AHC: Larger Japanese Military

[Jackiepoollama]

Is there any way that Japan could, as the title says, get a large military and have actual hard power instead of just a huge economy past WWII? I know this might be kinda implausible but that's fine. It doesn't have to be like the worlds most powerful army and navy but I'm just wondering if Japan could actually have a reasonably sized military like you would expect from a country with a huge population booming economy and worlds largest city.

I was thinking that maybe if the sino soviet split was delayed a year or two for whatever reason the US might start getting worried that NATO wasn't enough as it was if it had to take on the Chinese plus soviets and friends so it decided maybe it should tell Japan to get a little more than a self defense army and join the NATO countries. Idk just a thought

[Hrvatskiwi]

We might need something that diverts US attention out of Asia. Perhaps instead of South-East Asia (Indochina) and Korea, more significant episodes of the Cold War were in Africa, Latin America or the Middle East?

Or perhaps a better PoD: D-Day fails, the Russians get to the Rhine. A second amphibious invasion takes France, Belgium etc. With more Soviet presence in Europe, Europe is gonna be focused on even more, so US presence in Japan will suffer. This stronger USSR will also mean that the Japanese govt. decides it needs its own strong military. Would be interesting to see Japanese forces playing a significant (or dominant) part in the Korean War (TL idea!).

[Simreeve]

Or maybe the Soviets did just a little bit more in the East, and managed to end WW2 controlling all of Korea, thus placing Japan itself "on the front line" -- as I strongly suspect the US government, at least, would have seen it -- in the fight against Communism?

[Maponus]

Soviets set up a puppet in Japanese territory.

[Xachiavelli]

Originally Posted by Hrvatskiwi

We might need something that diverts US attention out of Asia. Perhaps instead of South-East Asia (Indochina) and Korea, more significant episodes of the Cold War were in Africa, Latin America or the Middle East?

OTL there were some mergers that very nearly went through that could have put Muammar al-Gaddafi in power of not only Libya, but Syria, Sudan and Egypt too by 1971, adding Tunisia and Algeria by 1974. A US enemy of this calibre in charge of a nation that size would doubtless draw attention away from East Asia

[Jackiepoollama]

Originally Posted by Hrvatskiwi

We might need something that diverts US attention out of Asia. Perhaps instead of South-East Asia (Indochina) and Korea, more significant episodes of the Cold War were in Africa, Latin America or the Middle East?

Or perhaps a better PoD: D-Day fails, the Russians get to the Rhine. A second amphibious invasion takes France, Belgium etc. With more Soviet presence in Europe, Europe is gonna be focused on even more, so US presence in Japan will suffer. This stronger USSR will also mean that the Japanese govt. decides it needs its own strong military. Would be interesting to see Japanese forces playing a significant (or dominant) part in the Korean War (TL idea!).

Wait how does drawing US attention away from the area mean that they would build up their military? And I can imagine that the north koreans would be pretty pissed that there were japanese back in there territory shooting at them after how they treated them when they colonized them. That would be an interesting TL

[Hyperion]

Originally Posted by Jackiepoollama

Wait how does drawing US attention away from the area mean that they would build up their military? And I can imagine that the north koreans would be pretty pissed that there were japanese back in there territory shooting at them after how they treated them when they colonized them. That would be an interesting TL

I think the idea is that if the US is more focused on Europe and elsewhere compared to OTL, and doesn't have as many resources as OTL to focus on the Pacific and Asian affairs, having the JSDF beefed up a bit beyond OTL capability might be a good counterbalance. Gives the US a powerful ally, at least in the fact that the US might not have to station as many forces in Japan to defend the nation, and it allows the US to use what forces are in the region to focus on other areas.

[MerryPrankster]

Originally Posted by Simreeve

Or maybe the Soviets did just a little bit more in the East, and managed to end WW2 controlling all of Korea, thus placing Japan itself "on the front line" -- as I strongly suspect the US government, at least, would have seen it -- in the fight against Communism?

That's what I'm thinking.