Wime

"The driving sentiment that led to Wime's foundation."

- Give me women, or give me death!

About
Wime (ウィミィ, u~imyi), is a female-dominated imperialistic western nation that serves as the central antagonist of the Alicesoft game Daiakuji. While only a half century old, it has succeeded in seizing control over half of the world in that time and is as a result recognized as the most powerful country by the time of the game's beginning.

Wime was founded in the early 20th century on the western coast of what was then known as the United States of America. Created in response to the growing popularity of the suffragette movement, which aimed to fight against the unequal treatment of women within the country, its founders co-opted the movement's message of gender equality in order to advance an agenda of absolute female supremacy. With the support of radical feminists from across the American and European continents and state-of-the-art weapons and technology, it successfully gained independence from the United States and acquired one-fifth of the country's landmass. Soon afterward, Wime began declaring war on other countries in the name of liberating women from the tyranny of men, managing to convert all of North and South America and most of Europe into client states in just fifty years.

The governing principle of Wime is that it is the sacred right of women, who serve as the progenitors of all life through the process of motherhood, to lead the human race. Men are believed to exist for the sole purpose of serving women, and are forbidden by law from disobeying any orders given to them by members of the opposite sex. As such, it is common for Wimean women to view men as being little more than slaves and freely impose on their basic human rights for their own convenience, such as by forcing them into marriage against their will. Several more extreme strands of anti-male discourse have also taken root within the country, with some of its highest authorities publicly advocating for the development of sciences that remove the biological need for men in reproduction in the name of eradicating the male gender. Wimean men often possess an internalized fear of women as a result of this poor treatment, distorting their perception of themselves and their place in the world to potentially dangerous extremes. Hatred of men is not universal among Wimean women, however, and a growing number of more conventional feminists have emerged since the country's foundation that have spoken out against its oppressive treatment of men in the name of forming a society in which true equality can exist between genders.

Wime is controlled by a federal government that strictly requires all offices of power to be held by women. It uses a modified version of the United States Constitution as a basis, with leadership being divided between several branches of power and elections being held periodically to determine who serves as the heads of each of these branches. There does not appear to be a limit to the number of years that a public official can occupy their position, as the same individual has served as president since the country’s foundation. Men do not possess the right to vote and are not allowed to take part in the election process in any capacity. The central headquarters of the Wimean government is a building known as the Pentagon, where the leaders of the various branches meet to discuss political decisions.

Wime is notable for converting the territories it occupies during war into client states rather than colonizing them. This is accomplished through widespread societal reforms that enforce the notion of female superiority, including requiring that all positions of leadership within the country be held by women and eliminating any pre-existing laws or customs that are perceived as limiting the potential for a female-centric society to emerge. Nations that have been converted into client states by Wime are made to prefix their names with the letter W to demonstrate that they have adopted its customs, most notably the United States, which was renamed Wamerica (Wアメリカ, W amerika).

Origins
During the early 20th century, women in the United States were heavily oppressed. Suffrage was given only to men and less than 10% of parliament was made up of women. While many women began to speak out against this inequality, their voices were largely ignored by the male-run government, which instead worked to further limit their participation in society.

In 1925, the United States enacted the Cosmetics Taxation Act, which stipulated that all cosmetic products would be subjected to extremely high taxation. As it was considered standard etiquette at the time for women to wear makeup when appearing in public, this law was widely opposed by women across the nation as a targeted attempt to limit their participation in politics. On December 16, 1925, a group of around 60 women, led by Catherine Hancock, attacked a ship loaded with cigarettes at Port Los Angeles and burned all of its cargo as a symbolic demonstration of their anger. This act caused parliament to cease functioning for several weeks, as it had been taken for granted at the time that men would smoke during meetings.

Intensifying Conflict
In response to the rising momentum of female protests throughout the nation, the United States government created several policies to further oppress women. These four policies, which came to be known as the "Unbearable Laws", worked to spread further discontent among women. The first was the Men's Smoking Assistance Act, which required women to pay for a portion of the costs spent by men on cigarettes. The law was met with heavy opposition by women everywhere, with numerous rallies and marches being held across the country calling for it to be abolished. These protests compelled congress to create the Women's Crime Act, which criminalized all acts of civil disobedience done by women, and the Men's Parliamentary Act, which forbade women who opposed the law from participating in parliament. Additionally, a fourth law known as the Women's Contribution Act was put in place that called for all women who were in violation of the Women's Crime Act to be enslaved in the name of re-education.

Opposition to the Unbearable Laws became progressively more widespread across the country, but the most active among them was the Women's Liberation Movement led by Rosalia Dictor. Dictor contacted female activists from around the world and gained their support for her movement, causing it to steadily develop a strong presence within the United States. On September 5, 1926, the First Women's Conference was held in secret at an inn known as the Holiday Tavern near Port Los Angeles. At this conference, a draft of a Declaration of Women's Liberation proclaiming that it was the natural state of the human race to be led by women was prepared. After the meeting had concluded, its attendees agreed to reconvene the following year to hold a second conference.

Women or Death
Even after the First Women's Conference was held, women in the United States continued to be oppressed. In response, Dictor gave the now-famous speech entitled "Women or Death" during the Second Women's Conference. In this speech, she declared that leaving society in the hands of men who denied the truth that mankind should be led by women would lead only to extinction and called for her fellow activists to take up arms against the government in the name of securing a prosperous future. This speech was was accepted by many activists around the world, and the Women's Liberation Movement began to gradually amass military power under the the guidance of the Women's Conference.

Wime, the Female Nation
After the Third Women's Conference, armed conflict between the Women's Congressional Army and the United States government began in earnest, with several large-scale battles erupting throughout the country. During these battles, one particular female militia group known as the Minute Women rose to prominence for its remarkable strength and vigor. The exploits of the Minute Women inspired numerous women across the United States to take up arms and join the Women's Congressional Army, greatly increasing its numbers.

After around a year of fighting, the Women's Congressional Army succeeded in destroying the United States Army. In the wake of its victory, the leaders of the Women's Conference declared that it would bring the seven westernmost states under its control, which led to the foundation of the female nation Wime. The Women's Conference was recognized as the supreme governing body of this new country, with Titania Cole Wime, the then-wife of the governor of California, being appointed as its first Chairman, and Dictor, who had been the driving force behind the liberation movement, as Chief Councilor. The Declaration of Women's Liberation that had been drafted during the First Women's Conference was enacted as a part of the country's constitution, enforcing the notion that it was the natural state of humanity to be led by women as law. In recognition of its loss, the remaining territory of the United States of America was converted into a client state of Wime and made to adjust its own government to remove all men from power.

The World for Women
Shortly after consolidating its power as an independent nation, Wime declared war on the countries that surrounded it in the name of liberating the women that resided within them. It dealt swift defeats to these countries using its superior military, transforming them into client states in the same way it had to the United States. Maintaining this momentum, it made an international declaration of war to all countries that did not restructure their governments to permit only women to be allowed control. Many countries accepted without resistance, fearing the might of the Wimean military, while those that didn't were quickly pushed into submission by force. In around fifty years time, Wime claimed almost all of the American and European continents as its own, along with several island nations along the Pacific Ocean.

Conflict with Nihon
In 1971, the male-dominated eastern nation of Nihon caught the attention of President Titania Cole Wime, who urged it to restructure its government to give women power under the threat of invasion. Her demands were repeatedly refused by Suzuki Kakuei, the Prime Minister of Nihon, who in an act of defiance unfairly abducted and imprisoned a Wimean woman that had been staying in Nihon. Kakuei's actions were taken as a declaration of war by Wime, causing the Wimean Army led by General Olive MacArthur to be sent to invade Nihon in retaliation.

Despite having much stronger individual soldiers, the Nihonese Army was thoroughly outclassed by Wime in terms of weaponry, and was largely unable to stand against it in direct confrontation. In an effort to circumvent this, Nihonese soldiers employed unconventional combat tactics, such as launching themselves into the cockpits of enemy aircrafts and detonating them from the inside. While these methods were effective in the short term, they ultimately only served to further deplete the already inferior resources of the Nihonese military, causing it to get steadily pushed back by Wime's forces.

In February of 1972, the Wimean Army established a blockade operation to limit the exportation of goods to and from Nihon, reducing the country's dwindling resources even further. On June 22 of the same year, the Wimean Army set foot on the Nihonese island of New Guinea for the first time. Even when forced onto the shores of its own territory with no hope of victory, Nihon stubbornly refused to surrender, and continued to futilely resist against Wime for several months.

The war between the two nations finally ended in June of 1973, when Wime commissioned a nuclear bomb to be dropped over Nihon, devastating the country to such an extent that all forms of counterattack were rendered impossible. In October of the same year, the Nihonese Army was defeated on the island of Luzon, which was considered to be the country's the final defensive line against foreign invasion, and forced to officially declare its surrender. Immediately after the end of the war, the Wimean Army proceeded to occupy the ravaged nation, sending a division of its forces into each of the captured cities in order to forcefully implement its policy of having all management institutions be run by women. Nihon became a puppet for foreign powers, completely at the mercy of Wime's whims.

Wime's power was eventually contested by the reappearance of Yamamoto Akuji, the heir to the powerful management union and crime syndicate the Wakame Group in the city of Osaka. After spending years as a prisoner of war, Akuji became outraged upon returning home to discover that his birthright had been taken from him by Wime, and immediately went to work in attempting to reclaim it. Throughout the following months, Akuji amassed the power necessary to seize control over all of Osaka away from the chapter of the Wime Army that occupied it. While word of his uprising traveled across the country, he was able to successfully force Seanel Brawn, the leader of the Osakan occupation, to send out a false report to headquarters claiming it to have successfully been dealt with, allowing him to continue to rule the city from the shadows. In the following weeks, several reports came from other Nihonese cities that claimed to have stopped similar rebellions, implying that the rest of the country was able to steadily wrestle control away from its occupants through similar means over time.

Trivia

 * Wime is a parody of the real life nation of the United States of America, particularly during its military occupation of Japan during the aftermath of the Second World War. Its enforcement of pro-female policies on the countries it defeats in war is analogous to the numerous westernized social reforms the United States imposed onto Japan during its occupation. Notably, the United States of America is still stated to exist within the universe of Daiakuji as a separate entity from Wime and plays a central role in its history.
 * Wime was not present in the earliest drafts of Daiakuji's story, where the antagonist factions were solely meant to be rival regional management institutions. Wime's creation and implementation to the scenario was a major turning point in the game's development, expanding the scope of its setting from an homage to Jitsuroku eiga Yakuza films to more broadly focus on the post-war Showa era of Japan.
 * Every character from Wime that appears in Daiakuji is drawn by the Alicesoft artist MIN-NARAKEN. This was not always intended to be the case, as both concept artwork and historical artwork relating to Wime were drawn by Orion.