AHC: American Japan

Have the US Army invade Japan and establish a out and out colony on the island. It can just be a small province, an entire island, or all of Japan, but a American Japanese colony must exist.
 
Have the US Army invade Japan and establish a out and out colony on the island. It can just be a small province, an entire island, or all of Japan, but a American Japanese colony must exist.
The Perry Expedition: Opening of Japan, 1852–1854 could do that, a trade mission like what the Netherlands had in Dejima until 1854.
 
This is post-1900 but is there a way to encourage American settlement in Japan during the post-WWII military occupation?
 
Well i do not see a way that Japan can become America, unless America annex Japan after World War II and make it a state.

Japan at the time had 70 million people on it, hard to create a settler society there.

Prompt doesn’t say it has to control all of Japan—what if they established a more significant military base on the mainland that developed an unattached American civilian population?
 
The Bonin Islands had an American population on them in the 19th century, alongside some British, Pacific Islanders and Japanese, and many people there are descended in part from Americans--at one point they even spoke an English based creole with Hawaiian and Japanese influences on the islands. They could easily have been claimed by the United States in the mid 19th century. Maybe if the US can effectively claim the Marquesas Islands (as Commodore David Porter did in 1813), they get interested in more Pacific claims and Matthew Perry takes possession of the Bonin Islands? They could also grab the islands and attach it to the Marianas Islands (assuming the US later grabs those islands), given they are geologically linked.

Other than that, maybe there'd be an interest in detatching the Ryukyu Islands from Japan after WWII and creating an American territory? I'd imagine they'd probably create a (nominally) independent republic instead though.
 
Japan at the time had 70 million people on it, hard to create a settler society there.

Do the Philippians example for a few decades and Americans would be in the Philippians. I don't see why Japan would be different if the Americans intervene before the Meji reforms
 
Would Japan then become a US state or a territory? Maybe it would be similar to indian reservation? How could a American Japan be administrered?

Would the Japanese in American Japan be given citizenship? If so, how would they affect the American political process?

What would happen to the Japanese identity? How would the Japanese self conception change?
 
Do the Philippians example for a few decades and Americans would be in the Philippians. I don't see why Japan would be different if the Americans intervene before the Meji reforms

The Philippines were a lot more sparsely populated and already had a colonial regime for the Americans to co-opt. Contrast pre-Meiji Japan which was a pretty robust society and was never colonised by outsiders. If the United States had plenty of opposition to the Philippine War OTL, then a conquest of Japan would be totally out of the picture. It would probably provoke a Great Power intervention (UK or Russia) who would rather have a puppet Japan than a US Japan, and the US would be compensated with treaty ports or maybe the Ryukyu Islands.

Question is if it would be possible to americanise the japanese population? Would it be a failure or succesfull or neither?

It would be completely superficial, since such a large and relatively homogenous population is impossible to assimilate. Racial differences alone mean even a Japanese person who speaks only English in a perfect American accent, is a Protestant Christian, and holds a cultural outlook similar to a typical WASP, would not be readily accepted in America. Pre-Meiji Japan had tens of millions of people, all sharing a similar culture and history, with the same register of Japanese as the prestige language. Given their separation from the United States, it makes no sense to assume they have any reason to assimilate into American culture.

Would Japan then become a US state or a territory? Maybe it would be similar to indian reservation? How could a American Japan be administrered?

Would the Japanese in American Japan be given citizenship? If so, how would they affect the American political process?

What would happen to the Japanese identity? How would the Japanese self conception change?

Why would you give them citizenship? 70 million Japanese represented in Congress would destabilise the political system, and if they were smart, that would be their intention so they could get the votes necessary to allow for peaceful secession. Even if you split them across multiple states, they'd still hold undue political influence.

As a territory, they'd be endlessly pushing toward independence. Foreign powers like Russia and Britain would likely support this, since an independent Japan is a useful puppet in the Far East. Pacifying the place would be a pain--if the Philippine War was bad enough OTL (including plenty of internal opposition), then I can't imagine how a "Japanese War" would go, especially since I bet the UK or Russia might protest the US annexing the whole place and would have some negotiation with the US to prevent that from happening.

If you give all those people citizenship, would they not then be American? Do you really need settlers? Do they need to speak English?

Such a thing would completely go against how the US conducted imperialism in earlier times. The Philippines were never entitled to many constitutional rights even though the US controlled the place for about 50 years. Puerto Rico is still a territory and not entitled to the representation a state gets (electoral votes and representation in Congress).
 
If Japan would've been an collony of America. This is what should've happen. Their people would work for 8 hours, the subways would have a lot of delays. And it would be very dirty there. And they will be shootings in the the school. Or you can say it would've been an distopia just like in the manga Akira.
 
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