Chapter 37 Neutrality Is Not a Moral Sanctuary

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Asimov was hooked before he had even finished the first page.

Just as he had expected, Enny, a science fiction writer with an explosive imagination, would never pen a story that felt dull or cliché. Using whales to transport munitions—who could have come up with that? Yet, such novels often struggle to convey deeper meaning due to their simplistic plots. Curious about how Enny would handle this narrative, Asimov continued to read.

[On General Warner's 13,600-ton cruiser, besides his 150 officers and 1,756 swarthy sailors, there were seven hundred tons of munitions—guns and ammunition loaded in the United States, destined for Britain. Two months prior, Germany and Britain had engaged in fierce naval warfare across the Atlantic. As allies with shared interests, the United States began transporting supplies to Britain.

Due to the German "wolf pack" submarine tactics, the British Royal Navy and merchant fleet suffered heavy losses. Simultaneously, because of Britain's reliance on overseas trade, its citizens were in desperate need of food and arms from abroad. Under the German blockade, trade with the United States became Britain's only hope, and for America, it was a matter of self-interest.

However, crossing the German submarine lines to reach the British coast was nearly impossible. Since the invention of the German neutrino detector, no vessel, no matter how small, could remain hidden on the Atlantic. A month ago, General Warner had tried encasing supplies in the center of ten-ton logs, hoping these "supply blocks" would drift with the currents to the British coast, but they were easily detected.

Later, General Warner transferred the top-secret mission to the Air Force, attempting to support the British mainland via airdrops. This once seemed like an invincible method, but to completely cut off Britain’s escape route, the Germans began learning from the Japanese and formed an "Aerial Suicide Squad." Any transport plane approaching British airspace would be met with fearless, suicidal attacks, striking terror into the hearts of American soldiers. German soldiers, heavily using "Pervitin," were no different from demons, capable of fighting in the air without sleep or rest.

Even those lucky American soldiers who survived a crash would be strafed by German forces on the sea surface as they parachuted down, as if the falling figures were not living men, but a sky filled with descending "Iron Crosses."

The secret mission was handed back to the Navy. Now, General Warner was at his wit's end. He hated scientists; they were the ones who had caused all of this. But on the other hand, he realized that scientists could also be his salvation. Thus, he asked the President to use his influence to find a genius among America's top universities who could help defeat the German scientists.

This morning, the President told him he had found the man: "He is a genius, General, a classmate of mine from Harvard."]

Asimov turned to the next page without pause. He felt that one thing Enny did exceptionally well was never rushing to dump his "core premise" all at once, but rather unfolding it with a steady, narrative rhythm. Furthermore, the early buildup was far from tedious. When Enny described the German soldiers taking "Pervitin" to transform into sleepless, demonic combatants, the cold, concise, and brutal prose made the visceral stench of the battlefield feel tangible.

["I hear you can help us, sir," Warner said with a smile.

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"Yes, I can help you deliver the cargo to the British coast," Hopkins said, his face expressionless.

"With what?" Warner asked lazily.

"Whales," Hopkins replied briefly. At that moment, the President waved his hand, and two of his men carried in a strange object. It was a small, transparent capsule made of a plastic-like material, streamlined, one meter high and two meters long. The interior space was similar to that of a small car, containing two seats, a simple dashboard with a miniature screen in front, and some space behind the seats—evidently for cargo.

"This capsule can carry two people and about a ton of cargo," Hopkins said.

"And how is this thing supposed to cross the Atlantic and reach the British coast?"

"The whale will hold it in its mouth."]

Asimov read the ensuing plot with insatiable hunger.

Through the characters' dialogue, Enny finally unveiled the "core technology" of the novel: using bio-electrical signals to control whales, allowing them to swim through the deep sea with the capsules—much like the puppet in *Pinocchio*, the animated film that had recently premiered and served as one of Enny's inspirations.

In the following scenes, General Warner, after witnessing Hopkins control a blue whale, believed in him. Meanwhile, the President went to Capitol Hill to meet with the leaders of the Senate and House, announcing the "blue whale transport" scheme, which would not only evade German detection but also conserve American warships, fuel, and manpower.

For a time, Capitol Hill was in an uproar. Some argued, "Using animals to transport munitions will only make the war even more devoid of principles," and "Using innocent animals to serve the purposes of a dirty war is the height of immorality." But such voices and moral standards were suppressed by the majority of opportunists in the meeting, and the plan was smoothly passed and implemented.

[Putting control electrodes and computers into the brains of these "big guys"—the blue whales—was a task no single person could handle. First, it required anesthesia, and five hundred kilograms of it. Moreover, transporting hundreds of tons of supplies would require more than one whale; at least thirty blue whales had to be modified to form an effective transport fleet across the vast Atlantic.

General Warner recruited domestic fishermen to form a whaling team. With resources from the military skewed in their favor, the transport whale fleet was being assembled rapidly. As long as the whales were released back into the sea after the mission was completed, it would not technically violate the "Geneva Convention for the Regulation of Whaling" signed by the United States in 1935—after all, such immoral acts of whaling were things only Germans and Japanese would do!]

Asimov’s expression grew heavy as he reached this point.

While the novel seemed to attack the fascist actions of Germany and Japan, it was clear to any discerning reader that it was primarily a critique of the United States’ tendency to trim its sails and profit from the war.

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If "whaling is a dirty business that only Germans and Japanese would do," then what did that make the United States, who were aiding and abetting?

Was it considered moral to "capture and exploit whales, then release them"?

Undoubtedly, Enny used the "whale" as a vehicle to condemn the way the United States had profited from the war through trade and loans during the First and Second World Wars.

Even if everything the United States did was legal according to international law and custom, it was undeniably wrong from the perspectives of humanitarianism and the ethics of war—just as the novel's concept of "capturing and releasing whales after use" could hardly be called moral.

In reality, even at this stage, the United States still maintained trade relations with Germany and Japan, earning money by selling strategic materials.

Of course, as a neutral country, the United States conducted two-way trade, maintaining relations with both the Allies and the Axis, which did not technically violate the "Neutrality Acts."

However, the framework of "neutrality" could not serve as a moral "sanctuary" for the United States.

Since the outbreak of the war, American citizens, peace groups, and religious organizations had repeatedly called on the government to impose sanctions on Japan to curb its aggression... yet these calls were ignored by those driven by profit.

Undoubtedly, while the actions of the United States were legal, they undeniably exacerbated the "misery of war" and violated humanitarian principles!

PS: Pervitin is a drug. During World War II, German soldiers relied on drug abuse to maintain combat effectiveness and transform into "super soldiers."

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