AHC: Surviving Japanese colonial empire.

Japan might find itself in a bind with Korea, with the regimes that might treat modernize Korea probably not being the type to hold it against its will.

A regime that reforms economically and goes through Japan’s OTL Post War boom probably won’t have the stomach to keep Korea against its will for long, even if it could eventually develop the country to the point that the people feel comfortable enough that few will actually risk their lives in rebellion. Then there is the issue of voting. Conversely, I doubt a middle income Imperial Japan will ever be able to convince the people of Korea that things are just fine under Japanese rule. I think you will need a scenario with a non democratic Japan that wants to keep Korea and develop it, but doesn’t rely on Central Planning for long and has an external enemy for Korea that is worse than Japan.





A scenario where Japan avoids the OTL militarism but still isn’t Democratic any time soon, has a government that grants all non Japanese equal opportunity but still continues to try to force them to assimilate, where the new Japanese government avoids Japan’s OTL economic mistakes and begins Japans Post War Boom in the late 30s instead of the early 50s, includes Korea and Taiwan in their economic boom so they experience near double digit growth during the 40s, and we have China still somehow go Maoist on schedule we get a start.

From there, Korea and Taiwan get justifiably horrified of Mao. Mao goes on ahead and launches an offensive war into Korea in the early 1950s to ‘liberate’ its people from colonialism, brutalizes its population and effectively loots Korea’s growing middle class. Japan however, fueled by an economic boom over the last decade and a half, fresh from no WWII exhaustion, and being given Lend Lease equivalent from the US, fights back. China gets slowly driven out of the parts of Korea they occupied, the invasion of Taiwan fails miserably, and after five years of total war China is beat and agrees to leave.

The people of Korea are largely horrified by the experience and even if they prefer independence, going back to being ruled by Japan and experiencing 10%growth again sounds nice. Most are genuinely grateful for Japan after getting a taste of Mao. Japan, having gotten almost the entire Korean youth population fluent in Japanese ITTL by the early 50s, also intergrated the military mid way through the war. The Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese largely all served in the same units side by side and made life long friends along the way, creating a deep sense of bonding for most of Korea’s youth population with Japan. Japan effectively fully intergrates its colonies into Japan during the war.

An era of good feeling begins to emerge Post War between the different sects of the empire, which know they need Japan to protect them from China even if it means assimilating. Japan also picks a more neutral name for its empire, even though it is obvious that Japan is dominant and most foreigners casually refer to the collective entity as Japan just as they call the USSR Russia. Post War, Japan goes through its OTL boom and takes Korea/Taiwan with it, with Japan becoming nearly as rich as the US by 1990 again. Korea and Taiwan are nearly as rich as Japan by 1990, giving their people very comfortable middle class lifestyles few want to throw away in rebellions against Japan. Most Koreans and Taiwanese tend to like the Emperor and dictator for the economic growth and protection from China.

Japanese pop culture rises as per OTL, with Korean and Taiwanese rising a bit earlier as well. Almost every kid in Japan/Korea/Taiwan grow up on the same shows/games/comics/music as Japanese. Most of them attend similar schools. They all get drafted into the same integrated military units after High School. Korean as a language is dying quickly with the youth population. Korea and Taiwan aren’t exactly fully assimilated, but have lost a large part of their independent identity and it has become the norm for their youth population to identify as as a part of Japan/Korea/Taiwan collectively instead of their home region. Intermarriages are no longer taboo among the youth population. In general, you can take kids from Japan, Korea, or Taiwan and drop them in any of the other two and they will do alright with kids from the other place.

Beyond 1990, Maoist China reforms later or not at all and remains very scary to the present for Korea and Taiwan. Japan takes better advantage of the internet and reforms its financial laws so its economic stagnation is avoided and Japan today is richer than the US by a bit, with Korea and Taiwan caught up to Japan by now. They also have slightly better TFR. Japanese is the primary language of the home in all corners of the Empire. People throughout the empire tend to take pride in Japan’s status as a Super Power. Almost all of the youth population of Korea and a Taiwan have atleast some identification with Japan and oppose independence, and most of the identify as loyal to the combined Japan/Korea/Taiwan over their home region.



Dumb idea? Slightly workable? Provided that Japan and China make these decisions, would that even have the effect of pushing Korea and Taiwan that strongly into Japan culturally?
 
As mentioned before, native Taiwanese didn't have a big problem with the Japanese and certainly had much more problem with the Nationalists coming over. It's not hard to imagine Taiwan becoming another home island in the long term. Korea would need a very early POD and governing policy to avoid an independence movement. Manchukuo only stays if China's a warlord hellhole AND they govern with a light hand.
 
Japan might find itself in a bind with Korea, with the regimes that might treat modernize Korea probably not being the type to hold it against its will.

A regime that reforms economically and goes through Japan’s OTL Post War boom probably won’t have the stomach to keep Korea against its will for long, even if it could eventually develop the country to the point that the people feel comfortable enough that few will actually risk their lives in rebellion. Then there is the issue of voting. Conversely, I doubt a middle income Imperial Japan will ever be able to convince the people of Korea that things are just fine under Japanese rule. I think you will need a scenario with a non democratic Japan that wants to keep Korea and develop it, but doesn’t rely on Central Planning for long and has an external enemy for Korea that is worse than Japan.

A scenario where Japan avoids the OTL militarism but still isn’t Democratic any time soon, has a government that grants all non Japanese equal opportunity but still continues to try to force them to assimilate, where the new Japanese government avoids Japan’s OTL economic mistakes and begins Japans Post War Boom in the late 30s instead of the early 50s, includes Korea and Taiwan in their economic boom so they experience near double digit growth during the 40s, and we have China still somehow go Maoist on schedule we get a start.

From there, Korea and Taiwan get justifiably horrified of Mao. Mao goes on ahead and launches an offensive war into Korea in the early 1950s to ‘liberate’ its people from colonialism, brutalizes its population and effectively loots Korea’s growing middle class. Japan however, fueled by an economic boom over the last decade and a half, fresh from no WWII exhaustion, and being given Lend Lease equivalent from the US, fights back. China gets slowly driven out of the parts of Korea they occupied, the invasion of Taiwan fails miserably, and after five years of total war China is beat and agrees to leave.

The people of Korea are largely horrified by the experience and even if they prefer independence, going back to being ruled by Japan and experiencing 10%growth again sounds nice. Most are genuinely grateful for Japan after getting a taste of Mao. Japan, having gotten almost the entire Korean youth population fluent in Japanese ITTL by the early 50s, also intergrated the military mid way through the war. The Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese largely all served in the same units side by side and made life long friends along the way, creating a deep sense of bonding for most of Korea’s youth population with Japan. Japan effectively fully intergrates its colonies into Japan during the war.

An era of good feeling begins to emerge Post War between the different sects of the empire, which know they need Japan to protect them from China even if it means assimilating. Japan also picks a more neutral name for its empire, even though it is obvious that Japan is dominant and most foreigners casually refer to the collective entity as Japan just as they call the USSR Russia. Post War, Japan goes through its OTL boom and takes Korea/Taiwan with it, with Japan becoming nearly as rich as the US by 1990 again. Korea and Taiwan are nearly as rich as Japan by 1990, giving their people very comfortable middle class lifestyles few want to throw away in rebellions against Japan. Most Koreans and Taiwanese tend to like the Emperor and dictator for the economic growth and protection from China.

Japanese pop culture rises as per OTL, with Korean and Taiwanese rising a bit earlier as well. Almost every kid in Japan/Korea/Taiwan grow up on the same shows/games/comics/music as Japanese. Most of them attend similar schools. They all get drafted into the same integrated military units after High School. Korean as a language is dying quickly with the youth population. Korea and Taiwan aren’t exactly fully assimilated, but have lost a large part of their independent identity and it has become the norm for their youth population to identify as as a part of Japan/Korea/Taiwan collectively instead of their home region. Intermarriages are no longer taboo among the youth population. In general, you can take kids from Japan, Korea, or Taiwan and drop them in any of the other two and they will do alright with kids from the other place.

Beyond 1990, Maoist China reforms later or not at all and remains very scary to the present for Korea and Taiwan. Japan takes better advantage of the internet and reforms its financial laws so its economic stagnation is avoided and Japan today is richer than the US by a bit, with Korea and Taiwan caught up to Japan by now. They also have slightly better TFR. Japanese is the primary language of the home in all corners of the Empire. People throughout the empire tend to take pride in Japan’s status as a Super Power. Almost all of the youth population of Korea and a Taiwan have atleast some identification with Japan and oppose independence, and most of the identify as loyal to the combined Japan/Korea/Taiwan over their home region.



Dumb idea? Slightly workable? Provided that Japan and China make these decisions, would that even have the effect of pushing Korea and Taiwan that strongly into Japan culturally?
Honestly, an Imperial Japan that can deliver that kind of economic performance even with a POD four decades back, won't be recognizable to anything we saw in OTL.
 
Korea is a lot closer to Japan than Angola is to Portugal. Also unlike Angola Korea has only one small and narrow land border. Much harder to smuggle people, weapons, supplies, etc across.

There are multiple successful DPRK infiltration to ROK in OTL.
 
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