Golden River Period

The Golden River Period (黄金川期間) was a time period roughly between 1925 and 1935 in the Imperialist Yamatai-occupied area of Chisei, known as the New Territories. Due to various factors, it was a period of economic prosperity in parts of the New Territories, giving rise to major social and cultural developments in the region. These developments were particularly centered on the Ōshirakawa River and the Yamataian regional capital Wanshu.

In the wake of the destruction of the First Escar-Varunan War and the humiliation suffered by Chisei in their 1923 surrender to Yamatai, the establishment of Yamataian control over the Chiseian coast was widely considered abhorrent and Chisei initially made preparations to retake the area. However, the post-war moderate government led by Mizu Toshinori began a policy of non-confrontation towards Yamatai. Likewise, immediately after the war the Yamataian regime was involved in a series of power struggles between various factions within the military government, and attempts were made to avoid provoking Chisei, both due to the internal instability as well as the inferiority of the Yamatai Imperial Navy to the Chiseian Royal Navy at the time.

In an effort to avoid a second devastating war, both countries agreed to sign the 1925 Mikawa Conventions, a treaty limiting the size of both countries' naval forces. The monarchs of both Chisei and Yamatai also held symbolic visits to each others' capitals during 1926, and many on both sides believed that the two countries truly intended to avoid any further conflict. However, both nations nonetheless continued building up their military forces, and the Wanshu Conventions were almost immediately broken in secret by the Imperial Navy in 1929 when the battleship Tenzan was laid down, and then by the Royal Navy less than a year later with the construction of the carrier Bakekujira.

The signing of the Treaty of Kiyosu in 1925 reopened the Ōshirakawa River to Chiseian use, enabling the Chiseian cities in the lakes region to access the Sea of Yashima. Due to the high confidence in a lasting peace between the two countries, trade between the New Territories and the upriver Chiseian cities immediately followed, as well as investment on both ends by private companies from both states. This had the effect of boosting international trade and ties between Chiseian and Yamataian businesses, contributing to the Escaric economic bubble. Civilian travel on the river expanded massively, with over 17 riverboat companies operating along the Ōshirakawa in 1934, with riverboats registered haphazardly in both countries.

Great social developments were happening in Escar as new technology, such as radio, films, and cars, became increasingly accessible and brought a sense of modernity to the public. At the same time, heavy investment in the New Territories by private ventures, alongside efforts by the Yamataian military government, rapidly rebuilt the wartorn region. A majority of private investments poured into the Ōshirakawa riverbanks, which quickly became termed the Golden River due to rapidly climbing land prices.

Foreign investors from abroad also began to invest in the area after Yamatai changed the land purchase laws to allow foreigners to purchase land without a Yamataian sponsor in 1930. Some who traveled on the Golden River praised Yamatai for committing to their stated goal of sharing Yamataian fortunes and development with Chisei through the occupation of the New Territories. More conservative observers in Chisei at the time termed the Golden River area "the great idiot curtain" (大アホ幕), in that it obscured the rest of the New Territories and the many abuses there from the view of "idiots" traveling along the river.

Along the riverbank communities as well as in Wanshu, a new type of high society emerged unlike that found in the capitals of both Chisei and Yamatai. The elites of the Golden River were a highly cosmopolitan, international crowd, often generally younger and with large amounts of cash. Large-scale social gatherings were extremely popular and common, and were generally an intermingling of upper-middle class socialites, nouveau riche, and new-industrialists, from both Chisei and Yamatai, as well as foreign countries. Though the Yamataian colonial government officially discouraged them, collaborationist officials as well as Yamataian military officers often attended these parties as well. A scene from the period is encapsulated in Goda Hikari's autobiography, A Stone from my House:

"A warm smell of magnolias rose up from the riverside, the high-class men and women strutting around in their impeccable (Yamataian-style) yukatas and sipping sake while waited on by uniformed Nanyo servants in their stupid hats, the big paddle steamers making their way upriver adorned with so many lights. So many lights! They're too bright to look at after a while but you just want to look. There was a man with the peculiar accent over there, his huge nose and golden hair shocking my poor youthful soul, I had never seen an Amphian that close before that night. There was one man everyone needed to talk to tonight, and it was the tattooed Saramosiri by the crystal sake fountain, he had just made a huge fortune supplying machine tools to the 2nd Wanshu Arsenal. He was chatting with an ugly young man who was supposedly the scion of Mitsuhishi, or was it Kawazaki? It was difficult to concentrate with so many colours everywhere. It was thus very easy to overlook the khaki-coloured column of soldiers marching down the road, or the fact that one of the smartly-uniformed gentleman over there talking to Eito's top kabuki actress was wearing the armband of the Imperial Tokkeitai."

- Goda Hikari, A Stone from my House (1962)

The era swiftly ended in 1935 with the Escaric economic crisis, though some argue that the rise of hardliner governments in both countries from the early 1930s already sealed the end of the era. Chisei and Yamatai quickly became openly hostile towards each other after 1935, and many thousands of people fled from the area as the Yamataian government began to crack down on Chiseian businesses and Chiseian citizens in the New Territories. The period of hostilities between the countries ultimately culminated in the Second Escar-Varunan War, during which Chisei reclaimed control of the New Territories.