomorsk In the reading rooms of Severomorsk, beneath the unblinking gaze of uniformed clerks, I sifted through the slow decay of war - paper yellowed by frost and decades. Page after page of declassified reports slid beneath my fingertips. One name surfaced with the inevitability of a tide: Captain Pyotr Alekseyevich Volkov, Third Rank, commander of Submarine K-88 Grom . The documents were fragments - a personnel file, a reprimand, a medical note, a hastily typed line in a mission log. Yet, like scattered bones, they assembled themselves into a man. Volkov came from a lineage carved out of hardship. His father fished the treacherous White Sea. His grandfather was a burlak on the Volga - one of those human engines who bent their backs until vertebrae surrendered, dragging barges for men who never learned their names. The family inheritance was measured in tears, sweat, and blood. Volkov carried it nor...

  “An Expedition of the Century - and a Question of Timing” By Richard Hardenburg British Salmoa Times Correspondent, on board USCGC Healy, Arctic Ocean The Kremlin calls it The Expedition of the Century . The Severnaya Zemlya Expedition, we were told, seeks to revive the daring of the early cosmonaut era, epitomised by Yuri Gagarin. Its aim is to venture into the high Arctic during the Polar Night, face extreme risks, and return with discoveries of scientific significance. The ambition is clear. The question remains: why now? Before discussing “ The Man Under the Uniform ,” it is worth considering the wider context. Why Now? European geopolitics have shifted markedly since the Russo-Valkarian war began in 2014. The front line remains largely static but violent. Both sides suffer heavy losses, and while Valkaria benefits from Western support, Russia produces its own artillery at a scale reminiscent of the Second Great War. These circumstances form the backdrop to the e...

  By Richard Hardenburg  British Salmoa Times Correspondent, on board USCGC Healy, Arctic Ocean As the Polar Night settles over the Arctic Ocean, the USCGC Healy holds steady against the dark. From its deck, I look back on the extraordinary days of the Severnaya Zemlya Expedition. To make sense of them, I must set them down in order. On November 8th, we flew to Murmansk aboard a Russian Il-96, shadowed by a Sukhoi Su-35S in blue digital camouflage. Passengers pressed to the windows, uneasy at the fighter’s presence, a reminder that even at thirty-five thousand feet, we were never beyond reach. Minutes before landing, a woman in a navy-blue uniform stepped to the front of the cabin, picked up the aircraft’s microphone, and spoke. “Good evening. My name is Senior Lieutenant Ludmilla Smirnov, and I am a coordinator for the expedition. Due to recent events, the expedition’s directors have made changes to accommodations in Murmansk, and we will be temporarily staying at the Norther...