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Empire of the Sun

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An old suggestion, made to me by a friend back in 2013 - what if Imperial Japan won WWII? I told him that it was unlikely, but I did think about it. And then I stopped thinking about it for two years, and got back to thinking about it when I saw it on my to-do list.  And heck, we don't have enough Imperial Japan victories (admittedly, for good reason), and those we do have have them playing second fiddle to the Third Reich. Inspired a bit by B_Munro's The Ultimate Weapon.

I bet my profile will now be banned in China. :p


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Charles Lindbergh, famous aviator who flew nonstop for nearly 3,600 miles I a single-engine monoplane, was shaken on March 1932. A group of criminals attempted to kidnap, an d possibly murder, his infant son, Charles Lindbergh Jr. Fortunately, the perpetrators were captured by the police soon after the commission of their crime, and were promptly arrested. Lindbergh would go on to be a prominent anti-war figure, later becoming a primary challenger to Franklin Roosevelt's foreign policies. Lindbergh's "America First" movement became extremely powerful, pressuring Roosevelt into a more neutral stance with regard to nations such as Germany and Japan. Charles eventually followed his father's footsteps by running for Congress as a Republican, moving his movement closer to the White House and forcing Roosevelt to make concessions if he wanted more of his New Deal programs passed. 

In the meanwhile, Japan continued on its march of conquest in China, and another botched kidnapping would change history. In 1936, Zhang Xueliang attempted to kidnap Chiang Kai-Shek, leader of the Kuomintang and the Republic of China, in order to force him into a negotiation with the Chinese Communist Party to form a united front against the Japanese. During an escape attempt, Chiang was killed by one of Zhang's men. While the man in question was executed for his incompetence, the act splintered the National Revolutionary Army, as different factions attempted to gain power. The Chinese Communists and various warlords entered the fray, attempting to gain the upper hand over their rivals. The true winner was Japan, which mopped up resistance against it with ease and backed up various puppet leaders. Zhang's Manchurian clique defected to the Japanese, forming the backbone of the Japanese puppet, Manchukuo. By 1940, Japan had pacified most of China's coast, while the heartland was left to tear itself to pieces. 

Japan would later turn its attention south, and attack the Dutch and British colonies of Asia as their home countries were busy dealing with their ally, Hitler's Germany. The Japanese avoided the Philippines entirely, convinced that President Lindbergh will do nothing to stop them so long as the Americans are left alone. They were right, until unrestricted submarine warfare between Germany and the United States (and a failed attempt by German saboteurs to bomb New York harbors) led to Lindbergh declaring war on the Germans. Although the Germans had been somewhat faithful allies, up to supplying the Japanese with nuclear science,[1] the Japanese refused to declare war on the United States. Hitler could do little but fume at this "Oriental betrayal," fury that would later cause him to have a fatal stroke in 1944. The Wehrmacht coup that followed afterward purged most of the senior Nazis, and were willing to negotiate peace with the Allies. Although the Allies initially refused, a German nuclear attack against Red Army positions on the Elbe forced them to think otherwise. As it turns out, the nuclear weapon was a Japanese design,[2] as the Japanese made more progress with the bomb and wished to share it with Germany give the West and Soviets a bigger headache, um I mean, to make up for not declaring war on the United States. In the meanwhile, the Japanese would force the British to the negotiating table when they detonated their first nuclear weapon in Burma.

The world that formed afterward became split in three, with three poles of power - Washington, Moscow, and Tokyo. After Britain lost India to a communist revolution, it lost its status as world empire and effectively became an appendage of the United States. The Americans formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to defend the countries the West liberated during the Second World War, and the Soviets did likewise in their portion of Europe with the Prague Pact. Between the two of them was Greater Germany, the autocratic military regime which persisted after WWII. Although Germany remained a threat, they were far weaker than they were in the beginning of the 20th century, and were unwilling to start round two (or three, depending on if you count WWI).

The East remained Japan's playground. Japan has mellowed out over the years, and while its eastern puppets are far from kind, and pro-Japanese racism persists, the Japanese are more willing to deal with foreigners through economic rather than military dominance. The Japanese compete with the Soviets over who can dominate the Third World more, with the Japanese appealing more to right-wing nationalists and the Soviets supporting communist groups. India has become a popular middle-man for Soviet arms, as its radical government is more than willing to send "Peasant Volunteer Groups" to every corner of the world to fight the world revolution. 

Two rival Chinese states have formed in the center of the Asian continent. Initially formed from the last remnants of the Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists (with Allied assistance), the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China can only agree on two things - the Japanese are the worst and militaristic totalitarianism is way cool. Both Chinese states are armed to the teeth, and both have become nuclear powers (to the chagrin of the Japanese). Each is a threat to the other, and would destroy the other in a heartbeat, but they would also love another opportunity to fight the Japanese, even if that means working together. This attitude has actually led to the two Chinese states breaking away from their American and Soviet allies. They remain a threat to world peace, but both states understand that the Japanese have no qualms with utterly destroying them if it came down to that. 


[1] The Germans thought this "Jewish science" was bunk, and were giving the Japanese useless information. Since the Japanese took anti-Semitic propaganda the "wrong" way and believed the Jews to be superior (how else could they rule the world?), the Japanese took it and ran with it.
[2] A Japanese design, not a Japanese-built weapon.
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GDSPatheII's avatar
just so you know your profile isn't banned in China