With a POD as late as possible, how can the United States annex and colonize Japan after defeating it in World War II?
Lest this scenario come off as a bit insane...
1. The US had occupied the Phillippines not long before, although the horrors of the insurrection ultimately pushed the U.S. to promise independence. The occupation was justified with a desire to better trade with the Chinese and their "unlimited markets."
2. According to the history War Without Mercy, a chronicle of the Pacific War, many American soldiers treated the conflict as an Indian war, complete with unpleasant behavior to their enemies, while a book I read about British India (I think it was entitled Raj) described American soldiers treating Indians as unpleasantly as they treated blacks back home.
3. Someone on this board cited a U.S. Congressman who proposed annexing Okinawa and was shut down by the rest of the house.
4. In the novel Once An Eagle, the antagonist Courtney Massengale, fond of gradiose schemes, uncaring of the men under his command, and with very limited if any combat experience, suggests annexing Japan after WWII. This is obviously a fictional account, but it was written pre-Vietnam (i.e. very close to the time period depicted and thus a possibly accurate picture of attitudes at the time) and Massengale may be based on a real person.
Here are some possible scenarios:
1. A different outcome of the "insular cases" leads to the U.S. Constitution being applicable to Filipinos, reducing U.S. misbehavior and leading to reduced support for the insurrection. The Phillippines become U.S. states.
2. Japanese losses much worse in WWII, to the point a much longer U.S. occupation is needed to keep the country working. IIRC MacArthur told Truman to "send me bread or send me bullets." A longer blockade or a truly awful invasion and there might not be very many Japanese left. Then inertia sets in...