Calamity Entailed
Imperial People's Navy of Japan
The Churning Tides
The October Revolution marked the rise of Prince Takahito to political prominence and the complete reshuffling of state affairs in the formerly Government-ruled Japan. An avowed, if secret, Communist, Prince Takahito had played a key role in the legitimization of the Kokutai Genriha and its spread throughout the Army Academy in the years he studied at the institution, swiftly proving himself a talented ideologue with a compassionate heart and an uncommon dedication to ensuring the betterment of Japan. He was well known for his conscientious personality, scholarly personality - always seeking to learn and understand the world around him, humaneness - having been deeply marked by stories of inequality and inequity presented by his fellow cadets of commoner standing, and his whole-hearted dedication to the betterment of the Japanese people. Having agonized greatly over betraying his brother's dangerous plans for a coup, Takahito's subsequent appointment as Regent in Emperor Genka's name had been viewed by the young prince as an unjust reward for the betrayal of his family. Nevertheless, he and the rest of the imperial house under Government control had largely been marginalized by the Machida's government push for the establishment of a Republic. Nevertheless, Takahito and his wife Princess Tokugawa Kikuko spent the months between the March Coup and October Revolution touring the warfront, caring for the wounded and displaced, swiftly engendering a considerable degree of popularity with the common man - wherefrom he would emerge with the nickname of "The People's Prince". While a propaganda effort pursued by the Kyosanto leadership in their hopes of placing the young man on the throne some time in the future, there was no way of dismissing Takahito's great care for the people of Japan, his constant insistence on the humane treatment of prisoners and insistence upon the care that had to be taken of the common man when military affairs were discussed. Having sat in on meetings of the Jimin Gunjikaigi, Takahito was amongst the most knowledgeable figures about the course of the war despite Machida's efforts to limit any spread of information to the Imperial Family, which he viewed as politically unreliable - a not unreasonable view considering that both Takahito's political affiliations and role in betraying the March Coup were not known to the Prime Minister. As such, with the overthrow of the Machida Administration and resultant purge which saw the Imperial Diet largely dispersed, Takahito remained as the sole legitimate source of authority in Government Japan and in a position to fundamentally reshape the consensus established with the Meiji Constitution. With the advice of Kita Ikki and Yamakawa Hitoshi, Takahito eventually settled on the temporary elevation of the Jimin Gunjikaigi while a more permanent solution was determined. The result of these deliberations, taking place over the course of some ten days in late October and early November, was the establishment of what Takahito called the People's Shogunate, the Jimin Bakufu, which was to replace the Jimin Gunjikaigi and serve as both the civilian and military government of Japan under his rule. While borrowing heavily from the militarist rhetoric of Trotskyite Communism, mixed with the uniquely Japanese institution of the Shogunate - whereby the state was administered by military force, and combining it with Kita Ikki's ideological structures focused on Pan-Asianism, Socialism and intense Japanese Nationalism - the resultant reforms saw the formation of a dictatorial council which was to rule and govern Japan. Officially headed by Takahito as stand-in for the Emperor, the People's Shogunate was unique to Shogunates in Japanese history in that it lacked a single leading figure, instead relying upon a conciliar model surprisingly similar to the Central Committee of the Soviet Republic of Russia. Structured in consecutive layers, the Grand Council of the Shogunate - translated as Shogun Dai Hyogikai, was formed by the Emperor, or in this case Regent, and eight Shogun, two each representing the Military and Navy with the last four Civilian. The first of these Shogun would prove to be Kita Ikki, Fukumoto Kazou, Yamakawa Hitoshi and Adachi Kenzo representing the Civilian seats, Nishida Mitsugi and Yamashita Tomoyuki for the Military seats and Yamamoto Isoroku and Takarabe Takeshi for the Navy seats. Below the Shogun Council were three councils: the Army Council - Rikugun Hyogikai, the Navy Council - Kaigun Hyogikai and the People's Councils - the Jimin Gikai which was in turn split into two subsidiary councils - the Rodosha Hyogikai and Nimin Hyogikai, meaning the Workers' and Peasants' Councils respectively. These three bodies were elected to serve as counter-balance to their respective Shoguns and were partly selected and partly elected. Nippon Kyosanto was to select a third each of the members for the two People's Councils, with Adachi Kenzo's Minseito selecting one sixth of the seats in the Workers' Council while the remaining seats in each council were put up for election from rural and urban electorates respectively for a total of 320 seats split equally between the two councils. The Army Council was split with half its seats elected from the general soldiery of the Red Guard, soon to be renamed as the Imperial People's Army, while the latter half was split between seats granted on the basis of command and appointment by the Military Shoguns - with a similar division for the Navy Council. These four councils were to elect the Shoguns to five-year terms of office and aid in the legislation of their individual spheres. A fifth, and final, council called the Bugyo Hyogikai - translating as Magistrates' Council, served as representative of what soon proved an extensive government bureaucracy answering directly to the Shogun Council and the organizational structure along which governmental appointments would flow - with Bugyo taking the place of ministries and governmental institutions in the People's Shogunate. With these structures now in place, the focus now turned to the legitimization of their cause, resulting in the officious deposal of Emperor Genka and ascension of Prince Takahito as Emperor - who would take up the Era Name of Koji 広至, translating roughly as Great Arrival, signaling the ambitious sentiment of the new Emperor and his advisors for the next chapter of Japanese history, although it would be as "The People's Emperor" that he would be fondly remembered by the peoples of Japan (9).
While the October Revolution was incredibly successful, securing control over the majority of the Home Isles without much challenge and sweeping enemies of the revolution away through the sheer speed and totality of the initial crackdown, there were areas which failed to fall at first. From the start of the Civil war, the clear focus of Nippon Kyosanto and the Jimin Gunjikaigi had been on the northern and central sections of the Home Isles while the south and west had largely been left in the hands of the Navy. While the revolutionaries had been able to secure the aid of important segments of the Navy, they failed to secure the support of Minister Okada Keisuke or Admiral Sakonji Seizo - the former being executed as a traitor to the revolution and the latter imprisoned and questioned harshly after being removed from his post as head of the Navy General Staff, and with them a significant portion of the more conservative Navy leadership was removed from power. The most important of these conservatives to not be swept up initially would prove to be Admiral Nagumo Chuichi, Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front based out of Kyushu, commanding the vast Naval Ground Forces which had been used to challenge Loyalist control of the southern and western reaches of the Home Isles. Notably, he controlled the large naval force based out of Kure which was meant to maintain peace and order in the Inner Sea of Japan. Notably, the capture of the Maizuru Naval Base as the Loyalists fled the isles would prove important to the disposition of forces to the resultant clash, as the majority of the interdicting forces were shifted from the naval base in Sasebo, of which Nagumo held command, to Maizuru under Yamamoto Isoroku's protégé Inoue Shigeyoshi. When word reached Nagumo of the Communist Coup in Tokyo he was swift to publicly denounce the revolutionaries and declared that he would fight to restore the legitimate government to power, rallying the gradually demobilizing NGF soldiery of the south to the cause while preparing for an open clash over control of the Inner Sea. Ultimately this effort was to prove insufficient to the needs of the Government forces, as the newly redubbed Imperial People's Army swept southward out of Central Honshu, crushing all opposition before them. It is notable that this advance included the heavy use of armored vehicles and tanks, many of which had been secured when Osaka fell into the hands of the Revolutionaries - the city having served as key production center for such vehicles both during and prior to the Civil War. Unable to stand against this armored advance given that their own arms were a mishmash of old guns dug out of various arsenals in the south, the NGF gave ground with astonishing speed, rapidly falling back towards Hiroshima where the fortifications built around Kure earlier in the war were hoped to safeguard the Government. It was at this point that the Imperial People's Navy entered the field, sailing into the Inner Sea to contest control of the area. Nagumo was an old-school naval thinker specializing in Battleships and Torpedo-warfare and as such was unprepared for the radical use of naval aviation by the revolutionary fleet commanded by Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku personally and the air fleet under the command of the astonishingly talented but youthful Genda Minoru. Sweeping forward in waves, the naval carrier fighter contingent once again made itself known by gravely wounding what few major ships were available to Nagumo in the Inner Sea before driving the smaller ships, cruisers, destroyers and torpedo boats, which constituted the majority of the Inner Sea Fleet into port at Kure. Landings in Kyushu and Shikoku by IPAJ forces soon swept the poorly trained garrison Naval Ground Forces before them. The Siege of Kure, which lasted through to the middle of December - two months in all, finally came to an end when supplies ran out and news of Kyushu and Shikoku's fall reached Nagumo. Demoralized and now certain of his failure to rescue the Government cause, Nagumo blew his own brains out after ordering his subordinates to surrender, bringing to an end active resistance to the new revolutionary regime in the Home Isles (10). The October Revolution was also to drastically change the calculus of various international actors. With the ascension of a Communist state in Japan, the entire Pacific suddenly seemed under threat from the world revolution, be it the American West Coast, the British Colonies and Dominions, French Indochina or any of a dozen other powers now placed under pressure. The recognition of the new People's Shogunate by the Soviet Republic, the Mexican Republic, the Central American Workers' and Farmers' Republic and the Socialist Republic of Chile in short succession were to further highlight the threat posed by the international Communist and Socialist movements active across the Pacific Seaboard. The first to act were the British, who shifted from their recognition of the Government to support of the Loyalists, viewing them as the rightful successors to government once Inukai Tsuyoshi joined them in Chosun. This was soon followed by similar declarations from Ambassadors Joseph Grew and Fernand Pila of the United States and France respectively. However, the attitudes of these two latter governments were far from as fervent as the British, who rapidly took a leading role in mustering up anti-Communist support. With France mired in the bloody Indochinese Revolt and America still struggling to pull itself out of its Isolationism, these two secondary powers would do little other than pledge their political and diplomatic support to a British response. Thus, it would prove to be the British, long allied with the Japanese, who took the lead in responding to the emergence of a Communist power capable of challenging its Pacific dominions. After some deliberation, largely excluding the Labour-affiliated Australian Government, it was decided that the British Empire would have to lend its aid in restoring order to the Far East or risk allowing Communism to run rampant across the Pacific and East Asia - wherefrom it could easily seep into India with potentially disastrous consequences for the Empire. As such it was not long before Ambassador Robert Henry Clive declared the British Empire's support for the Loyalist cause, formally entering the Japanese Civil War on the 26th of November 1936 (11).
Since the start of the Civil War Chosun had experienced a constant, and ever swelling, wave of refugees from the Japanese Home Isles. Some came out of political conviction or affiliation, more came to save fortunes, but most departed the Home Isles to get away from the bloody unceasing warfare and bloodshed which had left them homeless and penniless. During the first three months of the Civil War, more than half a million Japanese would cross the Straits of Tsushima for Chosun, followed in dribs and drabs by another quarter million in the months prior to the October Revolution - which set in motion the final wave of refugees, numbering another half million or more in total - resulting in a population of nearly three million Japanese in Chosun in total by the end of 1936 not including the soldiers of the Kwangtung and Korean Armies, as contrasted with more than twenty-two million Koreans. The arrival of Emperor Genka and the Loyalist Leadership from the Home Isles was to further result in a series of complicated intrigues which saw General Nagata and the Toseiha Faction emerge in a superior position to that of the failed Kodoha Faction. Having been an avid advocate of securing foreign involvement in the conflict, Nagata was able to convince Emperor Genka to hand over leadership of the war effort to him, resulting in a fundamental shift in power within Loyalist ranks as Nagata assumed a near-dictatorial position in Chosun. With British entry into the war, it swiftly became a matter of determining how this support might make the greatest impact upon the war effort in Loyalist Favor. It is worth noting that a series of important changes in command occurred during this time as the Home Islands Relief Force, commanded by General Shirakawa Yoshinori and containing the bulk of Loyalist forces, saw a major reorganization in which the forces available to it were reduced to barely a tenth of its original size, the remainder being reintegrated into the Chosun-Gun under Nagata's direct command and the post of Governor-General of Chosun finding itself abolished in favor of an ostensibly civilian government under rule of Prime Minister Hiranuma Kiichiro - the longtim Kokumin Domei civilian leader of the more moderate wing of the party, who found common cause with the powerful Nagata. Through this reorganization, Nagata was able to weaken or remove the two most prominent Kodoha appointees in Chosun, sidelining the radical wing of Kokumin Domei which included men like Araki Sadao and Okawa Shumei while shifting the Loyalist government away from its xenophobic stance. What allowed for Nagata's rise to power was Emperor Genka's temporary incapacitation on realizing his failure to secure victory and the sheer scale of his beloved brother Takahito's betrayal. Since the start of the Civil War, Yasuhito had been certain that Takahito was being forced to oppose him by the treacherous Government forces - a belief strengthened by reports of Takahito's lack of influence on government affairs and seeming unwillingness to speak out publicly against the Loyalists. The sudden news that Takahito was not only a leading proponent of the October Revolution, but also a key figure on the Jimin Gujikaigi and a card-carrying member of Nippon Kyosanto came as an absolute body blow to the Emperor who had viewed his youngest sibling as his closest confidante and favorite brother. He suffered a mental collapse, secluding himself in the Gyeongbokgung Palace in Keijo opposite the Japanese General Government Building from which Nagata was to rule while refusing to meet with anyone. As Nagata strengthened his grip on power, Araki Sadao eventually broke this order of seclusion and tried to enter the palace, only to find himself forcibly ejected by the enraged Emperor. It would not be until the start of 1937 that Emperor Genka emerged from his seclusion a changed man. Untrusting and with a harshness now sharpened to an edge, Genka abandoned any and every principal in the name of securing his restoration, even setting aside his wish for greater direct imperial power in favor of supporting General Nagata's plans for the time being - going so far as to acquiesce to leaning on foreign support to restore him to power, a sharp break from the rabid xenophobia he had preached in the pre-Civil War days. Deliberations over the shape of British intervention soon saw ground forces excluded from consideration, with naval support soon coming to dominate considerations - although whether to transfer elements of the Home Fleet to reinforce the pre-existing Dominion Fleet based out of Singapore or to just proceed with the naval resources available in Singapore remained a topic of considerable debate within the British Admiralty. Ultimately, the slow pace of decision-making on the part of the British was to allow the Revolutionary Government based in Tokyo to take the initiative. Led by a series of young and ambitious naval commanders suddenly risen to top positions as a result of the considerable turnover of officers at the top of the Navy, the Imperial People's Navy set about an extensive island hopping campaign aimed at securing control of as much of the Japanese colonial empire as possible. The vast majority of these efforts were to prove peaceful, as small naval forces set about ensuring the continuity of administration in the Pacific domains, although a series of brief clashes on Saipan would mar the otherwise peaceful takeover. The Ryuku Isles would see limited fighting as a few rabid anti-Communist officers in the islands sought to contest naval landings without much success, while the campaign to secure Taiwan saw the civilian Minseito-aligned Governor-General who had declared his support for the Government initially ousted in favor of one of Adachi Kenzo's supporters and a significant strengthening of naval power over the island. Ultimately, the most contested conquest would prove to be the island of Jeju, off the southern coast of Chosun. Here landings by the IPNJ were bloodily contested by Loyalist garrison troops who, despite being cut off from reinforcements and support from Chosun proper, fought to nearly the last man in a greatly remarked upon last stand. Particularly the reclamation of Taiwan was to have a profound impact upon the considerations of the British Admiralty, convincing them that they would not be able to wait much longer before acting or they might well find the entire East China Sea cut off to them. As a result, the Dominion Fleet in Singapore was ordered to set sail for Japanese waters on the 28th of December 1936 (12).
Built in response to decisions taken at the Imperial Council of 1920, the Dominion Fleet was a relatively recent construction which drew heavily on the Australian and New Zealand Dominions as well as the Indian Raj to pay for and man the navy, only a third of the force stemming from the British Isles, and ostensibly set to be under the command of dominion-born naval officers. In fact, it was these concessions to the dominions which had seen the Anglo-Japanese Alliance renewed after the end of the Great War in response to fears in the British Royal Navy that the dominions would prove unable to muster the professionalism and capable leadership inherent to the British Navy proper. To lead this new fleet, the British Admiralty had turned to the talented if controversial and youthful Australian-born Rear Admiral John Saumarez Dumaresq to lead and shape the nascent fleet. An innovator and free-thinker, Dumaresq had proven instrumental in championing naval aviation within the Dominion Fleet, but had struggled to secure the funding he had hoped for to build the new fleet - finding himself forced to limit the amount of heavy carriers and battleships in favor of cheaper and lighter constructions of Battlecruisers and Light Carriers. His experiments had seen the development of a high level of professionalization and competence amongst the naval air corps of the fleet, but had left the surface forces neglected by the end of the 1920s. In response to Dumaresq's failures to maintain the professionalism of the surface fleet, and his inability to secure a proper contingent of battleships for the Dominion Fleet, the Admiral would ultimately see himself forced from his post - being named as Chief of the Australian Navy in a promotion which removed him effective command. His replacement was to be the British-born Vice-Admiral Sir Humphrey Thomas Walwyn, an appointment which drew considerable outrage on the part of the Australians and helped spur the disillusionment of the Australians with their British cousins. An admiral of the old school, Walwyn was a strong proponent of Battleship warfare and largely sidelined Dumaresq's naval aviation projects in favor of heavy investment in the surface fleet - relying on contacts in the British Admiralty to secure the transfer of four battleships to compliment the six battlecruisers already stationed in Singapore. Over the following years, Walwyn would further strengthen the surface fleet with two more battleships. In Walwyn's estimation, the role of naval aviation was to serve as scouting force for the navy proper, which would close the distance to the enemy after they had been found by the light carriers whereupon they would engage in a knock-down, drawn out brawl with the opposing surface fleet, relying on their professionalism and the traditions of the British Navy to come out on top. Increasingly unhappy with Walwyn, the Dominions were finally able to secure his replacement by the far better liked Admiral Sir Wilbraham Tennyson Randle Ford, a Channel Islands-born navy man greatly loved by his men for his unceasing optimism, kindness towards his subordinates and boundless humor - being famed for playing pranks and practical jokes upon anyone and everyone. However, he was known for being exceedingly strict with his English officers and often came into conflict with the Admiralty on a variety of issues, primarily stemming from the Admiralty's overeager interference in his commands. Having served in both the Mediterranean Fleet and as navy commander during the capture of Hormuz, Admiral Ford had made a bit of a name for himself by the time he was chosen to succeed Walwyn in early 1936, bare weeks before the March Coup in Japan turned the relatively sedate posting in Singapore into an active duty station (13).
Since the Battle of Tsushima, Japanese Naval Strategy had been fundamentally defensive, oriented around large decisive battles in home waters. Imagining the Philippine Sea, East China Sea, Yellow Sea and Sea of Japan as their favored battle zones where they could bring to bear all their naval resources, both land and sea based, against the enemy with little chance for the enemy to do the same, the Japanese sought to secure a victory which would wipe the enemy from the face of the sea and allow them total control of the sea-lanes. Known as the Kantai Kessen - the Decisive Battle Doctrine, the plan had largely been targeted at defeating the United States Navy on the basis of their being viewed as the only real challenger to Japanese power in the Pacific - the British being seen as allies by and large during the formulation of Japan's naval strategy. The result had been a continual, and growing, naval expenditure throughout Prime Minister Yamamoto Gonbee's term of office which had driven Japan to possessing not only the single largest navy in the Pacific, but to it sitting as one of the premier naval powers of the world. While initial investment had focused on the strengthening of the Big Gun Fleet of Battleships and Battlecruisers advances in naval aviation had seen the navy gradually increase its investments in airpower and doctrine following major improvements in the performance of naval bombing aircrafts and carrier construction, with mass aerial assaults increasingly seen as a viable alternative to the big gun approach. However, by the start of the Japanese Civil War, the Big Gun advocates had still held the upper hand in the ongoing debate, leaving the investment in carrier and naval aviation technology a secondary focus. While subsequent actions at Dogojima and the Inner Seas had helped demonstrate the worth of air power, the distribution of resources remained in favor of the Big Gun doctrine and as such necessitated a continuation of the pre-Civil War approach to the dispatch of the Dominion Fleet despite the leadership of the Imperial People's Navy having come under the dominance of air-power proponents. It had taken until early December for word to reach the People's Shogunate of Britain's entry into the war, meaning that they were sent scrambling to reconstitute their fleet for the decisive clash to come after having dispersed it to secure control of Japan's colonial empire in the Pacific. At the same time, the recently reformed Naval General Staff worked around the clock to adapt their plans to war with the British - whose naval prowess was widely admired and feared in Japanese ranks, the Japanese Navy having built itself in the image of the Royal British Navy. The rapidly adapted plans which emerged thus called for the rapid dispatch of Japan's submarine flotilla and supporting cruiser and destroyer flotillas southward - aiming to set a perimeter south of Taiwan in the Philippine and South China Seas which would serve to weaken the advancing Dominion fleet by attrition before the decisive battle through destroyer night attacks and submarine ambushes. In the meanwhile, the Combined Fleet was to be rapidly reconstituted at the Sasebo Naval Base near Nagasaki with Admiral-Shogun Yamamoto Isoroku taking up personal command of the reconstituted Combined Fleet while appointing Admiral Inoue Shigeyoshi of Dogojima fame to command the Carrier Fleet, recently promoted Vice Admiral Ito Seiichi to command of the Main Battlefleet and command of the screening force of cruisers and destroyers to Rear Admiral Fukudome Shigeru. Fleet-based air operations were handed over to Captain Genda Minoru while ground-based aerial operations were turned over to Genda's close colleague Captain Fuchida Mitsuo (14).
As the Dominion Fleet steamed into the South China Sea on the afternoon of the 28th of December - reinforced by detachments from the Persian Gulf Station, India Station and East Africa Station with men further mobilized from the Royal Naval Reserve, they made what preparations they could to protect the heart of their fleet. Constant aerial scouting from the Dominion Light Carriers and a screen of destroyers sought to prevent premature losses while a constant watch from the middle of the second day of sailing sought to ensure that the Dominion Navy would make it to the battlefield intact. It would take until the 30th before the first encounters between Dominion and Japanese naval units occurred with the ambush sinking of the destroyer HMS Hostile off the Parcel Islands by the submarine I-4 and of HMS Grafton by I-2, the latter of which was damaged by subsequent ASW efforts by the British. On the night of the 30th-31st, a major Japanese destroyer attack by IPNJ Destroyer Squadrons 1-5 of the 1st Fleet occurred north of the Parcel Islands in which the extremely long-range and immensely innovative Type-93 Torpedoes loaded aboard the IPNJ destroyer flotilla were put to use. The extreme distances at which these torpedoes could be fired meant that the attack went largely undetected by the British until the first torpedoes struck, resulting in considerable damage - despite almost 90% of the torpedoes missing. Five destroyers were sunk alongside three cruisers and the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra was gravely damaged alongside the Battleship HMS Emperor of India, which had been sold to the Indian section of the Dominion Navy in 1931 as part of Walwyn's Big Gun focused fleet building, while half a dozen other ships saw varying levels of lesser damage. Unwilling to slow down and thereby allow for more potshots to be taken at the Dominion Fleet, Admiral Ford directed the HMS Emperor of India and the other more damaged ships of the fleet to make for temporary shelter at Hong Kong while the main fleet continued onward under significantly tightened watch. This decision was to eventually draw considerable recrimination, for the weakened and wounded splinter fleet under the HMS Emperor of India was to find itself a target of several submarine attacks in the two days it took them to reach Hong Kong, with a second torpedo attack breaking the keel of the HMS Canberra and blowing a massive hole in its side, from which it would sink within two hours while the HMS Emperor of India just barely avoided a similar fate when the torpedoes fired at it by I-13 passed through its wake, striking an accompanying Destroyer a glancing blow. The 31st would see further submarine attacks against the main Dominion Fleet, but also saw Japanese losses accelerate considerably with three submarines sunk in return for a sunken destroyer and a wounded light cruiser in the form of HMS Cordelia which limped on with the rest of the fleet after emergency repairs resolved most of the issues with the damage. New Years Night saw the Dominion Fleet pass through the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines in the face of the fiercest attack yet. Now prepared for a night attack, the two destroyer flotillas clashed in a series of bloody exchanges during the night that followed, seeing half a dozen sunk on either side and a torpedo attack on the Battleship line by the Japanese which forced the light cruisers HMNZS Achilles and HMS Emerald to interpose themselves to take the successive blows. However, the launching of the Dominion Fleet's air contingent was to help make up the losses, sinking, or slowing long enough for their pursuers to catch them, the IPN Oi, Isuzu and Kitakami Light Cruisers alongside the destroyers Inazuma, Ikazuchi, Fubuki, Murakumo and Miyuki, the latter exploding when the volatile Type-93 torpedoes detonated in response to the concussive blows given the destroyer - a grave loss to the IPN screening forces which forced their recall from the South China and Philippine Seas. The first day of the 1937 was to dawn with the first major aerial clashes between the two forces, as ground-based fighters and bombers out of Taiwan and the southern Ryukyus initiated an intense attack on the Dominion fleet which required the entirety of the British air forces to repel the attackers. The dog fight which erupted was bitterly intense, with numerous losses on both sides, but while the British had introduced the modern Gladiator navy fighter in late-1936, the Dominion Fleet was forced to rely on the significantly older Hawker Nimrod which stood up rather poorly to the relatively modern Japanese Nakajima A4N fighter, while a series of aerial torpedo attacks and dive bombings left the HMS Hermes light carrier with a swiftly spreading fire below deck, blew the turret of HMS Malaya and succeeded in blowing a gaping hole in the side of the Battlecruiser HMNZS Auckland, although once again a preponderance of the torpedoes missed their target. Heavy anti-air efforts by the rest of the fleet eventually helped drive off the aerial assault, just as the Dominion Fleet finally made the push into the East China Sea - passing between Mikayojima and Okinawa shortly after mid-day on the 1st. The stage was now set for the Battle of the East China Sea and all participants stood ready for the bloody clash to follow. With scouting flights out of the Ryukyus sending constant updates back to the Home Isles, wherefrom they kept Admiral-Shogun Yamamoto aware of the progress of the Dominion Fleet, the decision was finally made to launch the Combined Fleet - which had been undergoing rapid coordination drills and familiarization efforts between the various fleet commands, individual ships and squadrons - on the morning of the 1st of January 1937. The harassment of the Dominion Fleet continued throughout the day, forcing the navy personnel to remain at quarters constantly - a state they had been forced into for days at this point, resulting in ever worsening exhaustion amongst the sailors even before the battle began. However, by nightfall the Dominion Fleet was making its way well into the East China Sea, gradually emerging from the umbrella of the Japanese ground-based aviation in order to allow Admiral Ford to give his men a short but much needed rest. A blood red sun rose out of the east on the winter morning of the 2nd, the conditions at sea worsening gradually as midday neared. Since dawn, the Dominion Fleet had sent out scouting air craft to search for the Japanese Fleet, which was expected to be steaming to meet them, while repairs from the previous day's harassment were undertaken and those who could were allowed to rest. Suddenly, shortly past noon, one of the scouting aircrafts returned to the fleet bullet ridden and smoking with word that the Combined Fleet was coming their way from the North-North-East. With both forces now aware of the other's position, they began to close the range while the entire compliment of the three Hiryu-Class Fleet Air Carriers - a class planned and built as purpose-built carriers between 1934-36 on the basis of lessons learned in the construction and non-combat service of the Ryujo-class Carriers between 1928-1931, took to the heavens in the first massed naval aviation assault in world history (15).
The first shots of the Battle of the East China Sea would be airborne, as the Dominion carriers HMS Furious, HMS Hermes and HMS Australia disgorged their swarm of fighters in a well coordinated scramble - allowing them to put up a fierce resistance to the oncoming wave of Japanese fighters. The dog fight that followed, which saw nearly one hundred twenty fighters clash while several dozen torpedo and dive bombers made their way through the fighting, was incredibly intense with nearly two dozen Japanese fighters lost for some eighteen Dominion fighters before the naval bombers broke through the British air cover and initiated their assault on the Dominion Fleet. Torpedo after torpedo was dropped while dive bombers entered their final approaches amidst a storm of anti-air fire which raked several of the attacking aircrafts. However, when the assault wave hit it did so with calamitous effect. The HMS Furious was holed in three placed before a bomb dropped on its wooden top set the ship ablaze while three of the eleven Dominion Battleships were damaged, a fourth set to sinking alongside two Battlecruisers - requiring rapid rescue efforts to get most of the personnel off the two Battlecruisers. An additional half dozen ships were holed or sunk while a daring dive bomber was able to steer his thoroughly trashed airplane into the conning tower of the HMS Sydney - the flagship of the Dominion Navy. While Admiral Ford survived the crash, several of his staff did not and he was forced to shift his flag to the HMS Royal Sovereign, which had only joined the Dominion Fleet from the Mediterranean in December as rapid preparations were undertaken for the current expedition, weakening his ability to coordinate the fleet for some time. As the Japanese attackers began to pull back they experienced grievous losses, half of the attacking wave of bombers being lost in the process while the escorting fighters put up a bitter resistance to pursuit. It was at this point that Admiral Ford ordered the dispatch of the Dominion Fleet's own air compliment while repair efforts were undertaken as best could be done under the circumstances as the direct clash between the two fleets loomed. The British attack, which was about a third smaller than the Japanese, was to prove a rousing success - catching the Japanese unprepared for the sudden assault. With only a skeleton air complement to counter this thrust, they were swiftly swept from the heavens while the Dominion bombers made their own runs. The dive bombers and torpedo bombers, led by veterans trained in the Dumaresq days, were exceedingly effective, hammering home against the Amagi and Hiei Battlecruisers - sinking them, while setting ablaze the Ryojo, which capsized soon after, and succeeded in blowing turrets on the Mutso and Hyuga Battleships, but experienced significant losses - in a near mirror of the situation when the Dominion Fleet was attacked. While the Hiryu and its sister ships Soryu and Akaryu were largely able to avoid most of the damage, having been positioned at a distance from the main battlefleet, the last of these carriers saw two of its fighters explode on deck, requiring rapid firefighting to prevent the ship from being set ablaze, when a lone dive bomber struck the carrier force. By this point the two fleets were closing rapidly, with initial long-range fire beginning to be exchanged while the respective screens sallied forth to engage each other in a short but exceedingly bloody melee which largely went in the favor of the Japanese, their significant advantage in long-range torpedoes swaying the course of the battle in their favor. However, after a few long range barrages which drove drumbeats across either line at distance, but failed to make a significant impact, the two fleets were interrupted by the rapidly oncoming night. During the night between the 2nd and 3rd of January, the two fleets would circle each other in the dark, exchanging fire on occasion when their ships neared one another as the various naval formations gradually got tangled up with each other - a destroyer running into a light cruiser causing the former to sink on the Japanese side while the cruiser was knocked into a slow list which required considerable effort to right before the ship capsized. It would take until the hours just before dawn before the Japanese shifted course, coming out of the west with night at their rear and the sun dawning in front of them. Caught against the dawning sun lay the Dominion Fleet, clear cut against the horizon, while the Japanese still remained in the dark of night. The result was to provide the Japanese with the tactical element of surprise, launching a series of disorganized torpedo barrages before the Battleships and Battlecruisers opened up with a massive barrage at medium-distance. The initial surprise was what determined the course of the fighting, sending a pair of Battleships to sinking while immense damage was done to the screening elements. By the third barrage on the part of the Japanese, Admiral Ford had been able to redirect his forces to counter-fire, setting in motion the most intense exchange of the entire battle as the two lines closed the distance. Both sides were battered beyond all belief, ships falling apart under the intensity of the barrages. Blow after blow was exchanged, with a Japanese Battleship exploding from a lucky hit to its magazine and two of the British Battlecruisers sent limping away from the main clash. Twice more, the two sides would ram against each other, the two fleets tearing at each other like mad dogs, before finally the Dominion Fleet's cohesion fell apart and Admiral Ford - who had been forced to change ship once more after the HMS Royal Sovereign sank beneath him, called for a retreat. Admiral-Shogun Yamamoto Isoroku, realizing that his Battleships and Battlecruisers were too damaged to pursue, handed over command of the chase to Admiral Inoue Shigeyoshi and his carrier fleet - both sides carrier elements having been sidelined in the main clash of the two fleets, giving them time to repair and prepare. In disarray, the Dominion Fleet retreated southward towards the Taiwan Strait, making for Hong Kong, with their carrier air complement sacrificing themselves in the effort to shield the retreat. Repeated dog fights broke out on the retreat south as the Dominion aircraft were gradually whittled away at, the Japanese bomber force beginning to make its presence known once more - experiencing significantly improved survivability hunting a broken enemy compared to when they were challenging the full might of the fleet. Ship after ship was run down and sunk over the following day as sailors collapsed from exhaustion while the overclocked fighter pilots made ever more deadly mistakes. As the fleeing Dominion Fleet fell within the Taiwanese air envelope once again, the harassment doubled, before Admiral Inoue's carrier fleet was called back from its pursuit late on the 5th, south of Taiwan - the remnants of the Dominion Fleet limping into the port of Hong Kong over the following three days (16).
The Battle of the East China Sea was to prove an era-defining clash which set in motion a whole host of changes. Not only had the Communist menace demonstrated themselves to possess a supremely capable naval element able to go toe-to-toe with the best in the world, they also fractured the aura of invincibility once possessed by the Royal Navy. Where the naval clashes of the Great War had been relatively indecisive affairs, with unclear victors and losers in what few major naval encounters occurred, this latest battle was the definition of decisive. While the Imperial People's Navy Combined Fleet slowly made its way back to port in Sasebo, battered and bleeding but victorious, word of the battle spread with lightning speed around the world. In Australia and New Zealand a week of public mourning was initiated while Prime Minister Jack Lang publicly castigated the British Admiralty for leading Australian boys to their deaths over another country's internal affairs, in the process leaving the Australasian Dominions at the complete mercy of the Japanese. In New Zealand, which had invested so many of its resources in building up the Dominion Fleet to serve as a bulwark against Japanese aggression, news of the calamity sent shockwaves through society and led to widespread anti-British protests and incredible displays of public mourning. In India, while the loss of the Indian naval compliment was met with anger, more emphasis would be put upon the demonstrable weakness of the British which the battle had shown - greatly empowering and emboldening an already eager independence movement. Admiral Ford, despite having done everything in his power to win the battle, was made a scapegoat for the defeat and was cashiered and removed from active posting for the affair. As to the Loyalists in Chosun, they were unable to comprehend this course of events. The British Navy had always been held up as the foremost marine force on the world's seas - it was an undisputed fact - while the Revolutionaries had thrown out most of the admirals with experience and the capacity to go toe-to-toe with the British. The British were not supposed to lose this battle. When General Nagata finally pulled together enough confidence to inform Emperor Genka of the British defeat, he was so sharply criticized by the Emperor that he allegedly contemplated seppuku on returning to the General Government Building, even going so far as to have his swords prepared and picking an adjutant to behead him, before he was brought to his senses by Prime Minister Hiranuma Kiichiro. The arrival of the Combined Fleet in Sasebo was celebrated across the Japanese Home Isles, pictures of Admiral-Shogun Yamamoto, Kita Ikki and Emperor Koji being carried through the streets while a week of national public celebration was declared. It was at this point that the Soviet Republic, which had been following events in Japan with considerable eagerness if without active support, at the direction of Commissar for Foreign Affairs Georgy Chicherin set forth a proposal to aid in the negotiation of a ceasefire between the People's Shogunate and their opponents. Meeting with approval from the Shogun Council, the first diplomatic feelers were undertaken in the middle of January in London where the political aftermath of the entire affair was playing out explosively. With the situation chaotic and the British Empire under fundamental threat, a threat further highlighted by the arrival of elements of the IPNJ 3rd Fleet off Hong Kong on the 18th of January, the decision was made at Whitehall to bring the whole sorry affair to a close before the Communists could go on a rampage across the Pacific. As a result, negotiations were soon under way in Vladivostok between representatives from the Loyalist and Revolutionary governments as well as the British. Over the course of a month the details of a treaty were hammered out which would allow the British to shift their gravely damaged Dominion Fleet south from the Hong Kong Harbor to Singapore for repairs in return for a minor indemnity and acknowledgement of the People's Shogunate as the rightful government of the Japanese Home Isles and Japan's Pacific possessions. While the Loyalists screamed betrayal, the British envoy Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen signed off on the agreement - ignominiously removing Britain from the conflict once more. Left with little other option but to accept the situation, the Loyalist envoy Prince Konoe Fumimaro signed off on a ceasefire agreement on the 8th of March 1937 but refused to sign any treaty which would abandon Emperor Genka's claim to being the rightful ruler of the Japanese Empire. As such an official state of war would be maintained between the two Japanese states, although military clashes came to an end. The Japanese Civil War had come to an end in just under a year, but in that short year it fundamentally reordered the geopolitical situation in the Pacific and brought fear of the rising tide of Communism roaring back to life around the world. A new day dawned on the Japanese People, and the world would never be the same again (17).
Footnotes:
(9) This is a lot, I know, and I really hope that people can understand what I am trying to describe. The idea of reimposing a Shogunate upon Japan is actually an idea brought up by Hashimoto Kingoro IOTL and others in the more radical segments of the Kodoha faction. Granted the shape of this People's Shogunate is considerably different from anything they would have proposed IOTL but I hope that given the mix of Trotskyite militarism, Kitan sentimental nationalism and general socialist ambition this ends up making sense. The Kyosanto leadership who are largely responsible for the form this new government takes are purposefully trying to bolster the new government's nativist credits by leaning into a very uniquely Japanese institution in the Shogunate, even if it bears more of a resemblance to the Soviet structures in Russia than the Tokugawa Shogunate. It is worth noting that with this shift in government, the People's Shogunate adopts the Trotskyite practice of referring even to civilian endeavors as military campaigns and using military terminology to organize the state. They are not actually going through with a total militarization of the state, just incorporating some of its elements in how they tackle issues of government. The Japanese Communists end up with a model with much clearer lines than the obfuscated and complicated Soviet bureaucracy, but in the process adopt a significantly less overtly democratic model. I should note that the Army and Navy Councils hold seats for those of rank on either General Staff and for major commanders - although they will prove to often be represented by stand-ins representing the interests of the relevant appointee. There are democratic elements to the system, but it is most definitely a large step back from the democratic heyday of the Yamamoto Gonbee administrations. As to the Era Name, I have here used an alternative era name rejected for use IOTL when Reiwa was selected. The first kanji, 広, means “wide” or “vast”, while 至 can mean “destination,” “high” or “extreme” - which combined hold a pretty abstract meaning coming out to something very like Great Arrival. Considering the context of TTL I felt Koji was immensely fitting to the circumstances and therefore chose to adopt it here.
Takahito is honestly a pretty interesting figure - when he saw the Japanese army's conduct in China (specifically using Chinese PoWs for bayonet practice), he wrote a letter to his brother the Emperor criticizing the Army harshly - the letter ended up being censored and a single copy eventually turned up in 1994. In 1940 he saw a special screening of the germ bombing of Nanbo and was so moved and disgusted by it that he forced the Emperor to watch the movie so that he would understand how out of control the situation had become. After the war ended he was a leading voice in demanding that his brother take responsibility for the war and abdicate, which McArthur was the one to shut down. In the post-war world he was known as the Imperial Scholar and studied archaeology, Middle Eastern studies and Semitic languages. He seems to have been immensely forthright, having had a strong moral compass and a deep intellect, which made me feel that he was the best candidate to take on the role of People's Emperor.
(10) Rather than the victor of Pearl Habor and half a dozen other great battles of OTL, Nagumo becomes the last Government Hero ITTL for his resistance to the revolutionary government. Once again, the fact that the naval aviation faction of the navy falls entirely on the radical side of the political spectrum helps determine the course of the naval encounter - significantly strengthening support for the ultra-modern navies advocated by the naval aviation crowd. I felt that it was necessary to show that the revolutionaries don't get everything their way from the start, they are forced to fight to secure their claim to rule and in the process shed even more blood in the process. The poor quality of the Naval Ground Forces also makes itself known once more, as they crumble in the face of the hardened and well-equipped Imperial People's Army. I should probably explain the Imperial People's moniker - I thought it helped convey the image of a monarchist socialist regime which wants to emphasize both parts.
(11) The Soviet Republic's control of Siberia was already troubling to the Western Powers, but a Communist Japan is a hundred times worse. The large and well trained Japanese Navy is a creature which has shown itself capable of going toe-to-toe with Western navies in the past (and would demonstrate that same capability IOTL during WW2). As such, the international community feels forced to enter the conflict, setting in motion the entry of the British Empire as an active combatant and both France and the US as supporting powers on the Loyalist side.
(12) The Toseiha faction and the modernists really take over the Loyalist cause as a whole, side-lining the more radical Kodoha members and their more out-there civilian ideologues. It is worth noting that IOTL a similar development happened, with the Toseiha faction winning out in the intra-service clashes with Kodoha, and that it was the Toseiha faction which led the Japanese Empire into the Second World War - just because they aren't completely nuts doesn't necessarily make them a great alternative. At the same time we see the Revolutionaries consolidate their hold on the Japanese island possessions, including capturing Taiwan, Okinawa and Jeju. Yasuhito really takes all of this very poorly, but ultimately he probably comes out of it a better monarch than he went into it. While he is a lot less trusting of those around him, he is also much more open to compromise and cooperation with those who might not necessarily agree with him and is capable of developing working relationships with them. Prior to this he struggled to remain civil when faced with those he dislikes.
(13) I felt it necessary to go through and detail the development of the Dominion Fleet here, just as it gets under way for the fateful clash with the Imperial People's Navy of Japan. I have Dumaresq surviving past 1922 ITTL because he seems like an intriguing figure who would have been the most natural candidate for leadership of the Dominion Fleet at its inception. He is proudly Australian and as such is a great figure to demonstrate the British willingness to abide by their decision to hand power of the Dominion Fleet to the dominions. His naval aviation focus is based on OTL, where he was noted for his focus on that aspect of naval affairs and for his innovative and new thinking ways. However, these very elements are what result in him being out of favor with the British Admiralty, limiting his ability to amass a fleet capable of what it should do. The appointment of Walwyn is a clear breach of the British promise to hand over leadership to the dominions, and while he does strengthen the Dominion fleet considerably his draconian ways and dismissive attitude towards the Dominion Fleet (an attitude rife in Royal Navy ranks) leaves him intensely unpopular with the men. He is finally replaced by Admiral Ford who finds himself thrust suddenly into a position of considerable importance with little time to acclimate to his post or shape it to his interests - although by the end of the year he has gotten a decent handle of the situation. Naval affairs are not my strong suit, so I hope you will forgive me being a bit vague on the details - I am trying to keep it plausible and reading up what I can but this is not a topic I am super familiar with or versed in.
(14) In general this whole naval campaign has been a significant challenge to work out because there are just so many divergences and differences in the years between the PoD and this point, but there are some elements which remain largely static. It is worth noting that the Kantai Kessen doctrine was a very stable part of Japanese naval war planning from the beginning, and that their target was the United States consistently after the end of the Great War, even when the Anglo-Japanese Alliance came to an end. While the naval aviation crowd is ascendant in the revolutionary navy, there were a lot of important naval innovations in the last half of the 1930s IOTL which made an air-power first strategy viable - it is not quite there yet by the time of the coming clash. The various commanders of the different forces have been receiving a rapid series of promotions since the start of the Civil War, as the Government and subsequent Revolutionary leaderships seek to promote their supporters up the ranks which is why someone like Ito Seiichi would have a Vice Admiral rank or Fukodome Shigeru a Rear Admiral rank.
(15) The entire reason for the Dominion Fleet being dispatched is the need to clear away the naval interdiction of Chosun in order to open up for the landing of the Loyalist armies for a reconquest of the Home Isles. The calculations which go into determining the resultant dispatch of the Dominion Fleet are not particularly bound up in the details of how such a campaign is to play out - while the Dominion Fleet Headquarters have made plenty of plans for dealing with the Japanese in a naval conflict, the same cannot be said for the British Admiralty who have largely been focused on the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian naval theaters - and it is the latter demanding that the Dominion Fleet engage the Japanese revolutionaries directly on the basis of reports from the Loyalists that they have purged most of their navy's staff officers. Admiral Ford soon realizes that he has been sent on a much more dangerous expedition than expected, and makes what preparations he can, but it isn't like he can just sit back and do nothing - they have to find and engage the Japanese in a decisive battle, as both sides' naval doctrines call for in the region, or there will be hell to pay in London. Just a note, the lack of a Washington Treaty has meant that a lot of ships which were converted to carriers or decommissioned IOTL are still in service and carrier development, particularly in Japan, has taken a completely different path. The Hiryu and Ryujo classes are different from their OTL counterparts seeing as the lack of conversion of Battlecruisers/Battleships into the Akagi/Amagi and Kaga leave the Japanese to rely on alternate purpose-built carriers. The Ryujo-Class possesses a lot of the issues of the two aforementioned conversions although without having to deal with the conversion troubles it still ends up a significantly more useful structure. The Ryujo sees failures in the flight deck which lead to their recall and refit in 1932-33 alongside a further reduction of the top structures on the basis of lessons learned in the Hosho IOTL, although problems with propulsion plague the Hiryu and Ryujo classes both and they remain top-heavy, like many other Japanese ships of the period - it is a problem which has come to attention only after the Battle of Dogojima and the troubles faced in the Akagi after the battle.
(16) I really hope that all of this is suitably epic and doesn't send too many of the naval buffs out there into fits. This is probably the single largest naval battle since Jutland and ends up a stinging British defeat mostly as a result of them having to cross the long distance to the battlefield through Japanese waters. I am sorry about the lack of specificity at points, particularly the headlong clash between the two Big Gun fleets, but I hope that this was sufficiently impressive.
(17) I will be providing a lot more context for the how and why of the British entering the Japanese Civil War and departing it so shortly thereafter at a later point, much as I did with the Two Rivers Crisis. There is a lot going on behind the scenes and a lot of political machinations which led to this course of events. I know that there are likely many who would want a second round go around by the British, but it is worth a reminder that the British Empire was already significantly overstretched before they lost most of the Dominion Fleet and this defeat has just made the whole situation a hundred times worse. While they will be dispatching ships from the Home Fleet and Mediterranean to help shore up some of the losses, there are just so many different requirements elsewhere that they can't muster up sufficient forces to launch a second assault. Additionally, their entire Australasian Dominions and various concessions in China are now largely undefended by sea and as such the British Foreign Office comes under intense pressure to resolve the issue before things spin completely out of control. The Dominions of Australia and New Zealand take the defeat especially hard, having invested so heavily in the fleet which was just sunk to the bottom of the seas at the insistence of the British Admiralty - overriding all concerns expressed on the part of the Dominions.
End Note:
Written as I just finished this section:
Holy shit, I did it!
I honestly did not know how the hell I was going to get this to work, but I feel it ended up working out quite well.
I will be honest, when I first thought of a Red Shogunate I had absolutely no clue if I would be able to figure out a plausible explanation for how it came about. It took quite a bit of back and forth with
@Ombra before the shape of something workable began to emerge, but I do think that what I have ended with should satisfy those wishing for plausibility. I just remember getting this image in my head of Communist Samurai Banzai charging an enemy line and couldn't let it go.
Written after edits, just before posting:
It took a lot of work to finesse things into shape, but I hope that the end result is sufficiently memorable for everyone out there. I can remember working on this section of the timeline during the late Summer, swimming in the sea while thinking about how all the different pieces forces and doctrines would line up against each other. I am far from an expert on naval affairs, so there was an immense amount of research that had to go into writing this update. I was not on purpose that the battle ended up coinciding exactly with when the Battle of the East China Sea was going to be posted, but I find it a fun little additional wrinkle to the whole thing.
Can't wait to see what everyone thinks of this one.
I hope everyone is enjoying the New Year and that the coming year treats us better than the last. Best of wishes, and I really hope you all enjoyed the Japanese Civil War arc of updates during the Christmas holidays.
