Yankee High

Yankee High School

The **Yankee Koza High School** (ヤンキーコザ高校) or simple known as **Yankee High** is one of the schools in Panzer Aber Alternativ. The school is a product of America's successful efforts in integrating the cultural aspects between the Americans and Japanese in Okinawa.

## Overview

The offspring of the "Diplomacy Education Reintegrate Program" or DERP, and considered as one of the most richest schools in the southern portion of Japan. Yankee High is famously known for its carefree students, extravagant yet costly parties and events, and a myriad of icons and references that supports the Americanism and its dream.

## Background

The school earned its reputation through its years in the making in Okinawa as the school that rekindled the Japanese interests in American culture and its lifestyle. Unlike its other fellow school in Nagasaki, Yankee High is not an amalgamation of cluster small land-based private schools and institutions, instead it is a fully-fledged School-Ship from the start and was created as the US' answer to project its Soft power and compensation to the Japanese people during their occupation in Japan.

Today, the Yankee High, alongside Saunders University, American School in Japan, and the Hokkaido International School, became the cornerstones of American influence and their amicable relationship to Japan.

### History

Yankee High was created during the Allied occupation of Japan after the Second World War under the codenamed Operation Blacklist. The creation of Yankee was proposed by the head of the *Monbu-shō* (Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture) to both the Military Governor and the Cabinet of that time, where it is a school for Japanese-Americans citizens during the occupation. Plans for the creation was put into action immediately as it sought to be a step towards improving relationships between the United States and Japan.

The School was strategically placed in the Okinawa Island as the island was given full authority to Japan in 1972, 20 years after the San Francisco Peace Treaty. The reason for this is that the School was an experiment of the "Diplomat School Program" under the **Marshall Plan**. The plan was that the United States would promote world peace, general welfare, cultural coalition, and interest through the means of building schools in foreign land in order to spread "World Peace and International Interests". And Japan was one of the first selective Diplomat Schools that opened during the Program, alongside Germany, United Kingdom, the Philippines, Italy, and France.

The School was opened in July 4th 1957, 3 days after the United States Forces Japan was activated in Fuchū Air Station in Tokyo, and the same day as Independence Day was celebrated in the United States. This School was a steeping stone towards improving relations between the two, and it was under the management of the US Department of Defense Education Activity until it was handed to the Japanese Ministry of Education in November 24, 1971 under the 1971 Okinawa Reversion Agreement.

Today the numbers of Students in Yankee High are almost Japanese-American as they are the descendants of the Japanese-Americans that served in the United States during the War, especially the *Nisei* Soldiers, where over a thousand of Japanese-Americans immigrants or/and tourists preferred to stay in Okinawa as they grow attached to the place as was felt like they were living in both the United States and Japan. Some of the Japanese-Americans from the Military Intelligence Service became Faculty Members in the Academy as well.

Currently, Yankee High was given full approval of the MEXT as an official school of Japan, though it still acts as a Diplomat School as it still performs a Pacific Voyage, from Okinawa Island to Hawaii and then to both California and Los Angeles during the Summer, in order to maintain their duty as a Diplomat School, often enough, this is the reason why Yankee High is often dubbed the "School that came from the West".

### Location

Yankee High's location when it was a land-based school was located in the city of Koza, which is now known as Okinawa. After the school transitioned to Maritime Expansion, the Naha Port in Naha, Okinawa's capital city, became its home port, with the Naha Port Facility acting as their main terminal building.

### School-Ship

The contract of making Koza's school-ship was given to the Newport News Shipbuilding, with the facilities being provided by the Mitsubishi heavy Industries in Nagasaki. It took them 5 years to complete the commission, the design and name is based on the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier of the United States, the USS Enterprise, it is also a coincidence as the NNS was the one who constructed the aforementioned ship during the late 60s till early 70s.

According to the Maritime Bureau, a division from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the school-ship's classification of Koza High School, which is now known as the Yankee High, is classified as a **School-Carrier**.

## Culture

The culture of Yankee Koza High School is primarily of Americanism, referencing a lot of the American culture and popular icons that originated in America. Being a successful offspring of DERP, the Americans during that time did their upmost best in appealing the Japanese through a multitude of emphasis in their architecture, courses, and even their uniforms. Today, one can easily argue that Yankee's culture affected the lifestyle of its inhabitants, creating this essence of cultural appreciation.

### Architecture

The architecture of Yankee High is defined through a variety of styles that gives emphasis in making the surface deck all about Americana in Japan. The architects for the school's surface are all members from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), a professional organization for architects in the US, thus the surface as a whole represents the rich eclectic and the immaculate imitations of the American architecture style.

From famous replicas towards the designs of each houses in the suburban dormitories, the **Columbia** (YH's moniker for its surface deck) is abounded with examples of historicism, revivalism to be exact. The styles that sprouted across Columbia during it development are as follows: Neoclassical, Greek Revival, Beaux-Arts, the ranch style, the split-level style, and the Neo-eclectic architecture, with a sprinkle of exotic and unique styles of the replicated buildings on the surface.

The "Columbia's Replicated Architecture" is a list of buildings and other structures identified as replicas that were designed by the architects of AIA. The buildings and structures are listed below.

The dormitories of Columbia are all based from the post-war suburb houses, to be specific, they were based from the American domestic ranches and the split-level houses. The former is popular among the students while the latter is the cheaper option of the two, typically the students boarding the ranches are either wealthy students or the privilege ones, while the split-level are students that can stay afloat or prefer to live away from the regular parties and loud gatherings.

Ranches are close-to-ground, wide open, and its rather long layout type of houses, while the split-level houses are noted for their two to three-storied levels and its potential to house a basement area. The difference between the two is that the ranch offers a large yard and a backyard, perfect for hosting a myriad of events, a tradition that every students from the aforementioned house usually do, meanwhile the split-level is built primarily for accommodating the basic necessities to students.

Both of these houses offer a kitchen, a dining room, a kitchen, a living room, and a shared bedroom, though since the ranches are known for its wide and open area, they can provide a pool, a basketball court, and even a jacuzzi, a feature that the split-houses couldn't provide to its students, but since their goal is to pack all the students into one building, they have the necessities required to build a basement for these students while maintaining that comfortability.

(For more insights about their dormitories, you can check these images: *ranches*, and *split-levels*)

### Uniforms

Students of Yankee High are known for their tan blazer, gray button-down undershirt, and dark olive trousers, often accompanied with a jet black necktie and brown shoes. The girls wore the same uniform, though the trousers are replaced with a padded skirt, and they have the chance to replace their socks with loose socks or stockings.

The "General's Infantry" of the Yankee High fitted themselves with an olive drab field jacket with two skirt pockets, similar color is adapted to their accompanying trousers with a unique feature of featuring a button tab instead of the normal belt tabs on the waist. Beneath the Recrelympics-sanctioned field jacket is a dark olive drab shirt that excels comfortability to its wearer. To top it all off, the GIs also wore leather brown combat boots, bullet-resistant 'steel pot' helmets, and sometimes wore additional clothing that serves either cosmetic or extra benefits to its wearer such as an ammo belt that warps around the waist for additional ammunition storage.

The uniform of a Yankee's Armadillos is portrayed as a "weird battledress" that was heavily inspired by Patton's proposed uniform for the tankers during his time. Their battledress comprised of a brown padded single-breasted tunic with a stand-up collar and a row of 13 buttons that is hidden for a simplistic view and is aligned in a diagonal pattern instead of vertical one, to accompany the tunic is a brown trouser with a distinct feature of employing cargo pockets on the front of its thighs. Apart from that, the tankers also wore a tanker helmet with leather ear flaps, and black tanker boots, and also, additional clothing are allowed, thus giving a little bit of freedom in fashion among the tankers of Yankee High if they chose so.

Pilots of the Aeronautical Corps wore their khaki flight suit with a permanent belt attached to it during matches, this suit is paired with brown flying boots and a flying helmet that is fitted with an integrated ear set and comfortable ear pads, often than not they accompanied their flying helmet with goggles and a life-vest/extra parachute. When off-duty, they just wore their khaki colored shirt and trousers, often this comes with a side cap with the same color. Similar to the other teams, they're also allowed to wear extra clothing, but only for off-duty as the matches are strict and limited in terms of wearable requirements.

Lastly, the sailors of the Bessie Fleet in particular are known for their white and blue uniforms. A standard uniform of a sailor consists of a white shorts and short-sleeved, roll collar shirts with the same color. To top it off, they wore their white garrison caps. One unique feature about the high-positioned sailors and the Captain meanwhile exchanged their garrison hats with peaked caps but everything else remained the same, with the exception of the Captain as his shirt is replaced with a single-breasted coat and his shorts is replaced with a white trousers, and his peaked cap can be replaced with a cocked hat, reminiscence to that to the crew of the USS Constitution wore. Members of the Mechanical Department are known for their distinct naval blue overalls, comprises of a blue jumpers, trousers, and a long-sleeved shirt with appropriate foot-ware and gloves.

### The OSS

The **O**ffice of **S**pying **S**ervices, also known as the **OSS** is the Recrelympics intelligence department of the Yankee High. It is under the supervision of Yankee's all-source intelligence agency, the Bank of **I**ntelligence a**n**d **R**eview (INR). It is the department responsible for gathering intel in regards of Recrelympics' activities; typically doing espionage, communication interception, analysis, covert operation, and sometimes even clandestine operations.

The spymaster of the OSS is often referred as the "Coordinator", its namesake came from the department's title as executive/president of it, the "Coordinator of Information".

The OSS, similar to other intelligence departments, is always in coordination with one other from different schools, such as the Saunders Intelligence Agency (SIA), the Royal Baron's Secret Information Services (SIS), the Red Square's All-Students Extraordinary Commission (VChK), and many more.

## Recrelympics

The **Yankee's Recrelympic Forces** is the Recrelympics Army of Yankee High. It consists of 4 Recrelympic branches: the General's Infantry for Infantry-Craft, the Armadillo Tankers for Panzerkraft, the Aeronauts for the Aerial-Aces, and the Mariners of Aquatic-Warfare. Known for having a large amount of equipment and assets in its inventory that can even compete the sheer volume against its main adversary, the Red Square High. The YRF shouldn't be underestimated at due to their variety of assets for flexibility and talented leaders.

### Infantry-Craft

The **Patriot Battalion** is the YRF's Infantry-Craft team, it comprises of the *General's Infantry* and the *Littoral Marines*, the former is the common fireteams that were usually deployed to Recrelympic matches while the latter is an all-elite unit of Infantry that primarily deployed in matches with a littoral setting.

The Commander of the Patriots is the overall Commander of the team with its aide-de-camp are all called the Minutemen, the title is also used as the title for the leader(s) of both the GIs and the Marines.

### Panzerkaft

The **Armored Panoply** is the YRF's Panzerkraft team, with its main component called the *Yankee's Sensha-do Army*. It is probably the most famous sports team from Yankee High in the Recrelympics stage in Japan, known for the usage of the Shermans and Pershings, as well as the prototypes such as the M6s or the T30s.

The General of the Tankers is a title designated to the overall Commander of the Armored Panoply, specifically the Yankee's Sensha-do Army. Notable example of this is Tominaga Sumisu, the current General of the Tankers of the Yankee's Sensha-do Army, he goes commonly by his sobriquet, Patton.

### Aerial-Aces

The **58th Propellers** of the Aeronautical Corps, nicknamed the "Akuma's Angels" is the YRF's main Aerial-Aces team. The namesake "58th" came from the first batch of Federation-sanctioned planes where if counted all the propellers, the total number for it was 58, and also due to the connection of these planes to the inventory of the 5th and 8th Air Force that were stationed in Tokyo and Okinawa respectively.

The designation Ace Marshal is given to the overall commander of the team, to qualify as an Ace Marshal, one must gain a title of Ace through duels and must be recognized by the Board of Aces in Japan.

### Aquatic-Warfare

The **Bessie Fleet** is the Recrelympics-oriented fleet in the Yankee's Aquatic Fleet. Consisting to 10-15 ships that currently stationed in its homeport in Okinawa, the Bessie Fleet is the most prestigious sports team among the myriad of teams in Yankee High. Mariners of this fleet are predestined to become aspiring sailors of the navy in the future. The prefix of their ships is the YHS, which stands for the *"**Y**ankee **H**igh's **S**hips".*

The Admiral of the Fleet is automatically given to the Captain of the *YHS Alaska*, the lead ship of the Bessie Fleet.

## Known Members

The list below mentions all the characters within the series that (once) affiliates themselves with the High School.

#### Tominaga Sumisu

The current General of the Tankers in the Armored Panoply, he's known for his cheerful albeit obsessive behavior in flirting with girls, notably Miho Nishizumi. He's a 3rd year student and often associates himself with the Royal Baron's Field Marshal, Yuichi Yamamoto. He also goes by the name of Patton.

## Trivia

* Yankee High's creation was heavily based from the Twelfth United States Army Group, the largest and most powerful Army formation that the US Army ever formed.
	+ Even its Recrelympic Teams are also based from the four Field Armies that was a part of the Army Group, and these are:
		1. Patriot Battalion - First Army
		2. Armored Panoply - Third Army
		3. Aeronautical Corps - Ninth Army
		4. Yankee's Aquatic Fleet- Fifteenth Army
* Out of all the Schools in the boys' side in the tournament, Yankee has the highest amount of tanks currently on their inventory.
* Their school was first to be introduced in the series, alongside JIGA in Chapter 2: "The Vorhut Sensha-dō Geschwader".
* Rommel calls the students of Yankee High as "Yanks."
* Yankee High is a part of the **Big Three**, a trilateral group of Schools that aimed to improve relationship with friendly matches, exchanged culture, and perform certain tasks as a group.
* They have their own theme songs as well, and these are:
	1. *Yankee Doodle*
	2. *You're a Grand Old Flag*
	3. *The Stars and Stripes Forever*
	4. *The Washington Post March* - For special occasions only