Chapter 346: You'll Have to Pay the Price for What You Did

Before Fang Hexuan called Sato Fumio, he spent several days thinking about how to use the inside information that "Toshiba secretly sold machine tools to the Soviet Union."

Reporting Toshiba to the U.S. government might help vent the hatred of the Japanese for falsifying history, but it would do no good to oneself and might even attract the attention of the CIA.

After much deliberation, it was decided to confront Toshiba directly and see if we could get some actual benefits from them through threats and intimidation.

As for whether the third party, the Soviet Union, would cause trouble for him, Fang Hexuan was not too afraid.

Not to mention that they have already obtained the machine tool, so there is no need to create any more trouble. Even if they want to investigate how Fang Hexuan knew the secret of the transaction between Toshiba and them, they have no way to find out the truth. Maybe they will continue to investigate, but it will not hurt Fang, the richest man.

His only worry now is that Toshiba will give up and not fall for his coercion.

However, this extreme situation did not occur.

When Fumio Sato heard that the richest man in Hong Kong was going to report Toshiba to the CIA, he immediately thought of all the possible consequences.

In fact, Toshiba's violation of the Batumi agreement and sale of advanced machine tools to the hostile Cold War camp precisely reflects the national character of the Japanese described in the book "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword", who are humble and respectful on the surface but despise and hate Americans in their hearts.

It is true that the Japanese admire the strong, but don’t think that the Japanese are without blood.

During World War II, the Americans dropped mushroom bombs on Japan, burned Tokyo, and blew up a large number of Japanese factories. After the war, they stationed troops to firmly control Japan's politics, economy, and military. How could a human being not feel these humiliating things?

The Japanese know that they need to be forbearing, so they bury their hatred and anger deep in their hearts. On the surface, they obey the orders of their father country and do their utmost to lick its boots, much like the style of Goujian, the King of Yue, who slept on firewood and tasted gall.

But no matter how much a country's 100 million people are brainwashed and told to be tolerant, it is impossible for them to humbly obey the US arrangements in all matters. They will always spit at the Americans in some hidden corners.

Selling their most advanced machine tools to the Soviet Union, whether for actual monetary benefits or to take the opportunity to disgust some Americans, more or less reflects the inevitable rebellious psychology of the Japanese after being bullied for a long time.

This is not random speculation, but some truth that Fang Hexuan was able to figure out from many details when he looked back from 2022.

For example, when Japan was forced by the United States to sign the Plaza Accord and the yen appreciated significantly, a large amount of yen held by Japan's citizens flowed into the real estate market. In the following five years, Japan's housing prices continued to rise. At the peak, Japanese consortiums also joined in. They not only bought a large amount of real estate in their own country, but also traveled to Europe and the United States, and even threatened to buy the entire United States.

This is actually a kind of alienated rebellious psychology. As business elites, they certainly know that the appreciation of the yen will seriously hit Japan's foreign trade exports, and imports will affect the country's manufacturing industry.

But they cannot resist. Since the manufacturing industry, which should benefit the country and the people, can no longer make money, they invest the money in real estate, which keeps being hyped up and the bubble is getting bigger and bigger.

Don't the Japanese know how dangerous their country's real estate bubble is? They know it all too well.

Not only businessmen know this, but the Japanese government also knows it, but it is of no avail.

In the end, businessmen can only use the money they earn from real estate speculation in Japan to act arrogantly in the United States. Isn't this an accusation and dissatisfaction with the United States, and isn't this a basic stress response?

So, after analyzing these, it is not difficult to understand why Toshiba sold machine tools to the Soviet Union.

Fang Hexuan didn't completely believe that they were only doing it for money. He would be the first one to disbelieve that they didn't have any intentions to trip up Daddy Country.

Toshiba may not have informed the Japanese government, but they definitely considered the consequences if the matter was exposed. Therefore, Fang Hexuan's threat was effective.

Sato Fumio roared in fear and anger:

"Mr. Fang, Toshiba has no grudges against you in the past or today. I don't understand why you are doing this."

Fang Hexuan curled his lips and said cheerfully:

"Isn't it enough to ask for a favor?"

Sato Fumio didn't believe it at all. He just calmed down and thought about it, but he really couldn't figure out why Fang Hexuan needed Toshiba's help.

"Not enough. I don't know how you know this secret, but I'm not stupid. Mr. Fang must be asking for a lot."

Fang Hexuan gave the other party a thumbs up in his heart, finally having some brains, but he still said with a bad taste:
"President Sato, your country's Ministry of Education has recently tampered with the history of the invasion of China, which is a bad behavior. As far as I know, Toshiba built tanks, radars and other invasion weapons for the Japanese army during World War II. As a Chinese, I ask for compensation from your company on behalf of my compatriots. Is there a problem? Is it excessive?"

Hearing the other party's confident arguments, Sato Fumio was choked and didn't know how to refute.

But the first two points Fang Hexuan said were facts and could not be denied at all.

As for the compensation at the end, if he was facing an ordinary Chinese, he would not pay any attention to it. But now he is facing a super rich man, and he also holds the top secrets of his own company, which makes him very passive.

Sato Fumio hesitated for a long time, and said with some guilt:
"Mr. Fang, those have become history. What's past is past. If we want to get to the bottom of it, which country has not had original sin, and which human being has not made mistakes?"

Hearing this, Fang Hexuan really wanted to stab this Japanese devil a few times in person and then return his words to him.

"Haha, if President Sato can bring back to life the 1800 million Chinese who died in the Japanese invasion and the 30 innocent souls who died in Nanjing, I will be the first to take the lead in forgiving your country and never mention this matter again."

Sato Fumio knew that this kind of conversation was completely meaningless. He could keep beating around the bush and refuse to admit his mistake, but how to make Fang Hexuan keep the secret was what he wanted to solve.

So, he suppressed his anger and asked calmly:

"Mr. Fang, what do you want?"

Fang Hexuan's complexion returned to normal, the corners of his mouth raised, and he said through the microphone:

"Since your company can provide Soviet machine tools, I believe it should be no problem for you to provide me with the latest machine tool technology I need?"

Sato Fumio was stunned. He had not thought that the other party was also coming for the machine tools. During his quick thinking just now, he once thought that this man surnamed Fang wanted Toshiba's electronic product technology. After all, he had also heard of the name of Maple Leaf Company.

Although it was unexpected, machine tool technology is also one of Toshiba's core competitive advantages, and he would never hand it over to outsiders easily.

(End of this chapter)