October 24, 1946
A Hibari II Rocket came close to an altitude of 200 kilometers today. Unfortunately the instrumental payload section failed to successfully separate from the rocket's main body and was lost as the rocket came down to Earth.
November 2, 1946
Geological surveying began today along the shores of the Tsugaru Strait and the Sōya Strait to look for possible locations to build a tunnel from Honshu to Hokkaido (Tsugaru Strait) and a tunnel from Hokkaido to Karafuto (Sōya Strait).
November 7, 1946
A major reform of the Japanese writing system was ordered by that nation's Ministry of Education, which will eliminate 70% of the kanji symbols that can be used in legal documents, newspapers and magazines. Effective November 16, a list of 1,850 kanji will be made from 6,000 traditional ones, with plans to reduce the number further to 881. Words formerly rendered in kanji will be replaced with the hiragana syllabic system.
November 15, 1946
During an experimental project, scientists used a highly modified TRP radar to bounce radar signals off the Moon and receive the reflected signals. The signals took about 2.5 seconds to cover the distance from Earth to the Moon and back for the TRP to pick them up, resulting in a measured Earth-Moon range of about 383500 kilometers.
<Insert generic Japanese rambling here and perhaps references to US's Project Diana (if they did it) or similar projects by other Wesworld nations should they have made it public>
December 5, 1946
Today a Hibari II Rocket returned with recordings from space after having reached an altitude of 120 kilometers. Poor engine performance meant that it did not get as high as hoped, but it was considered to be high enough for the mission. This comes several weeks after the Argo-Lantean success but, unlike with the Argo-Lantean flight, the camera aboard the Hibari survived the flight without sustaining any damage after it was successfully ejected from the rocket and came down by parachute.
Recordings from the mission
gif made of bits from mainly these videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI7uh-ObrZw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntGrloeuIus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6kO6t-YQww
December 19, 1946
It is well-known that the Chinese do lots of questionable things, but the recent accusation of "poaching protected sea turtles" by the Philippines is also a questionable act, appearing completely out of nowhere. With nothing illegal to pin on the Chinese, it is clear that it was something specifically created at the spot so the Philippine Navy had a "valid" reason to arrest the crews of the Chinese ships and impound the ships as well. If they actually entered Filipino territorial waters illegally, why not charge them with that? Why is it necessary to charge them with something silly?
It has always been clear that the Chinese are eager to start a war with someone, but now there is no doubt that the Filipinos are eager to start one as well.
December 21, 1946
This morning at 04:19 AM, a large earthquake registering in excess of 8 on the Richter scale struck the Nankaidō region. Many hundreds are reported dead and many more injured or missing while thousands of houses were destroyed as well.
The earthquake occurred just over two years after a similar strength earthquake struck in the same region
(*) and about 90 years after the Nankaidō region was hit by two large earthquakes in as many days.
Teams from the Japanese Armed Forces as well as the Pacific Maritime Safety Agency moved into the stricken area to help out with search and rescue and to assist the injured and the homeless with the creation of emergency hospitals and temporary shelters.
While Japan was well-prepared to deal with the aftermath of such an event, it currently has no reserves available to aid other nations in case of a disaster there.
(*) ... and which I missed to put in the news.
December 29, 1946
About a week after the earthquake that struck the Nankaidō region, figures were released that some 1,300 were killed and 2,500 injured while a few hundred are still listed as missing. Over 35,000 homes were destroyed while several thousand homes were destroyed by a Tsunami with 5 to 6 meter high waves.
One of the first things that was done after the earthquake was the examination of the railroad lines through the region and the repair to all the damage the tracks sustained so that trains could start hauling vital goods into the stricken area as quickly as possible. Prior to the first train delivering vital supplies, goods were moved by Army trucks as well as by aircraft, mainly Kawanishi's flying boats, the reliable H8K and the new and bigger H11K, which could easily reach the various points along the stricken coastlines.
Construction companies are also slowly moving into the area to repair damaged buildings, take down damaged buildings deemed too dangerous or too severely damaged, clear debris from damaged and destroyed buildings and build new buildings replacing those destroyed or those taken down.