In the nineteenth century, the transmission of information had been exceedingly inconvenient, so the Far East Empire's citizens had only a rudimentary understanding of the world order. Many could not tell England, France, Germany, and the like apart.
Most of what they knew about the world's great powers came from hearsay. Many countries were lumped together as foreigners: Westerners naturally meant Europeans, while Easterners actually meant the Japanese, who were therefore called Eastern foreigners. Of course, for historical reasons, Japan had its own aliases within the Far East Empire, such as Wa country and Fusang.
These Far Eastern workers hired by East Africa naturally could not distinguish among so many countries. They simply followed the East African garrison in calling Japan little devils and the like.
The derogatory term devils was naturally not exclusive to Japan. Anyone who had invaded the Far East Empire had a share in it: Western devils, English devils, French devils. Only Japan deserved to be called little devils.
Translations in this era were actually a complete mess. Influenced by Ernst, East Africa had a unified translation reference table for external use by diplomatic personnel.
The workers of the Southern Ryukyu Islands were rarely discussing "matters of state" during their break, and today's lunch was ready as well.
Because manpower was insufficient, East Africa treated these Far Eastern workers fairly well, allowing them to share the mess hall with the East African garrison.
Running mess halls was one of East Africa's defining traits, playing an important role throughout the East African state system: immigrant mess halls, government mess halls, school mess halls, military mess halls...
After the East African Army took over the Southern Ryukyu Islands, this fine tradition naturally continued, though the islands' facilities were far from complete.
The mess hall was also simple. After