The government of the Republic of Ezo would have welcomed gaining control over the former Ecological Union, but was unwilling to challenge the United States, especially with the lack of support of its own great power ally, the Russian Republic.
This is what I previously wrote about the defeat of the Ecological Union, and the process that led to the US annexation of the former country, slightly edited:
The fall of the Ecological Union took place in early 2165. It was a direct result of the return of the Interstellar Expedition in 2164, and the horror stories told by the survivors of their desperate fight against an alien enemy. The world was plunged into a state of panic, as the leaders of the world began to debate a strategy of planetary defense. In late 2164, the International Security Council approved Article One for Planetary and Interstellar Defense. Pushed through by all of the great powers, Article One obliged all signatories to defend each other, on Earth or in Outer Space, from any extraterrestrial threat. Signatories to Article One were also obliged to contribute to a system of planetary and interstellar defense.
Almost every country on Earth ratified Article One. Even the Emirate of Ramadi, which was not a member of the ISC, ratified Article One. The European Community, Egypt, Kurdistan, Persia, and Bharat made it clear what would happen if the emirate refused to do so.
The Ecological Union refused a demand from its immediate neighbors, and the rest of the OTO and CDS, to ratify Article One. The response from the Ecological Union was an angry refusal, and a denial that space travel or powered flight, much less aliens, were real.
In response, the USA, China, Brazil, and Russia, along with contingents from the rest of OTO, the CDS, the Council of Astrakhan, and the Council of the Western Hemisphere declared war on the Ecological Union. The war, in spite of the desperate use of biological agents by the Ecological Union and fanatical resistance from the All-Volunteer Ecological Brigades, was over within the first four months of 2165.
The postwar settlement was a matter of dispute between the Big Four of the allied coalition, as each of the great powers had different visions for winning the peace.
The Empire of Brazil favored a fast reunification between the Republic of Ezo and the former Ecological Union. The Brazilian government wanted Japan restored as a “normal” country.
The Russian Republic also initially favored reunification, but under the exclusive rule of an enlarged Republic of Ezo.
The Chinese Republic, in strong contrast to the Brazilians and Russians, wanted the total dismantlement of Japan as any kind of unified state, as well as its total disarmament. The Republic of Korea was also strongly opposed to any restored or rearmed Japanese state.
The President of the United States had very different ambitions to the rest of the USA’s coalition partners. Even as she oversaw US preparations for the Second Interstellar Expedition and a new round of defense spending related to Article One, she worked to lay the groundwork for postwar Japan. Similar to the former CSA after the end of the Second Great War, the US occupation zones were divided into military districts. This system of military rule would expand as the USA gradually took over the occupation zones of the other allied nations in the former Ecological Union in the late 2160s.
The President came down decisively on the side of China and Korea on the question of Japanese reunification and rearmament. Through diplomacy, she was able to convince the Chinese and Koreans to allow to the USA to take over the management of their occupation zones. While the Chinese were initially somewhat wary, it was an arrangement that they could agree to. The President even agreed to adjustments to the maritime borders that would favor China and Korea.
The Russians initially refused to change their initial stance on postwar reunification, but reconsidered due to two main reasons: the Russian government didn’t really want a unified, probably revanchist Japan to re-emerge either. The Russians also had no interest in paying for the reconstruction of a reunified state, given the total collapse of government in the former Ecological Union.
The Brazilians maintained their demand for a reunified Japan, but allowed the USA to take control of their occupation zone after withdrawing their forces in 2167.
The President was sincere when promising the leaders of China, Korea, Brazil, Ezo, and Russia that no Japanese military would be created by the USA from the former Ecological Union.
The President of the United States did not share her true goals in Japan until her final State of the Union address in 2168. These true goals, rooted in past US policies carried out throughout North America in the 20th Century, caused an immediate uproar both in the USA and abroad. But in the end, the President succeeded in creating a new domestic consensus on the fate of the US controlled Home Islands. Not to mention, no foreign country was interested in challenging the USA, with an interstellar war to wage.
The first Japanese states would not be admitted into the Union until the late 2220s.
