#and I have my dissertation so I've put a pause in historical research for some time by now

[hadleysmis]

'POV timeline' of AU of Les Misérables, set during the beginning of the Japanese Empire

1899 -> Thénardiers' perspective

Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act is enforced. The Thénardier couple begin to starve. They bought land to farm, but due to it being infertile, they have it repossessed.

Protection Act and the forced starvation and assimilation -> Thénardiers' perspective

1908 -> Jean Valjean's perspective

Jean Valjean has escaped coal mining prison and has taken refuge in a kotan somewhere in Kushiro. He had first planned to rob ironware from the place before being caught by an Ainu elder who had mistaken him for a Wajin (Japanese).

She takes in him, and she was about to abandon the house in the first place in order to live in the mountains because she had nothing left to lose. So she wasn't so fussed that she was getting robbed, as long as it wasn't the Wajins doing it.

He catches up with her on the expansion of the Japanese Empire (as he was imprisoned in 1889) with an elder who's sheltering him. She also tells him the state of Ainu Mosir (Hokkaidou).

The expansion of the Japanese Empire -> Jean Vajlean's POV

He also talks about how he was put into prison. This is not focused on. -> Jean Valjean's POV

1908-191? -> Jean Valjean, Javert, and Cosette's perspective

Couple of months later, Jean Valjean migrates to Korea.

He takes a baby under his wing and financially supports her. He barely knew Fantine apart from how her corpse looked like when he had found her.

Javert, a patrolling police there, pins the murder of Fantine on Jean Valjean.

(Despite the official annexation not having taken place yet, Japanese military police existed in Korea after the Japan-Korea treaty of 1905.)

This forces Jean Valjean to be wary and on the run and jittery for the next handful of years.

Javert is later assigned to watch over education in Korea, to make sure the assimilation process is progressing as intended.

In duration of this, we get to see how this Ryuukyuuan police officer saw of himself degradingly, and how he saw the Koreans and Ryuukyuuans as the extension of the Japanese Empire. -> Javert's POV

Meanwhile, Cosette grows up quite content with her caretaker, aided by Jean Valjean's finance. She thinks of him as Uncle than a Father at this moment in time, because he sometimes visits but doesn't stay long.

191?-1919 -> Grantaire' perspective

We get to see the underground resistance movement through the lens of one group: Les Amis.

We see through the eyes of the pessimistic Grantaire as he tracked down and found out what his arranged-to-be-wife (Enjolras) was doing.

Pro-Korean sentiments are explored here. -> Grantaire's POV

1919 -> Cosette, Grantaire, and Jean Valjean's perspective

Cosette watches her caretaker (this AU's Toussaint most likely) die as punishment for the whole village doing the manse, along with one man.

She watches through the leaves, hugging a steady branch, while on her garden tree. She had been the one to wave the flag, given Toussaint's permission.

When the patrolling soldiers noticed, Toussaint demanded the flag so Cosette wouldn't get captured.

Grantaire watches one the most brutal crackdowns on the Manse protest, and sees three major things before his implied execution:

Japanese police arrive on horseback with ropes

People on the passing train opening the windows to do the manse (entirely fictional, I came up with this in a fever dream apparently)

Japanese authorities burn down a church with Koreans barricaded inside

Jean Valjean witnesses the violence of the protest as well. Instead of a carriage he lifts, it's piles of bodies, in order to relieve the suffocating victims pinned down by the weight.

Unlike Grantaire, Jean Valjean is passive to the violence and once he saves the people he could, he rushes off to take care of Cosette and get the fuck out of Korea.

Thus: March 1st Movement -> Cosette, Grantaire, and Jean Valjean's POV

1919-1922 -> Cosette and the Thénardiers' (and Éponine's) perspective

Jean Valjean and Cosette meet a variety of people, which counteracts the growing propaganda in Japan.

Cosette falls victim to the propaganda education, and becomes pro-Japanese. Due to trauma, she forgets most of her Korean past.

Japanese war and assimilation propaganda -> Cosette and the Thénardiers' POV

In between, they meet yakuzas, including those of ethnic minorities such as Taiwanese and Chinese, and they also meet some of the burakumin.

In 1922, they meet Zenkoku Suiheisha in its founding year, which called for equality for all humans.

Cosette realises how she's fallen for the propaganda and lashes out at Jean Valjean for not fighting against it (as he thought it would protect her).

Cosette tries to abandon her past philosophies, but finds it difficult to realise which sections of her logic, memory, and knowledge was a part of the propaganda, and which were real.

She still has no memory of the March 1st Movement due to trauma.

Meanwhile, the Thénardiers try to pursue education for their children in order to get out of survival. They migrate with Gavroche strapped to the mother's back to Hakodate: the hub of colonisers and development. This takes place in 1920.

The Thénardiers, despite being noticeably Ainu, try to abandon all their culture outside of the house, and try to stay out of any trouble. This causes psychological harm on the upbringing of their children.

But the parents are too traumatised about their past and the harsher environments they faced that they ignore their children's protests.

They keep their financial prospect afloat by trading with a yakuza group from the mainland. It was better than what they did back up in Asahikawa, before they migrated. The father had to spend his nights grave robbing for the Wajin anthropologists.

Éponine and Azelma, and the parents begin to form their own opinions about the assimilation process and what they need to survive. They unanimously agree on the migration, but they have different opinions on the Wajin (Japanese).

This is explored through Éponine's conversations with her parents, and with her sister individually. -> Éponine

1923 -> Javert's and Montparnasse's POV

It's the year of the Great Kantou Earthquake and the subsequent massacre.

The devastating blow of the earthquake is described by Javert's location (who is in the Kantou region, most likely Toukyou), as he experiences the panic and the rumour/lie of Koreans being at fault being broadcasted.

(I remember reading about specifically which police stations exacerbated the lie about Koreans being the fault of many of the destructions, but I forgot, so Javert's location may change in accordance to the information.)

Javert takes in to shelter ethnic Koreans and Chinese who were crying out for shelter, but soon found that they had been released by his superior officers, which most likely resulted in deaths.

Javert becomes disillusioned, tries to save people outside of the police name as he contemplates on his identity and purpose.

He finds Jean Valjean and Cosette who were on the run, and they duel. Javert believes that Jean Valjean should be one of the few Koreans who deserved to die on this mass lynching, as he was guilty of the 'rape and murder' of Fantine.

Javert has a sword, but Jean Valjean picks up sturdy pieces of wood and they fight.

Seeing almost Jean Valjean face death with a blow from the sword, Cosette saves him by stopping the swing. From this violence and stress, she remembers March 1st Movement and stuns Javert enough with Jean Valjean's heroics from the protest versus the evil he had thought Jean Valjean was (due to the case of Fantine).

Cosette and Jean Valjean flee presumably up north of Japan. Javert, knowing that Jean Valjean had spent decades of his life in Hokkaidou, guesses where's he's heading to.

He officially leaves the police and any help of the Japanese Empire by faking his own death (which didn't require much labour since everybody was dying left and right).

Meanwhile Montparnasse, a yakuza who had, for business, travelled to the gunnma/oosaka/toukyou (I haven't chosen yet), witnesses the massacres. He tries to help one or two communists, and ends up witnessing a group of cadets execute socialists and communists on a train.

Montparnasse flees back to Aomori, and returns to his group (which are the ones who are trading with the Thénardiers among other Ainus).

(This part is also largely unfounded in history. I just added it because I wanted to add the Patron Minette into the story.)

1926 -> Marius and Éponine's POV

Here we finally get introduced to the Pontmercy family: Marius and his governor grandfather.

His grandfather participates in the ongoing lawmaking to 'help' the Ainus, but in reality just continues the brutal assimilation but with lighter punishments and strains.

Éponine uses Marius as the ideal settler, and how they could coexist. Marius does the same but with Éponine being the ideal, passive indigenous figure.

They use each other to tell themselves that there is a legit reason behind the colonisation, and why it needs to take place. -> Marius and Éponine's POV.

Gavroche is the only one in the family who believes in independence and that they should move out of Hakodate, back to Asahikawa: no matter how harsh the environment was in comparison to Hakodate.

Marius and Cosette fall in love, and they see the world through the rose tinted glass. Éponine grows increasingly heartbroken.

Meanwhile, the trade between the Yakuza grows to be difficult for the Thénardiers, and the guilt tripping tactic doesn't work. The Thénardier parents increasing grow worried in how they will sustain themselves in Hakodate.

1927 -> Éponine, Gavroche, and Cosette's POV

While helping Cosette and Marius' romance keep secretive, Éponine ends up being picked, then lynched.

In her last breaths, she believes the Wajin will come and destroy them all and there would no longer be any Ainu left. She loses hope in everything in her last moments.

Gavroche, alone, finds the body and grieves. His rosy cheeks and hot tears are separate from his traditional wear that he proudly wore in protest only on this day. At that moment, he's nothing but a little boy who lost his sister.

Marius and Cosette grieve but do not process the event for months. When Jean Valjean hears of this, they begin to migrate once more, upwards. He reveals that he had always been meaning to go to Kushiro, but he liked how comfortable and happy Cosette was in Hakodate.

Seeing how Marius cut off his grandfather, Jean Valjean lets him in with the migration.

As they travel, Cosette discovers the feeling of 'han' (the meaning of Korean identity), and she finds her way of dealing with the trauma. She believes that Marius would never understand the pain of people like her, but wishes for him to never forget the actions of the Japanese Empire. Once he acknowledges the full terror, then she feels no barriers in continuing to love him.

Since he wishes to be by her side, he promises to dedicate his life to keeping her and other minorities safe.

1928 -> Jean Valjean and Javert's POV

Javert catches up to Jean Valjean in the area of Bokoi. Javert tells the info of what he had heard from other police officers and radio from military personnels that Japan was entering another war with China and it will be merciless.

Javert admits that the Japanese Empire is unforgiving and cruel and may take over Asia.

Jean Valjean invites him to join the migration to Kushiro.

Javert hesitantly agrees, but he'll join in the next day.

In the morning, Javert faces the cliffs with the waves clashing below, and takes his own life. He didn't want to admit to himself how his entire life has been a lie, and how he supported the lie himself.

As Jean Valjean did not meet him again, he assumes he had changed his mind, and worries the conversation was not a trap.

They hurry their pace up north.

1929-1937 -> ? POV

Patrolling police officers/soldiers (don't know which yet) try to kill the three of them. They are officially on the hunt.

Only Cosette survives unscathed, and Marius and Jean Valjean ends up being severely injured from separate firings.

It is up to Cosette to handle both of them and to make the last journey to Kushiro, pulling and pushing them through the snow.

Since Jean Valjean was shot first, his case is more severe, with him soon experiencing hyperthermia.

Cosette finally gets help, travelling alone out of desperation to a nearby kotan. She isn't given sympathy. Rather, she receives fear.

She couldn't just announce she was Korean, as a Wajin may hear.

But in desperation, she explains their journey to Kushiro, and that her father, Jean Valjean, had always aimed to come here.

She describes him, but from the name alone, the kotan changes their attitude. They remember him as the man who helped maintain a cise (house) with a beloved elder from years ago, who had unfortunately become suicidal.

Him helping her and forming a bond made her stay in the kotan a little longer before she eventually departed into the mountains, and was never heard of again.

The village members help to retrieve Jean Valjean and Marius.

Marius survives his wounds due to the aid, but unfortunately Jean Valjean never gains consciousness and passes away in a cise.

When Marius awakes, he faces Cosette incredibly upset and sniffling. It had been days since Jean Valjean had passed away and she hadn't stopped crying.

Cosette and Marius pay back the village by helping maintenance, etc., like Jean Valjean had once done when he escaped prison.

They hear about the little things he had done for the elder, and they come to know him as a kinder man than they had once thought.

Cosette grieves as she buries him in an unmarked grave (as to avoid graverobbing).

As they continued to live in Kushiro, and the tension between Japan and China becomes too difficult to dismiss, Cosette and Marius brace themselves for what they feel would be the beginning to the end of Asia.

Things I need to research:

The character of Toussaint in the book, because I feel as though my AU's Toussaint is too different to her book counterpart.

Ryuukyuuans during this period of time. It feels a bit... To only have Javert be the eyes from this perspective. I was thinking his parents be the other side of the coin; however, they will not be POVs.

The ? dates! If I knew of the time period better, I would be able to guess who does what more accurately.

Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act and its effect on the Ainu population.

The encouraged immigration of Wajins to Hokkaidou.

War propaganda in education in Japan.

Zenkoku Suiheisha (which, fun fact, the leader was a fan of Victor Hugo and his Les Misérables novel)

Yakuza during this time in relation with the Ainus (if there's a relation).

Hakodate during this period of time.

How the police work?????

Taiwan and the Taiwanese in Japan!

I'm guessing there's much more to research, but I'm making the list from the top of my head.