AHC: Japan not in the WWII

trurle

Banned
A very intriguing and thoughtful idea, although I don't think Japan has the necessary infrastructure to commit to the development and implementation of such a concept; it took a war with China for Japan to get out its best machine-products like the Zero, and that was only innovative in the attempt to go beyond the limits of its weak engine.

Yes, the Japan in interwar/WWII was weak in production (both in concepts and implementation). But what if Japan have by accident (i.e. before-mentioned stepping motor invention or other tool tech) a better early tool base? The production level is determined mostly by tools, not by tool-users. Remember a rapid recovery and a surge of Soviet industry (despite heavy workforce losses) after they pillaged the German factories for heavy manufacturing equipment back in 1945.

As about Zero, it was a machine which design was driven by IJN over-specification. Therefore, all parameters not included in specifications (for example, pilot survivability) were compromised to inadequate level. Its flaws are therefore to be blamed to military chain-of-command problems. Civilian Japanese ships from the same Mitsubishi zaibatsu as Zero were the top-class products of interwar period. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Yusen for examples.

Also, the family legacy: the grandfather of my wife 50 years after war still remembered pressing a fire-fighting button on Zero (which release a small (and inadequate) amount of Halon) as the ultimate horror moment of his wartime service. :eek:
 
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