Had some time to finally finished this particular map, which
can be found here.
In this case, it's Post-World War 2 Japan at around the onset of the Korean War ISOT to a "Virgin Earth."
Though since this is Post-WW2 Japan
almost immediately after the end of the War, the Allied Occupation is still ongoing, with Gen. Douglas MacArthur the defactor ruler of the country. In real life, this would cement his moniker as the "American Caesar" in the US and as the
Gaijin Shogun among the Japanese. especially after his death. This time around, though, there's no President Truman to rein him in. Then let the end results simmer for 70 years. And...well, it's a strange outcome to put it lightly.
Just to be on the safe side, this is a work of fiction. Not a political or ideological statement.
Still, hope you enjoy this piece of work!
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Gaijin Shogun: The Far East in the Sea of Time
Anno Domini 1951,
Showa 26. The lasting peace promised at the end of the Second World War proved to be ephemeral as various conflicts, nominally smaller in scale, erupt across the globe. The outbreak of war between the Communist Koreans in the north and the Capitalist Republic of Korea to the south, however, threatened to escalate into a larger scale confrontation. And caught between this growing flashpoint between East and West is Japan. With the firm hand of Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers Douglas MacArthur, the defeated Axis Power is on its painful path to recovery.
Then, the vicinity of the Home Islands, stretching from the Ryukyus to the Kuriles, vanished in the blink of an eye. The "Event," as it came to be known, brought Japan and everyone on it to another version of the world. One devoid of any human life. In the reality left behind, this would result in Russian domination over much of Asia the beginnings of a Cold War that would outlast everyone involved. But for those affected by the Event, there would be no Soviet Union to fret, nor the misgivings of President Harry Truman, let alone an America for that matter. But they wouldn't be mere castaways either, nor would they be idle. For within a matter of weeks, hardline remnants of the
Taisei Yokusankai tried to exploit the ensuing turmoil to "reclaim the honor" of the old order. Similarly, the Japanese Communist Party and the Soviets in the northern fringes sought to seize the initiative and oust the capitalist "lapdogs." Even some of the foreigners and Allied personnel stranded in the country began growing agitated, especially as it became clear there was no way to return home. Yet MacArthur and his confidants, Japanese and American alike, remained resolute. Their decisions during those pivotal times would shape the course of human history.
Anno Domini 2021,
Heiwa 26. Seven decades have come and gone since then. While there are still those who personally remember the world as it once was, they're increasingly few and far between. For many know and live in the world the
Gaijin Shogun, or "Foreign Generallisimo," helped create. For good and ill.
While the unifying presence and efforts of Hirohito, the
Showa Emperor, were a massive boon in keeping the nation together in those tenous initial years, it was MacArthur's firm hand that proved decisive in restoring order. With Allied assets, or rather the US military personnel present (many intended for the conflict in Korea) at his disposal, he made fairly short work of the militarists and soon after crushed the attempted Communist uprising. At the same time, however, he made a conscious decision to work alongside the locals, be it through civil authorities or the National Police Reserve. While this increasingly alienated him from some Americans concerned that he becoming too powerful, it also made him popular and ensured that his reforms would be carried out. This could be seen well into the present, with modern culture incorporate many American influences, albeit warped almost beyond recognition;
manga and animation in particular have found creative ways of going around, if not ironically incorporating the old censorship codes into something entirely different. English is an official language, though most prefer the "
Igrishu" pidgin alongside Japanese. Although there's still a distinction between "pure" Japanese and
gaijin, the growing presence and acceptance of mixed-race Japanese have blurred such lines over generations. Meanwhile, the title of "Supreme Commander," often shortened to
Shogun, is still held by a member of the MacArthur line, though most power has long been ceded to the reformed Imperial Diet. Thus, the Empire of Japan still stands proudly amidst countless hardships. Though known more now for its industrial, cultural and corporate clout than anything else, its presence could be felt past the Home Islands and Karafuto, even beyond the myriad settler colonies that make up its vast domains.
Not everyone, however, was happy with his "rule." Despite sharing similar political views with the man also known as "Big Chief" and the "American Caesar," Major General Robert S. Beightler grew increasingly concerned over what he saw as his superior "going native." Alongside other disgruntled officers and personnel, they declared the independence of Okinawa as the "Provisional United States Military Administration" in 1955, though MacArthur himself allowed a peaceful "divorce" and allowed loyalist Ryukyuans to relocate. Wooing as many Anglos and other stranded Europeans sympathetic to its cause as they could, the new authorities wasted little time in laying the groundwork for their lofty plans. Much has changed since then. While the overall culture's still superficially trapped in the mid-20th Century and the definition of "White" has come to include mixed-race citizens who could pass off as such, the Restored United States is once more a rising power (and rival) to Japan. With territories stretching from Southeast Asia, especially the Philippines, to the recently settled Sandwich Islands Territory (aka, Hawaii), many Americans believe that their new manifest destiny of reclaiming the New World and shining the light of "true" Western civilization.
Meanwhile, the remnants of the defeated Communists and militarists have endured. Realizing that a prolonged crackdown was unsustainable and would make martyrs out of both factions, MacArthur in one of his last major decisions offered pardons to them in 1960. The condition, however, was that they would leave the country for good and establish themselves elsewhere. Although intended in part as "out of sight, out of mind" and to be a release valve for potential dissidents, few at the time anticipated how successful (if warped) the results would be. In the southwestern reaches of the Korean Peninsula, the Japanese Communist Party and the remaining Russians (displaced by settlers) established the Socialist Republic of Eurasia. While Marxist-Leninist in the old Soviet mould, over time it has evolved into a strange melange of Eastern and Slavic influences, though its growing industrial and military clout (as well as its skirmishes with nearby Japanese Chosen) have brought both the RUS and Japan together in common cause. Meanwhile, the hardliners and their followers, disgusted with what they perceived as the "corruption" of their sacred homeland, forged the Empire of Shin-Nippon. In the process of recreating a "pure" Japanese culture in their image (even claiming to still follow the Emperor), however, they've resorted to increasingly bizarre interpretations of their past, such that even the most "conservative" in the Home Islands or previously sympathetic to the
Taisei Yokusankai consider them to be at best, a bizarre caricature.
Then, there are the myriad others who left Japan over the years to forge their own destinies. Many of them were "Zanichi Koreans," who (with some degree of formal backing) sought to set up their own states as far away from the advancing colonists as possible. A group of nationalists, however, gathered in the burgeoning city of Hanseong in 1985 to establish the United Korean Republic, which has since assimilated many of the various other states in the Peninsula north of both Japanese Chosen and the SRE. Less successful, however, are the myriad Chinese states that had popped up, some of which could barely be considered "Chinese" at all. To say nothing of the story of New Britain (centered where Hong Kong would have been), founded in 1968 by what remained of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces and other Europeans seeking to preserve their cultures, only to wind up joining the RUS anyway. Or the various independent (usually White) homesteaders and corporate outposts (often owned by Japanese or American companies) that tend to be attacked by the feral descendants of lost scientific expeditions.
At its most advanced, particularly in the Home Islands and the more developed American territories, life for the average citizen is a blend of what another world would call the 21st Century and the mid-20th one that their forefathers left behind. Even with various natalist policies (especially those pushed by the Americans and Shin-Nipponese), standards of living are generally favorable (regardless of race or gender in at least some states) and advances in electronics have resulted in newfangled developments (from computers to video entertainment systems), though many of the old ways (such as analog typewriters) persist. Those at the fringes of the known world, however, would be lucky to have leftover surplus or 1940s-era technology.
What has not re-emerged, at least officially, is nuclear weapons. The memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain fresh enough in the public consciousness that, though nuclear power continues to make strides, the mere thought of weaponizing them is considered beyond the pale. But with the growing threat posed by the SRE, some in the Imperial Self-Defense Forces (successor to the National Police Reserve) amd even the current
Shogun are increasingly finding all kinds of possible solutions that wouldn't require reviving the power of the atomic bomb. Time, however, runs short and if Japan wouldn't do it, the Americans or worse, the Communists and Shin-Nippon might.
Still, even in spite of such predicaments, few would have it any other way.
