Decisive Darkness: What if Japan hadn't surrendered in 1945?
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That's beautiful. You could make these things professionally if you don't already
COOL MAP! Heh, guess the "Free" territory ain't that free....
It sounds like the Tokyo government has more solid control in the south than in areas closer to the capitol, oddly enough.
It sounds like the Tokyo government has more solid control in the south than in areas closer to the capitol, oddly enough.
At long last, I've finished the map I promised about six months ago: thesis got in the way. Still, you folks don't want excuses, you want a map, and so without further ado I give you Japan and Korea ITTL 2017:
Full view visible here:
https://bolshiekiwi.deviantart.com/art/Decisive-Darkness-2017-669063623
This is fantastic, thanks so much!
Remember the Japanese mass surrender in western Honshu (Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka, Hiroshima, etc.) at the end of the war.
In central Honshu, more of the IJA went underground.
John Farson
Banned
The cities in this alt-Japan are far smaller than their RL counterparts, with only a handful even having a million or more people to begin with. And the population of the islands themselves are only 2/3 of the RL level.
Guardian54
Banned
Best timeline I've read on this website besides a certain hijack of "What would China ISOT'ed to early 20th century do to Japan" (see my sig, second line).
And I'm still only on page 84!
And I'm still only on page 84!
I shuddered when I read about the "private civil defense batallions" - one of possibly the worst anarcho-Libertarian ideas. Ayn Rand was a horrible person and thinker, and her influence is not for the better in TTL.
Especially with how terrible Japan's previous civil defense efforts got here...
This is fantastic, thanks so much!
Happy to do it; thank you for writing such a good TL!
Yes, I was quite proud of myself for that one. Even Red was shocked/intrigued. He described the FT to me as something like modern-day southern Nigeria, a massive Lagos where the roads are good, there are a few very wealthy and a few more well-off people, and a vast, toiling underclass of exploited workers living in conditions which would shock Upton Sinclair: private civil defence was the natural extreme in a region prone to disaster.
My own disdain for anarcho-libertarianism may be apparent in the map. I'd apologise, but if I want to avoid looking disingenuous to the Randians there'd need to be a profit motive in it for me. Oh dear.
It was a great idea, it's the sort of thing I've become quite tempted to expand on since you made the map!
I'm pretty sure being a peasant Feudal Europe or a serf in absolutist Russia was a better (if not much) fate than this part of Japan. It's hard to imagine a more kleptocratic and brutal society than this most Hobbesian calamity.
To imagine what this world is like, just imagine that your choice of law enforcement/local defense was between the Gilded Age Pinkerton Detective Agency, the Barbary Pirates, the 1920s KKK, the Chechen Mafia, the Red Army Fraction, the IRA, and the Taliban.
To imagine what this world is like, just imagine that your choice of law enforcement/local defense was between the Gilded Age Pinkerton Detective Agency, the Barbary Pirates, the 1920s KKK, the Chechen Mafia, the Red Army Fraction, the IRA, and the Taliban.
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Hooray, I'm helping! Not to distract from Our Struggle, but if you did want to take a quick break to write a vignette, I certainly wouldn't complain.
I've considered it, but I've no idea what to charge for that sort of thing. I also feel bad parting fools from their money (and if you're offering me money, you probably are a fool
). Mind you, if I could turn a hobby of mine into a few bob...well, we'll see. This was a labour of love, and I think that showed.On the "plus" side, imagine how Blade Runner Morioka must be!
I wouldn't go that far, it's not a nice place to live for the majority but there is actually a chance to make some money and achieve some level of social mobility. Mind you, the air was probably fresher in feudal Europe.
That's a thought that occurred when researching Japan (a land of which I'm largely ignorant); if Tohoku is renowned IOTL for natural splendour, I wonder how that's fared under the profit motive. Instinct says "poorly," but somebody could have decided to purchase large landholdings to preserve for their beauty. I suppose it's all rather contingent on a benevolent tyranny.
Wait a moment - Japan, anarchocapitalism, deserted wildernesses made-to-order, vast population desperate to advance their situations/with nothing left to lose - could this be Battle Royale?
Even Kleptocrats can appreciate natural beauty, although they also like golf courses and gaudy mansions so it's hard to tell how much of the landscape would really be 'saved'.
I imagine that even the Free Territory would draw the line at that! Imagine televising it for free...
Oh I know you were, but people in the Republic would still likely be drawn to it. A lot of the problems in the south are associated with bureaucracy and corruption which the Free Territory is seen as lacking. Even though most people living there aren't massively better off the clear signs of wealth will always work as a pull factor.
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