| Biography | Born in the city of Hatsukaichi, some 22 years in the aftermath of the Atomic Bombing, Sadazane Konishi is what is known as a Second Generation Hibakusha (被爆, lit. "Bomb-Affected Person"), having been the son of a survivor of the blast. Said survivor was his mother, Harumi Konishi, formerly known as Harumi Sanada and before her adoption, a name which is, ultimately, lost to time, having lost the rest of her family in the attacks. His father, the son of a merchant in the city, had, owing to his parents foresight, been sent to live with relatives in Gero, about 29 km northeast of Hatsukaichi, and as a result had been spared by the attacks.
There are times when events outside of your control forever change how you are viewed in life. For him, Sadazane's event was the attack, that and the discrimination he, owing to his parentage, faced as a child. People were, understandably at the time, afraid of radiation sickness and believed, because his mother had been affected by the blast, she had somehow passed it on to him. Not only that, they believed he could spread it, though we all thankfully know that such claims are categorically false. Such discrimination often got to him as a child, even as the bombing passed into history, but it had another, far deeper effect on him as a child. Sadazane never really his mother. The most he can ever recall was her face, and even then, only in glimpses. She died when he was very young, around 1970, just before his third birthday. It was only when he was far older, around the age of fourteen, that he found out how she had passed. Per his father, she had died of lung cancer, a result of radiation exposure. As a result of his mother's death, he and his brother were largely raised by their father, with the assistance of their aunts and uncles when necessary.
Growing up, Sadazane's family was never really the best off. Between medical expenses for his mother following her diagnosis and his father's gambling addiction when he was young, there seemed to have been little in the way of prospects for him and his elder brother. As a result, he often found himself having to work to keep his family afloat throughout the eighties, which unfortunately took time away from his studying for college entrance exams, if he could even get into one. He had hoped, of course, to study law, to make a name for himself and rise above his lowly origins. But even so, such dreams seemed far-fetched. At the age of eighteen, having graduated, Sadazane found himself on his own. He wasn't in education anymore, and he couldn't afford the frankly exorbitant cost of going to college at the time, and there wasn't a job available to him that would really be able to help him afford it anyways. However, there was still an option. Like his brother before him, he could get his degree covered for him, but only if he signed on with the Army. Seeing no better option, he took the offer and would, from the 18th of November, 1985 onwards, serve in the Imperial Daitōjin Armed Forces.
Throughout his time in the army, Sadazane would find himself serving both at home and abroad; eventually, he would earn the rank of Sergeant before he would officially be discharged in 1998. He would spend his years of service studying for his law degree, eventually graduating with a Juris Doctor from Keiō University in 1997. In his last year of service, he would work as a lawyer in the army; he very nearly reenlisted in 1998, although he would
receive an offer from a major law firm that he could not, in good faith, decline. Even now, he sometimes imagines where he would be if he had reenlisted. He would almost certainly have been sent off to OCS, having faced that prospect even after he had finished his bachelors degree. Evidently though, he had made the right choice.
Now aged twenty-seven, Sadazane, having never forgotten his roots, returned to the city of his birth, taking a job as an attorney at Asahi & Mori, one of the "Big Four" law firms in the country, and which operates overseas offices in Valtheim, Ashinxao, Artaxia, Pyrettania, Northfort, and Williamshaven. He would start out in their office in Hatsukaichi before, over the course of his eight year career at A&M, finding a high-ranking position at their office in Shinkyō, during which time he represented numerous famous and politically prominent officials. At the height of his career, it is estimated that he was bringing in approximately $1.16 million a year, before taxes were factored in. For most, this would've been enough, but a man of his ambition could rarely be left satisfied. As a result, he would, in 2006, announce his plans to run for a seat in the Diet, representing his home district, and he would serve it ever since, though it meant leaving behind his old job.
Of course, not everything in life revolved around his career. First and foremost, Sadazane was a family-man; having grown up in near-poverty and having had to support his family from an early age, he couldn't just ignore that part of what made him, well, himself. Even when he first became an associate at A&M, he made sure, to the best of his ability, that his family was cared for. Even so, it was often joked, for the first few weeks anyways, that if he were going to get married, it would be to his paperwork owing to, as is often the case for any job, especially as a lawyer though, him being overworked. Even so, in early 1998, aged twenty-eight, he would marry Kanae Yabuta, another associate at Asahi & Mori whom he had started dating during a visit home a few years prior. The two would have a son and a daughter, Goro and Misato, in late 1998 and 2004, respectively.
Back on his career, though, Sadazane would be elected as representative for Izumi Prefecture's first electoral district. A member of the YFD as early as his discharge from the Army, he quickly fell in with the party's Seitōkyōgi faction, adopting much of the rhetoric that particular wing is known for. He became a strong advocate of Pan-Ardianism in particular, pushing frequently for the establishment of an East Ardian Free Trade Agreement in the diet as early as 2013. This hope would, for a time, be dashed when Toshikawa invaded Nueva Ardia in 2016, a war which, though its involvement was limited, Daitō participated in by way of an air campaign on the behalf of Nueva Ardia. But even though he advocated for Pan-Ardianism, he was, at the end of the day, still a Fusanese Nationalist. His particular brand of it was not formed on the basis of ethnicity, but rather the idea of a binding national polity formed by the Empire's many peoples instead of merely its Ōnishi majority. He would make a name for himself by sponsoring a number of efforts to legalize gay marriage in Daitō, which, while helping his popularity in the country at large, drew the ire of the YFD's leadership and costing him a chance of holding a leadership position in the party in 2016.
But when the YFD lost control of the House of Representatives in 2017, many in the YFD found themselves forced to reexamine their views on such matters, and many turned, as a result, to Sadazane Konishi. Though he was not the head of the party, nor even the head of the Seitōkyōgi, he would gain a prominent, if unofficial, position within the YFD by the time 2020 rolled around, and he would be made the Deputy Prime Minister under Eita Fukumoto. When he was assassinated, many anticipated that he would take over as Interim Prime Minister, but he would be passed over. Even so, he would, through, his own negotiation, his popularity, and him ultimately being viewed as the best choice for the party, remain as Deputy Prime Minister through the successive Heike caretaker government, as well as the Hayata, Yamaguchi, and Heike administrations. He would achieve his dream of an East Ardian Free Trade Agreement in 2022, and through his support for the Banwa Restoration, he would, upon the resignation of Prime Minister Suketoshi Heike in late 2022, finally reach the pinnacle of his career: He would be appointed and confirmed as Prime Minister. Now, at the dawn of a new era, he looks to the future and seeks to reshape Daitō, to complete the so-called "National-Imperial Revolution" long sought by the YFD. He, once a poor boy from Hatsukaichi, had achieved what few could even dream of. The only question left now was where the road would lead him.
Perhaps the "revolution" was merely the revitalization of democracy? |
