They weren’t working with perfect information or with the benefit of hindsight. Some of these same folks thought their vengeance weapons would destroy Allied morale. It’s easy to look back and say that was stupid to think now, but they didn’t have all the information we do now.
Real life events of the last several years should provide plenty of evidence to not consider something like this impossible. History is filled with plenty of implausible, stranger than fiction moments.
Yeah, few people realize how evil the Japanese Empire really was. I was talking with someone recently about how the Japanese were in some ways even worse than the Germans and they seemed to have no idea. I’d still put Germany as evil number 1, but the Japanese gave them a run for their money...
Nitpick time! :) 12 men landed on the moon, but 27 men have been outside of LEO and thus have been outside the Earth’s magnetic field - the three-man crews from Apollo 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17.
I would say the USSR collapsing was more improbable, if anything. I don’t think it would be particularly improbable to keep the USSR alive until the present day. I think you could probably opt for a POD as late as 1991, although such a USSR would be weaker considering their satellite states had...
Nazi rule carried out to it's logical conclusion would've been far worse than anything done in "colonial rule." The only reason the Nazis didn't exterminate hundreds of millions of people is because they ran out of time. In a Nazi victory scenario, on the other hand...yikes.
Both were evil...