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It appears that Japan more or less from 1854 to the 1930s was arguably one of the luckiest civilizations on the face of the earth. They went from a culture forced open by the Europeans to the only country not of European(ish)* Descent to be considered a major power (Persia, Ethiopia and Thailand never reached that high). So, I'm wondering just how much better than OTL they can get.

If you assume a TL with a POD after Perry leaves where the United States in 1930 is *recognizable* (would be viewed as Democratic to OTL 1930, contains at least the 48 contiguous states, etc) is there *any* way that the industrial production of the Japanese can be brought up to *half* what the United States has? (As opposed to the one-eight approximately of OTL)?

I'm quite willing to take a functional collapse of Europe in WWI with or without the Spanish Flu, but I'm not sure that is enough for the Japanese to control enough resources with people willing to work them....

*(The Ottomans were close enough...)
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