Yellow Empire

The Yellow Empire is the primary antagonist in the Secret of the Swordfish trilogy (the first books in the Blake and Mortimer comic book series; it is a totalitarian, fascist-like superpower with worldwide ambitions. Its capital is Lhassa (capital of Tibet in real life), and it is ruled by Emperor Basam Damdu.

History/plot

In the comics, the Yellow Empire is a militaristic power, with the strongest army and most advanced weapons in the world, including multiple rocket launchers, bunker-busting tanks, an unknown chemical weapon known as GX3 against which gas masks are ineffective, and a nuclear arsenal "capable of destroying the world in a few hours". After three years of cold war with the free world, the Yellow Empire puts this military to use by launching a massive surprise attack against the other world powers. Within a few days, the planet is overrun and falls to the Yellow.

Basam Damdu then proclaims the Great Asiatic Era; all necessary measures are taken to bring the world completely under the Yellow boot. This is done with the help of Fifth Column traitors in every country who, after the war, are put into positions of power and become Yellow puppets (similar to Vichy France in World War II). With their help, the Yellow also organize a system of concentration camps in the Himalayas, into which foreign scientists, political prisoners, and others are imprisoned and forced to work for the Yellow.

However, the Yellow are acutely aware that their victory is not complete; pockets of resistance have survived all over the world, and remain ready to continue the fight. At the heart of the resistance movement is a secret British naval base in the Straits of Hormuz; there, the U.K. is working around the clock to produce the Swordfish, a new superweapon that will turn the tide of the war. The Yellow are aware of the weapon's existence; most of the comics follow their attempts to capture the blueprints of the Swordfish. Though they do not succeed, they do learn the location of the British base, and put together a task force to destroy it.

The battle is almost a success, but the British finish the first two Swordfish prototypes just before the base is overrun, and they turn the tide of battle; the Yellow task force is destroyed. When news of this spreads, the resistance cells all over the world are put into action, resulting in a string of Yellow defeats (Paris, Madrid, Rome, New York, Buenos Aires and Shanghai are all mentioned as having been retaken by the rebels). Enraged, Basam Damdu decides to launch his nuclear arsenal against the world in revenge. Before he can do so, however, an entire squadron of Swordfish appears above Lhassa and nukes it; the Emperor is killed, and the Yellow Empire ends.

Government structure

The Yellow Empire is a totalitarian dictatorship, under the absolute control of Emperor Basam Damdu (in the tradition of Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy and Stalin's USSR). The dominating ideology is never specified, but it seems to be a form of Asian supremacism, like Imperial Japan's propaganda during World War II. (see Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere).

The hierarchy and structure of the government are left unspecified, although it is clear that all report to the Emperor and that he has final say in all matters. Besides the military, the only government department that is depicted is the 13th Bureau, the organ in charge of state security. It functions with ruthless efficiency (similar to the SS and KGB) and is commanded by Colonel Olrik, a European who betrayed his country to the Yellow Empire, and is the main villain of the comics.

Military

Judging from the quick and crushing victory in World War Three, it can be safely assumed that the Yellow Empire has the most powerful military on the planet. Their doctrine rests on defeating their enemy quickly through the use of surprise and overwhelmingly superior forces, similar to German tactics in World War II. After the initial victory, their military turns into an army of occupation (on a global scale); this, however, leaves them vulnerable to guerrilla warfare by local resistance movements.

Yellow technology in both conventional and nuclear fields is world-class. Jet propulsion and atomic weaponry, in particular, have been extended throughout the entire Yellow military, even though both technologies were very new at the time the books were published.

The following is a partial list of Yellow weapons used in the comics.

* Shark; a jet-driven fighter, capable of flying up into the stratosphere, it is the workhorse of the Yellow Air Force and is well represented in all three episodes.
* Red Wing; Colonel Olrik's personal aircraft, a jet-driven version of the American Flying wing. The Yellow appear to have an affinity for the flying wing design, as bomber and carrier variants of the Red Wing also appear intermittently throughout the comics.(The original aircraft is stolen by Blake, Mortimer and Sergeant Ahmed Nasir during an escape, and later shot down by pro-British guerrillas).
* Super bazooka; a rocket launcher capable of firing five hundred rockets per minute; similar to Soviet Katyusha launchers. Featured at the Lhassa arsenal during the opening pages of the book, it is later used at the battle of the Straits of Hormuz.
* Dragon; a flame-throwing tank, weighing a hundred tons and capable of flattening a bunker. Appears in the opening pages of the book, but is never seen in battle.

* ICBM; years before this happened in real life, the Yellow Empire has developed an arsenal of nuclear-tipped rockets with global reach, enough to destroy the world if all launched. Basam Damdu nearly fires the rockets at the end of the books, but they are nuked by British Swordfish before they can be launched.
* GX3; a green-colored chemical gas, deployed by the Yellow at the battle of the Straits of Hormuz, almost bringing them victory. Conventional gas masks are useless against it; when Yellow forces go into a combat zone infected with GX3, they carry oxygen masks instead.

Historical allusions

The Secret of the Swordfish was written in the years following World War II, and the comics are filled with references to the war. The Yellow Empire is an obvious amalgam of the Axis powers in World War II. Its flag is similar to the Naval Ensign of Japan, and its tactics at the beginning of the book recall the German blitzkrieg of 1940, though updated to account for ten years of military progress. Its dictator, Basam Damdu, is an insane megalomaniac with absolute power, presented as a not so subtle reference to Adolf Hitler.

Basam Damdu's fit of rage as he watches his empire collapse recalls Hitler's well-documented temper tantrums; his attempt to take the world with him when he dies is also a Hitler reference. When the Allies were advancing on Paris in 1944, Hitler gave orders that the entire city be mined and destroyed should it fall into enemy hands (an order General von Choltitz refused to follow). Similarly, Basam Damdu, like Hitler, rationalized the defeat of his empire by blaming it all on the weakness and treachery of his own people.